It’s amazing how little people know about our nation.
This letter to the editor in our local newspaper made me scratch my head.
Ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich were entirely wrong when they claimed at Rock Church that the rights of Americans stem from God. God has nothing to do with the rights of a U.S. citizen. Our rights stem from the U.S. Constitution, a grand document that protects us from tyranny, be it religious or royal. God is not being ‘pushed out’ of public life. God belongs in your heart, not in public school or government.
Joan White Uhlar
Virginia Beach
This isn’t the first time Ms. Uhlar pontificated about wanting religion kept hidden from everyone’s view, especially when it comes to politics. Read here where she wrote about religion and politics being “un-American.”
But Ms. Uhlar has a basic misunderstanding about the founding of our country, and if she had her way, we’d have to take a big red marker through the Declaration of Independence and censor a whole lot of public statements of the people who wrote the documents she claims to understand.
Our rights do not “stem from the US Constitution.” Our rights are secured by the US Constitution. Our rights pre-exist the Constitution.
There are certain rights that are inalienable (I’m sure these words ring a bell with most people) and we were endowed with these rights by “our Creator.” See, I’m funny this way. When the Declaration of Independence says “endowed by our Creator,” I’m fairly certain it meant “endowed by our Creator.”
These rights exist. We are endowed by our Creator with the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (among other rights) whether there is a Constitution or not.
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
See, the rights always rest with the people. The people are endowed with rights, and then the people form government to secure those rights.
It’s completely inaccurate to say that “our rights stem from” a document. Our rights are inalienable. A document can be amended to take away everything it is purported to give.
This slow but steady diminishing of the religious base for our system of government has troubled me over the years. I tire of the public schools who teach that Patrick Henry said “give me liberty or give me death” but refuse to acknowledge that he spoke those words in St. John’s Church.
I shake my head when children are taught about Thanksgiving and denied from knowing exactly who was being thanked. (I actually had a public school teacher tell me the first Thanksgiving was when the Pilgrims thanked Native Americans)
And I’m outraged when people understand so little about what made the American experiment great that they think that government gives us our rights.
I hope our “reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” remains firm.
