Jefferson & God

I was prompted to write this after reading the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. That liberating document was written by Thomas Jefferson – and by golly, hold your breath, – the man actually mentions God.

He does it at the beginning and end of one of our most defining national documents, signed by some of the most courageous patriots in this nation’s brief history.

According to Jefferson, it was “…the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God (that) entitled” the colonists to declare the reasons which caused them to bolt from the mother country across the Atlantic.

Jefferson continues, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” among them, “. . . that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator (there’s that God word again) with certain unalienable Rights. . .”

After a long, yet pithy and eloquent argument, the document concludes with a declaration that “these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.” That conclusion, according to Jefferson and his fellow patriots, is justified by “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions.” (Third reference to God.)

Now, I don’t want to get all syrupy about this, but I’d like to remind all those bright minds in all those Ivy League institutions, as well as all the politicians afraid of uttering that three-letter word beginning with a capital “G” of this:

Thomas Jefferson and all the other brave souls who signed the Declaration of Independence put their own lives, those of their families and their personal fortunes at grave risk when they did so.

And they were anything but afraid to identify the source of their inspiration. Those men were – in the absolutely correct sense and proper usage of the term – politically correct.

Just something for a few people in D.C. and elsewhere in The Public Square to think about.