{"id":12977,"date":"2020-07-05T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-05T07:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/?p=12977"},"modified":"2020-07-07T23:04:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T23:04:23","slug":"life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/05\/life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201cI will require the blood of your lives\u2026 at the hand of every man, and of his brother, will I require the life of man.<\/p>Genesis 9:5<\/cite><\/blockquote>

This is a verse of the Bible that can probably<\/strong><\/strong> be<\/strong> easily overlooked, but it really is quite foundational to the world you probably want to live in.<\/strong><\/p>

In other words, God was letting mankind know that He was going to hold individuals accountable for how they treated their fellow man. This was the beginning of a foundation for civil law.<\/p>

Later, when Moses wrote what is known as the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), he included what is known as the Mosaic Law. However, in the New Testament, Paul (the apostle) gave us a new understanding of each individual\u2019s moral responsibility for his own actions:<\/p>

\u201cThe law is not\u00a0made for the just man, but for the unjust and disobedient, for the ungodly, and for sinners, for the wicked and defiled, for murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers, for manslayers\u2026\u201d<\/p>1 Timothy 1:9<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>

In the French Revolution that began in 1789, and the \u201cReign of Terror\u201d that followed it, people died. The king, Louis XVI, died. His queen, Marie-Antoinette, died. In fact, 40, 000 people died<\/a> before it was said and done, including the Rebellion\u2019s architect<\/a><\/em>, Maximilien Robespierre.<\/p>

In that same year, 1789, the U.S. Constitution was ratified. <\/p>

And (wisely) founding father John Adams wrote this about it:<\/p>

\u201cOur Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.\u201d<\/p>in a speech to the military in 1798<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>

The American government was not designed\u2013and not really equipped\u2013to control the behavior of people who habitually choose to do wrong things.<\/p>

Years later, Abraham Lincoln (the President who issued the Emancipation Proclamation\u2013freeing American slaves<\/strong><\/em>) would quote from the Bible\u2013quoting Proverbs 25:11\u2013when he wrote that the Constitution acted as a \u201cpicture of silver\u201d framed around an \u201capple of gold\u201d (the Declaration of Independence)<\/a>.<\/p>

And many years after that, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr<\/span><\/strong><\/em>. spoke these words:<\/p>

\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t take us long to discover the substance of (the American) dream. It is found in those majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, words lifted to cosmic proportions<\/span>: \u2018We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.\u2019 This is a dream. It\u2019s a great dream\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>from A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin<\/a><\/span>, Peter Holloran, et al.\u00a0|\u00a0Jan 1, 2000<\/cite><\/blockquote>

Dr. King<\/span><\/em> went on to say, \u201c..That dream goes on to say another thing that ultimately distinguishes our nation and our form of government from any totalitarian system in the world. It says that each of us has certain basic rights that are neither derived from or conferred by the state<\/strong><\/span>. In order to discover where they came from, it is necessary to move back behind the dim mist of eternity. They are God-given, gifts from His hands. Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent, and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0The American dream reminds us, and we should think about it anew on this Independence Day, that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth\u2026\u201d<\/p>

Then he said:<\/p>

\u201cNow ever since the founding fathers of our nation dreamed this dream in all of its magnificence\u2026America has been something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against herself. On the one hand we have proudly professed the great principles of democracy, but on the other hand we have sadly practiced the very opposite of those principles.<\/p>Dr. Martin Luther King, on \u201cThe American Dream\u201d<\/cite><\/blockquote>

And on July 4, 1965, when he spoke those words in Atlanta, Dr. King was 100 percent right<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>

Why? Why was the \u201cdream\u201d of America out of reach for so many black-skinned people?<\/em><\/p>

\u201cYou see, the founding fathers were really influenced by the Bible. The whole concept of the\u00a0imago dei<\/strong><\/em>, as it is expressed in Latin, the \u2018image of God,\u2019 is the idea that all men have something within them that God injected<\/em><\/strong><\/span>. Not that they have substantial unity with God, but that every man has a capacity to have fellowship with God.<\/span><\/em><\/strong> And this gives him a uniqueness, it gives him worth, it gives him dignity. And we must never forget this as a nation: there are no gradations in the image of God<\/span><\/strong><\/em>. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God\u2019s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man.\u201d<\/p>Dr. King<\/a>, \u201cThe American Dream (continued)<\/cite><\/blockquote>

It sounds like Dr. King\u2019s \u201cdream<\/strong><\/em>,\u201d was filled with hope for the future.<\/p>

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