Today is Independence Day. Happy Fourth!

What we celebrate today is not a battlefield victory. That came later. It’s not the coming to America. That was earlier. Nor, are we celebrating the constituting of a permanent government. That was more than a decade away.

The Fourth of July commemorates an intellectual, thoughtful, and resolute founding of a nation – via separation from another – rooted in the principle that we are created beings, valued by a Creator, and bound to government by collective consent, not by birthright of a king.

No, it is not “Christian nationalism” to declare that one cannot separate America’s founding from Christian thought. A worldview rooted in Christianity is what birthed this nation 249 years ago.

Much of the focus on the Declaration will latch onto a pronouncement of human rights. That is a fair focus.

However, I want to draw your attention to what is some truly marvelous phrasing included in the incredibly verbose second paragraph:

“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.”

In our founding document, there is a stated marriage between “right” and “duty.”

Put another way:

We are created by God;We are made in His image and have value;As such, our allegiance is foremost to Him, and He has endowed us with rights;Therefore, we have a duty – to Him, ourselves, and our neighbor – to proclaim, defend, and enjoy those rights.

Our nation’s founding document rejects the notion of passive Christianity. We have a duty – a joyous, not begrudging one – to protect the rights of man, to love both justice and mercy, to recognize that government is an institution created by God, and to engage in the “political” process for love of the Creator and love of one’s neighbor.

As we celebrate Independence today, let’s light some fireworks, eat good food, and enjoy some family poolside time. Let us also celebrate our rights and the intellectual mooring that spurred the Founders to declare them.

However, let us also embrace the joyous duty set before us to engage with confidence in the public arena, for His glory, and for the flourishing of humanity.

Joyously Dutiful,

Cole Muzio

President, Frontline Policy Council

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