The principle we are dealing with here is who will exercise ultimate control over the individual: he, or the government.
If it is the individual, then every individual in society must have the same or very similar notion of what is right and what is wrong.
And because no person can claim to be the universal authority for such an issue as morality, this means we must all subscribe to the same or similar understanding of Natural Law ? as established by the Creator.
Otherwise, we must be controlled by the government and an inevitably growing list of laws designed to constrain our avarice and ambition against our neighbor.
The choice was summed up nicely by another American, Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the House:
?Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.?
In the history of man, there have been only two nations that understood and consciously designed civil government around this principle: Israel under Moses and the Judges, and the United States of America.
And it is because of this that both nations prospered.
Likewise, the decline of both nations can be traced back directly to the point where they turned their backs on this principle.
The French political observer and philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, in observing America in the early 1800?s, commented on how deeply ingrained this principle was and how well in worked in America (at that time):
The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must be regarded as the first of their political institutions; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it.
Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief.
I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion- or who can search the human heart?- but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of their political institutions. (from Democracy In America, 1835, de Tocqueville, America?s God and Country, William Federer, p.204)
De Tocqueville affirms the connection between religion and a free and self-governing society:
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.
So, whether one believes in God or not, there can be no dispute that both reason and human experiences speak to the necessity for a people to embrace the notion of a Creator and for them to see Him as the source of their moral code.
For, without this, society will devolve into much of what it has today: a collection of individuals who each believe they are bound by their own notion of right and wrong and are not obligated by any other.
And once this becomes accepted as reality, and people start to think of ?freedom? in terms of their ?right? to live by their own private notion of what is right and wrong, good and bad, it becomes necessary to either rule by the sword or accept the tyranny of anarchy.
Thus, it is a simple matter of logic: if a society wishes to remain free while being able to justify a claim to individual rights and liberty, it can only do so by relying on the Natural Law established by the Creator of this universe.
Now, having established this principle, and explaining how it is a logically justified exception to the rules of logic (itself an indication that there must be a Creator).
In fact, I think Franklin stated it best when he described the ?American Religion? in this way:
There is a God.
He governs in the affairs of men.
We have a duty to honor Him.
We will be judged in the next life according to the way we lived in this one.
The best way to honor and serve God is by serving our fellow man.
So long as the people share the same notion of right and wrong, this is all that is required for the maintenance of a free and self-governing society based in individual rights and liberty and the rule of law.
But without these things, such a society cannot exist ? and has never existed.
If it is the individual, then every individual in society must have the same or very similar notion of what is right and what is wrong.
And because no person can claim to be the universal authority for such an issue as morality, this means we must all subscribe to the same or similar understanding of Natural Law ? as established by the Creator.
Otherwise, we must be controlled by the government and an inevitably growing list of laws designed to constrain our avarice and ambition against our neighbor.
The choice was summed up nicely by another American, Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the House:
?Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.?
In the history of man, there have been only two nations that understood and consciously designed civil government around this principle: Israel under Moses and the Judges, and the United States of America.
And it is because of this that both nations prospered.
Likewise, the decline of both nations can be traced back directly to the point where they turned their backs on this principle.
The French political observer and philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, in observing America in the early 1800?s, commented on how deeply ingrained this principle was and how well in worked in America (at that time):
The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must be regarded as the first of their political institutions; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it.
Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief.
I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion- or who can search the human heart?- but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of their political institutions. (from Democracy In America, 1835, de Tocqueville, America?s God and Country, William Federer, p.204)
De Tocqueville affirms the connection between religion and a free and self-governing society:
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.
So, whether one believes in God or not, there can be no dispute that both reason and human experiences speak to the necessity for a people to embrace the notion of a Creator and for them to see Him as the source of their moral code.
For, without this, society will devolve into much of what it has today: a collection of individuals who each believe they are bound by their own notion of right and wrong and are not obligated by any other.
And once this becomes accepted as reality, and people start to think of ?freedom? in terms of their ?right? to live by their own private notion of what is right and wrong, good and bad, it becomes necessary to either rule by the sword or accept the tyranny of anarchy.
Thus, it is a simple matter of logic: if a society wishes to remain free while being able to justify a claim to individual rights and liberty, it can only do so by relying on the Natural Law established by the Creator of this universe.
Now, having established this principle, and explaining how it is a logically justified exception to the rules of logic (itself an indication that there must be a Creator).
In fact, I think Franklin stated it best when he described the ?American Religion? in this way:
There is a God.
He governs in the affairs of men.
We have a duty to honor Him.
We will be judged in the next life according to the way we lived in this one.
The best way to honor and serve God is by serving our fellow man.
So long as the people share the same notion of right and wrong, this is all that is required for the maintenance of a free and self-governing society based in individual rights and liberty and the rule of law.
But without these things, such a society cannot exist ? and has never existed.
