Our Nation’s Journey from Abusive King to Political Experiment an Exercise of Faith

After 9 years of war with France, England had huge debt and needed money to pay for the war. England’s King George III levied taxes on whatever he could and because the American colonies were part of the British Empire they too had to pay. For the American colonists it became a difficult burden, to support and to pay for a war and a monarchy that ruled from the other side of the ocean. Worst of all they were treated like second-class citizens. They didn’t even enjoy all the freedoms that existed in England. It seemed unfair to pay for a war that wasn’t yours (The French and Indian War). It was the British who wanted to defend the Ohio Valley against the French. The taxes and other acts were imposed without political representation from those who had to live with them. One was the Stamp Act of 1765, requiring colonists to purchase and affix stamps on legal documents, newspapers, and even playing cards. Other acts followed along with the Tea Act of 1773. The Boston Tea Party and other terrorist actions took place and then the colonists boycotted everything English. Their response hurt themselves. Times were difficult.

Politically, a Royal Governor ruled the colonists and increasingly, the British were at odds the local legislative bodies. There was a growing disconnect between the British and colonists. The British authorities grew insensitive and corrupt. They had their cronies, who were also corrupt. They knew little of the lives of those they governed. They lived lives that were lavish. Like Governor Tyron in North Carolina, who built a most remarkable mansion in New Bern, they were out of touch with those they governed. The British in each of the colonies represented a failing nation.

The dissatisfaction of the people grew ever greater over the years. It paralleled the abuses of government officials and the abuses became more obvious and despicable.

Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, George Wythe, James Madison, George Mason and others spoke to the issues of the time: Governance and Human Rights. The passions of people were being fanned.

It appeared to the colonists that England’s governance was collapsing, at least good governance. Loyal British colonists were becoming disillusioned. The King’s rule was obviously flawed. His wisdom not so wise. And so, what does “Dieu et mon droit“ mean?

A few weeks ago, while in Williamsburg I noticed this motto at a number places. It was displayed in the Palace of the Governor. It was on the sign at the King’s Tavern. It was probably displayed at a number of places I didn’t even notice. It was only later that I realized the shield that often accompanied the motto included a unicorn (a single horn horse) and a red lion. The Royal Coat of Arms has been in use since 1198 by King Richard I. It is in French because it was actually the primary language of the ruling classes following the rule of William the Conqueror of Normandy. The use of English by the ruling classes is more recent.

I asked the docent about the motto. He said it literally translates “God and My Right.” In other words, “the Monarch (King or Queen) has the divine right to rule.” Any attempt to diminish the Monarch’s powers would be contrary to the will of God. It seemed a bit arrogant, which was exactly the problem experienced by the colonists.

Why is the king’s presumptive right to rule an important fact? After two hundred and fifty years of thought Americans might easily ask, “What has God to do with an authoritative and abusive government?”

The right of a monarch to rule was not a foreign concept to the American colonists. It was fundamentally understood by everyone. It was built-in. To keep faith and government separate as we do was not common to our ancestors. For them it was wrong-headed. The throne was appointed by God to lead.

You know how you had learned facts in school and could spit them back on a test and make a decent grade and then one day, something comes along and illustrates the fact taught in school. You know, like a spiritual truth you hear in a sermon and then one day the reality of that truth hits you hard because you experience it. That is what the English motto did for me.

The colonists were tired of government abuses, especially taxes and corruption in government. Government officials played favorites and most of the colonists were being governed with little say. They essentially were being told that the King at the top was divinely appointed. He was in effect doing God’s bidding. He was God’s chosen to do God’s work. The fact of the matter was the colonists were working under a hardship. How could this be God’s representative? Does God embrace abuse, if not corruption? The colonists thought, “We could do better than this.”

So the rule of the king, at least in the eyes of many colonists, was being questioned. It was a huge leap. That leap doesn’t exist for us. The king is not king by divine appointment. We elect representatives every two years, Senators and a President every four. The king is not divinely appointed, at least in the sense they thought it to mean.

The faith of the crown was increasingly seen as fallible. Many of those who came to the American colonies came because they sought freedom to worship as their conscious dictated. The colonies were removed from the mainland. They were living in a sense in a distant field, plowed, cultivated and seeded with those who did not accept the fact that the Crown was the authority of the faith. Why even King Henry VIII (ruling from 1509-1547) had planted that seed. He had rejected the Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope. It was a time when the rule of the king was subject to God was already being questioned.



You may recall that Thomas Jefferson had a quirky spiritual faith. He desired freedom to believe as one desired, not as some State Church dictated. Nor did he believe people should be taxed or required to support an official state church financially, as it is in England. Yes, he was considered by many to be a heretic, yet Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, and others supported him in his appeals for religious freedom. Thomas Jefferson and George Mason were questioning a pivotal truth, whether the Church of England (the State’s Religion under the head of the King) was really the true and accurate faith. In England, the Monarch gives subjects freedoms, they are not guaranteed by a Constitution. Freedom of religion was an important tenet to Jefferson.

Building a democratic government involves tireless work. It disenfranchises those who broker in power and favoritism. It weeds out corruption. It strives for fairness, justice and equality. If a government does not serve and protect its citizens they will not vigorously defend or support her when she is attacked and she will fall. We must carefully tend to these disciplines.

So for people like Jefferson, the call for independence and to build a nation was a rejection of the belief that the King ruled under God’s authority, that he was divinely appointed. It is like being told that the world is a sphere and that it revolves around the sun and not a flat tabletop with the sun rising on its eastern edge and setting on its west edge. But you were taught the world was flat.

Our story as a nation is twofold: It is the story of a collapsing government while almost simultaneously inspired to build a new nation. It is built on the notion that a King is not God’s appointed ruler. It is in fact a principle of faith. We have freedom of religion.

Given this background, it begins to make sense that the founding fathers of this nation built into the American Constitution a fragmented basis for authority and power, consisting of three branches, an Executive, a Legislative and Judicial branch and that we have a Bill of Rights, guaranteeing every person certain freedoms, among them the Freedom of Religion. It seems these provisions and protections emerged in an almost perverse way from the notion, “God and My Right.” The experiment is that equal and ordinary people can govern themselves.

At the end of the constitution convention someone asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of government the framers had given us. Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” And so we are.

If you are planning to visit Williamsburg, take note of the number of times and places you encounter the royal motto and the associated symbols in the Royal Coat of Arms that are included in the shield. It was deeply embedded in that belief system.

Scripture

Deuteronomy 1.13 – Appoint leaders for yourselves who are wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes.

Joshua 24.15 – Choose the one whom you will worship and serve; I will serve God.

I Samuel 8.5-7 – Give us a king to judge us.

Matthew 22.21 – Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.

Romans 13.1-3 – Submit to governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist are instituted by God.

I Peter 2.13-14 – Submit to every human institution because of God.