By Liberty Counsel ——Bio and Archives--October 11, 2014
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Our work together over the years has bound us together as brothers in the Lord. It has also made us realize that the urgency of the times in which we live demands that we find new ways of standing together to defend the foundations of freedom upon which the American Experiment in ordered liberty stands. These are urgent times, but these are our times. As Christians, we believe we were born and born again for this hour. As American citizens, we know that the birth certificate of this nation was called a Declaration of Independence because it declared independence from an unjust civil ruler. It did not declare independence from a just God. We live in an age which has been deceived by a counterfeit notion of freedom as giving people the right to do whatever they want, rather than the right to choose to do what is right. The roots of the crisis we face recall the profound and prophetic statement of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the recipient of the Templeton prize in 1983. “Men Have Forgotten God.” The mistaken idea that the exercise of freedom can ever be divorced from the moral norms necessary to govern our choices and guide our behavior is wrong and will not promote the true common good. When there is nothing objectively true which can be known by all and form the basis of a common life, then there is no freedom. Instead, we teeter on the brink of anarchy. We reject the claim that one can separate moral or social issues from economic or international issues. There is a moral basis to every social concern. That is because there is a Natural Moral Law which can be known by all men and women because it is written on the human heart. It can be discerned through the exercise of reason. It must inform our life together. The existence of such a Natural Moral Law is the ground upon which every great civilization has been built. This Natural Moral Law gives us the norms with which we can build a truly free and just society and govern ourselves. It must also inform the positive or civil law of our Nation, or we will become lawless and risk devolving into anarchy. There is no word which echoes more passionately within the human heart than that word “freedom.” The United States of America was founded by men and women who experienced threats to freedom's promise and risked everything to secure a future of true freedom. Authentic freedom has a moral constitution within which we must exercise our rights as individuals, families, communities, and nations. Freedom is much more than a freedom from; it is a freedom for responsible and virtuous living. The early American founders spoke of the pursuit of happiness with reference to just such an understanding of virtue as a key to living a happy life. We reassert together that there is a moral foundation for the exercise of authentic freedom. We may be free to choose, but some choices are always and everywhere wrong. We know this is true because it is written on the human heart. It does not require religion to reveal it or to make it obligatory. It is a part of a common morality. We affirm as Christians that the fullness of truth concerning what is good and true has been revealed to all who choose to embrace the Gospel - in the Person, message, and mission of Jesus Christ. However, the moral norms upon which our nation was founded are not simply “religious,” and they are essential to the survival of a truly free society. Freedom will only grow and flourish when we choose what is good, respecting the truth about the human person, marriage and the family and society founded upon it, and what advances the real common good. It is weakened and lost when we choose against what is true and right. In fact, it results in fracturing our common bond as a free nation. Religious freedom is the first freedom. It ensures that the leavening role of revealed truth helps us to form our conscience and shape the choices we make as individuals, families, and as a truly free society. It is also under a wholesale assault. We pledge to stand together to defend the First Freedom of Religious Freedom. Religious faith, religious institutions, and religious speech are protected by the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights of the Constitution for good reason. Religious freedom is a fundamental human right and serves the common good. We stand together for religious freedom and against the growing assaults upon what has long been hailed as America’s First Freedom. In launching this collaboration for the culture, we reaffirm the words of the American Founders and make them our own. There are still self-evident truths and unalienable rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. With the Founders, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor to defend them.
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Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.