Passing freedom to Gen Alpha: 1 million US Constitutions for students
This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending a banquet here in Nashville that was sponsored by the 917 Society (www.917society.org). The Society is named after Constitution Day.
After the success of the American Revolution, the U.S. government was ruled by the Articles of Confederation. This proved to be an insufficient document, and so Americans came together in a Constitutional Convention to improve their form of governance. The new U.S. Constitution was adopted by the Convention on Sept. 17, 1787.
The Preamble to the Constitution states:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Nine of the original states had to ratify the Constitution for it to go into effect. The first state to ratify was Delaware on Dec. 7, 1787, and the last state was Rhode Island in May of 1790.
The Constitution, with the addition of the Bill of Rights (the first Ten Amendments), has been a wonderful success. Under the Constitution, America has flourished into a thriving democratically run republic where “we, the people” govern through our elected representatives. The Constitution is the oldest governing document presently in force anywhere in the world. In essence, the Constitution is the culmination of the political movement represented by the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Declaration was the “purpose” and the Constitution became the “fulfillment.”
The 917 Society’s purpose is to do everything within its power to put a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the hands of every eigth-grade student it can on Constitution Day. Like many Americans, the 917 Society laments the fact that “Civics” and “Citizenship” classes have largely disappeared from American schools. They want to reacquaint American young people with their priceless heritage as Americans.
This year, they are working with 25,000 principals across the nation to distribute 1,000,000 pocket-sized copies of the Constitution (they reached just under a million students last year).
I am afraid that, as Americans, we have not done a very good job of educating our young people about their great heritage of liberty and freedom as Americans. I applaud the 917 Society for seeking to help remedy that situation by targeting eighth graders with the Constitution.
While I was at the banquet, I was privileged to visit with several Americans who had immigrated to our country from their native lands. These patriots could not say enough about how grateful they were for America and its freedoms and how they wanted to help our young people know how fortunate they were to be born in the USA. I left the event inspired and encouraged that the Spirit of Liberty is still flourishing in America. May it ever be so!
Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.
