Is is the Fourth? An Excerpt

An excerpt from the Family Research Council’s daily e-mail newsletter:

Those were the last words recorded of Thomas Jefferson. He had authored the Declaration of Independence exactly fifty years before he took his last breath. He died on July 4, 1826. That same day, his great rival and dear friend, John Adams, died five hundred sixty-two miles to the North. Adams’ last words were: “Thomas Jefferson still survives.”

Do those self-evident truths of which Jefferson wrote so eloquently in the Declaration mean anything today? Following last month’s Supreme Court rulings, do anywords mean anything today?

“I have never had a political idea that did not come from the Declaration of Independence,” said Abraham Lincoln as he raised the American flag over Independence Hall in Philadelphia on February 22, 1861. And he added in an uncharacteristically emotional tone for him: He would rather be assassinated where he stood than surrender any portion of that great Declaration — or a single star of that Union’s flag.

What are some of those ideas for which generations of Americans died and would die? First, we are createdequal. Male and female, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, we are all created equal. Created, so it says, not just born equal. Created implies and the text tells us we have a Creator. The atheizers of today are seeking to erase any reference to God from the public square.

Second, we are not only equal, but endowed by our very Creator with our rights. Our right to life is inalienable.

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