Civil Liberty

by Susan Snelling

Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government – and all the blessings which flow from them – must fall with them. Jedidiah Morse, 1799.

We hear a lot about civil liberties these days, but have you ever asked yourself just where does civil liberty come from? What is its source? Noah Webster writes in his textbook from 1841, “Early American History from Genesis to the Constitution:”

Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the Christian religion. Men began to understand their natural rights as soon as the Reformation from papacy began to dawn in the sixteenth century; civil liberty has been gradually advancing and improving as genuine Christianity has prevailed.

By the principles of the Christian religion we are not to understand the decisions of ecclesiastical councils, for these are the opinions of mere men; nor are we to suppose that religion to be any particular church established by law with numerous dignitaries living in stately palaces, arrayed in gorgeous attire and rioting in luxury and wealth squeezed from the scanty earnings of the laboring poor; nor is it a religion which consists in a round of forms and in pompous rites and ceremonies.

No. The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety and benevolence and acknowledges in every person a brother or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.

Founding Father and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay, after calling for a public praise and thanksgiving to the Creator for the blessings He bestows, expressed similar sentiments when he wrote, “The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow.”

In 1799, Jedidiah Morse, a geographer, historian, and minister wrote, To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. All efforts made to destroy the foundations of our Holy Religion ultimately tend to the subversion also of our political freedom and happiness. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation… in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom… Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government – and all the blessings which flow from them – must fall with them.

The Framers of the Constitution recognized that our liberties come from God. If they came from the government then the government can take them away. But they do not come from man. It is the Constitution that protects those freedoms. And people will lose the protection of civil liberties to the degree a nation rejects the Giver of them. Since the type of government the Founding Fathers gave us was a republican one, it calls upon people who realize where their liberties come from in order to keep it.

Daniel Webster said, “[T]o the free and universal reading of the Bible… men [are] much indebted for right views of civil liberty.” To reject where genuine civil liberties come from and to no longer understand what constitutes the right views of civil liberty is to lose them. This is what the Founders fought for and the Framers of the Constitution sought to protect. A people ignorant of the Christian principles that led to and under gird the American form of government, the very pillars it is based upon, and are unwilling to accept and promote them, will lose their liberty.

Is this what we see today with a lawless government that is being weaponized against the American people? Have we allowed for “the pillars of Christianity to be overthrown” by people who despise the Christian foundation of America so that we lose our republican form of government? Do we really want to lose God’s blessings that flow from that form of government?

Pay attention to how our civil liberties, those precious rights that come from God, are infringed upon by corrupt political leaders, the justice system, and out of bounds bureaucrats and how certain people are targeted by the government because they hold a different ideology than those in power. Connect the dots back to the “diminishing of Christianity” in America. Remember what the Founding Fathers said about freedom. Once it is lost it is almost impossible to restore.

The American government is not compatible with anything other than the pillars of Christianity that it is built upon. It cannot exist under any other umbrella than Christianity. In my November 2022 article, “The Citizen Statesman,” I included a quote by Samuel Adams that I believe bears repeating. “If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” Our civil liberties must be preserved.