Embracing Responsibility for a United Democracy

And my answer to that question is it will continue to work as long as we the people working, but everybody's got to do their part, right? So for the next few minutes, I'm going to define what I'm convinced is our part, by our, I mean my part and your part, but first a little US history to set this up. [00:00:33]

After declaring independence from Britain, our founding fathers went to work writing our constitution that creating this timeless document was not a casual endeavor, to say the least, due in part to the fact that our founding fathers disagreed with each other about so many things. In the end, pretty much everybody involved was unhappy about something, but happy enough about most things to ratify it. [00:00:55]

Government and force laws and rights are not enough. Something else is needed, something that can't be mandated, namely individual responsibility. And here's why I say that. When it comes to freedom, most of us think in terms of individual freedom, not collective freedom. But here's something we all know from personal experience, especially if you're a parent, right? [00:02:46]

Our founding fathers understood this relationship. They knew they could not enforce individual responsibility. That was up to the individual. John Adams, the second president of the United States, put it this way. He wrote, our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the governing of any other. [00:03:31]

Truth be told, our bill of rights actually guarantees us the right to be irresponsible. But if enough Americans exercise that right again, things will go terribly wrong. In fact, my guess is that the issues that currently concern you most about our nation are connected to the irresponsible behavior of its citizens, right? Truth is, laws are limited. [00:04:22]

Laws tell us how low we can go. Well, before we go to jail rights, tell us what we can demand for ourselves. But there's something neither constitutional law nor the Bill of Rights can do. They can't make us more responsible. They can't inspire us to greatness. They don't create a love of virtue or an appreciation for doing the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do. [00:05:07]

While laws tell us what we must do, morality tells us what we ought to do. Rights divorce from personal responsibility eventually undermines personal freedom. Rights apart from responsibility breeds anarchy because eventually my expression of freedom will infringe on yours. In short liberty, apart from responsibility, eventually undermines liberty. [00:06:16]

The apostle Paul wrote the following, he wrote, you, my brothers and sisters were called to be free. In other words, freedom was our creator's idea. It's the cry of the human heart. But the creator knew what we know. We have a tendency to abuse our freedom. So Paul issues this warning. He writes, you, my brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge. [00:07:04]

Humbly in love His point. Don't be selfish with your freedom. Be responsible with your freedom. True. We don't have to. You have a right not to, but the world changes if we all decide to, if decide to put one another first, to honor one another, to respect one another, or at least treat one another respectfully. [00:08:05]

Selfishness always divides. Selflessness always unites. But again, you can't legislate selflessness. You can't legislate kind or patient. You can't legislate others first. You can't legislate the golden rule. Those are choices. So let's choose them. Let's obey the law, exercise our rights. But let's not stop there. [00:08:52]

Let's refuse to leverage our freedoms, our rights, who indulge ourselves at the expense of other people. Let's refuse to exercise our rights in a way that harm or infringe upon the rights of other people. Instead, let's look for opportunities to serve one another. Let's participate politically, but let's go the extra mile. Let's live responsibly. [00:09:36]

So is our national experiment with democracy still working? It certainly can work if we, the people will work it. So let's get to work. [00:09:36]