Rosemead Kiwanis Club

   "Serving the Community Since 1945"

   

FAX OF

LIFE

 

 

The Fax of Life

A weekly inspiration, courtesy of the Kiwanis Club of Scotts Valley

July 2, 2006                                                           Volume 11 Number 40

 

 Remembering the Declaration

 

The Declaration of Independence! The interest in that paper has survived the occasion upon which it was issued; the interest which is of every age and every clime; the interest which quickens with the lapse of years, spreads as it grows old, and brightens as it recedes, is in the principles which it proclaims.

 

It was the first solemn declaration, by a nation, of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. It was the corner stone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude. It announced in practical form to the world the transcendent truth of the inalienable sovereignty of the people.

                                                                               ---  John Quincy Adams

 

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

                                                 ---  Thomas Jefferson, opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence

How can anyone reading these words deny the Judeo Christian origins of our nation and belief in God of our founding fathers? According to their words, were it not for the higher laws of God "government by right of conquest" would indeed still be the accepted norm as it at one time was.  Our nation was founded as a citadel for freedom of expression in religion, not freedom from religious exposure.  To maintain that the founding fathers injunction against establishment of a state endorsed specific religious form was a prohibition against public religious expression is a perversion of their entire philosophy. To them, religion and belief in the higher authority of God was the very rationale -- radical in its day -- for throwing off the oppressive colonial yoke of those only slightly removed from belief in the "divine right of kings" to rule.