This year, maybe, you can consider what Independence Day is really about

Note: The premise upon which the Declaration is based is the Divine creation of all mankind and unalienable rights given by the Creator to each and every human being.

Just because many events have been canceled this Fourth of July — including Gentry’s annual Freedom Festival and its huge fireworks display — doesn’t mean we have nothing to celebrate. After all, Independence Day is not about fireworks displays and summer get-togethers; it’s a celebration of the United States’ Declaration of Independence from the tyrannical rule of the British Crown.

And, perhaps, just perhaps, staying home for the holiday will give us time to consider what it is we are celebrating — it’s so much more than a summer holiday with barbecues, beer and firecrackers.

The day commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776. And, yes, it was adopted on July 2. The final edits to the document were completed on July 4. It wasn’t signed until August 2.

But, what is important for us to remember is the premise upon which the Declaration of Independence was based. That premise is summarized in the words of the Declaration itself:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Note that the premise upon which the Declaration is based is the Divine creation of all mankind and unalienable rights given by the Creator to each and every human being.

The U.S. Constitution was prepared in September of 1787, but its adoption was conditioned on a Bill of Rights being added to it to preserve these God-given rights from this new manmade government. As a result, the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the Constitution) was prepared in September of 1789 and ratified by all the states by the close of 1791.

The Bill of Rights protects our freedom to worship according to the dictates of our own consciences without government interference, to freely express ourselves and to publish views and opinions which may be contrary to government actions. It protects our right to peaceably assemble and petition the government to redress grievances. It defends our right to keep and bear arms, to be secure in our persons and papers, to have a speedy trial by an impartial jury, etc. It does not enumerate these certain rights because they are the only God-given rights; rather, these are mentioned because they are ones most likely to be trampled upon by civil governments.

And, to prevent the usurpation of powers by the new federal government, the 10th Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights to limit the role of the federal government to those powers specifically granted to it by the Constitution, with all other powers reserved to the states or to the people. A review of those powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution sadly reveals a government today that far exceeds its legitimate powers and politicians whose first lie in-office is their oath to uphold and support the Constitution of the United States of America.

As citizens, we need to remember that the Bill of Rights was not adopted and ratified to give us these rights but to protect them against an overstepping federal (or state) government. And, the reason this is important is simply this: If the rights referenced in the Bill of Rights are government-given, governments could legitimately take them away. But since they are, according to the Declaration and Bill of Rights, given to all men by their Creator, governments have no right or power to take them away and they overstep their God-given roles when they infringe upon them.

The Declaration of Independence gives reason for the action of the colonies in throwing off the rule of the British Crown (the Revolutionary War was already underway, having begun in 1775) by listing the many, many injuries and usurpations of the King of England in His rule over the American colonies.

The Declaration further states: “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed — that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Our founding fathers, in the Declaration, stated that governments were instituted among men to preserve these “unalienable rights” given by the Creator. They also declared that the people, whenever a form of government becomes destructive of its role in protecting the rights of the people to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” have the God-given right to alter or abolish it and institute new government to protect their rights and “effect their safety and happiness.”

We may think we are in hard times because our summer celebrations are limited, but those who signed the Declaration to take back their freedoms from a tyrannical government truly did risk all and lose much. As the document says, they did, “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence … mutually pledge to each other [their] lives, [their] fortunes, and [their] sacred honor.”

And, I will say it. It is truly to our shame that we so easily lay down our God-given rights and freedoms and allow the federal government to trample over us and to seize powers that are reserved to the states or to the people. It’s just unAmerican!