Divine Rights and Responsibilities

The Declaration of Independence, signed 247 years ago today, makes a reference to God three times. The first is in the opening paragraph: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them.” Thus the Founding Fathers asserted that some powers are given to us by God, and they clarified these in the next paragraph in which they again referred to Deity: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men.” The rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were given by God and are meant to be protected by governments. The final reference is in the last sentence: “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.” I love that they declared their trust in God for protection as they risked their lives to sign this document. Their statement reminds me of the promise of the Book of Mormon: “Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written” (Ether 2:12). The Savior promises that if we will serve Him, that divine protection that the Founding Fathers sought—and certainly obtained during the Revolutionary War—will be ours.   

            What strikes me as I consider this founding document of our country is the balance between rights and responsibilities that these men alluded to in the declaration. The statement that we all have the God-given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is surely the most well-known part of the document. And I give thanks to live in a country where the ideal is that the government will protect those rights. Certainly, it has fallen short on many occasions, but the ideal stands firm and I hope that we strive for it earnestly still today. The last statement of the document, in juxtaposition to these three rights in the beginning, declares three sacrifices that the Founding Fathers were willing to make in order to secure the freedom of their nation. They felt a responsibility to act and devoted their lives, their wealth, and their honor for the cause of this new nation born that day. In a society today where we focus so much on our individual rights, we should equally remember that, as U.S. Air Force Colonel Walter Hitchcock stated, “freedom is not free.” We must be willing to show a level of devotion and sacrifice to secure its preservation each generation like those early colonists did. Eleanor Roosevelt put it this way: “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.” The Lord declared that He “suffered and caused to be established” the Constitution of the United States which “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:77). That “maintenance” to continue to secure our rights and protection requires work on the part of each generation. President Ezra Taft Benson made this comment and question several decades ago that is still just as pertinent today: “For centuries our forefathers suffered and sacrificed that we might be the recipients of the blessings of freedom. If they were willing to sacrifice so much to establish us as a free people, should we not be willing to do the same to maintain that freedom for ourselves and for future generations?” I believe our most important task to maintain that freedom is to do as Moroni invited us: “serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.” Only then do we have His promise of divine protection that will continue to protect our freedoms. May we remember both our divine rights and our responsibilities to the Divine as we celebrate the ideals of this country and strive to secure them for centuries to come.