"Monumental: In Search of America's National Treasure." | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The Pilgrims were British subjects looking for religious liberty, yet with the Mayflower Compact, they devised a special formula to protect all liberty. It is a magical recipe centered on the word of God and that provides a blueprint for the government of a free people and its protection. At the core of that recipe is the recognition that only a religious and moral people can be entrusted with the responsibility of securing so great a gift as Liberty. This is America's Christian heritage. Our Christian heritage is the reason we have a government system centered around the individual, bound to protect his sovereign rights. Our Christian heritage is inextricably connected to our founding principles. [Note that the word "principle" comes from a Latin root that means "first things."] Now that we know what this heritage is, we can see it clearly in our charter of freedom, the Declaration of Independence, and our very Constitution.

    Did the "Matrix of Liberty" have any influence on our Founding Fathers? The last leg of Kirk Cameron's journey to find our "national treasure" took him to Aledo, Texas where he met with David Barton, founder of Wallbuilders. Barton has an extensive collection of original documents and books from the era of our Founding Fathers. He was able to convince Cameron, using their writings and through the very fact that Congress published thousands of Bibles for public schools to use to instruct students, that indeed, the Pilgrim's special formula had been embraced by the Founders when they crafted our government and secured our rights.

    John Adams said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." In his farewell address (1796), George Washington spoke: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them." John Jay, author of five of the Federalist Papers and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty and as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."

    In the United States, we enjoy a representative government. "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..." Abraham Lincoln reaffirmed that fact in the Gettysburg Address - "A nation by the people, of the people, for the people...." The Constitution is a restraint on self-government. It forms the basis of our republic, which essentially means that we have a form of government defined by laws so that complete power is never in the hands of the majority (which can become a mob). A republic respects the sovereignty of each individual, while in a democracy the majority exerts sovereign rights. In a republic, the sovereignty of the people is exercised through representatives they choose, to whom those powers are specially delegated and limited by the Constitution. For example, the Bill of Rights guarantees that no matter what the will of the majority is, they can never deny fellow Americans certain fundamental rights.

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    Our elected government officials do not exercise force and power by divine right. The authority they possess for making laws that the average citizen is expected to obey comes ultimately from the Constitution. Without explicit authorization, they have no power. Of course it takes principled, ethical, moral, and educated individuals to give proper respect to his or her oath of office and serve the people within constitutional bounds.

    Our Founding Fathers were keenly anyone of the limits of human reason and of the temptations of political power. History had taught them well. They drafted our Constitution with limiting language precisely because they knew that their successors would need constant reminders of the values that they believed were critical and of the foundational principles on which the government was built.

    The preservation of liberty depends on two things: a constitution that limits the amount of government in people's lives and a citizenry that requires little government. We still have our Constitution to protect us from the reaches of government, although the government is slowly exceeding the power that was originally granted to it. What we don't have is a citizenry that is disciplined enough and moral enough to require as little government as possible. When laws are too numerous, they are just as dangerous to the exercise of liberty as having no law at all.

    A just and enduring government depends equally on the integrity and faithful adherence to the Constitution and the morality of its people.

    The full title of Kirk Cameron's film is "Monumental: In Search of America's National Treasure." So what is America's "national treasure"? It is its Christian heritage. It is the lasting legacy of the Pilgrims in our founding documents and on our national fabric.

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    How does it all end? We won't know how our republic will end because that is ultimately up to the character and commitment of the American people. But the film Monumental ends with an optimistic message..... for those who will heed it, that is. Cameron reminds us that we are in a constitutional crisis and according to many evangelicals and believers, we are on target to be destroyed in the end times because of the choices our nation has made. But he is not ready to give up on the United States. He tells us: "I still have children in this world. I want a bright future for them." The solution, he says, lies in the Pilgrim's statue - the "Matrix of Liberty." The solution is a return to the values, principles, and priorities that defined the first American government established here in the New World. Unfortunately, the statue is hidden away in a small remote park, tucked among residential developments in Plymouth, Massachusetts and not displayed proudly along with the rest of our history, where everyone can see it - in Washington DC. We don't advance our republic by ignoring our Christian heritage. We save our republic by re-embracing it.



     Publisher's note: Diane Rufino has her own blog For Love of God and Country. Come and visit her. She'd love your company.

poll#12
Is the Democrat Party turning their back on God as they rush to embrace all alternative lifestyles in their overarching inclusive approach to sustaining this Republic?
66.67%   Yes
19.05%   No
14.29%   Who's God?
42 total vote(s)     Voting has Ended!


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