House Speaker Mike Johnson paraphrased one of the most famous passages in American history on Monday. MSNBC’s Katy Tur had no idea.
During a panel segment on MSNBC, Tur questioned whether Johnson was “putting God over the Declaration of Independence” when he stated that “our rights do not derive from government. They come from you, our Creator and heavenly Father.”
The problem? That’s exactly what the Declaration of Independence says.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The words penned by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 apparently never crossed Tur’s desk.
“Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?” Tur asked her panel, seemingly baffled by the Speaker’s comments.
Not a single person on the panel corrected her.
Atlantic writer and MSNBC contributor McKay Coppins offered only that he “think[s]” the “idea is not wholly uncommon” and “not totally abnormal.” His hedging language suggested even he wasn’t sure whether the concept of God-given rights was mainstream American thought or some fringe religious position.
Anyone with an elementary school understanding of the Declaration could have pointed out that Johnson was simply paraphrasing a key line from the document’s second paragraph. But that correction never came.
The Founding Fathers were explicit about the source of human rights. They believed all men are created equal and born with certain natural rights that exist before any government. These rights don’t come from kings, parliaments, or presidents. They come from God.
The Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 went further, calling religion “the duty which we owe to our Creator.” The founders absolutely believed God stands above any civil government or political document because, as they wrote plainly, God endowed us with certain unalienable rights.
Thomas Jefferson himself explained the concept: “The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.”
This wasn’t controversial language in 1776. It shouldn’t be controversial now.
