Their, Their Now

“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.”

July fourth is coming. The day when we here in the former colonies gather in our little fenced part of the world to celebrate grilled food, Classic Rock, and oh yes, the birth of our nation. It was just 234 short years ago that a bunch of guys in powdered wigs, except for Ben Franklin apparently, gathered on a hot Philadelphia summer day, in a room with all windows closed, in a time before air conditioning or even swamp coolers for God’s sake, and let their brains bake until they all agreed to sign a declaration of independence. Thus “declaring” their independence from England. Not a huge surprise since they had been at war with them for over a year.

The document upon which they all put their John Handcocks, including John Hancock, was written, mostly they say, by Thomas Jefferson. It’s basically a list of “issues” they had with King George III and a list of rights that they felt all men have.

The issues, or grievances that the colonies had with England mostly centered on two acts that were passed by the British Parliament to create some revenue through taxes. Specifically The Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts. The Stamp Act required that most printed material would be printed on official English government paper for which you had to pay. The Townshend Acts was a bunch of revenue generating acts all bundled together, like getting your phone, Internet, and TV all from the same provider.

Had the Townshend Acts instead been a series of concerts by Pete Townshend, the colonists may have been in a much better mood and might have even let The Stamp Act slide. But alas, Mr. Townshend, in an act of unbelievable selfishness, refused to be born for 170 years. So just when it was hot and muggy in Philadelphia, and a nice outdoor concert by The Who would have hit the spot, the colonists instead had to fork over their drachmas, or whatever they were using to buy IPODs and Blue Ray players back then, to instead pay for judges and governors. That pissed them off so a revolution was born. Oh, as a side note; ironically, Pete Townshend just turned 170 this year.

As to the rights, they boil down to being alive, being free, and being happy. Plus some other stuff about having the right to revolt. But I’m going to stick with the three I just mentioned here, and are mentioned in the famous line from that declaration that I quoted above, and more specifically, where the writer(s) of the Declaration of Independence felt those rights came from.

Lately a conservative Republican friend of mine – yes it’s true, I actually have friends who are both conservative and Republican – in answering a question I had about social conservatism said that he and his pals just wanted to return the country to her original Christian roots. Finishing with, “Just as the Founding Fathers intended."

But did those Founding Fathers create a Christian country? Did they intend to? I think I can safely say that the men who signed The Declaration of Independence are what the majority of us feel, fit the bill as Founding Fathers. I also claim that the Declaration of Independence is the document which established what kind of country those Founding Fathers wanted to create; a country where men had those aforementioned rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. When they signed their names at the bottom, not only were they risking hanging together, they were agreeing on the what the document said.

Read that quote at the top again. Go ahead, I’ll wait... Got it? Good. Now notice the part where it says that men are endowed by their creator with certain rights. It says their creator, not a creator, or even the creator. It is as if Mr. Jefferson meant that your creator is... whoever you say it is. Whatever idea of a creator you bring to the table, whether it’s the God of Abraham either Christian, Jew, or Muslim; Buddha; none; or anything else, it will be acceptable. And all those Founding Fathers, who I assume read it before signing it, agreed to this when they put quill to paper.

One word with five little letters and it says it all about how religion was intended to play out in this new country. Does it say that we are a Christian country? No. Does it say we are a type of country other than Christian? No. It says “their creator.” Your creator. My creator.

Go in peace.