Faith, Freedom, and America's 250th Anniversary

As our nation marks its 250th anniversary this month, it is a good time for us to reflect on the role faith played in America's founding. Presbyterian ideas about representative government, local leadership, and individual liberty were so influential that King George III is said to have described the American Revolution as "a Presbyterian rebellion."

That influence reached all the way to the Continental Congress. Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, 12 were Presbyterians. Among them was the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister and president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. He was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration. When some delegates hesitated to vote for independence, Witherspoon urged them forward, believing the moment was too important to let pass.

To better appreciate the Declaration of Independence, it helps to understand its basic structure.

The Four Parts of the Declaration

1. The Preamble

The famous opening explains that when a people choose to separate from another nation, they should state the reasons for doing so.

2. The Declaration of Human Rights

This section contains some of the best-known words in American history. It declares that all people are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

3. The Grievances

This is the longest part of the document. Here, the colonists lay out their complaints against King George III and explain why they believed separation had become necessary.

Among their concerns were:

• Law and Government: The King blocked needed laws, interfered with colonial legislatures, and weakened local self-government.

• Taxes and Military Power: He imposed taxes without colonial consent and required colonists to house British soldiers.

• Trade and Commerce: He restricted trade and limited economic freedom.

• Acts of War: British forces attacked towns, disrupted colonial life, and treated the colonies as enemies rather than loyal subjects.

  
  

4. The Declaration of Independence

The final section formally announces that the colonies are "Free and Independent States," no longer subject to British rule.

The Tragic Compromise

There is one part of the Declaration that most Americans never read because it was omitted from the final document. Thomas Jefferson's original draft included a strong condemnation of the slave trade. Near the end of the list of grievances, he accused King George III of permitting and encouraging a system that treated human beings as property. Jefferson described the trade as a violation of human nature itself and highlighted the contradiction between slavery and the belief that all people are created equal.

Yet those paragraphs were removed before the Declaration was adopted.

The delegates understood that defeating Britain would require all thirteen colonies to stand together. Unfortunately, slavery had become a deeply divisive issue. South Carolina and Georgia strongly opposed the language, and some northern delegates were also uncomfortable because merchants in their states profited from the slave trade.

To preserve unity, Congress chose to delete the passage.

It was a tragic compromise. The Declaration boldly proclaimed the principle of human equality, yet it left unresolved one of the nation's greatest moral failures. The consequences of that decision would shape American history for generations.

Looking Ahead

Our nation's founding was neither simple nor perfect. It was accomplished by flawed people striving to establish a new nation while wrestling with difficult and sometimes contradictory realities.

Understanding that history helps us appreciate both the wisdom and the shortcomings of those who came before us.

Next month, we will look more closely at the lives and contributions of the twelve Presbyterian signers of the Declaration of Independence and consider the important role they played during America's founding.

Pray for our nation, its leaders, its people, its culture, and most of all the Kingdom of God to reign in every heart and over every mind through the Holy Spirit’s power in the church’s proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed. Amen!