For most Americans and indeed for many others too, one quote that they can recite almost without thinking as they do so is from the Declaration of Independence.
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.
The Declaration of Independence was not intended as such to be a religious holy text, but it certainly does hold a reverence in its beauty and truth of the words. Much is said about the drop in the standards of proper English and on the subject of religious text, for many nothing quite beats the spirituality and beauty of the language of the Book of Common Prayer.
These few lines alone from the declaration beautifully illustrate a basic principle and very profound statement, that the truths in the document are indeed that ...truths. This is not a declaration of the sort of political ideology that is promised to us at the times of elections, that just turns out to be theories and possibilities. Truths are values upon which are based the standards of how we treat our fellow human beings, that all men are created equal.
What exactly does Self-evident mean? it comes from the idea of natural law, meaning that such laws come naturally by right and cannot be taken away, they are above man and man-made governments, and all people are entitled to these rights ‘that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights’.
The very mention of a creator in the declaration is very important, some believe that the separation of church and state means that the government is secular, but this is not so. America was founded by Christians, Christians in fact looking for Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, in being free to worship as they saw fit and not according to the practises of the church of their homeland. In England this was the Church of England, which they felt to still be very Catholic in its form of worship. The signatories to The Declaration of Independence saw their rights and freedoms as coming from God. The American war of independence was fought largely on the principle of no taxation without representation, for the fledgling nation was still paying taxes to England while having no representation in its far flung parliament.
The Declaration of Independence is an inspiring and amazing document when looked at in the light of how new the nation still was and the courage it took to formulate and sign it, for to do so could have resulted in being charged for treason by the British crown. Often quoted in its original form and referred to in others it formed part of President Lincoln’s inaugural address ~
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
It would do well for all of us on the 4th July, not just Americans and indeed on any day to read and take in the words of the declaration and see them as saying that indeed all men are created equal and that our creator gave them all freedoms that no other man or government of men has the right to take away …. these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
It is certainly true that times have changed and new laws have had to be written for changing circumstances, it is right that a person should go to prison for the breaking of many laws and have his or indeed her liberty removed for things that would not have been imagined at the time of the Declaration , but the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness means that people should be free to worship as they please and live as they please , with whom they please as long as not trying to force their choice and lifestyle on to others …..all men are created equal .
We should also remember how this applies to our duty of care to the vulnerable and less well off, the sick and the poor and I quote from an article by my friend, the author Rhonda Partin-Sharp ~
One common scripture that is bounced around nowadays is 1 Thessalonians 3:10 that says if a man will not work he will not eat. To use that scripture to say that no one should be helped is a gross mis-use of that scripture. It is doing what I call “cherry-picking” the bible in that it pulls out the one scripture that supports an agenda and ignores everything else around it.
On the subject of the UK voting to leave the European Union my friend went on to say ~
On one hand, I was surprised that a country would take such drastic measures, because I’ve never actually seen it happen before in my lifetime, especially not in a way that touched me so deeply as to have me worried about someone I love who is in the midst of it. On the other hand, part of me saw it coming – maybe not in the way it happened but saw something coming – due to things I’ve seen over the past few years. I saw their Prime Minister state that he believed decisions he was making were the decisions Jesus Christ would make, but the economic decisions ignored the needs of the vulnerable. Jesus walk on this earth was focused on helping the vulnerable. I saw those decisions being made from more of a “the LOVE of money is the root of all evil” platform, yet people who said they were Christian supported him believing that way.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I saw people lose their benefits and be forced into the workplace even when they were so sick this took their lives. A relative of my friend in the UK even died due to that type of situation. In the name of Jesus Christ, I saw exclusionary thinking rise to the point that I feel like that played a big part in this decision to leave the EU, because people were promised that if they left there would be more of us and less of them. I saw hate speech being ever more on the rise.
Are these decisions that would be made by Jesus Christ or a follower of Jesus Christ? If you look at the whole book of 1 Thessalonians, you will see that one of the topics is when Christ will return. Paul is assuring them in other parts of the book that we do not know the day or the hour, so some believe he is warning people not to become lethargic about their daily lives due to a belief that Jesus will return soon and thus the needs of the day and the future will not matter.
If you hone in on that scripture and look at the scriptures around it, you see that Paul is talking about people who are busy-bodies and running around spreading all kinds of rumors and keeping dissention stirred up in the church. I guess the idle time they felt they had due to their belief that Jesus would be returning in their lifetime wasn’t being used productively at all. Paul is basically telling them to shut their mouths and get to work and do something more productive than gossip. In those scriptures, Paul could easily be talking to the modern day trolls who are spreading the kinds of propaganda that make us misunderstand the issues.
….the book of Matthew talks about the binding and loosing of the law. When there is true human need, we will bind the law and take care of the needy like this list of scriptures tell us to do: https://www.openbible.info/topics/helping_the_poor. But, if someone is not working because they are running around stirring up trouble and keeping dissension in the church, we have every right to loose the law and say, “We will not help you any more until you repent and stop using your idle time to stir up dissension in the church. Stop being a busybody, and we will help you again if you still need it.” That is basically what Paul was saying here. Yet, the very busybodies who are trolling the internet stirring up dissension with untrue propaganda are ignoring the warning Paul gave to people like them and cherry-picking the one scripture that will allow them to not only turn their back on those in need but continue to stir up dissension against them. Imagine how they would feel if we followed Paul's instructions when they hit a time of need and reached out for help and the agencies they reached out to said, "I'm sorry, but you have spread all kinds of propaganda and created all kinds of dissension with the misinformation, so you are no longer eligible for help."
Even if none of this makes sense, let’s do the math – there is one scripture about a man working to eat, and there are dozens about helping the poor.
Another common argument is that taxes are not to be used to help the poor but that individual Christians are supposed to do that. God was smart enough to know that needed an organized effort, so it wouldn’t break the backs of a few. Look at the book of Amos. There has not always been a separation of church and state. At one time the church/temple and state where one, and that was the governing body. Tithes were taxes collected by this governing body, and one way they were to be used was to help the poor. God railed against the Priests for hoarding up wealth at the top and ignoring the needs of the poor. It is our religious tradition to use taxes to help the poor, and it is a violation of our religious tradition to hoard wealth at the top.
Following are some scriptures about how we should treat refugees: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/what-bible-says-about-how-treat-refugees. Following are some scripture about helping immigrants: https://www.openbible.info/topics/immigration. Now, don’t get me wrong – I do understand that having laws to allow immigrants to enter legally is a good thing for the protection of everyone. I also understand that with a situation like the Syrian refugees that if one country took all of them that it would have taxed that countries resources too much. However, I saw people thinking black and white so unswervingly that they couldn’t even see the gray area options. As an example, I saw a plan proposed for many countries to share the refugee load so that resources wouldn’t be taxed in one country, yet too many people couldn’t see the wisdom of that decision. There are gray area decisions that can be made that meet the need for laws while still meeting the needs of people. Sadly, the needs of people too often take a back seat instead of determining the gray area decisions that can be made.
The propaganda that I discussed in the last two paragraphs have led too many people to distrust and hate the poor and the needy as well as to hate the immigrant and refugee. In addition, it has led to hatred of many who are different including the LGBT community, women who are not under the rule of a man, people of other religions, sadly I still see racism after all these years, etc. My answer to that is that in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul warns us not to judge the world or we would have to leave the world. Instead, he tells us to judge sin in the church. Therefore, what Christians should be doing is focusing on eradicating Christians bearing false witness in the name of God (using God’s name in vain) and being the busy-bodies 1 Thessalonians warns us not to be and leaving the world to be the world. The improved example we would be might win way more of the people of the world over than pointing fingers at them while we ignore our own faults
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
I think the world should on the basis of these words look at how we treat the poor, the vulnerable , the different , look at how we distribute the worlds resources and ask …what makes governments think that they have the right to deny support to the vulnerable and leave people starving and sleeping on the streets , being denied lifesaving medical treatment because it costs too much to a country’s government but you can have it if you can pay ~ all men are created equal ……
With thanks to Rhonda Partin-Sharp author of the Blog Christmas Won't Be Christmas and the novel The Blood Moon Sealed My fate
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