We return once again to the concept of freedom on this our nation’s birthday. Two hundred and thirty-two years ago today, the thirteen colonies declared themselves free. Many of our great-great-great-great-grandfathers subsequently served as Minutemen to back up that declaration with force. That’s a mere seven generations back from us.
While there were many Tories and Loyalists, the desire to be free predominated and they declared:
While there were many Tories and Loyalists, the desire to be free predominated and they declared:
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.
Liberty was conceived to belong to the individual, not classes of men, but one class—all men—composed of individuals each of whom are equal and therefore cannot be put into distinguishing classes.
The Founding Fathers did not think like modern liberals who conceive of classes, not individuals. The "all men" are differentiated into groups. There are the bashable males and the favored females—the homosexuals and the homophobes—the GLBT and the straight—the rich and the poor—the guilty white and the downtrodden black—the haves and have nots—and endlessly more. Some classes have more rights than others. Some have entitlements. Some classes must dole out limited wealth, limited power and limited position to other classes. And there is definitely the ruling class who approach the realm of royalty to govern the serfs who must remain a subservient class with ever-outstretched, receiving hands which also vote to keep the ruling class in power.
That was not the conception of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration. The revolutionaries said all men are created equal. Station in life was not considered. The titles of Lords and Ladies and Earls and Kings and Queens were deliberately excluded from American thought. In fact, they intended to declare that they themselves, and all colonists, were equal with King George before God as human beings.
Now this was taken as an audacious claim by Loyalists who still thrived on the divine right of kings. The top down approach engenders snobbery which is propped up with the idea that they are created more equal than others. The bottom up approach embraces the dignity of man derived from the creative hand of God and then out of humility before God dares tell a king that he is no different before God than they, all the while respecting his power to destroy them, though not the right.
Living out the principles of individual endowed freedom is attempting to live the way the Creator intended his creatures to live. It is a mission not to insult our Creator by living less than he designed for us. It is a conscious recognition and acknowledgment that God endowed me with certain unalienable rights. But further, that God endowed everyone else with those same rights.
Our Founding Fathers did not view themselves as a class of victims when they confronted the King with his ". . . repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States." No, they put themselves into the same class as the King. King or not, he was a man among equally created men who failed to recognize he was a mere man among equal men.
The Founders conceived of one class composed of all individuals, each of whom was endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They were not attempting to do away with distinctions such as station in life, male or female, the governors and the governed, the teacher and student, the judge and the criminal, which are all incidental to being equal before God. Being governed by a king was not odious to them. They took great pause before throwing off familiar government (". . . Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient cause. . ."). However, being governed by a king unjustly was insulting to their God-given rights of self-determination.
The principles found in this one sentence in the Declaration of Independence, have been abandoned by the very party which the Democrats claim Thomas Jefferson founded. Today, Democrat thinking creates class warfare and an entitlement mentality that Jefferson hated. Sad to say, many Republicans are not much better. When we remove the endowing Creator from our thinking, we will keep moving away from divinely created equality into governmentally created egalitarianism, which the Founders hated with a passion. The one brings freedom; the other creates bondage.
The Founding Fathers did not think like modern liberals who conceive of classes, not individuals. The "all men" are differentiated into groups. There are the bashable males and the favored females—the homosexuals and the homophobes—the GLBT and the straight—the rich and the poor—the guilty white and the downtrodden black—the haves and have nots—and endlessly more. Some classes have more rights than others. Some have entitlements. Some classes must dole out limited wealth, limited power and limited position to other classes. And there is definitely the ruling class who approach the realm of royalty to govern the serfs who must remain a subservient class with ever-outstretched, receiving hands which also vote to keep the ruling class in power.
That was not the conception of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration. The revolutionaries said all men are created equal. Station in life was not considered. The titles of Lords and Ladies and Earls and Kings and Queens were deliberately excluded from American thought. In fact, they intended to declare that they themselves, and all colonists, were equal with King George before God as human beings.
Now this was taken as an audacious claim by Loyalists who still thrived on the divine right of kings. The top down approach engenders snobbery which is propped up with the idea that they are created more equal than others. The bottom up approach embraces the dignity of man derived from the creative hand of God and then out of humility before God dares tell a king that he is no different before God than they, all the while respecting his power to destroy them, though not the right.
Living out the principles of individual endowed freedom is attempting to live the way the Creator intended his creatures to live. It is a mission not to insult our Creator by living less than he designed for us. It is a conscious recognition and acknowledgment that God endowed me with certain unalienable rights. But further, that God endowed everyone else with those same rights.
Our Founding Fathers did not view themselves as a class of victims when they confronted the King with his ". . . repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States." No, they put themselves into the same class as the King. King or not, he was a man among equally created men who failed to recognize he was a mere man among equal men.
The Founders conceived of one class composed of all individuals, each of whom was endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They were not attempting to do away with distinctions such as station in life, male or female, the governors and the governed, the teacher and student, the judge and the criminal, which are all incidental to being equal before God. Being governed by a king was not odious to them. They took great pause before throwing off familiar government (". . . Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient cause. . ."). However, being governed by a king unjustly was insulting to their God-given rights of self-determination.
The principles found in this one sentence in the Declaration of Independence, have been abandoned by the very party which the Democrats claim Thomas Jefferson founded. Today, Democrat thinking creates class warfare and an entitlement mentality that Jefferson hated. Sad to say, many Republicans are not much better. When we remove the endowing Creator from our thinking, we will keep moving away from divinely created equality into governmentally created egalitarianism, which the Founders hated with a passion. The one brings freedom; the other creates bondage.
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