Whose Liberty?
Thoughts on human rights and freedom in America from a Christian perspective.
In 1965 the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Griswold v. Connecticut. Basically what was happening, is that the executive director of Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut was being tried for helping clients procure contraception (be they pharmaceuticals or otherwise) in violation of the standing laws of Connecticut at that time. Ruling 6-2 in favor of Planned Parenthood, the Supreme Court decided against the laws of Connecticut as being in violation of the 14th amendment of the US Constitution.1
The 14th amendment contains this phrase in Section 1, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall and State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Justice Arthur Goldberg argued that the Bill of Rights specifically outlined in the first eight amendments to the Constitution were not an “exhaustive” list of human rights or “those fundamental principles of liberty and justice which lie at the base of all our civil and political institutions”. From this proceeding came the foundation for a supposed right of privacy.2
The remainder of the 20th century and the early part of our own has seen massive social upheaval since the time of this 1960s court case. There was once a time when “no-fault divorce” was feared, even Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign was checkered by his previous divorce, despite his popularity. What our society has seen since this time is usually called the “sexual revolution”, although I contend that the change in our thinking has been fundamentally more focused on our anthropology (our view of man) than our view of sexual ethics per se. Adultery, divorce, fornication, homosexuality, transgenderism and abortion are all viewed as innocuous by 21st century man.
Founded upon a false interpretation of the 14th amendment, a false definition of liberty and a false definition of what it means to be an American, society is in shambles and it will please the Lord God to bring judgment upon this nation, save revival.
It is clear from Justice Goldberg’s testimony that he does not have a conception of human rights being grounded in God the creator, least of all these rights having been revealed in His Law-Word. Having abandoned the revelation of God, he embraced an autonomous and humanistic way of thinking. “Man is the measure of all things” as Protagoras said, and when you imbibe this way of reasoning you have no philosophical grounds to slow down the slide into moral degradation and decay.
If the people decide that it is okay to do something, then who are you to say otherwise? This is explicit democracy, to be ruled by the people. After all, if it stays within our bedroom, and doesn’t hurt anyone then it should be okay. That’s what America is about, liberty and freedom.
An absurd contradiction can be found at this point. The 14th amendment is used (more like abused) to defend the right to privacy and birth control, and just 8 years later it will be used to defend the right to procure an abortion in the seminal case of Roe v. Wade. Liberty and freedom are the slogans used to justify abortion, and the modern pro-abortion movement likes to identify as Pro-Choice. After all, anyone who is a patriot and loves liberty and freedom should support choice, right? Isn’t this what the 14th amendment and the Bill of Rights are all about? The contradiction in this line of reasoning is that the 14th amendment being used to justify the freedom to have an abortion, is the same 14th amendment which protects the right to life. No State shall deprive any person of life. But when states offer legal protection to murderers, this is exactly what they are doing. Thus, the pro-abort herald of freedom is ultimately destruction of freedom, for it is destructive of life, and what is liberty without life? Free-market economies do no good for men in the grave. If liberty is valued at all, life must be valued, otherwise liberty will be destroyed.
This is an example that has had very real, dreadful results in our land. But when “freedom” and “democracy” become absolutes, you cannot expect anything else. Freedom can’t be an absolute, because one man’s freedom will always cancel out another’s. Homosexuals want non-discriminatory freedom, but this cancels out a Christian schools freedom to discriminate who they will hire on their faculty. Liberty can’t be an ultimate standard, liberty can be a precious and sacred gift from God, but the very minute it is divorced from God and His Word it becomes destructive.
Thus, we see the folly in humanistic reasoning at this point of freedom. What we should remember at this point is that the founders of this nation, and the men who left for us a heritage which values freedom and liberty were not secular humanists. They were imperfect men, to be sure. They were not unstained from tradition, nor the philosophies of their day. Despite all of this, they possessed an incredible gift which was the Biblical heritage of their forefathers—Puritans, Huguenots and other Reformed Protestants. There was a clear understanding that both law and liberty, the statutes men are to obey and the rights they possess, came from God the Creator.
God, as absolute Creator and absolute sovereign defines who man is. The sexual revolution is an anthropological revolution, because it denies man as being the creature of God, and this is the fundamental fuel which burns the fire of sexual licentiousness.
Christians must respond to arguments of liberty in such a manner that liberty can only be obtained when it is obtained from God, and it can only be preserved by a godly people. The wonderful and glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ liberates men from their sins, that they might live to fully and truly obey God’s Law. A Christian people does not need a tyrannical, bureaucratic nanny-state governing every square-inch of their lives, organizing and ensuring order, because Godly people are already ruled by Christ, who governs ever square-inch just fine. The words of John Adams ring true at this point:
“While our Country remains untainted with the Principles and manners, which are now producing desolation in so many Parts of the World: while she continues Sincere and incapable of insidious and impious Policy: We shall have the Strongest Reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned Us by Providence. But should the People of America, once become capable of that deep… simulation towards one another and towards foreign nations, which assumes the Language of Justice and moderation while it is practicing Iniquity and Extravagance; and displays in the most captivating manner the charming Pictures of Candour frankness & sincerity while it is rioting in rapine and Insolence: this Country will be the most miserable Habitation in the World. Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by… morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition… Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” - John Adams, letter to Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1789
Our rights come from God, and therefore are to be defined by His word. Likewise, Law comes from God and is to be defined by His word. If God prohibits murder, homosexuality and adultery, and calls upon the state to enforce statutes against these crimes, then when we rage against Him in the name of liberty, we are only raging against the One from whom liberty comes.
Herbert W. Titus, in Appendix 11 to Rushdoony’s Institutes of Biblical Law Volume 2: Law and Society (Ross House Books: Vallecito, CA) pg. 712
Ibid. 712