When arguing about the rights that American citizens enjoy, I believe that Democrats, liberals, leftists and the mainstream media (but that is redundant) operate from either willful ignorance of our founding documents or a willingness to subvert our rights.
The first quote is a familiar one, from the Declaration of Independence. A committee of the Continental Congress, was tasked with drawing up such a document. This committee constituted five men: John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert Livingston of New York and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Adams was the first choice to do the actual writing, with input from the other members of the committee, but he persuaded Jefferson to do so, in part, because Jefferson was the better writer.
Jefferson’s timeless words about our rights come in the second paragraph of the Declaration: “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“.
But a quote from the forgotten part of the Bill of Rights shows clearly that these God-given rights are not to be abrogated by government. Consider this passage from the Preamble to the Bill of Rights: “Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday the Fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine. THE (sic) Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.”
Our Founding Fathers were quite clear. The rights of each of us are not given to us by the government; they are only given by Divine Power and government is simply the guarantor that those rights are not diminished by that government.
Let us then dive into just the First and Second Amendments, and see what this means to us in the 21st century. Five freedoms are our rights in the First Amendment:
The first amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” When I taught Civics to 8th graders, one of the assignments was to memorize these five, and know the importance of them for us.
First up was freedom of religion. This was not a freedom from religion, but a prohibition of the government interfering with our right to practice religion as we see fit, and keeps the government from setting up an official, or state, religion. Religion was to be an integral part of private and public life. The term “wall of separation between church and state” came from an assurance from then President Thomas Jefferson to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, that the government would not interfere in their religious beliefs or practices. Most on the left have misconstrued what Jefferson meant and have tried to erase any and all references to religion and religious tenets from the public life of America. My wish is that many of those people would actually read the simple words of our original documents.
Speech is also free from governmental interference. What some people call “hate speech” is as protected as the benign speech that we agree with. It is just that freedom to speak our minds, to be able to express our opinions, that separates us from despotic regimes that arrest their citizens for daring to be open with their speech.
Government is also constrained from shutting down media because of their political stance. As much as former President Barack Obama detested Fox News, he could not blunt their output. And, with CNN being all in against President Trump, he can do nothing except snipe back at their reporters. That is the way the First Amendment intended it; you don’t stamp out ideas you don’t like by restricting the free press, more press on your side is needed to counteract those ideas.
Assembly and petition are tools used to get the attention of the powers that be in any country. We have seen the spectacle of demonstrations (assembly) in favor of and in opposition to certain policies, sometimes in the same city and attempting to influence the same governmental body. Petitions on any side of an issue are constantly being signed by ordinary citizens as they seek some say on the important issues of the day.
In each of these five freedoms, the Bill of Rights recognizes that government is a passive actor. Government should neither take a side nor discourage the active pursuit of such freedoms.
The next time you read or hear of one of these rights being under attack, see if any of the actors reference the origins of them. They are God-given, in Jefferson’s words, and in the preamble to the Bill of Rights, and the government is constrained from violating any of them. If such reference is not honored, then those trying to limit what all of us enjoy by the Bill of Rights are being disingenuous at best at or dishonest at worst.
Our rights, enshrined in law and founding documents, and adherence to them, are what set us apart in the community of nations.
Our Second Amendment is the most controversial of the whole lot. Anti-gunners, decry the proliferation of firearms in the United States; some estimate at least 300 million guns are in the hands of private citizens. All of the members of the Democratic clown car of 2020 Presidential candidates call for some form of gun control, with the extreme position being gun confiscation.
However, the Declaration’s intent and the Bill of Rights’ preamble give strong evidence that the right to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed.” Courts have carved out exceptions to this right, but those are along the lines of limiting fully automatic weapons, which have been outlawed since the 1930s. To own such today you must have a federal license for it. But the basic right to own a firearm should not be abrogated in any way, for it is a God-given right, one guaranteed by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
In Nehemiah 4:16-18, we read about the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem by those allowed to return from captivity in Babylon for that purpose: “So it was, from that time on, that half of my servants worked at construction, while the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows, and wore armor; and the leaders were behind all the house of Judah. 17Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon. 18Every one ofthe builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me.”
Self-defense was expected to repel those who would halt the building.
In the New Testament, Jesus admonishes His disciples in this manner: Luke 22:36 “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one”. This is a verse that has been disputed as to meaning, but a plain reading shows that Jesus expected His disciples to be able to defend themselves in a world that was harsh and sometimes lawless.
When Peter tried to defend Jesus against arrest, Jesus stopped him from using the sword further, but this was to allow the divine mission of atonement through His sacrifice to take place; it was not a blanket prohibition from defending oneself or those a person loves.
In 1 Timothy 5:8, the apostle told the young minister: “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Should not defending home and family be a part of “providing for his own”?
On Sunday, a man entered a church in a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas, took out a shotgun and began shooting. Two of the members were killed as the church was about to partake of communion, and the leader of the church’s security team drew his handgun and shot the killer dead. If he had not, how many more would have died at the hands of this madman? Is that not consistent with the doctrine of self-defense we see in the Bible?
The Second Amendment allows for law-abiding citizens to have weapons for self-defense, and for the defense of others. It is a God-given right, and our government is prohibited from keeping arms from the people, regardless of what the Democrats want.
We are endowed “by our Creator” with “unalienable rights”; these rights are enshrined in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. The First and Second Amendments are among the most important and precious of those rights we have.