In this mornings NYT they printed the Declaration of Independence. I thought it good to reread it. I remember in school memorizing the opening lines. 238 years later the words still proclaim undeniable truth.
When in the course of human events ...to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them...
Did the founding fathers even fully understand what they had signed? Not really. It would require a civil war and more before all people achieved the equal status to which God had entitled them. And we still struggle to live up to the words of the declaration.
But we should never forget that the source of all freedom as the declaration articulates is God. Without God, there would have been no foundation for the revolution, because the only rights are those given by the government.
Today as we celebrate, we celebrate not just the Declaration, but the higher law to which it points, The law that governs all peoples and nations,the law that bestows on every human being the same equal status.
