Celebrate Independence Day
The Declaration of Independence’s list of grievances sounds a lot like children whining. Grievances are not unusual; the essay in the Declaration attempts to explain that these legitimate grievances justify the rebellion. What is the difference? Good parents have a vision for the future of their children, which the rules they impose seldom convey and the child or adolescent cannot yet grasp, so they whine. But in the political realm, adults with differing perspectives cannot claim this kind of superiority over others.
The colonists in 1776 did not primarily complain that they had to pay for the cost of British colonial governance and protection, but that they had no say in the matter. They felt like adults being treated as children. Would things have gone differently if there had been members of parliament from America to advocate for and vote on these issues? But if so, what of the rest of the British colonies? Should India and China and Australia also have had representatives? Should this have included representatives of the conquered as well? Quite quickly the inherent racism of colonial empires surfaces, the “white man’s burden” to minister to and elevate the subjugated peoples, not admit them as equal partners. Did American colonists deal with native Americans any better? (Lamentations 3:39)
What defines the difference between whining, rebellion, and legitimate grievances? Surely it rests in the standards by which complaints are judged. The founding fathers declared that certain natural rights were inalienable: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They further asserted that the creator endowed humans with these rights, an essential part of being human. The Bill of Rights recognizes many other derived rights. The modern era has created a whole new set of “rights.” Whining is usually characterized as complaints about unhappiness that is someone else’s fault, not on the level of rights, but more of the flavor that someone didn’t do something to make me happy. God is often indicted on this charge.
The founding fathers’ logic implicitly derives from man being made in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:26; 5:1) The natural rights of man therefore derive from the respect that everyone ought to render to the image of God in others. That likeness is awesome to contemplate, as is the idea that God’s original intention for humankind is to be like Him in all aspects (Ephesians 4:15). He deals with every person and situation in full accordance with His holiness, love, and justice. We stretch credulity when we invoke His image in us, because none of us measure up to His stature.
The climax of C. S. Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces includes a fictional list of grievances, but with a fundamental difference. Grievances against God suffer from differing levels of knowledge. He sees the big picture, knows the future, and has a plan for our spiritual and eternal blessing. He plans that we become like Him in ways we only dimly sense. The principle illustrated by the fictional conclusion is that God’s ways and plans and very existence are transcendent. Any complaint we have results from our own choices to refuse Him, just as Adam chose in the garden of Eden.
