Topic: Independence Day

Few statements from U.S. history have been so misunderstood and distorted as this preamble to the Declaration of Independence. As our nation celebrates her independence this week, this most memorable text will be quoted (and mis-quoted) countless times by people who fundamentally reject the same Judeo-Christian worldview which made such a document (and such a nation) possible in the first place.

What is commonly understood and fought for as liberty today is in fact libertinism. A “libertine” is “a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behavior sanctified by the larger society.” Saint Paul gives us a different definition of liberty. In his letter to Galatians, he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).