LETTER TO THE EDITOR: God is source of rights proclaimed by Founding Fathers

OPINION:

In “Why America is exceptional” (Web, Dec. 29) David Deming covers many good and true thoughts but misses an essential fact. He states that people are born with inalienable rights, but he neglects to mention the fact that the source of these rights is Almighty God as fully expressed in the Declaration of Independence. From any other source they would not be universal or permanent, as shown by the history of many other states. Mr. Deming himself references this, from the Greeks and Romans to the writings of John Locke and others, and from the Magna Carta onward.

It was not until the Colonists fled from the lack of religious freedom in England that those inalienable rights were proclaimed as God-given by our Founding Fathers. We are blessed with the permanent blessing of an exceptional form of government, which is recognized and envied by the rest of the world.

PHILIP A. STUDER

Silver Spring