The July Fourth holiday greets us on the calendar this coming Monday. For many it is merely an extended summer weekend with fireworks, cook-outs and time at the beach. But it stands on the calendar of real human progress as a red letter day for the entire family of mankind.





Not only did July 4, 1776 mark American independence from Great Britain, it launched a radically different form of government from what prevailed around the globe at the time and from what had marked human history in the centuries prior.





The American revolution was not simply a Declaration of Independence from George III of England, but it was a Declaration of Independence from the autocratic rule of kings, emperors, potentates and every other form of elitist, autocratic rule over and against the rights of "the people." This revolutionary step forward, won through a hard-fought and heroically contested war with the world's greatest superpower of the day, was codified in the first three words of the American Constitution that was later enacted in 1789 by the independent and newly united former thirteen colonies: "We the people . . ."





These three words and the philosophy behind them clearly mark this nation and its experiment in self-government as exceptional in the history of this troubled planet. It is fashionable today in some circles of political statists, academia and other cultural elitists to pooh-pooh the notion of American exceptionalism. Indeed, even our current president has questioned the very concept as a mere expression of nationalistic pride, stating that Americans believe in American exceptionalism in the same way that Greeks or Brits believe in the exceptionalism of their respective countries.





This does a disservice to the radical ideas that launched this nation, to the courage and vision of those who signed the Declaration over two hundred years ago, and to all who have served this nation in pursuit of this exceptional expression of human liberty and limited government. See, at the heart of American exceptionalism are two corollary concepts. The first is that both the state and the people of that given state are subject to God ("having been endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights . . .") Second, is the still-radical notion that the state is subject to the people ("We the people . . .")





Some so-called "progressives" today challenge the notion of constitutionally limited government as being out of step with the advances, demands and threats of the 21st century. In its current cover story, Time magazine asks of the Constitution: "Does it still matter?" Such a question, raised over the Fourth of July in one of the premier mastheads of American news and opinion ought to send chills down the spine of every liberty-loving American.



The lead article goes on to detail the obvious that those who drafted and ratified the Constitution "did not know about" all sorts of things in the world today, including airplanes, computers, television, and DNA. This may sound clever at first glance, but it is totally irrelevant and a "straw man" argument. The Constitution has never sought to micro-manage the details of the lives of the citizens of this nation--in any era or century. What it does seek to do, and what it has accomplished for two marvelous centuries of self-governance is to limit the tentacles of the over-reaching state to invade, circumscribe and control the lives of "we, the people."



Despite that, the author of the article, Richard Stengel, Time's managing editor, erroneously states that "if the Constitution was intended to limit the federal government, it certainly doesn't say so." Apparently Mr. Stengel has not troubled himself to read the very foundational document he seeks to declare irrelevant. The Tenth Amendment, one bookend of the original Bill of Rights that guaranteed the ratification of the Constitution, states clearly: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."



There are those all-important words again--"the people." Here is the key concept of the American experiment that makes this venture exceptional in the history of humankind: the power of the state is expressly limited so as to guarantee the rights, opportunities and liberties of the people.



Does the Constitution matter? Only if your freedom matters to you.



Celebrate these revolutionary concepts as you shoot off some fireworks this Fourth of July or as you raise your glass to celebrate the most exceptional experiment in human liberty and limited governance the world has yet to see. Fortunately, "we, the people" still have the right and reason to celebrate.



Pastor Rick (with grateful acknowledgement to Thomas Sowell)