"For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord." - Jde 1:4.Previously we've learned about the Christian source of our liberties. Just as important as understanding the origin of our freedoms, however, is understanding and being able to identify those things which threaten to undermine and erode them. To a great degree the way in which we live our lives can mean the difference between preserving, or eroding, those freedoms which our Christian forefathers left us as an inheritance.
The Founding philosophy was that immorality and freedom were inversely related, with the increase or diminution of one having a reciprocal effect upon the other. The more moral a people were, the less govenrment they consequently needed, and therefore more free they could be. Conversely the more immoral a people were, the more government they consequently needed, and therefore less free they could be.
The Irish Statesman Edmund Burke eloquently describes this concept thus.
"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites,—in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity,—in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption,—in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters." - Edmund Burke, Letter to a Member of the National Assembly, 1791.Tocqueville, in his treatise on American life and culture, makes the same observation.
"Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. Religion is much more necessary in the republic which they set forth in glowing colors than in the monarchy which they attack; and it is more needed in democratic republics than in any others. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie be not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people which is its own master, if it be not submissive to the Divinity?" - Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Principal Causes Maintaining The Democratic Republic.This notion was conspicuously shared by America's Founders, early statesmen, and clergy.
"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. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, "where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?" And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?" - George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796.
"The voice of experience and the voice of reason speak but one language. [....] Both united in teaching us, that men may as well build their houses upon the sand and expect to see them stand, when the rains fall, and the winds blow, and the floods come, as to found free institutions upon any other basis than that of morality and virtue, of which the word of God is the only authoritative rule, and the only adequate sanction. All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they have of stringent state government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them; or a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet. It may do for other countries and other governments to talk about the State supporting religion. Here, under our own free institutions, it is Religion which must support the State." - Robert Winthrop, legislator, author and orator, and descendant of Governor John Winthrop (founder of the Massachusetts Bay colony), May 28, 1849.
"The reflection and experience of many years have led me to consider the Holy Writings not only as most authentic and instructive in themselves, but as the clue to all other history. They tell us what man is, and they alone tell us what he is. [...] From the same pure fountain of wisdom we learn that vice destroys freedom, that arbitrary power is founded on public immorality, and that misconduct in those who rule a Republic, the necessary consequence of general licentiousness, so disgusts and degrades that, dead to generous sentiment, they become willing slaves. [....] There must be religion. When the ligament is torn, society is disjointed, and its members perish. The nation is exposed to foreign violence and domestic convulsion. Vicious rulers, chosen by a vicious people, turn back the current of corruption to its source. Placed in a situation where they can exercise authority for their own emolument, they betray their trust. They take bribes. They sell statutes and decrees. They sell honor and office. They sell conscience. They sell their country. By this vile practice they become odious and contemptible. [....] The most important of all lessons from the Scriptures is the denunciation of the rulers of every state that rejects the precepts of religion. Those nations are doomed to death who bury in the corruption of criminal desire the awful sense of an existing God, cast off the consoling hope of immortality, and seek refuge from despair in the dreariness of annihilation. Terrible, irrevocable doom - loudly pronounced, repeatedly, strongly exemplified in the Sacred Writings, and fully confirmed by the long record of time! It is the clue which leads through the intricacies of universal history. It is the principle of all sound political science." - Gouverneur Morris, member of the Continental Congress, signer of the Articles of Confederation, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, signer of the Federal Constitution, author of numerous legal works, An Inaugural Discourse: Delivered Before the New York Historical Society September 4, 1816.
"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime & pure, which denounces against the wicked eternal misery, & insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." - Charles Carrol, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, to James McHenry of November 4, 1800.
"Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time but beyond a certain pitch even the best Constitution will be ineffectual. [....] What follows from this? That he is the best friend to American liberty who is the most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country." - John Witherspoon, Professor, Minister, Member of The Continental Congress, Signer of The Declaration of Independence,"The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men," May 17, 1776.
"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man. We must not conclude merely upon a man's haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country. It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty. [....] Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness. [....] A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous, they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader. How necessary then is it for those who are determined to transmit the blessings of liberty as a fair Inheritance to posterity, to associate on public principles in support of public virtue." - Samuel Adams, a collage of quotations from three separate sources, beginning with an essay published in The Advertiser in 1748, followed by a letter to John Trumbull on October 16, 1778, and concluding with a letter to James Warren on February 12, 1779.
"The present generation may be congratulated on the acquisition of a form of government more immediately in all its branches under the influence and control of the people, and therefore, more free and happy than was enjoyed by their ancestors. But as government so popular can be supported only by universal knowledge and virtue, in the body of the people, it is the duty of all ranks to promote the means of education for the rising generations, as well as true religion, purity of manners, and integrity of life among all orders and degrees." - Proclamation of the Great and General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, drafted by John Adams, January 23, 1776.
"The censorial power, which had for its object the manners of the public in the ancient free states, was absolutely necessary to their continuance, we cannot help being of the opinion that the only thing which we have now to supply the place of this is the religious discipline of the several sects with respect to their own members; so that the denomination or profession which shall take the most effectual care of the instruction of its members, and maintain its discipline in its fullest vigor, will do the most essential service to the whole body." - Synod of New York and Philadelphia, May 12, 1775.
"The virtue of the people in general is of more consequence to the stability of Republics, or free states, than those of a different kind. In monarchies, a sense of honor, the subordination of rank in society, and the rigor of despotic authority, supply in some measure the place of virtue, in producing public order; but in free states, where the power is ultimately lodged in the body of the people, if there is a general corruption of the mass, the government itself must speedily be dissolved." - Synod of New York and Philadelphia to the members under its charge, May, 1783.
It has been often said that Christian nations are the civilized nations, and as often that the most thoroughly Christian are the most highly civilized. Is this a mere coincidence? Study well the history of Christianity in its relation to the nation and it will be found that it is something more than a mere coincidence, that there is between the two the relation of cause and effect, and that the more thoroughly the principles of Christianity reach into and influence the life of the nation the more certainly will that nation advance in civilization. At least it is the duty of every patriot, finding that it has been such a factor in our life, to inquire whether it does stand to its civilization in the relation of cause and effect, and it would be in the highest degree unphilosophical to assume that there has been only a coincidence, and therefore that its presence in the nation is a matter of indifference. If found that it has been both a potent and helpful factor in the development of our civilization, then it is a patriot's duty to uphold it and extend its influence. This is in line with the general obligation which rests upon all to help everything which tends to the bettering of the life of the republic. - David J. Brewer, United States Supreme Court Justice, The United States: A Christian Nation, 1905.
The purpose of the preceding quotations, as before, is to illustrate that this sentiment was one found across the gamut of American society for generations. Indeed, this is confirmed by Frenchman Alexis De Tocqueville, who visited the United States in the 1830s and wrote a book containing his observations of American society.
"There is no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth. [...] The revolutionists of America are obliged to profess an ostensible respect for Christian morality and equity. [...] They hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society. The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other." - Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Principal Causes Which Tend To Maintain The Democratic Republic In The United States.It's no coincidence that the Marxist "secular" left assiduously attacks, and seeks to subvert the church, and promotes immorality of every kind. Traditionally it was the church that maintained morality, which is the basis of American liberty, throughout society. By preventing the church from maintaining morality, morality naturally erodes, and therefore the freedoms based upon such.
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever." - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781.Christianity must be respected as a defining part of our heritage and the basis of our liberty.
I insist that Christianity has been so wrought into the history of this republic, so identified with its growth and prosperity, has been and is so dear to the hearts of the great body of our citizens, that it ought not to be spoken of contemptuously or treated with ridicule. [....] And we who are citizens of this republic—recognizing the identification of Christianity with its life, the general belief that Christianity is the best of all religions, that it passed into the lives of our fathers and is taken into the lives of our brethren as something of sacred power—ought, even if not agreeing with all that is claimed for it, to at least accord to it respect.
From the standpoint of citizenship the treatment of Christianity may be regarded as in some respects similar to that which is accorded and is due to the national flag. Who looks upon that as a mere piece of cloth costing but a trifle, something to be derided or trampled upon at will? A particular banner may not have cost much. It may be cheap to him who sees only the material and work which have passed into it, but to every patriot it is the symbol of patriotism. Its history is a record of glory. A century ago the Barbary pirates, who had defied the flags of Europe, saw it waving over Decatur's vessels and bowed in submission. [....]
To-day it waves at the masthead of American vessels in every water of the globe, and commands the world's respect. An insult to it every citizen feels is an insult to himself, and all insist that it shall be accorded due respect. We remember how, in the early days of our great civil struggle, the loyal heart was stirred with the thrilling words of Secretary Dix, "If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." [...] We love to watch its fold swing out to the breeze on every patriotic day, to see it decorate the walls where gather our great conventions. We glory in every tribute that is paid to it in any part of the globe. It tells the story of conflicts, of defeats and victories. It has waved over many a field of battle, and the blood of our noblest and best has been shed in its defense. It is eloquent of all the sufferings and trials of days gone by, of all the great achievements of the American people, and as we swing it to the breeze we do so with undoubting faith that it will wave over grander things in the future of this republic. - David J. Brewer, United States Supreme Court Justice, The United States: A Christian Nation, 1905.Christians in a Christian country, through a government established on Christian principles, have the authority, and duty, to suppress immorality, as to allow immorality to be promoted is to allow the erosion of the foundation of our liberties, and is therefore a direct assault on American freedom itself. It is for this reason, to preserve our liberties, that Founder John Jay asserts Americans must elect Christian public servants.
"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." - John Jay, First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court appointed by George Washington, Co-Author of The Federalist, President of the American Bible Society (1821-1827), to John Murray, October 12, 1816.The sentiment that it is the duty of Christians, and civil servants appointed by them to suppress sin, was understood and shared throughout early America from its colonization, to the Founding era, and many generations after. As the Reverend James Willson (professor of theology at Allegheny Seminary) states in his treatise on the role of government.
"The righteous magistrate, who knows his place, and has a proper sense of the nature and functions of the magistracy, will not allow the trangressors of law to escape with impunity. He not only 'bears the sword' - he is not only armed with a just authority - he will use the 'sword:' it will not lie idly in the scabbard; he will exercise the power with which he has been invested. Faithful to his calling and to the great interests of social and moral order, the upright civil functionary, whether in a higher or an inferior station, will not permit God's authority to be impugned, or the interests of society to suffer, from unrestrained lawlessness - from flagrant breaches of the peace - from rampant immorality - from gross, avowed and open hostility to the name and law of God. To be indifferent to these [...] is a virtual abdication of power." - The Establishment and Limits of Civil Government, 1853.And this principle was plainly reflected in the governments of the day.
"Resolved, That it be recommended by this Congress to the people of all ranks and denominations throughout this colony [...] that they also use their influence to discountenance and suppress any profanation thereof in others." - Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 1775.The American Christian must understand that an attack on Christian morality is likewise an attack on American liberty. The former is the foundation of the latter, and without the former, the latter cannot subsist. An immoral people cannot be free; they destroy their own liberties. As a contributor under the pseudonym "Mentor," writing in the Boston Gazette, April 20, 1778, observes.
"That piety and virtue; which alone can secure the freedom of any people, may be encouraged, and vice and immorality suppressed, the Great and General Court have thought fit to issue this proclamation, commanding and enjoining it upon the good people of this colony that they lead sober, religious, and peaceable lives, avoiding all blasphemies, contempt of the Holy Scriptures and of the Lord's day, and all other crimes and misdemeanors, all debauchery, profaneness, corruption, revelry, all riotous and tumultuous proceedings, and all immoralities whatsoever. [....] And all judges, justices, sheriffs, grand jurors, tithingmen, and all over civil officers within this colony, are hereby strictly enjoined and commanded that they contribute all in their power, by their advice, exertions, and examples, towards a general reformation of manners; and that they bring to condign punishment every person who shall commit any of the crimes or misdemeanors aforesaid, or that shall be guilty of any immoralities whatsoever." - Proclamation of the Great and General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, drafted by John Adams, January 23, 1776.
"Above all, we earnestly exhort you to contribute all within your power to the encouragement of those virtues for which the Supreme Being has declared that he will bestow his blessings upon a nation, and to the discouragement of those vices for which He overturns kingdoms in his wrath." - Legislature of the State of Massachusetts Bay, 1777.
"Our political fathers and civil rulers will not fail to do all they can to promote religion and virtue through the community, as the surest means of rendering their government easy and happy to themselves and the people. For this purpose they will watch over their morals with the same affectionate and tender care that a pious and prudent parent watches over his children, and, by all methods which love to God and man can inspire and wisdom point out, endeavor to check and suppress all impiety and vice, and lead the people to the practice of that righteousness which exalteth a nation." - Puritan Preacher before the legislative council of Massachusetts, 1780.
"It (Christianity) excuses no compromises of principles, and no paltering with sin." - Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1824.
"There is nothing upon which the well being of a community so much depends as a due regard for religion and morality. If a sense of religion is once removed from the minds of men, they will soon find a thousand means to evade the laws of their country."
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