Happy Birthday America
July 4, 2008 – 8:16 amThere is not a more appropriate day than July 4th to highlight some of the critical passages of the Declaration of Independence and remember what our founding was originally based on. While not a legally binding document (hence, the Revolutionary War), the Declaration was a powerful statement, an announcement that we were no longer subject to the English crown’s mandates.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
The above represents two of the most repeated phrases in American political history. “Endowed by their Creator” has long been quoted by advocates as evidence that the United States was formed as a religious country; “life” is cited by anti-abortion groups to further that cause.
“Consent of the governed,” clearly has less meaning now than it did 232 years ago. Today, a more appropriate phrase would be consent from the governors. Public officials today are more servants to the financially-connected than the voters, something specifically warned against in Federalist X. Factions now dominate the public, with new divisions being created daily, while the people have become servants to the unelected capitalists and corporations, the antithesis to a true democratic republic. We have twisted the Founder’s intentions to further the economic interests of the few.
Now, notice some of the reasons why the Founders declared their independence and prepare to become confused (He refers to King George III):
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people…
Sometimes called the fourth branch of government, the administrative state that so dominated the federal legislative process was never envisioned by the Founders. Many of the alphabet soup agencies, created by Roosevelt to help us ease out of the Great Depression was a monumental increase in the size and scope of government, not contained within the corners of the Constitution.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
This sounds eerily like what our government has done in Iraq. The definition of “times of peace” regarding the status of Iraq pre-March 2003 can be argued to death.
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
Not every trial is by jury in this country either and never has. We have repeatedly contradicted ourselves since our Founding. Those who invoke original intent for every solution should remember what those intentions were.
5 Responses to “Happy Birthday America”
Josh - I take issue with your statement that “the United States was formed as a religious country.”
The Constitution, rather than the Declaration of Independence, reveals the kind of country our Founders intended. And that document clearly shows an intention to form a secular government, protecting the freedom of any belief or unbelief.
The historian, Robert Middlekauff, observed, “the idea that the Constitution expressed a moral view seems absurd. There were no genuine evangelicals in the Convention, and there were no heated declarations of Christian piety.”
If indeed our Framers had aimed to found a Christian republic, it would seem highly unlikely that they would have forgotten to leave out their Christian intentions in the Supreme law of the land.
In fact, nowhere in the Constitution do we have a single mention of Christianity, God, Jesus, or any Supreme Being. There occur only two references to religion and they both use exclusionary wording. The 1st Amendment’s says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . .” and in Article VI, Section 3, “. . . no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
Nevertheless, despite the very real presence of Jews, Muslims, Atheists and Agnostics in our midst, we have evolved into a “Christian nation.”
And despite the proscription of Article VI, Secion 3, we continue to unofficially impose a religious test on our presidential candidates, virtually forcing them to affirm their “faith” if they hope to win votes.
What hypocrisy. And what a trashing of our own Constitution!
By Steve Levine on Jul 4, 2008
Steve,
I agree with you 100%.
I was not saying that I think the United States was formed as a religious country but instead providing the “evidence” for those (the advocates I referenced) that do.
By Joshua Rosenstock on Jul 5, 2008
My apologies, Josh.
I mis-read your third paragraph.
But I still wish that those who would have us believe that we live in a “Christian nation” and who would impose a test of religious faith on candidates for public office would READ THEIR OWN CONSTITUTION!!!
By Steve Levine on Jul 5, 2008
It would also behoove those same individuals to learn their American history. The reason the Pilgrims fled England was to escape religious persecution and the oppressive Church of England. That is why there is no official religion in this nation and the Founders added the Establishment Clause to the Constitution.
Unfortunately, these same people care much more about the Second Amendment than the First.
By Joshua Rosenstock on Jul 5, 2008
I don’t breathe any easier when religious crusaders call this a nation founded on “Judeo-Christian” principles, by which I guess they mean the moral values expressed in the Ten Commandments.
To hear the lectern-pounding primitivists of the heartland tell it, this country has fallen from the shining grace of some mythical golden age where we were a devout nation of Bible-reading, God-fearing Christian soldiers.
Now, according to them, we are wallowing in a seething cesspool of moral degeneracy, and if only we had the Ten Commandments posted in every courthouse and every school hall, God’s true kingdom might be restored right here in the U.S.A.
Of course they blithely ignore, and purposely obscure, the historical facts of our country’s slow journey to a more perfect union.
You’d think that Pinkerton’s goons never slaughtered striking Carnegie Steel workers, that the U.S. Department of Justice and murderous lynch mobs never went after the Wobblies, or that church-going Southern families never took a picnic basket to an old-fashioned Sunday afternoon lynching of a black man.
The culture that nurtures the fundamentalists is anti-intellectual, and stands opposed to evolution, humanism, or even textual criticism of the Bible.
We should fear those who read their scripture far too literally– they are malleable and easily exploited by the corporate oligarchs who run the country now.
Let’s just hope all the Jethros and Cletuses aren’t inspired to model their future behavior on the violent temper tantrums of their sky-god hero, the Lord, aka Jesus Christ Rambo.
By Vince Williams on Jul 5, 2008