The Source of Liberty

Thursday, July 03, 2008
By Chuck Colson

This week, America celebrates another birthday. Americans are hoisting their flags, marching in parades, and setting off fireworks. I get a thrill every time I hear the band strike up “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” And I get a lump in my throat whenever I join in singing “America, America, God shed His grace on thee.”

Indeed, God has blessed America. This nation, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, has endured for 230 years. America is the oldest constitutional republic on earth.

But all is not well in our land. When Thomas Jefferson penned the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence, he deliberately appealed to the Creator. He acknowledged an overriding obligation to “Nature and Nature’s God.” And he understood that ordered liberty is not just a subjective preference, but a divinely ordained condition for which human beings are designed. the rest image