Mark Schlachtenhaufen
The Edmond Sun
EDMOND — EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part one of a five-part series coinciding with “Legacy of Freedom,” a lecture series hosted by Oklahoma Christian University. This week’s topic is “The Declaration of Independence and Its Meaning for Today.” Next week’s topic will be “The Miracle of the Constitution.”
America is the only nation in history founded on moral principles, which were part of the Declaration of Independence, a scholar said Monday.
Oklahoma Christian University is offering “The Founders’ Legacy of Freedom,” featuring J. Rufus Fears, the David Ross Boyd professor of classics at the University of Oklahoma. Monday night, Fears described the start of the Revolutionary War and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.
A series of British actions led to simmering resentment in a growing number of colonists — the Stamp Act of 1765, the Quartering Act of 1765, the Townshend Acts in 1767, the arrival of British troops in Boston in 1768, the Boston Massacre in 1770, the Coercive Acts (also known as the Restraining Acts and the Intolerable Acts) in 1774.
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted by Congress. Fears said it was part of a unique revolution.
“Unlike the Bolshevik revolution, we did not seize power in the middle of the night,” Fears said. “It was not a conspiracy against King George. It was an open declaration of the mistakes he had made, and why it is necessary to found a new nation.”
Fears said there are three components of freedom — national freedom, political freedom and individual freedom. And they are not mutually and essentially inclusive, he said.
“In this country, we have a unique blend of those three freedoms,” Fears said. “No other country in history has so well blended these.”
Fears said regarding national freedom, America cannot imagine being conquered. Political freedom is taken for granted, manifested in low voter turnout. And Americans enjoy more individual freedoms than anywhere else in the world.
America is the only nation in history founded on moral principles, and they are found in the Declaration of Independence, Fears said. He quoted the start of the declaration:
“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 Natures God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
“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.”
Fears said today’s society believes in situational truth, that there is no such thing as self-evident truth, as absolute justice or absolute beauty. An example of absolute truths all societies recognize are the Ten Commandments, he said.
“If we don’t have God anymore and we don’t have absolute truth ... then, what is the meaning of the Declaration of Independence for us today?” Fears said. In the past, the declaration was the main anchor of America’s civil state. “The question is, is it still the sheet anchor of our nation?” he asked.
Today, the country is less clear about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than it was when it was founded, Fears said. Moral principles still must be the main anchor of our country, our freedom, he said.
Brian Bush, executive director of OC’s Academy of Leadership and Liberty, co-sponsoring the lecture series with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, said events like the series have been part of OC’s DNA since it was founded, calling Americans back to the founders’ vision for a limited government and free enterprise.
OCPA President Michael Carnuccio said the fact that Americans are more interested in the Constitution is a promising development for the future of the country.
Area resident Edmond Roberts said he is a conservative Republican and a staunch defender of the Constitution. Roberts said while he is concerned about a number of issues affecting the nation, he believes America is still the greatest country in the world.
marks@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 108
