The Way I See It
By Joseph C. Phillips

God and Civics

In a recent column I made the argument that the beliefs of our nation’s founders concerning the nature of individual rights and the origin of those rights is important to our understanding and honoring of our American Heritage.

The column generated quite a bit of response. I was accused by some of bible thumping and trying to force my Christian beliefs onto other Americans. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not a zealot. I am an American urging a return to the teaching of the foundations upon which our liberty is based.

The framers of the constitution believed that governments are necessary because men are flawed. The more virtuous men are, the more liberty they have from government. In an 18th century world governed by Kings and Czars these men believed that men could govern themselves. But liberty, they argued, could be had only if built upon a strong moral and religious foundation.

Is it possible for men to be moral without a belief in something greater than themselves? Where does goodness come from? It may be an interesting philosophical exercise to debate if morality exists outside of an objective truth. However, that will be quite separate from the fact that the founders didn’t believe it possible. They founded a nation on the revolutionary notion that man's rights are granted by God and government derives its power from the consent of those it governs. If there is no God, then from where do we obtain inalienable rights? And without these natural rights, the purpose of government cannot be to secure them for individual men.

And this is the lesson for our children: belief in God is not tangential to our civics education. A genuine faith in the Almighty is central to our American heritage.

How, for instance, do we teach the history of the civil rights movement to our children and ignore that it was led by men and women who believed in their soul that freedom for all men was to be found in God’s eternal law? Or that on “Bloody Sunday,” before being attacked by state police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, protestors knelt in prayer? Should we not teach our children that the first women’s rights conference was held in a church? Should we exclude from public education Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s opening remarks at the conference because she quoted scripture? Liberty, morality and faith are part of the same equation.

In teaching the origins of this nation it is essential to recognize that the founders were driven not simply by religious fervor but by a real belief that this nation was divinely founded and led. More importantly, our nation was founded on the theory that good and virtuous people needed less government.

Writing about America’s strength, French philosopher Alexis DeTocqueville said: "I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

No doubt some will continue to misread this as an endorsement of teaching Christianity in our schools-it is not. It is advocacy to teach the truth about the origins of this good and great nation and the ideals upon which it was founded.

Send me your ways of seeing it at Josephcp@netlistings.com