Thanks to President Coolidge for the original eloquent presentation and Peter W. Schramm for including the link in this weeks Ashbrook E-Mail Update.
Happy Independence Day everyone!
No one can examine this record and escape the conclusion that in the great outline of its principles the Declaration was the result of the religious teachings of the preceding period. The profound philosophy which Jonathan Edwards applied to theology, the popular preaching of George Whitefield, had aroused the thought and stirred the people of the Colonies in preparation for this great event. No doubt the speculations which had been going on in England, and especially on the Continent, lent their influence to the general sentiment of the times. Of course, the world is always influenced by all the experience and all the thought of the past. But when we come to a contemplation of the immediate conception of the principles of human relationship which went into the Declaration of Independence we are not required to extend our search beyond our own shores. They are found in the texts, the sermons, and the writings of the early colonial clergy who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live. They preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all partakers of the divine spirit. Barry Lynn, Abe Foxman, the entire membership of the ACLU, 99.99% of the Democrat party, a depressing number of Republicans and anyone who only knows what they are taught in government school doesn't agree clergy had much at all to do with the founding documents.