Quest For Godly Wisdom - Equality and Freedom
Quest For Godly Wisdom - Equality and Freedom
The Declaration of Independence, preamble (our Republic’s mission statement):
“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.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed
to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing
the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
What does the Declaration mean by “created equal”?
I would start with the Creator.
Why we’re here:
God made humans for His glory through fellowship in the form of a personal, intimate love relationship. That’s a love like that between a human father and his five year old son. God also made us individually unique with no one person being like any other person.
How is this realized:
God has a plan for the world. He made us to fit into that plan. His plan is like a puzzle in which no two pieces are the same shape. All pieces have to be in the puzzle for there to be a complete picture. All puzzle pieces are equally important to the picture.
God wills that we likewise fit into His plan like puzzle pieces for it to be complete. And like puzzle pieces, we are equally important to His plan.
In my understanding, that’s what “created equal” means.
So, to God, the people who clean the bathrooms at Walmart are no less important to Him and to His plan than is the CEO of Walmart although in human terms, they may be thought to be inferior.
If we do not honor people as our equals regardless of their station in life, we dishonor the God Who has made us all and has made us all equal.
How do we function in His plan (what is freedom)?
First, prepare to be a part of His plan:
Of course, God not only created us equal but He created each one of us for a specific role in His plan. Growing up, it is our duty to God to discover those gifts and abilities that God has endowed us with. Additionally, to glorify God, they are the duties of the government, society, parents, teachers, neighbors et al to assist us in that effort.
How do we use our gifts and abilities? To serve Him as He has willed.
God made us for the above relationship through which we serve Him in the capacity He intends for us for His glory.
Having discovered who God made us to be and what He has given us the abilities to do we can then serve Him according to His will.
Therefore, freedom is serving God according to His will.
Classical liberalism is that system of thought which conduces to each person’s being able to serve His creator in the way dictated by the place in His plan that God has prepared for him.
What about the alternative to serving God?
The corollary is that when we refuse, as a people, to serve God, then because there is no benefit to our being free and since we need either internal controls or external controls, God resorts to despotism as a governing external control. It works like a natural law.
This explains why we in the West are now being gradually enslaved. We have lost internal controls, having abandoned God, the source of our only internal control.
How this relates to us now.
This elaborates on President Adams’ writing that our constitution was made only for a “religious and moral” people:
“We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other“