Principle #7 – The Proper Role of Government is to Protect Equal Rights, Not Provide Equal Things.

Proverb 22:13 “The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion outside!’ or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!’”

Our Founding Fathers were aware of the sentiment in Europe of taking from the ‘haves’ to give to the ‘have nots’ so that all might be equal, but our Founding Fathers would not have any of that idea or reasoning.

Benjamin Franklin after living for some years in England and being one of the ‘have nots’ and seeing the welfare program in operation made this comment: “I have long been of your opinion that your legal provision for the poor (in England) is a very great evil. Operating as it does to the encouragement of idleness. We have followed your example, and begin now to see our error, and, I hope, shall reform it.”

The Founding Fathers wrestled with the thought of what powers can be assigned to government and came up with the idea that the only powers assigned to government would be what the people assigned to themselves. For example, every person is entitled to protection of life and property and so then it would be perfectly legitimate to delegate to government the power to have a police force to make sure that all citizens’ life and property are protected.

An example is given of a kind-hearted neighbor who saw that his neighbor had two cars, but another neighbor did not have one and so decided that he would take one and give to the neighbor that had none. If this happened he would have been jailed for being a thief.  But what if the kind-hearted neighbor went to the local government to have them ‘force in the name of the law,’ the two car neighbor to give one of the cars  to the ‘have not.’ Is this any different from what the kind-hearted neighbor did in stealing one of the cars to give to the ‘have not?’ We see that government can sometimes commit ‘legal’ crimes.

Once government goes down this road of being authorized of leveling the possessions of the rich in order to have an equal distribution of goods, the government then has the power to deprive any of their equal rights to enjoy life, liberty and property. It is indeed a slippery downward path. The poor might think that this is equal justice, but what happens when government takes from the poor? They soon find out that government is not working right for all people. In other words, when government can take from the rich it automatically cancels the principle of the guarantee of equal rights for all.

We can learn from history in what happened when the communists took over in Hungary. The peasants were excited with the justice when the large farms were confiscated and given to them. However, later the communists seized about three-fourths of the peasants’ land to set up communal farms. Peasants complained and found that they not only lost their land, but their liberty and if they kept on complaining – lost their lives. One thing, to me, that comes out of this is what Proverbs says: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 16:25) In the 20^th century millions died by our governments, because of the ‘ways’ (the thinking) of man.

Only through the principle of equal rights can we prosper without any penalty for the rich, for being rich. When some became very rich the Founders’ response was: “The more the better.” So should it be today. It is inevitable when there is freedom that some will become richer than others, because of inheritance, but mostly that good fortune comes from hard work and wisdom. The idea in back of this was to maximize prosperity and minimize poverty. The Founders knew that what worked for the USA would also work for any country. The key was to get the government to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.

The Founders had a deep concern for the poor, the marginalized and the needy, but how to implement this concern into practice was something that they gave a lot of thought to and came up with the following criteria.

1. Do not help the needy completely. Merely help them to help themselves.
2. Give the poor the satisfaction of “earned achievement” instead of rewarding them without achievement.
3. Allow the poor to climb the “appreciation ladder”— from tents to cabins, cabins to cottages, cottages to comfortable houses.
4. Where emergency help is provided, do not prolong it to the point where it becomes habitual.
5. Strictly enforce the scale of “fixed responsibility.” The first and foremost level of responsibility is with the individual himself; the second level is the family; then the church; next the community; finally the country and, in a disaster or emergency, the state… under no circumstances is the federal government to become involved in public welfare. The Founders felt it would corrupt the government and also the poor. No constitution authority exists for the federal government to participate in charity or welfare.

The Founders felt that by the federal government not intervening in the local affairs of the people they were protecting the ‘unalienable rights’ of the people from the abuse of an over-reaching government.

Principle #6 – All Men are Created Equal

Psalms 8:4-5 “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

One of the self-evident truths that our Founding Fathers talked about was that all men were created equal, but since each one created is unique how then can they be equal?

Men were created equal in the sight of God; that means, in the sight of the law and in the protection of their rights. According to Clarence Carson, a Constitutional writer, “There are no classes of people created by law, but are all equal before God and secondly, each man has an equal title to God.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s philosophy was that all men were designed to be equal. (You can read more about Rousseau’s philosophy on our web site menwithfaith.com under teaching and the title ARE WE LOSING THE WEST.)

John Adams was in France when Rousseau was teaching and commented: “To teach that all men are born with equal powers and faculties, to equal influence in society, to equal property and advantages through life, is as gross a fraud, as glaring an imposition on the credulity of the people, as was practiced by monks, by Druids, by Brahmins, by priests of the immortal Lama, or by the self-styled philosophers of the French Revolution.”

Equal rights for the Founding Fathers was for society to provide ‘equal justice,’ which means protecting equally the rights of the people. So in a just society what are our rights? In this regard the Founding Fathers mention several things:

• in the courts to secure their rights
• at the ballot box to vote for our choice
• in the public school to obtain an education
• to be able to compete for a job
• to be able to purchase a home or to rent
• in our churches to be able to have freedom of religion
• it also means the freedom of speech and be able to present views on the issues of today
• to be able to peacefully assemble
• to enjoy freedom of the press
• to be able to buy essentials for life and enjoyment
• to be able to save and prosper
• to pay no more than their fair share of taxes and the ability to be able to pass on to our heirs what we have

One of the problems that our Founding Fathers faced in our society is the problem of minorities, because equal rights have not been completely established in all of these areas for minorities, but the Founders set a course in providing balance in administering justice in the equality of rights like no other country at that time. The breakdown in our society is not the problem of equal justice, but the treatment of minorities.

Minorities in any country call themselves outsiders who want to be insiders. When it comes to America every ethnic group in this country at one time once was a minority. We are a nation of minorities. We are and have been a melting pot. When you talk about an American who are you referring to? Even my own back ground is German and Irish and my wife is Finnish, but we identify as Americans.

Because of this principle that “all men are created equal” we have a society of freedom and opportunity which have attracted people (immigrants) from all over the world and it is remarkable that within two or three generations these immigrants have become first class citizens. To do this they had to cross the “cultural gap,” which means learning the English language and at the least get a general education.

There is not a single ethnic group in the United States that at one time was not treated as a minority and less than a first class citizen. My wife was reading to me an article that was written by a Finnish young person who had come to the States and what they endured to eventually fit in. It is a fascinating story to read about the French in the 1500s, the English in the 1600s and in between the Swedes, Germans, Irish, Scots, etc. In this melting pot there were tensions, discrimination, malice and sometimes outright persecution, but because of an overriding principle that “all men are created equal” they joined together to fight in the Revolutionary War and to create what we call the United States of America.

A danger that I see developing here in the States is that we are losing the idea of this very important principle of truth that “all men are created equal,” and the outcome is a nation that has become divided.

Principle #5 – All Things Were Created by God, Therefore Upon Him All Mankind are Equally Dependent, and to Him They are Equally Responsible.

Through the writings of the Founding Fathers it is evident that they believed in the existence of a Creator, who has designed and brought forth the universe that we live in and set in motion the laws that govern His creation.

Wallbuilders.com comments: “It is not an exaggeration to say that without John Locke’s substantial influence on American thinking there might well be no United States of America.”

The Founding Fathers followed John Locke’s teaching. John Locke was raised as a Puritan Protestant and like Thomas Aquinas and many others that followed all gave great ideas on many subjects such as politics and education, but began to move away from some of the things that he formerly believed. Seeds that were planted in our main universities that were started to train pastors at that time began to germinate but now we see these great universities moving in a complete secular and human reasoning direction.

Historians Charles Taylor and Jerrold Seigal claim that Locke’s “essay concerning human understanding” marked the beginning of the modern Western conception of ‘self.’ John Locke started out well, but his human reasoning led him to doubt the doctrines of the Trinity, the sovereignty of God, the atonement of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ; which are essential to the Christian faith. This “human reasoning” progressively moved him into the camp of what was known as the Latitudinarians, who were a group of Anglican Christians active from the 17th through the 19th centuries and who were opposed to the dogmatic positions of the Church of England. They allowed ‘reason’ to inform theological interpretation and judgment.

A.W.Tozer said that “truth and error travel the same highway” and it is essential for us to distinguish between the two. Locke brought out that an atheist is one who is confessing that he has never dealt with the issue of the Creator’s existence. He went on to say that it is ridiculous to think that everything in existence “developed as a result of fortuitous circumstance.” He went on to say that just as watch complexities bring out the fact of a watch-designer so it is with the universe itself.

Locke brought out that man is capable of many good things because he is able to think and reason, and has a sense of love and compassion. Therefore we can know that the Creator also has these same qualities, since we are made in His image.

We see through many of the writings of the American Founding Fathers that they agreed with Locke. “They considered the existence of the Creator as the most fundamental premise underlying ALL self-evident truth.” The Founders believed that to have a ‘just’ society the foundation had to be based on God’s revealed laws, because these laws clearly define what is right and wrong.

Since Americans have begun to move away from God’s laws we are losing the ability to discern right from wrong, and are moving into what Isaiah described: “So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.” Isaiah 59:14-15

“William Blackstone (1723-1780) established the classes for the first Law School at Oxford in 1752. His lectures on the English Law were published in 1765 and were as widely read in America as they were in England.”

Blackstone operated on the premise that when the Creator formed the universe it was done with ‘order’ and certain principles, or laws that would govern henceforth. He called this orderly arrangement of the universe the ‘law of nature’ and he reasoned that there are laws for human nature just as ‘they exist for the rest of the universe.’ I saw one of Blackstone’s Law books and for every law there was a Scripture verse, but today he has been discounted because human reasoning has taken over God’s revelation.

We are told in Proverbs that the “fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,” and reading the writings of these men who laid the foundation for this country we know that they were men who feared God; men who believed that God exists and rewards those who earnestly seek Him. We know that the meaning of “ to fear God” is a reverential ‘trust in God,’ but also for me the ‘fear of God’ means that there is a Creator and one day I will stand before that Creator and give an account. This is a missing ingredient in many of our politicians today.

Perhaps this is why God said through Moses: “But select capable men from all the people — men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain — and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.” Exodus 18:21

Our politicians today would do well to heed the words of Benjamin Franklin who was perhaps one of the least religious of our Founding Fathers. In calling the Constitutional Convention to prayer he said: “God governs in the affairs of men. Except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it, and I firmly believe… that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel.”