If our sixteenth president\nwere to join us on July 4, 2020, what would he say? Knowing what he said at\nGettysburg, I could see him likewise telling us that \u201cour fathers brought\nforth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to\nthe proposition that all men are created equal.\u201d I could also imagine him\nadding, still quoting from the immortal document that gave birth to our nation,\nthat \u201call men are\u2026 endowed by their\nCreator with certain unalienable Rights,\u201d including \u201cLife, Liberty and the\npursuit of Happiness.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I suspect he might explain, in words similar to\nthose of Princeton Professor Robert George, that the Declaration of\nIndependence \u201cteaches us [that] prior to any laws made by men are the immutable\nstandards of justice\u2014standards by which we judge whether the laws are just and\ncan rightfully command our obedience.\u201d Lincoln might then quote his hero,\nGeorge Washington, who cautioned that \u201cthe propitious smiles of\nHeaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of\norder and right, which Heaven itself has ordained,\u201d and might possibly add\nsomething close to Attorney General William Barr\u2019s recent observation that \u201cthe challenge we face is precisely what the\nFounding Fathers foresaw would be our supreme test as a free society\u201d\u2014 whether we\n\u201ccould maintain the moral discipline and virtue necessary for the survival of\nfree institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The impact of our appalling Supreme Court\ndecisions affecting the unborn, marriage, and religious liberty would surely\nnot escape the notice of Lincoln the lawyer, who might well proclaim what he once\nproclaimed to his colleagues during the dark days of the Civil War: \u201cWe have\nforgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace,\nand multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined,\nin the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by\nsome superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success,\nwe have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and\npreserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, I would expect Lincoln the leader to show\nus the way back to safety and success, as he did with the citizens of his day: \u201cIt\nis the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the\noverruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble\nsorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and\npardon\u2026. It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to\nconfess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.\u201d He might\neven mention Benjamin Franklin\u2019s warning when asked what form of government the\nConstitutional Convention had created\u2014 \u201cA republic, if you can keep it\u201d\u2014 and\nthen rally us, as he did those at Gettysburg, to \u201chighly resolve that\u2026 this\nnation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom\u201d so that our \u201cgovernment\nof the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.\u201d\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The impact of our appalling Supreme Court decisions affecting the unborn, marriage, and religious liberty would surely not escape the notice of Lincoln the lawyer, who might well proclaim what he once proclaimed to his colleagues during the dark days of the Civil War: “We have forgotten God.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":20778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"The impact of our appalling Supreme Court decisions affecting the unborn, marriage, and religious liberty would surely not escape the notice of Lincoln the lawyer, who might well proclaim what he once proclaimed to his colleagues during the dark days of the Civil War: \"We have forgotten God.\"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"695"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[695],"tags":[3053,4131,4551],"class_list":["post-20590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-declaration-of-independence","tag-fourth-of-july"],"yoast_head":"\n