As I checked my email this morning, I found this compelling letter from the president from iVoterGuide. I thought I should share it with you.
“Dear David,
The anniversary of our independence was meant to be celebrated by all of us together, as fellow Americans. So before I go watch fireworks with my family, I want to take time to wish you a Happy Independence Day, and reflect on what it means to be, as Thomas Jefferson called us, “a free people.”
The Declaration of Independence asserts that human beings are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…”
A few decades before the American Revolution, the religious revival called the Great Awakening swept across the 13 colonies, stirring the hearts of many to love God and love His principles. This is the foundation of freedom.
It was out of this desire for God-given liberty that the groundwork was laid in the early constitutions of multiple colonies for our representative government, with the purpose of administering a just social order, restraining evil, and preserving the “unalienable rights” of those made in God’s image.
After repeated attempts to resolve differences, by 1776 it became clear that to protect our liberties, we needed to break away from the British government that was actively infringing upon our rights. The king was undermining and even dissolving the colonies’ judicial systems and their legislative bodies, and his soldiers attacked their homes and towns.
The choice was difficult, but necessary. It was time to “assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God [entitled us].”
The Declaration of Independence ends where it begins: with dependence upon God and upon each other in a sacred pledge:
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
It was one thing to declare our independence, but harder yet to secure and maintain it. Our liberty was bought by blood and continues to be secured by faith in God and the sacred sacrifice of brave men and women. They preserve the light of freedom in the face of forces bent on extinguishing it, and we owe them our gratitude for making possible another anniversary of the United States of America.
Our freedom is also secured time and again, not in blood, but at the ballot box. And faith in God counts there, too.
In election after election, dedicated Americans are called upon to remember the Judeo-Christian principles of our nation’s founding and commit to defend them against faulty ideas that would erode such principles.
We are now responsible for the continuation of those principles which birthed our freedom. Without you and me and other biblically minded voters, how will freedom be preserved for the next generation?
Today, as we celebrate the courage and conviction it took to declare ourselves to be “Free and Independent States,” join me in renewing your love for liberty—and for the Giver of freedom. Then, in November, join me in voting to secure this liberty for the next 246 years.
For our future,
Debbie
Debbie Wuthnow
President, iVoterGuide
P.S. It seems fitting on Independence Day, that I am currently reading The American Story: The Beginnings by David and Tim Barton. It is important that we know the true stories of the founding of our nation and that we share those stories. There are those seeking to rewrite history or who don’t know the truth. Even if we already know the stories, it is good to remember and ponder what those early Americans accomplished . . . and why! I’m going to ponder my role in continuing their work as I celebrate Independence Day. What about you?”
God bless you, Dave