Many
flag-waving, TEA Party patriots in the [u]nited States think very highly of the
Declaration of Independence, considering it a sort of skeleton key that unlocks
the mysteries about man and government.
This includes many Christians, who claim it is a Christian
document. Let us see how well such
claims about the Declaration hold up under closer scrutiny.
The
first thing that catches the eye is this statement:
the separate and equal station to which the Laws of
Nature and of Nature's God entitle them
Why
are the Laws of Nature considered as something sundered and apart from the Laws
of Nature’s God? Already the writer
(Thomas Jefferson, by most accounts) is heading toward the theology of certain
heathen Greek philosophers, who said that matter, as well God, exists eternally
and does not rely on Him for its existence.
Further,
Mr Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of the Son of God, so we may take
his reference to Nature’s God as referring to a single divine being, not the
Three Persons of the All-Holy Trinity.
This Deistic understanding of a God closed up in His own essence and
detached from mankind and the rest of creation (as opposed to the Persons of
the Trinity living in communion with and for One Another and pouring out Their
overflowing Love upon mankind and all the creation) is reflected in his
political theories, where each man is likewise a self-contained monad concerned
only with his own ‘rights’.
We hold these truths to be self-evident
Mr
Jefferson is here speaking of the revelation of truth to man through the
creation. But since our Lord Jesus
Christ is the final, and the fullest, and the perfect revelation about God,
man, and the creation that has been given to the world (since He is both
perfect God and perfect man, Uncreated and created), whatever he says should
agree with Orthodox Christian teaching if the Declaration is a Christian
document as is claimed. But this is not
what we find:
all men are created equal
Mr
Jefferson did not approve of an established hierarchy. He led the fight in Virginia to fordo there the primogeniture
laws (that inheritance passes mainly to the oldest son) to weaken the power of
the large landholders in favor of a fluid ‘natural aristocracy’ that would be
based mainly on educational attainments.
He likewise opposed kings and Church clergy. But these sorts of beliefs are not in line
with Christian truth.
Hierarchy
is everywhere in creation. The hosts of
bodiless powers in Heaven are ordered in a hierarchy: seraphim and cherubim ministering closest to
the Lord and angels and archangels ministering closest to mankind. Christian countries, and most other
traditional societies, are ordered in a hierarchy consisting of peasants,
warrior/service nobility, and clergy.
And these likewise are ordered hierarchically, kings at the top of the
nobility, with lesser and greater nobles beneath him; and deacons, priests, and
bishops in the Church.
To
everything there is an order that ought to be respected. Uncovering the structure of that order is our
duty (it will look different in different countries). To reject it and simply say ‘all men are equal’
will only lead to sorrows. Meritocracy
like that proposed by Mr Jefferson should play a role in that order, but it
must be balanced by respect for settled estates.
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
We
have nothing as a right from God but only as a gift. If as a right, then even God is beholden to
us in some way, and this can never be.
Likewise, if as rights, selfishness, fear, suspicion, and so on will
come to typify people’s lives. For if
the goal of life is the enjoyment of one’s rights to the greatest degree
possible, then he will always be afraid of losing them, always be afraid of
having to yield something for someone else’s sake. This is the opposite of Christian love, which
pours itself out to the uttermost for others with joy (Think of Christ’s
enfleshment and His hanging on the Holy Cross, or the holy saints constantly
interceding for us in Heaven.
Thankfully, none of them demand their right to an individualistic
‘liberty’.), and the opposite of belief in Divine Providence, which works for
man’s salvation, for which all should say, ‘Glory to God for all things!’
(including the gaining or losing of one’s ‘rights’).
That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed,
First,
government does not derive its powers from mankind, but from God. That is why traditional governments have a
king or a king-like figure (e.g., Moses, Joshua, and Samuel): He is the earthly representative of God’s
authority over a people. Second,
governments exist not to secure rights but to cooperate with the Church to help
bring about the salvation of the people by punishing evildoers, rewarding the
good, calling Church councils to combat heresy, etc.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness
Though
there have been times when Christians have overthrown leaders who were acting
against the common good or promoting heresy, this is far from making it a
‘right’ (and which is perhaps one of the most dangerous to proclaim). Furthermore to totally destroy one’s form of
government and remake it with completely new and different institutions that
suit the current whim of ‘the People’ contradicts Mr Jefferson’s stated
fidelity to the ‘Laws of Nature’. For
any government to function tolerably well, it must arise from, and be conformed
to, the long-held customs of a people (which are part of natural law). It cannot be created from abstract theories.
Such
is the great Declaration, the foundation of American politics, supposedly a Christian
work. May the South find a better way
than the misguided teachings of this document.
(All
quotes taken from http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/,
opened 1 Nov. 2016)
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the
South!
Anathema
to the Union!
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