by Howard Goldthwaite, Director of Creative Strategy • 3 minutes
Shortly after the Constitutional Convention concluded in September 1787—when the delegates had approved and signed the proposed Constitution—reporter Elizabeth Willing Powwel strolled up to Ben Franklin and asked a simple yet profound question: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
Implied in the question was the suspicion that America would soon degenerate from the freedoms and ideals of its founding and eventually de-evolve into an oppressive government controlled by power-hungry tyrants much like the one our revolutionaries had fought against.
Franklin had probably wondered if the fragile dam of the Constitution could hold back the unquenchable thirst for power that lurks in the human heart. Fortunately, the Constitution they had just ratified was crafted with not only an understanding of how government works, but how the human heart works.
The checks and balances they had installed in the government were really there to keep power-hungry leaders in check.
Franklin’s reported answer has endured as a reminder of the responsibility required to preserve a republic. It was simple, profound, and prophetic: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Embedded in his answer is the acknowledgement that our republic will always be in constant danger of deteriorating into some oppressive form of government that ceases to value freedom.
Franklin understood that America’s experimental republic was something very precious and vulnerable, and would take constant vigilance to protect.
Even today, oppression is always crouching at the door, ready to weaken America’s precious republic little by little until it no longer resembles the country our Founding Fathers envisioned.
Franklin’s answer also raises a very important question: “So, how do we keep the republic?”
That question could be debated for hours. But here at First Liberty we do our part to keep the republic by fiercely protecting the free exercise of faith.
As our ever-growing caseload would indicate, “keeping the republic” takes constant vigilance.
Every case we handle is a fork in the road where our republic can either stay on course by upholding our cherished freedoms, or veer off into oppression.
With every case we win for religious liberty, we’re keeping the republic.
We’re keeping the republic by remembering that our rights come from God, not government.
When any government decides there is no power higher than itself, freedoms vanish. Religious liberty is the right that protects all the others, and it’s the first freedom listed in the Bill of Rights. It also gets attacked first because if it falls away, the other rights fall like dominoes.
As the cornerstone of America’s freedoms, our opponents are always trying to chip away at religious liberty. Once the cornerstone is gone, America—as the republic we know—would cease to exist.
Every time the republic gets weaker, oppression gets stronger.
When a worker is fired because of their faith and no one stands up to fight the injustice, America takes the fork in the road that leads away from freedom.
When a military chaplain gets a mandate on what they can or can’t include in a sermon, the wrong fork in the road is taken again.
When a homeschool family is prevented from receiving public education funds because they want to teach biblical values, the republic continues veering off toward its demise.
But by defending and winning cases like these, First Liberty helps America stay on course and remain a republic.
For another perspective, every election is also a fork in the road. Will we choose leaders who uphold the freedoms enshrined by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, or leaders with disdain for America’s history and tradition of religious liberty?
Decades from now, just as Ben Franklin warned, the republic will still be in danger of being lost. First Liberty’s prayer for our republic is that we’ll always be here to help keep it.
