Faith as the Basis for Freedom

Faith as the Foundational Basis for Freedom

Excerpt from Trump's America by New Gingrich

Make no mistake, the Founding Fathers viewed religious liberty and faith as the basis for all our individual freedoms.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson cited “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God” as the authority under which Americans had the right to claim autonomy from England. He went on to write “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

The statement serves as the cornerstone of our individual liberties because it recognizes that our Creator is the ultimate authority over any government of human beings, and that we receive our rights from our Creator – not our government.

As Founder Alexander Hamilton wrote in February 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence was ratified. “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”

These words from one of our Founders show that religious freedom was not some vague notion meant to simply ensure people had the ability to attend the church of their choice – or to choose not to attend religious services. The idea – the dictum – that government lacked the authority to infringe on fundamental rights was unique and vital to America's founding.

The Founders believed this so thoroughly that according to Founder Samuel Adams, people didn't even have to ability to surrender their own rights. In a paper Adams wrote concerning the rights of colonists in November 1772, he said, “If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave.”

Faith. Photo by Elena.

… Chiefly, the secular elites point to Thomas Jefferson''s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists Association in which he wrote, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State”.

However, the separation Jefferson referenced stressed government's inability to regulate religion. It was not intended to be a blanket prohibition against public religious activities. In fact, two days after writing the Church and State letter, Jefferson attended religious services at the United States Capitol. The service was led by Baptist Minister John Leland, who was himself a key helper to James Madison with the inclusion of the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment. 

In fact, Jefferson and the other Founders believed religion was the principle source of morality – and morality was essential for a free society. They included the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment because there was a healthy and diverse religious community guiding America – and they wanted it to continue to grow unhindered by government.