Roots of American liberty linked inextricably to Christian values

‘Give me liberty or give me death.”

Patrick Henry’s enduring pronouncement still gives me goose bumps. Today, we’re reminded just how precisely Henry calculated the cost of liberty.

We celebrate today because those who went before us believed liberty was precious enough to die for. Indeed, liberty’s price still is being paid.

But Henry’s full statement brings clarity to the underpinnings of American liberty. He actually said this:

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

The passion burning in Henry’s chest was not that people ought to be liberated to do whatever they want, whenever they want, but instead were created by a sovereign – Almighty God – with the freedom to do what is right.

And the rightness – or wrongness – of any expression of liberty was, in the minds of our founding fathers, settled by Christian values.

Today, I plan to celebrate this truth, even as some in our country seem to think we should abandon those values, and perhaps even apologize for them.

American liberty and faith in God are inseparable.

John Adams once said, “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were … the general principles of Christianity.”

Woodrow Wilson seemed to agree: “America was born a Christian nation – America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.”

Theodore Roosevelt said: “The teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally … impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed.”

I fear we are now finding out what life is like when those teachings are removed.

At last month’s graduation ceremonies, for example, many public high school students either obeyed prohibitions on prayer, or had to defy school policies. At courthouses across the country, the Ten Commandments are being removed for fear of lawsuits.

It’s hard to argue that removing Christian values has been anything but a disaster for our culture. Yet we are, in fact, steadily leaving behind the teachings that Roosevelt, Adams, Henry and others held even as they spoke of liberty.

Consider recent remarks from President Barack Obama at a press conference in Turkey:

“One of the great strengths of the United States is … we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

He’s right, technically. It’s just that he’s only half right. And half-truths actually are quite dangerous.

Obama’s remarks played a lot better to his audience in Turkey than here at home, because an awful lot of Americans still believe the obvious truth: The ideals and values we’re bound by are Christian values.

To deny this is to rewrite history.

It’s the Christian tradition that informs America’s respect for individual liberty, freedom of religion, the right to believe and to practice what is believed, without government interference.

Ironically, those who disavow Christian influence in America do so under the very liberty it has created.

Today, as we celebrate this liberty worth dying for, this liberty that some still are dying for, let’s also remember the Author of all liberty, and give thanks for those who unashamedly followed him.

We’d do well to get back on the course they’ve set for us.