Dachshynddawg
Verified User
What if he has Protestant , Presbyterian, Mormon , or Lutheran values ?
With the exception of one man (who was a Catholic), all of other 55 Founding Fathers of the United States were White Anglo-Protestant men.
These men framed America's Constitution/Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence.
It doesn't matter that much which Christian denominations the Founding Fathers and their generation belonged to because (whether they were consciously aware of it or nor) they essentially drew their view of Human Nature from the classical Christian tradition.
In 1776 you can think of America as being a gigantic, political project that is an exercise in classical liberalism. The challenge is to build a new society where the most important characteristic is maximal individual FREEDOM for all citizen. The Founders think to themselves prioritising individual FREEDOM means that we keep the size of the government small. We would be taking a risk, because if we don't manage to work out just how big the state needs to be to maintain civil order, we could find things start to go pear-shaped BIG TIME
To sum up...
In creating of the new American Republic, the Founders were staking everything on a courageous "roll of the dice" and they knew it. They had wagered everything on one proposition that the majority of individual citizens in the United States would be capable of competent self-regulation. Self-regulation or self-control, self-discipline. For any human individual who is afflicted with a serious lack of self-control will never possess freedom ( or liberty).
The Founders understood FREEDOM of LIBERTY as a moral/spiritual concept, that was grounded on the Divine (God-given) nature of human CONSCIENCE.
Lord Action's was a 19th century Victorian English aristocrat who devoted a lifetime to the study of political freedom and power. He defines liberty as follows...
"Liberty is not the power of doing whatever we like, but the RIGHT of being able to do what we OUGHT."
and...
"Liberty is the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes his duty (his MORAL obligation/s) against the influence of authority and majorities, customs and opinions."
Lord Acton is referring to an individual's CONSCIENCE. It is through our conscience we become aware of our deeply held moral principles. It is conscience that establishes a general sense of moral obligation in the individual's mind. God (Biblical) has "carved" his moral law on the heart of each man. If a man has a well-formed conscience- one that has not been corrupted by absolute power, or the experience of, say, living in a totalitarian social state, or , indeed, an affliction with some kind of severe psychiatric disorder (like High-Functioning Autism or Psychopathy or Schizoid Personality Disorder) - then he has the capacity to experience genuine, individual FREEDOM.
So for the Founders, the "name of the game" was FREEDOM/LIBERTY- that was the most important criterion. Just like the State of New Hampshire's motto: for Hamilton; Washington; Madison; Monroe Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and all the rest, what an individual man should do with his life was to "LIVE FREE OR DIE". (Where FREEDOM is a Christian concept that requires faith in the Divine nature of human CONSCIENCE).
Dachshund
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