Five Steps Toward Recovering Authentic Liberty, Limited Government, and Sanity in the United States
The Real Reason Society Is Unraveling, Part 4
The ninth amendment reserves to the people all rights not expressly delegated by the Constitution [including those in the first eight amendments], and the tenth reserves to the states such powers as are not delegated to the Federal Government.
—I Am An American: What Every Citizen Should Know1—
No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.
—Patrick Henry—
Key points: Assert your constitutional rights or lose them; yet while you are claiming them, call your fellow countrymen to do the same. Challenge them also to live lives of integrity, because authentic liberty can only thrive in a society where people exercise virtue and are mutually respectful of one another. Liberty is worth it! Nothing is as exhilarating as authentic freedom!
You can access all the articles in this series from this page.
Part 3 of this series is offered as a stand-alone article here.
During World War 2, the Office for Emergency Management and the Office of War Information produced this poster to encourage the American people not to grow weary. The the American cause, which included the “unalienable rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” was a cause worth fighting for, even though fighting was costly. These and other unalienable rights were threatened by the likes of Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito on a global scale. Americans rose to the occasion and, with the help of other Allied nations, thwarted the efforts of their enemies to impose tyranny throughout the world.
Would an appeal to the American people on the basis of unalienable rights rally and inspire today?
Would an appeal to the American people on the basis of unalienable rights rally and inspire today? Surely it would rally and inspire some — and those it would not yet affect in these ways potentially might be so influenced if they knew more.
This, the fourth and final article in our series titled “The Real Reason Society is Unraveling,” is offered with the hope it would enlighten many, and help them understand just how critical it is to call America back to authentic liberty, unalienable rights, and responsible, limited government.
Using the first three posts in this series as a backdrop, in addition to the CrossPolitic video featuring David Fowler as a guest (cited in parts 2 and 3), I’d like to highlight a five-step strategy that Mr. Fowler presented for recovering responsible government, ordered liberty, and sanity in the United States. While David did not present these items as steps for making such a recovery, he still effectively presented each of them them in the course of the video and recommended them to the CrossPolitic panel and to those listening and watching.
We Americans find ourselves in a very precarious and even dangerous place. How can we find our way back to a society that respects the inherent rights of all and to the practice of ordered liberty that makes prosperity and the pursuit of happiness possible?
Five Steps Toward Recovering Authentic Liberty, Limited Government, and Sanity in the United States
Item One
First, uderstand that there is a negative correlation between the size and power of government and individual liberty. This includes understanding the need to reassert the authority the Constitution affirms belongs to the states, especially when the Federal government engages in overreach and abuse.
It is a myth that the federal government has absolute power over the states. Moreover, it isn’t only true that the branches of the federal government were assigned specific powers that limited their reach and authority; it’s also true that the Constitution accorded the states certain powers not belonging to the federal government. We’ve forgotten these important ideas today. The states need to reassert their constitutional authority.
It isn’t only true that the branches of the federal government were assigned specific powers that limited their reach and authority; it’s also true that the Constitution accorded the states certain powers not belonging to the federal government.
The more government grows, the less liberty people enjoy. Conversely, when government’s powers are limited and few, personal liberty flourishes. America’s founders understood this. Accordingly, they placed governmental power not only in the hands of the national government, but under the jurisdiction of the states as well.
Our Forebears believed that the states should have certain powers the federal government did not have. We see this in the Tenth Amendment. David Fowler explains in this clip, where he gives an overview of the Bill of Rights and discusses the purposes of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. His mention of Dr. Grant is a reference to Dr. George Grant, a Presbyterian pastor in Williamson County in Tennessee.
Here is the Preamble to the Bill of Rights:
Congress of the United States
begun and held at the City of New-York, on
Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.
THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.
ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
Item Two
Second, understand that ordered liberty and radical autonomy in a society cannot both be widespread and coexist, and understand various ways the Founders sought to protect and maintain ordered liberty. We discussed this idea in Part 1 of this series, under a heading titled “A Type of Freedom that Leads to Bondage.”
Ordered liberty is a two-sided coin. One side displays the nature of individual freedom and the other the nature of government conducive to it.
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- On the side of personal freedom, we must realize that if freedom is believed to be doing whatever one wants or has an inclination to do, the unalienable, God-given rights of others will inevitably be violated. This is what radical autonomy on a personal level does. Remember that in part 1 the example we gave (among many different examples we could have cited) was that of a man-pretending-to-be-a-woman competing in women’s sports. Women’s sports cannot continue to exist if such men are continually allowed to compete against women. Abortion is another example of radical autonomy. As a result of it, millions of babies have paid the ultimate price for someone else’s expression so-called “freedom.” Same-sex “marriage,” which clearly isn’t a natural or unalienable right, also runs roughshod over natural rights that others should be free to exercise — such as adoptive children’s right to a mother and a father, and the rights of Christian florists, bakers, and other professionals to use their talents in ways that honor their God and that are consistent with their consciences and their faith. Ordered liberty can occur only when unalienable rights are respected on an individual, personal level. Further, people must assume personal responsibilities commensurate with the freedoms they enjoy.
- Likewise, ordered liberty cannot coexist with an all-powerful government. We have seen this recently in Canada. Thus, the other side of the coin of ordered liberty is limited government. America’s Founders sought to restrict government in numerous ways. Through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, yes; but also in and through the way they structured the federal government. Hear David Fowler on this important topic.
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Item Three
The third idea relates to the second. Recognize the limits the Founders placed on government and uphold them. In relation to the Bill of Rights, this includes insisting on the rights that are enumerated in Amendments 1-8, as well as those rights that are unenumerated — those rights to which the Ninth Amendment refers. Among other things, this has to mean understanding and emphasizing that the unenumerated rights to which the Ninth Amendment refers are enumerated in the common law, and that behind the common law is God’s law as presented in Scripture.
The unenumerated rights to which the Ninth Amendment refers are enumerated in the common law, and behind the common law is God’s law as presented in Scripture.
Item Four
Fourth, uphold the Ninth Amendment and the rights the Ninth Amendment was written and adopted to protect. The CorssPolitic gang discusses this with David Fowler in the following clip.
Item Five
Fifth, states must exercise their constitutional authority to pass laws consistent with the Ninth Amendment and that can be effectively defended using the Ninth Amendment. Laws upholding natural marriage are an excellent example of this, and Tennessee’s proposed “Marital Contract Recording Act” (Senate Bill 562/House Bill 233) is a great place to start. It is noteworthy that with Item Five, we effectively are returning to Item One.
Recall that in part 2 of this series we cited Tennessee’s post-Obergefell marriage forms as an example of the influence that the Obergefell ruling has had over marriage and family laws. How different they are from the pre-Obergefell marriage forms! The Family Action Council of Tennessee
has published an article explaining why proposed legislation in Tennessee, “The Marital Contract Recording Act” (Senate Bill 562/House Bill 233), is needed. Among other things, the article highlights the differences between marriage certificates in Tennessee before and after the Obergefell ruling:
At this link you can see what the state’s Certificate of Marriage looked like prior to the Obergefell decision and how it now reads. It will be apparent that the state has eliminated the exclusivity of male and female as husband and wife.
At the very least, this poses a problem for a couple in Tennessee who believe in natural marriage, and for ministers and pastors who perform marriage ceremonies across the state who also believe that marriage is, and can be, only the union of one man and one woman.
Yet there are even more problems than this. As the article indicates, the state changed its marriage certificates because of the Obergefell ruling — despite the following reality, and despite the fact that Obergefell did not change, affect, or even touch the following law or a myriad of other laws relating to marriage and the family.
No state official has ever been prohibited by federal court order from adhering to this provision in Tennessee’s statutes, T.C. A. § 36-3-104(a)
(a) No county clerk or deputy clerk shall issue a marriage license until the applicants make an application in writing, stating the names, ages, addresses and social security numbers of both the proposed male and female contracting parties and the names and addresses of the parents, guardian or next of kin of both parties.
The article continues, stating that even though
no court has ever ordered the state to stop complying with the statute and the legislature has never changed it, state and local officials have unconstitutionally administered the statute as if the legislature had amended it to delete the requirement that applicants for a license be a “male and female.”
But the way the law is now being interpreted by the governor and county clerks creates a problem for people who believe marriage is a kind of reality defined exclusively and exhaustively in terms of the union of male and female as husband and wife. Belief in such realities is pervasive. For example, the meaning we ascribe to any thing, even sexual acts, is more than the thing itself.
These are the kinds of things that happen when a society accepts “the notion that the differences between men and women weren’t [—aren’t] significant enough for the law to be concerned about.”
In this final clip in our article, David Fowler explains how the “Marital Contract Recording Act” asserts the Ninth Amendment right of the people of Tennessee, as well as Tennessee’s Tenth Amendment right, to acknowledge the centuries-old definition of marriage.
A Review: David Fowler Recommends Five Steps Back to Authentic Liberty
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- First, uderstand that there is a negative correlation between the size and power of government and individual liberty. This includes understanding the need to reassert the authority the Constitution affirms belongs to the states, especially when the Federal government engages in overreach and abuse.
- Second, understand that ordered liberty and radical autonomy in a society cannot both be widespread and coexist, and understand various ways the Founders sought to protect and maintain ordered liberty.
- The third idea relates to the second. Recognize the limits the Founders placed on government and uphold them. In relation to the Bill of Rights, this includes insisting on the rights that are enumerated in Amendments 1-8, as well as those rights that are unenumerated — those rights to which the Ninth Amendment refers. Among other things, this has to mean understanding and emphasizing that the unenumerated rights to which the Ninth Amendment refers are enumerated in the common law, and that behind the common law is God’s law as presented in Scripture.
- Fourth, uphold the Ninth Amendment and the rights the Ninth Amendment was written and adopted to protect.
- Fifth, states must exercise their constitutional authority to pass laws consistent with the Ninth Amendment and that can be effectively defended using the Ninth Amendment. Laws upholding natural marriage are an excellent example of this, and Tennessee’s proposed “Marital Contract Recording Act” (Senate Bill 562/House Bill 233) is a great place to start. It is noteworthy that with Item Five, we effectively are returning to Item One.
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Will you do all you can to take these five steps and to encourage others to take them with you? We can return to authentic liberty in our country, if we only will take the road that leads us back.
Copyright © 2022 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Recommended Reading ~ Books by David Fowler
Notes:
1I Am An American: What Every Citizen Should Know,1 (republished by Bethel Press in September, 2013; originally published from 1939 to 1942. For more information about this publication, go here.
CrossPolitic video featuring David Fowler:
Very appropiate and needed serie of articles. Well done!
Thank you Oscar! I appreciate the encouragement and support! B. Nathaniel Sullivan