"Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought." ~ Lord Acton
In Ray Nothstine's piece, "The Foundations of American Independence vs. Despotism," we revisit how the Great Awakening was integral to America’s revolution and independence. Nothstine explains that it not only united the colonies, it gave them a new spiritual vitality. And quoting historian Paul Johnson, “The Revolution could not have taken place without this religious background. The essential difference between the American Revolution and the French Revolution is that the American Revolution, in its origins, was a religious event, whereas the French Revolution was an anti-religious event.”Too many Americans, and too many of the leaders they elect these days, seem to forget this central truth. In fact, Nothstine says that not only are these truths too often dismissed today, but the kind of liberty that emerged from the colonies is being forgotten. He's absolutely right. Just the past few weeks has been illustrative of this, whether through misguided legislative processes, judicial activism, or executive dictate, our so-called leaders are failing to live up to our founding liberty.
Nothstine concludes with a powerful passage that really highlights the importance of America’s brand of spiritual liberty and lays out the significance of the Christian contribution within American independence and government. This should never be forgotten, but reflected on time and time again...by America's People first, then exemplified through those we select to lead...
Related links: 6/30/13 Homily from Anglican Bishop Ray Sutton (AUDIO)"Christianity, on the one hand, teaches those, who are raised to places of authority, that they are not intrinsically greater than those whom they govern; and that all the rational and justifiable power with which they are invested, flows from the people, and is dependent on their sovereign pleasure. There is a love of dominion natural to every human creature; and in those who are destitute of religion, this temper is apt to reign uncontrouled. Hence experience has always testified, that rulers, left to themselves, are prone to imagine, that they are a superior order of beings, to obey whom, the ignoble multitude was made, and that their aggrandizement is the principal design of the social compact. But the religion of the gospel, rightly understood, and cordially embraced, utterly disclaims such unworthy sentiments, and banishes them with abhorrence from the mind. It contemplates the happiness of the community, as the primary object of all political associations—and it teaches those, who are placed at the helm of government, to remember, that they are called to preside over equals and friends, whose best interest, and not the demands of selfishness, is to be the object of their first and highest care.
On the other hand, Christianity, wherever it exerts its native influence, leads every citizen to reverence himself—to cherish a free and manly spirit—to think with boldness and energy—to form his principles upon fair enquiry, and to resign neither his conscience nor his person to the capricious will of men. It teaches, and it creates in the mind, a noble contempt for that abject submission to the encroachments of despotism, to which the ignorant and the unprincipled readily yield. It forbids us to call, or to acknowledge, any one master upon earth, knowing that we have a Master in heaven, to whom both rulers, and those whom they govern, are equally accountable. In a word, Christianity, by illuminating the minds of men, leads them to consider themselves, as they really are, all co-ordinate terrestrial princes, stripped, indeed, of the empty pageantry and title, but retaining the substance of dignity and power. Under the influence of this illumination, how natural to disdain the shackles of oppression—to take the alarm at every attempt to trample on their just rights; and to pull down, with indignation, from the seat of authority, every bold invader!"
~ excerpt from “A Sermon on the Anniversary of the Independence of America” by Samuel Miller (1793)
Can Libertarians and Social Conservatives find Common Ground?
