RIVER REFLECTIONS: What declaration of independence are you celebrating this Fourth of July?
Published 5:00 pm Thursday, July 3, 2003
On this national holiday you and I as fellow Americans have much for which we can be thankful. On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress by a vote of 12 colonies. The original text was prepared almost entirely by Thomas Jefferson with only slight changes being made by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. It states in part “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The result is that these United States of America today are a free nation under God.
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We have been the envy of other nations ever since. Many European politicians referred to our attempts at egalitarian rule as a “bold experiment,” in part because it was preceded by centuries of distrust in the abilities of the “common” person to do much of anything worthwhile, let alone assume responsibility for the government of his own country. Several poets of the time applauded our willingness to put into practice what they only dreamed about in their writing. Coupled with what appeared to be unlimited natural resources in our country, this bold
experiment in politics led the English to point to our “virgin” environment as the “new Eden.”
And perhaps it was. Eden was the place, you will remember, where our Jewish predecessors placed the beginning of the human race. It was a setting in which humankind and nature alike were ripe with their fullest potential and were free to live as God first intended them all to live together. But evil lifted its beautiful head, not in the guise of the gorgeous and seductive serpent who served as the tempter, but in the beautiful head first of the woman and then of the man who acted on the idea the serpent suggested.
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God had said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die” (Genesis 3:3). The serpent had a better idea (or so he thought); he told the young couple: “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5).
You know the rest of the story. Both the primal woman and man decided that their freedom should not be restricted and they did exactly as each wanted to do. So they and everything else had to bare the terrible consequences of these first humans trying to play as though they were God. Indeed they learned about good and evil, just as we might learn about the power
of centrifugal force by being thrown from a Ferris wheel that is spinning out of control!
Their declaration of independence is one whose principle is continually being ratified each day, moment after moment, by each of us in our own way when we try to play as though we are God. It states in part “that all people are created equal with God; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness beyond all hope or limit and without regard to the rights of others.” The result is that too many of us struggle with a living death are captivated by our own selfish desires and are constantly in search of our own peace of mind.
Which declaration of independence are you celebrating this national holiday?
Doug Rich is the pastor of Pioneer Presbyterian Church in Clatsop Plains in Warrenton.