Celebrate all that is great and true

Happy Independence Day!

We celebrate the 4th because it was on this day that our founders set forth a statement of ideas [Declaration of Independence] which justified the separation “to a candid world” and established the principles that would serve as the foundation for the new nation.

These principles are grounded in a higher law which is derived from both reason and revelation – “the laws of nature and nature’s God.” It begins with the principle that “all men are created equal,” meaning that they are equally “endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights” which are grounded in natural law, not bestowed on us by government. Among these rights is the right to liberty, and to self-government; therefore the Declaration also states that governments “derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

This is a good reminder, and a good time for it.

“It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final…

The signers of the Declaration closed by invoking the aid of Divine Providence, and devoting to the cause of liberty their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.”

Amen to that.