One of the most important speeches on Deism came from the great Deist Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg address. It begins:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. “

The reason this is so important is because Lincoln defined the beginning of the US as 1776. He was referring to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Before Lincoln, the US was considered to have begun in 1787, the year the Constitution was signed. The Constitution was basically a legal agreement between the States to establish a foundation for a common government. Lincoln needed to unify the country, so he called upon the Declaration of Independence because it defined a common set of values. A legal contract was not enough to hold the nation together. The values in the DOI provided a spiritual commonality.

The DOI refers to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”, self-evident truths, “their Creator”, “unalienable Rights”, etc. These are all Deist concepts. The DOI defines the US as a Deist nation. When the Deist Lincoln defined the US as beginning with the DOI, he established the US as a Deist nation. And that is why that first line from the Gettysburg address is so important and famous.

The Constitution is a legal contract between the people of the different states for creating and having a common government. The Constitution reflects the Deism found in the Declaration of Independence. With the famous phrase “We the people…” it denies the authority of revealed religion in government, and establishes the people as the source of governmental rights (powers). The Constitution draws on the idea of natural rights as the foundation of national law, as opposed to having the Church define what is right.

The practices of acknowledging the value of religion, of acknowledging God as the creator of the natural universe, of denying government intervention from religious sources, of valuing the reasoned opinions of the people; these are our Deist political practices.

Pure Deist politics are based on rationality and natural truth, not on reason. Rationality and reason are two different things.  Rationality is thought that is logical.  Reason is rationale for taking actions.

An American politician wants other people to be reasonable and go along with them. To do that they use marketing techniques. So politics is a form of marketing that sells ideas and commitments to action instead of commercial products.

The most common form of political sales require the politician to inspire passion in the people they are trying to sell to. When the audience becomes emotional it stops thinking rationally. After the audience becomes irrational they’ll believe and do anything. Think Hitler speeches and the things the Germans did. The Germans at the time were being reasonable. They were not being rational.

You can watch politicians do this. They first try to excite passions, and then follow that up with a suggestion to commitment to action. The politician who excites the most passion gets the most power.

In the pure American Deist government the Constitution is not the supreme law of the land. The Laws of Nature are.  Natural laws supercede any written law. You cannot revoke gravity through legislation.

A Deist government is based on the natural and self-evident truth of natural rights. Without natural rights politicians would end up defining the government and its courses of action. Instead, natural rights define our government and its courses of action. We grant politicians some leeway in making decisions and choosing courses of action, but only within the constraints of natural rights. And we always give ourselves the ability to recall those politicians if they go outside those clearly understood natural rights.

I read somewhere that the US is a nation of laws. That is not true.  We are a nation of natural rights, which are codified in law and protected by law.  Natural rights come from God. We the people give rights to government for its empowerment with the primary role of protecting our rights. Through government, we give legal rights to ourselves to establish justice, provide for the common welfare, etc., but most importantly to prevent the abuse of our natural rights.

We are only free to the degree that we understand, defend and protect our natural rights. A true citizen Deist is committed mind, body and soul to do those three things.

Stumble it!