This Independence Day, Americans will congregate with friends and family, grill burgers, watch fireworks, and (hopefully) read the very document that launched the American Revolution: The Declaration of Independence. Such a time also provides occasion to review the legacy of the Declaration’s principal author, Thomas Jefferson.
In 1776, at the Second Continental Congress, Jefferson served on a committee—the famed “Committee of Five”—that drafted the Declaration. Jefferson’s role as the author proved important, as he had both a great pen and hailed from the influential state of Virginia.
Following his writing of the Declaration, Jefferson continued to build a distinguished political career—Governor of Virginia, ambassador, Secretary of State, Vice President, and, of course, third President of the United States, amongst other roles. Jefferson died on the same day as one-time revolutionary ally, then political rival, then friend again John Adams—July 4, 1826—the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The engraving on Jefferson’s tombstone at Monticello provides a teaching that all Americans—Christians in particular—should reflect on this Independence Day.
Jefferson’s Tombstone
Engraved on Jefferson’s tombstone are three unique contributions he made in his lifetime: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.”
At first glance, an interesting fact about Jefferson’s epitaph is the omissions, namely his major political accomplishments: President, Governor, Secretary of State, etc. Why only these three accomplishments? As noted by scholar Charles R. Kesler, there is a permanence to these achievements; extending past Jefferson’s own life by leaving Americans with ideals to strive for.
The Declaration makes telling references to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” In his magnum opus, Jefferson lays out the philosophical principles of government based on consent, bound to uphold human equality and secure man’s natural rights. Appropriately did Abraham Lincoln write the following tribute to Jefferson and the Declaration in 1859, with reference to the truth of equality:
All honor to Jefferson—to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.
Next, religious freedom represents what many founders called “the sacred rights of conscience.” Although himself a skeptic, Jefferson understood the vital role of non-coerced religion in a free society. Religious freedom denotes the liberty of an individual to have a relationship with God that transcends the state, given that one’s religion does not bring injury on oneself or others. Thus, religious truth can only be pursued freely and never coerced. Tyranny—whether political or ecclesiastical—was an evil that Jefferson wished to eradicate from the American experiment.
Finally, education, as Jefferson understood it, served an important role in cultivating a responsible, republican citizenry. Such a citizenry would understand their freedoms, perpetuate the principles of the Declaration, and preserve man’s liberty of conscience. Jefferson served as one of the first advocates for public education in Virginia. From K-12 schools to the University of Virginia, education would serve as a training ground for what Jefferson also called the natural aristoi who could lead the nascent republic.
Collectively, the themes represented in these three inscriptions—philosophy, religion, and education—were culture shaping in ways beyond mere politics. They were higher and more enduring.
Yet, enduring in America, still?
America’s Tombstone?
Today, the principles of the Declaration have been thrown into question, if not oblivion, by the wider culture. Historicism—the view that all ideas are simply the product of the power structures in a given time and place—has been substituted for the permanency of “Nature and Nature’s God.” Americans have largely been indoctrinated to accept the idea of “progress” and “change” as part of the American experiment itself. Woodrow Wilson, a key thinker in the Progressive Movement in the early 20th century, intentionally sought to critique the principles of the American Founding as representative of a bygone era. As Wilson stated in 1911, “If you want to understand the real Declaration of Independence, do not repeat the preface.” It is the preface, of course, that speaks to the enduring truth of human equality, natural rights, and just government operating on man’s consent.
Many contemporary detractors of religious liberty portray the phrase as a buzz word for bigotry. In 2016, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a report that recommended limited to nonexistent religious accommodations. Martin R. Castro, the commission’s chair, made the following statement on religious liberty: “The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamphobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance.”
Finally, the modern academic world—from K-12 to the university—has been overtaken by a campaign of anti-Americanism. One needs little evidence of this reality, but, as one example, the rise of K-12 classical education in recent decades—which includes a considerable number of Christian classical schools and classical charter schools that promote the virtues of citizenship—points to a growing hunger by many Americans to search for alternatives to the current educational establishment.
A Christian Response
Christians can and should serve as redemptive voices in these areas. As the language of the Declaration is increasingly lost to antiquity, thinking philosophically about what humans are, what they require, and the rights and duties that follow from our theological anthropology is important as ever. As Mark David Hall has written, one cannot deny the vital role of Christian ideas in the founding of America. For example, Christians can take confidence that a near universal understanding existed amongst the founders that the references to God in the Declaration –“Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “Supreme Judge,” and “divine Providence” –represented the biblical God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Christians should serve as redemptive voices in the political arena, articulating the role their faith played in the founding of America and beyond. Whether it be on campaign trails or in coffee shops, pulpits or small groups, lecture halls or K-12 classrooms, or boardrooms or water coolers, such voices are sorely needed.
Regarding religious liberty, Christians since the founding have understood that true faith cannot be coerced. The American founders knew that religious liberty was not only necessary for individuals, but for the success of republican government itself. The morality and virtues of faithful citizens would support a republican culture. “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time,” Jefferson also wrote. “The hand of force may destroy, [sic] but cannot disjoin them.” Ultimately, Christians should work to ensure religious liberty for Americans of all (or no) faith. The work done by organizations such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, amongst others, provide examples to follow.
With education, the Bible calls parents to raise children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” and in the Old Testament’s Shema, parents are challenged to teach the commandments “diligently to your children” (Ephesians 6:4; Deuteronomy 6:7). As Warren Cole Smith and John Stonestreet have written, there has historically been a strong connection between churches and education to the broad benefit of society. The Christian tradition provides us with the telos, or the ultimate, highest end to education: to learn more about God and his creation, including human beings made in His image. Such ideals reflect the first words of the Westminster Catechism—“Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”
Americans are less capable than ever of comprehending the transcendent dimensions of education beyond skill acquisition, vocational preparation, or (especially in contemporary society) activist training. Christians should be calling faith-based schools, including colleges and universities, to true and sincere commitment to their faith and supporting policy reforms that enable the existence and freedom of Christian schools. Some are even called to think institutionally and found new schools articulating a good and beautiful vision for education from a Christian worldview.
Let’s pray that America’s tombstone is not yet written and that Christians of good-will and courage will take up the work of restoring America’s philosophical principles of equality, religious liberty, and education. On this Independence Day, may the enduring teaching from Jefferson’s tombstone serve as a guide in that noble cause.