Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. In 1787, Elizabeth Powell, a civic leader in Philadelphia, stopped Benjamin Franklin as he was leaving the Constitutional Convention. and asked, Well, Doctor, what have we got? A republic?
or a monarchy. Franklin replied, A republic if you can keep it. Franklin's remark is worth recalling as we remember Constitution Day on September the 17th. That's the day the delegates signed the Constitution. A republic means we the people governs through elected representatives, according to the design that was laid out in that document.
America's Constitution is the world's oldest written constitution still in effect today, and it's long been a model for other nations. Writing constitutions is quite common. Keeping them, however, is not. There are approximately 200 national constitutions worldwide, with Kazakhstan being the most recent, having adopted a new one just this year. Among the unique aspects of the U.S.
Constitution is that it's rooted in timeless ideas, like the aim to establish justice. That's a goal that goes back to at least Plato's Republic. And the Constitution structure also recognizes the enduring realities of human nature. But of course, many constitutions contain similar language. What Benjamin Franklin's challenge made clear is that nations require stewardship.
Each new generation of Americans must, in a sense, answer the question that was posed by Alexander Hamilton in the very first Federalist paper. That was the first of 85 newspaper articles that were written by Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay to convince the citizens to ratify the Constitution. As Hamilton put it, each generation must, and I quote, decide the important question whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force, end quote. In other words, to properly celebrate the Constitution is not just about having a day of annual remembrance. Instead, each generation has to intentionally choose to be involved in stewarding it.
Specifically, three distinct elements of American constitutionalism require the attention of its citizens to ensure that its principles endure. First, that the Constitution rests on a sacred understanding of human dignity. The Declaration of Independence, a statement that offers the Constitution its philosophical basis, highlights the Creator-creation distinction, honoring humans as being sacred beings with God-given rights. At the same time, the Constitution acknowledges that man is also fallen and imperfect. Thus, checks and balances are both practical and necessary.
As Madison wrote, What is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. second, that we must steward not just liberty, but ordered liberty. Scholar Vincent Philip Muñoz explained it this way, quote, The founders did not conceive of the rights-bearing individual as an unencumbered autonomous self.
The founders understood the human person to have rights on account of our God-given reason and freedom. These essential attributes of human nature establish both the grounds of our rights and their limits. The human person as a rights and duty-bearing individual was understood to be part of the Creator's moral order and therefore morally subject to the natural law that governs that order, end quote. Ordered liberty is not about autonomy or license to live as one wishes. Rather, it's about the freedom to pursue and live a virtuous life.
It always has been. Thus, former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy just got it completely wrong when he wrote, and I quote, that at the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life, end quote. No an ordered liberty reflects that man was created for a higher end than just his passions. Christians, of course, understand that end as glorifying God and enjoying him forever. And third, that we must steward robust pre-political aspects of our life together, especially family, church, and volunteer associations.
Only if these institutions are alive and healthy within the Republic can they maintain the necessary buffer between citizens and the state, while reducing the heavy load on the republic that we're all duty bound to keep. These institutions are what Edmund Burke called the little platoons of civil society, which provide an essential role in nurturing individuals and promoting the common good. Chuck Holson himself often spoke of these little platoons. As he put it, they create the arenas where virtue is best cultivated, both the disposition to be good and the impulse to do good. The little platoons are the roots of social order, schools and citizenship, where the art of self-government is practiced.
⁇ Put simply, the Constitution is an experiment, and it must be stewarded. If not, our republic will be lost, along with the sacred understanding of humanity that undergirds it. And Christians of all people should take this responsibility seriously, since we understand life itself to be primarily a response to God, who made the world and people as He did. That's why we take seriously the words that are found in Leviticus that were also inscribed on the Liberty Bell. That it's our job to proclaim liberty throughout the land.
For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Andrew Carrico. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download the podcast. And for more resources or to share this commentary with other people, visit breakpoint.org.
