Our Declaration of Independence / Our forgotten Dependence

We have just celebrated our Independence Day, the 4^th of July.  We rightly revere our ‘Founding Fathers,’ giants such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison and other men who my faith believes were “wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose [of establishing a new nation.]” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:80)

We remember them in person, we remember them in song—even long after the ‘days of ‘76’: “Our fathers’ God to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing.” (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee, Samuel F. Smith); “Oh, beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!” (America the Beautiful, Katherine Lee Bates); “Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n rescued land, praise the Powr that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust!’ And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!” (The Star Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key)

But we must ask, Where did these founding fathers and these inspired lyricists get their foundation, their inspiration?  Shall we look back at least 150 years before this country was founded?  William Bradford  and George Carver in the little ship Mayflower penned these words in the establishment of the Plymouth colony: “to the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.” The twin pillars of the earliest American Dream was Religious liberty to worship God, and equal opportunity for all men. (“All men were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”)

From the earliest settlers of our history, through the establishment of ‘one nation under God’ in the late 18^th Century, and our final coming together in the middle of the 19^th Century under the leadership of our great president Abraham Lincoln, we fought all foes to be free yet we knew  and acknowledged in those days that our dependence was on God almighty.  But we (of the generation of the last sixty years) have forgotten that with every right, there is a corresponding duty—including a duty to God.   Our forebears knew that the highest role that a nation can play is to reflect God’s righteousness in national policy.  That is what Bradford and Carver intended, what Roger Williams sought, what William Penn was striving for.  Do we hear it today from our President and our legislators or the majority on our Supreme Court?  No.

Are we striving for that?  Is that on our personal and national agenda every God-given day?  Significantly, religious liberty stands first in the Bill of Rights.  It is the most essential, the foundation of all the other freedoms.  But the Constitution and the Bill of Rights would seem to infer that we will worship God in some way. 

  

Now, in our generation, the attack on religion has distorted this essential freedom to mean freedom from religion.  Millions of our young people have bought into that disastrous notion.  If this republic and this civilization are to survive, if we are to survive, we must return to God and to informed and inspired and worthy Church leaders—leaders with a vision and with a firm foundation and a reliance on scripture and revelation.  

In each of the metal coins in our pocket or purse is inscribed, “In God We Trust.”  Is that just blasphemy?  Certainly no conception of trust in God can make any sense which assumes that He will prosper our ways or bless us until our ways become His ways, until we begin to keep the conditions He has specifically laid down for national blessing. 

In the final analysis the blessings of peace and prosperity and a settled land are not a product of politics—but a fruit of righteousness.  We simply cannot fool God about our individual or national goodness.  The signs of the times and the events all around us show that collectively we are no longer worthy of God’s blessings. 

But…there still may be a chance: “If my people, which are called by my name [Christians] , shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” ( 2^nd Chronicles 7:14) 

Independence?  Maybe we should acknowledge our dependence.  For this I pray.