Washington D.C., Feb 16, 2015 / 17:34 pm
Past presidents have seen God and religion as an inherent part of Americans' rights and freedoms, according to a Presidents Day commercial from the Knights of Columbus.
"The idea that our rights come from God and that religion has a role to play in our nation's public life is not partisan or sectarian, it is quintessentially American," Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, said Feb. 16.
"Presidents Day is an excellent opportunity to remind Americans that God is – and has always been – foundational to this country and to our system of ordered liberty."
The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal society with over 1.8 million members worldwide, originally released the commercial in 2012.
The ad includes comments from several presidents regarding the link between God and human rights.
"This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom," Abraham Lincoln said his Gettysburg Address.
Thomas Jefferson's words from his "Notes on the State of Virginia," as abbreviated on the Jefferson Memorial, are also cited. The second U.S. president asked rhetorically: "Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are of the gift of God?"
John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address of 1961, declared, "The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God."
The quotations also include George Washington's Farewell Address of 1796, in which the first president said: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."
The source of rights has become controversial in recent decades.
Chris Cuomo, the co-host of the CNN show "New Day," recently denied that the rights recognized by the United States come from God.
"Our rights do not come from God. That's your faith. That's my faith, but not our country. Our laws come from the collective agreement and compromise," he told interviewee Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore during a Feb. 12 conversation about a federal ruling on "gay marriage."
"It's not a matter of faith, sir," Moore replied, citing the Declaration of Independence's assertion of rights endowed by God.
"The government starts taking those rights away from us, then it's not securing and it is defiling the whole purpose of government," Moore said.
Other presidents cited in the Knights of Columbus ad include Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
The ad closes with the phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance: "One nation, under God, indivisible."
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