What is liberty, freedom and independence sitting on? What does the very base of real human freedom look like? What is it comprised of?
Let me begin this brief discussion with a statement that I think is very relevant to my thoughts on this central issue.
I believe that every major problem that we are currently dealing with in the United States, has a viable solution that lies somewhere in America's past history. All we have to do is begin searching for the answers to today's dilemmas in our historical past.
Now that that statement is out of the way, allow me to continue...
We cannot have complete human freedom, liberty and independence, without having a solid foundation of religion, morality and virtue to stand on.
Let me quote: (which I will do a lot in this blog.)
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.
We will not hold onto the freedoms afforded to us in the Constitution if we cannot find ways to confine our conduct within the boundaries of morality and virtue.
We likewise cannot have real morality and virtue, without a belief structure and a relationship to and with God. We human beings need a belief in a post-mortem future of rewards and punishments in order to properly define and constrain our moral conduct.
"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government. Far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.
James Madison hit the nail right on the head. We must govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.
Is this our fate? Is human freedom itself on the brink of extinction because of the lack of morality, virtue and righteous conduct?
How long would we allow the freedom to own and carry the firearms of our choice, if we had no compunction against murder? Likewise, if we believed it was a legitimate career choice to burglarize or rob, how long would we retain the constitutional rights afforded to us?
America is still pretty much a religious and moral country, still over 85% of Americans believe in God and an afterlife. However, our moral standards and our core belief in moral absolutes seem to be on the decline.
I have heard many times on this topic, people say something to the effect that we can choose our own morality and that there are no moral absolutes. That's total hogwash and a feeble copout if you ask me.
Clearly identifying the problem for us today is this quote:
"Man is the measure of all things. Truth is merely opinion, and, therefore even morality is relative."Protagoras (480?-411? B.C.) A 5th century B.C. Greek Sophist
Protagoras was wrong. History has proven without any doubt that there are and should be absolutes in morality.
Adolph Hitler thought his actions were right and just. Are we to honor the Holocaust because Hitler was operating within the boundaries of moral conduct that he set for himself??? Come on now. There are moral absolutes and they must be observed.
A clear and unobscured focus upon morality, religion and virtue and a univsersal willingness and intent to obey the Ten Commandments of God is the true foundation of human freedom, liberty and independence.
No other country in the history of the world has been so powerful, yet used that power so benignly and graciously as the United States of America. We have used our might to free the people of oppressed countries who have posed a danger to both us and their very own people. Spreading human freedom across the globe is the one best chance for world peace.
The intentions and words of President George W. Bush are noble and historic. We should attempt to spread human freedom throughout the world. World peace is the currency that human freedom can produce. We don't need to beat up every country in the world to spread the idea of human freedom. Freedom can do that all by itself.
True human freedom comes with a requirement of responsibility. A responsibility to conduct our lives within a framework of religious and moral behavior is an essential and inseparable aspect of human freedom. It also comes with a fundamental duty of protecting and defending that freedom once it has been acquired.
I have spent many years compiling the views of the Founding Fathers and other important historical figures, on the subject of the importantance of religion, morality and virtue. You can now take full advantage of my work.
ENJOY
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)
"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
THE QUOTES
(These men set forth the path for America and I contend that we have strayed dangerously far from that path.)
"Respect for religion must be reestablished, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of public officials must be curtailed, assistance to foreign lands must be stopped or we shall bankrupt ourselves. The people should be forced to work and not depend on the government for subsistence."Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and philosopher (106-43BC)
"Our task and our duty must be to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God, for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill and the eyes of all are upon us."John Winthrop (1588-1649) Puritan and Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630 to 1649
"Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternally life."Harvard University (Pamphlet published in 1643)
"Christ is the only, the true, the living way of access to God."Timothy Dwight, Yale University President (1795-1817)
"Give up yourselves therefore to Him, [God] with a cordial confidence, and the great work of life is done."Timothy Dwight, Yale University President (1814 Baccalaureate Discourse)
"The chief Thing that is aimed at in this College is to teach and engage the Children to know God in Jesus Christ, and to love and serve Him, in all Sobriety, Godliness, and Righteousness of Life, with a perfect Heart, and a willing Mind."Columbia University publication (1754)
"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, "just men who will rule in the fear of God." The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws."Noah Webster 1758-1843
"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free."John Adams
"I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America…Let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great Lord of the Universe, who loveth righteousness and hates iniquity…Let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of Him who raiseth up and pulleth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as He pleases."John Hancock, American Patriot and Revolutionary
"Posterity, you will never know what it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) Sixth President of the United States.
"In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us as men and Christians to reflect…All confidence must be withheld from the means we use and respond only on that God who rules in the armies of Heaven and without whose blessing the best of human councils are but foolishness and all created power vanity…and that America may soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven."John Hancock, April 15, 1775, just four days before the "shot heard round the world".
"My God, how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of and which no other people on earth have ever enjoyed."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third President of the United States. Author of the Declaration of Independence.
"We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our won Country's Honor, all call upon us for vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions."George Washington
"I am nothing. Truth is everything."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) Sixteenth President of the United States.
"If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great Security."Samuel Adams "The Father of the American Revolution"
"Our unalterable resolution would be to be free. They have attempted to subdue us by force, but God be praised!, in vain. Their arts may be more dangerous than their arms. Let us then ... under God trust our cause to our swords."Samuel Adams "The Father of the American Revolution"
"What is liberty without...virtue? It is...madness, without restraint."Edmund Burke
"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily."George Washington
"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America . . . America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."Alexis de Tocqueville
"If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants."William Penn
"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."Noah Webster 1758-1843
"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one."Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
"Doctor, I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of Christ is to a man about to die. This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which can make them rich indeed."Patrick Henry (1799, on his death bed)
"To commit our children to the care of irreligious people is to commit lambs to the superintendency of wolves."Timothy Dwight, President of Yale from 1795-1817
"The Bible is the book upon which this Republic rests."Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States
"My custom is, to read four or five chapters [of the Bible] every morning immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time. It is essential, my son, in order that you may go through life with comfort to yourself, and usefulness to your fellow-creatures, that you should form and adopt certain rules or principles, for the government of your own conduct and temper."President John Adams in a letter to his son John Quincy Adams
"And now, Almighty Father, if it is Thy holy will that we shall obtain a place and name among the nations of the earth, grant that we may be enabled to show our gratitude for Thy goodness by our endeavors to fear and obey Thee. Bless us with Thy wisdom in our counsels, success in battle, and let all our victories be tempered with humanity. Endow, also, our enemies with enlightened minds, that they become sensible of their injustice, and willing to restore our liberty and peace. Grant the petition of Thy servant, for the sake of Him whom Thou hast called Thy beloved Son; nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done."General George Washington 1779
"O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and loving Father, I acknowledge and confess my guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I have called on Thee for pardon and forgiveness of sins... Let me live according to those holy rules which Thou hast this day prescribed in Thy holy word; make me to know what is acceptable in Thy sight."President George Washington (From a booklet of prayers he wrote.)
"Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."Abraham Lincoln 1858
"Wish not so much to live long as to live well."Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738
"At what point should we expect the approach of danger? By what means are we to fortify against it? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military power to step across the ocean and crush us? Never. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it cannot and it will not come from abroad. If danger ever reach us, it must spring up from amongst us. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live through all time or die by suicide."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) From an 1838 speech when he was just 29 years old.
"It's the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits and to humbly implore his protection and his favor."George Washington (1732-1799) First President of the United States.
"Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."George Washington (1732-1799) First President of the United States.
"We need God to be our friend and our ally. We need to keep God's concurring aid. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable an empire can rise without His aid? We've been assured in the sacred writings that 'except the Lord keep the city, they labor in vain that build it.'"Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist. This quote was said on the floor of the Constitutional Convention June 28, 1787
"He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity, will change the face of the world."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
"There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us."Patrick Henry in a 1787 speech
"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society."Benjamin Franklin
"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: That it connected in one dissoluble bond the principles of Christianity with the principles of civil government."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.
“And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His providence.”John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.
"In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.
"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
"If you wouldst live long, live well, for folly and wickedness shorten life."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
"God, who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we remove from them a conviction these liberties are a gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and His justice cannot sleep forever."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
"The precepts of philosophy laid hold to actions only, but Jesus pushed His scrutinies into the heart of man, erected the tribunal in the region of his thoughts and purified the waters at the fountainhead."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
"Providence punishes national sins with national calamities."George Mason (1725-1792) The Father of the Bill of Rights
"Your love of liberty -- your respect for the laws -- your habits of industry -- and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness."George Washington
"The Americans, combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other."Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (1835)
"[Religion] is more needed in democratic republics than in any others. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie be not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people which is its own master, if it be not submission to the Divinity?"Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (1835)
"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government. Far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.
"Providence has given to us the choice of our rulers, and it is the duty as well as the interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."John Jay (1745-1829) First Supreme Court Chief Justice
"Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American Orator and Statesman
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.
"Why is it next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day, the Fourth Of July? It is because the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission on earth and laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity."John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) From a speech on July 4th 1837.
"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and in prosperity. We have grown in numbers and wealth and in power as no other nation ever has, but we have forgotten God. We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, and too proud to pray."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
"It is the duty of all nations as well as of men to own their dependence on the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose god is the Lord."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
"It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect...No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States."George Washington (1732-1799)
"[T]rue religion affords to government its surest support."George Washington (1732-1799)
"Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in the exclusion of religious principle…"George Washington (1732-1799)
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness."George Washington (1732-1799)
"[W]e ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious [favorable] smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."George Washington (1732-1799)
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.
"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were…the general principles of Christianity…I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.
"[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. Religion and virtue are the only foundations...of republicanism and of all free governments."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.
"The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in his discourses."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
"A nation that expects to be ignorant -and free-…it expects what never was and never will be."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
"The belief in a God all Powerful, wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.
"No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of events and the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States…And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.
"And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance?...[W]ithout His concurring aid...we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.
"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.
"Three points of doctrine, the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of a God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it is possible for a man to disbelieve either of these articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark; the laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy."John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)
"The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor so to live as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country."George Washington July 9, 1776
"[T]he law…dictated by God himself is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this."Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804)
"I conjure you, by all that is dear, by all that is honorable, by all that is sacred, not only that ye pray but that ye act."John Hancock (1737-1793) First signer of the Declaration of Independence.
"You do well to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention."George Washington from his speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs on May 12, 1779.
"The great pillars of all government and of social life …[are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible."Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American Orator and Statesman
"Has it [government] any solid foundation? Any chief cornerstone...? I think it is an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of God, the author of Nature whose laws never vary...Government...is by no means an arbitrary thing depending merely on compact or human will for its existence... The power of God Almighty is the only power that can properly and strictly be called supreme and absolute. In the order of nature immediately under him comes the power of a simple democracy, or the power of the whole over the world...[God is] the only Monarch in the universe who has a clear and undisputable right to absolute power because He is the only one who is omniscient as well as omnipotent... The sum of my argument is of God, that the administrators of it were originally the whole people."Samuel Adams (1722-1803) The Father of the American Revolution
"I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the states over which you preside, in His holy protection…that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an humble imitation of whose example, we can never hope to be a happy nation."George Washington in his last official address to Congress
Now that you have seen these quotes, what are your thoughts? I'll tell you what I think of them... I think that we have lost sight of the vision that the founders had for the future generations of America.
They knew quite well that a nation could not be truly free if they could not find ways to keep their conduct within a framework of morality, virtue and righteousness. Without religion and morality playing a primary role in the lives of every American, we will continue to lose our freedom.
I will close with a restatement of a quote from Benjamin Franklin:
"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.
I invite your comments.
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