As if “Lives” and “Fortunes” were not enough, the drafters and signers of the Declaration of Independence closed their magnum opus with the pledge of their “sacred Honor.” There is an e-mail circulating that is a précis of what actually happened to these fifty-six men:
Five were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Nine of them fought and died from wounds or hardships during the Revolutionary War.
The details of some of their deaths and misfortune are so wrenching, that solitary in Abhu Ghraib would be a blessing. Yet in all of this, there is no historical finding of any of these men compromising their honor. Honor, an attribute that receives the qualifier “sacred,” truly meant something to these men. In the movie “Rob Roy,” Mary Helen MacGregor defines “honor” to one of her sons as “a gift a man gives himself.” In Webster’s, we have to scroll down to the eighth definition before we find what these men defined as honor:
- Principled uprightness of character; personal integrity.
- A code of integrity, dignity, and pride, chiefly among men, that was maintained in some societies, as in feudal Europe, by force of arms.
- A woman's chastity or reputation for chastity.
This is long after “high respect,” and “in combination with his or her…” In the moral malaise that seems to have befallen most of the holders of our public offices, where do we find “honor” today? Better still, where do we find an honorable person that is not pilloried by the popular media for being a narrow-minded prude? Dishonorable people abound and are trumpeted for their far-sighted views; Ted “Chappaquiddick” Kennedy and Robert C. (KKK) Byrd come to mind.
To this humble scribbler’s eye, the one place we find honor in abundance today is in the one government institution that maintains its relentless effectiveness, the U.S. Military. “Duty, honor, country…” as intoned by General MacArthur guide our young men and women today as they always have. Hollywood’s depiction of and the general acceptance of that characterization of our forces as being brutish drug addled Huns during Vietnam was patently untrue. That one man tried to rise to the same office held by George Washington while holding to that line of thought is still galling. The irony that a second-rate film titled “Stolen Honor,” would be his undoing is richer than Baked Alaska. The line of honor in our armed forces has been unbroken from the decks of the Bonhomme Richard to the sleet in Valley Forge…from Beleau Wood to Baghdad.
“Sacred” and “honor” are terms that go so well together…as Forrest Gump might say, “like peas and carrots.” They are also Holy Water to a vampiric leveling press. The Declaration has four (five if you count “divine Providence” as two) references to things sacred. The document establishes that “Nature’s God” provides that certain conditions exist in human society. It states clearly that man’s “Creator” has endowed “unalienable Rights.” It states that these brave fifty-six will rely on the protection of “divine Providence,” and that in support of all the above they will put their “sacred Honor” on the line. Hmmm…this is not a rousing endorsement of Christianity. But it is also not a denial of things Divine. The Declaration is first and foremost a legal and political document. It lays out in almost lawyerly fashion the argument for American Independence. From everything I have read, these men were not, for the most part, avid church goers. But they were clearly believers. Acceptance of faith was not something that had to be defended it was woven into one’s character.
Why must that now be taken away? I am not talking about the recent Supreme Court decisions…you wouldn’t be able to read this column if you didn’t understand the legacy of the Ten Commandments in our culture. Furthermore, when the Churches start displaying the Ten Commandments more frequently then they will have a better argument for defending their display in public places. What I am talking about is the relentless push for removing God, the Divine, sacred, Providence and all other reference to things Holy from the Public Square...from public discussion. And the only reason I keep circling back to is that there is a very powerful current of moral relativism that animates these people. In order for moral relativism to be true, all other truths must be false…or only partially acceptable. It is moral relativism that has led to the decline of Western Europe and if left unchecked will lead to our decline as well. If, in the course of a discussion, I am identified as a Christian or a Catholic, I am animated by my religious roots in discerning truths about behavior. My input should not immediately be discarded as being “radical Christian right.” My freedom of speech is labeled and limited, my right to liberty impugned. But, I think the tide is turning. As always, dear reader, I remain optimistic in the bright dream that is America and it is shining this July 4th.
I believe there are enough good folks out there willing to risk their sacred Honor to speak up and say what is right. The language would be different today, the sentence structure far more lax and the spelling terrible but a new Declaration could be written today if necessary...the message of freedom and human dignity penned in Philadelphia over 200 years ago flows in the veins of every American. That symphony will never stop playing, that tune cannot be silenced.
Happy Fourth of July!