Perspective: The Constitution was designed for a moral and religious people – By Tad Callister (Deseret News) / Sept 16, 2023
The Founding Fathers repeatedly declared the Constitution would only be effective in preserving freedom if the people it governs are a moral and religious people. But who determines what morality is?
Editor’s note: For years, the Deseret News’ editorial page carried the epigraph: “We stand for the Constitution of the United States as having been divinely inspired.” In honor of Constitution Month, the Deseret News is publishing a variety of articles examining the Constitution’s continued importance.
As inspired as the Constitution is, the Founding Fathers repeatedly declared that it would only be effective in preserving freedom if the people it governs are a moral and religious people.
But who determines what is moral — a professor, a politician, a judge, a social activist, a pollster? Who becomes society’s governing scepter for morality? All may have good intentions, but when all is said and done, whose moral code should govern our society?
So there would be no question about the answer, the Founding Fathers responded in remarkable unison and clarity — morality was an absolute — to be determined solely by God.
And learning the will of God was best determined by a religious people who sought God’s will as expressed in the Bible. James Wilson, a Founding Father, and one of the original justices of the U.S. Supreme Court noted, “How shall we, in particular cases discover the will of God? We discover it by our conscience, by our reason, and by the Holy Scriptures.”
CONTINUE > https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2023/9/16/23851181/constitution-moral-religious-people
