The Author of Liberty
By Chad A. B. Wilson
Published January 12, 2007, 9:22 am in Military / Foreign policy, Ethics, Morality, & Justice.
In my previous column, I discussed George Bush's speech delivered January 10, 2006. A phrase struck me at the end of the speech, so I decided to do some checking on it.
The sentence was this, at the very end: "We go forward with trust that the Author of Liberty will guide us through these trying hours. Thank you and good night." The official White House transcript, which I have linked above, actually capitalizes the phrase "Author of Liberty." The Washington Post transcript does not, but there is still no mistaking that Bush wants us to see the phrase as a proper noun. And I doubt there is any disagreement about what he means there.
Because I was struck by the phrase, I decided to search for the phrase. It's difficult to find anything about the history of it, but it doesn't come from the Bible. The idea may be biblical, but the phrase is not. The first use of the phrase I could find was from J. Howard Pew in 1949, who said "We must first have faith in God before we can enjoy the blessings of liberty, for God is the author of liberty." Definitely no doubt that Pew equates God with the "Author of Liberty," and I don't think there's any doubt that Bush does, either.
It's not the first time Bush has used the phrase. He used it first in his 2004 inaugural address, this time in a larger context:
"We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now" - they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty."
The context here is much more interesting, and Bush is hinting at the same thing in his current speech. So I want to do two things in this column: first I will unpack the phrase, including the religious view of foreign policy. Second, I want to examine why Bush has reused the phrase in his latest speech.
Let's begin by examining the phrase as it is used in the inaugural address. There, he refers to the course of history, hearkening back to his speech on September 20, 2001, just days after 9/11, where he says that "The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them." In other words, "we'll meet violence with patient justice -- assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come." So God is on the side of the United States. This is the first thing we have to understand. If God is the Author of Liberty, then God is basically the creator of the United States. In 2005, Condoleeza Rice used the same phrase when she said, "In our country, the great author of liberty, Thomas Jefferson, said, 'The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.'" But Bush wasn't referring to Thomas Jefferson. He capitalized the phrase and unmistakably meant GOD.
So God is on the side of the U.S. against our enemies. Sure, "God moves and chooses as He wills," but the fact for Bush is that God has chosen the U.S. If God is the Author of Liberty and the U.S. has liberty, then God is naturally with us and against our enemies. Besides, "history also has a visible direction," and that is toward the type of liberty espoused by the U.S.
So when George Bush uses the phrase in his January 10, 2006 speech to rally people around his "new" Iraq policy, he is referring to these earlier ideas. The logic works like this:
God has established the principle of liberty (or freedom.
The U.S. embodies liberty.
Therefore, God has established or created or fights for the U.S.
Similar to this syllogism and even based on it, we can then say this:
God desires every country to have liberty, so the U.S. the beacon of liberty, should fight for liberty in all countries.
In other words, don't give up in Iraq. God is with us, and if we have patience to "stay the course," we will prevail, for God is with us. Yeah, it becomes a bit circular, but the logic makes sense once you adopt the basic premise that God is with the U.S. and not with countries that supress democracy.
Bush's second inaugural address was all about how the U.S. should fight for democracy all over the world, including Iraq. And about how the U.S. will win because God is on our side. Now, in 2006, he is fighting to keep that policy going. According to one poll, 57% of Americans now think the U.S. is losing the war in Iraq, so Bush is no longer on a sure footing. In fact, he's slipping off pretty fast.
People are no longer going along with Bush just because he is the conservative Christian leader. In this latest speech, he reminds Americans of the U.S. job in the world, to spread the values of freedom and democracy:
"Fellow citizens: The year ahead will demand more patience, sacrifice, and resolve. It can be tempting to think that America can put aside the burdens of freedom. Yet times of testing reveal the character of a nation. And throughout our history, Americans have always defied the pessimists and seen our faith in freedom redeemed. Now America is engaged in a new struggle that will set the course for a new century. We can, and we will, prevail."
Then comes the "Author of Liberty" phrase.
Notice that the religious rhetoric is diminished here. Bush knows that he is no longer speaking just to his conservative Christian colleagues; he is now speaking to his oppositional leaders in Congress--the Democrats! The same ideas are there--"the burdens of freedom," "we will, prevail"--but they're no longer couched solely in religious terms. Now he's fighting for his own values against the "pessimists," which is really just the way to say "all those who don't agree with me and call for withdrawal from Iraq."
But Bush still knows his base and if he can get them to rally around his idea, then he can get them to change the minds of their Congressmen. So he uses the "Author of Liberty" phrase at the very end. It's no coincidence. He's reminding us that this isn't the U.S. (or George Bush) versus the world; nope, it's God versus the world, democracy versus totalitarianism, freedom versus tyranny, and all of those other oppositions that don't really work in our world that isn't colored solely in blacks and whites.
But the oppositions work if you buy into that sort of thing. The problem now, though, is that most Americans no longer do.
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