Dakota Beacon

Understanding our Christian heritage is vital to preserving our liberty. A person need not be a Christian to grasp the fundamental wellspring of our unique concept of freedom. With the 4^th of July just around the corner, now is a good time to reflect on the Biblical precept of our American government.

The culture and government of a society inevitably reflect the religion of a people. Religion is a very strong internal driving force. For example, the cultures of the American Indian, Muslim society and the native of Papua New Guinea are all driven by closely held religious beliefs.

Ideas have consequences. We cannot separate the ideas of the Founding Fathers from their Christian thinking arising from Reformation Europe without forfeiting the benefits of their beliefs. Our Founding Fathers understood two kinds of government. External government pertained to civil government (civil control). Throughout history external governments like monarchies, tyrannies, and dictatorships imposed the will of the few on the many. Internal government pertained to self-government (self-control). It flowed from within each person to the family and then into the community. The idea of self-government emphasized individual responsibility and self-discipline and was predicated on their faith. Our founders’ idea of limited government and maximum freedom rested solidly on the assumption of internal self-government flowing from their Christian faith.

Our founders presupposed that self-government started from the inside out and that Christian belief spurred self-control. Without Christian self-control, the reasonable result was external control or the old forms of government with which mankind had always experienced. Herein lay the genesis of a new experiment in governing.

One thing is certain. American colonials did not wake up one fine 4th of July and decide to have a picnic in the park with watermelon and fireworks. Ideas have consequences and the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution are firmly rooted in the rich soil of the Christian Reformation. Even Deists concurred in this.

In 1636 Rev. Thomas Hooker’s “Fundamental Orders of Connecticut” provided the first attempt at a written constitution. Rev. Hooker parted company amicably from Governor Roger Winthrop’s Bay Colony and built the community of Hartford on the opposite side of the Connecticut River. Rev. Hooker’s premise was outlined in a sermon the text of which was Deuteronomy 1:13 -- “Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.”

Another step in the evolution of American government from Christian roots is found in a body of laws drawn up by Rev. Nathaniel Ward in 1639. The one hundred sections of the Massachusetts “Body of Liberties” lay down for the first time the basic principles relating to the sacredness of life, liberty, property, and an individual’s reputation based on a Biblical perspective. These laws were, in effect, a declaration of independence 135 years before the event we celebrate on the 4th of July. (See John Palfrey’s “History of New England, Vol. II,” published in 1865.)

Other examples of America’s Christian roots abound. In 1682 Quaker Minister William Penn established his “Frame of Government” for the region of Pennsylvania. The intent was “...to make and establish such laws as shall best preserve true Christian and civil liberty, in all opposition to unchristian...practices, whereby God may have his due, Caesar his due, and the people their due....” (See Verna Hall’s “The Christian History of the Constitution,” 1980.)

The development and refinement of local self government between 1640 and 1776 might be summed up in a statement by Samuel Adams in the “Boston Gazette” on March 28, 1773. “...still there is the great and perpetual law of self-preservation, to which every natural person or corporate body hath an inherent right to recur. This being the law of the Creator, no human law can be of force against it....”

For decades prior to the American Revolution pastors preached a specific style of sermon called the “Election Sermon.” Copies were printed and sent to representatives, other pastors, and newspapers for circulation. Such sermons were deemed proper and were expected to be decent, serious, and instructive. Biblical themes included “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” and “Take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord.”

Rev. Jonathan Mayhew holds the distinction as one of the earliest preacher-patriots. A sermon delivered in 1750 so closely paralleled the Declaration of Independence it has been appropriately called “The Morning Gun of the American Revolution.”

Today, a consuming awareness of the immediate and the present without regard for our Christian heritage leaves us with an incomplete appreciation of liberty. Attack and remove the premise of an argument, and the argument cannot stand. In our culture, marginalizing Christianity and replacing the Biblical premise of liberty with a secular premise may well result in reverting once again to imposing external government.

Every generation must determine for itself the precepts by which it will live. Some generations are up to the challenge and some are not.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)