The celebration of the restoration of the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July should not be allowed to obscure the real meaning of the lady in New York harbor. Contrary to a popular myth, she is not a hostess for immigrants or refugees.
The dedication plaque on the statue erected in New York Harbor 50 years ago reads: “A gift from the people of the Republic of France to the people of the United States. This statue of Liberty Enlightening the World commemorates the alliance of the two nations in achieving the independence of the U.S., and attests their abiding friendship.”
Many years later, another plaque was added which contains the familiar verse about immigrants. But that has nothing to do with the meaning of the Statue of Liberty, which is a monument given specifically to honor Liberty in America, plus the historical fact that U.S. independence was achieved by a military alliance with France that enabled the struggling patriots to win the Revolutionary War.
The Fourth of July is also a good time to refute another current myth, namely, that our nation was founded on a rock of secularism. On the contrary, our Declaration of Independence is a religious document from its first sentence to its last.
This year’s 210th Independence Day gives us a good chance to re-read our Declaration of Independence and to rediscover the proof that the American nation was born wrapped in an inspired document that affirms for all time the official and unequivocal recognition by the American people of our belief and faith in God.
The Declaration has five references to God — God as Creator of all men, God as the supreme Lawmaker, God as the source of all rights, God as the world’s supreme Judge, and God as our Patron and Protector. It affirms God’s existence as a “self-evident” truth that requires no further discussion or debate.
The Declaration of Independence asserts that each of us is created. If we were created, there must have been a Creator. The Declaration of Independence proclaims that life and liberty are the unalienable gifts of God — natural rights — which no person or government can rightfully take away.
The Declaration of Independence asserts that each of us is created equal. Of course, that means equal before God and under the law, as we certainly are not born with equal physical or mental capabilities. Obviously and realistically, and as your own unique fingerprint proves, each of God’s creatures is unequal and different in every other way from every other person who has ever lived or will live on this earth.
Knowledge of our Declaration of Independence should be required of all high school graduates. They should be taught about the tyrannies of the British government which impelled great men to choose liberty over life itself.
Modern schoolchildren should be taught that many of the men who signed the Declaration actually paid for their courage with their lives and fortunes. That’s why we are able to enjoy our liberty and independence today.
The proclamation of our nation’s belief in and reliance on God was not unique to the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, almost every important document of the Revolutionary period did likewise, such as the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. Its opening words are, “In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity.”
The unique part of the Declaration of Independence was its original proclamation that government acquires its powers from the consent of the governed (instead of from some higher authority), and that the purpose of government is to secure our God-given rights. The Declaration proclaims the American theory that the people empower and control the government, but, even so, government’s power can be justly used only to protect our God-given rights. No government had ever been constituted on that premise before.
Eleven years after the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers formed a new government on this inspired theory. In the United States Constitution, they founded a government designed to be the servant of the people rather than our master.
The celebration of the Statue of Liberty should not be a celebration of how many people have come to our shores, but of why they came. They came for Liberty, to the one place on this whole earth where individuals have the liberty to enjoy their God-given rights. That’s the message of both the Statue of Liberty and the Declaration of Independence.
