A Crisis of Constitutional Comprehension

Opinion Piece By Joe McElroy

If you do anything today, take 10 minutes to stop and listen to the very last episode of The Charlie Kirk Show (click here and go to minute marker 7:25-17:00), recorded the day before his assassination and martyrdom. In that broadcast, Charlie dissected the alarming ignorance of figures like Senator Tim Kaine, who equated the foundational American belief that our rights come from God with theocratic regimes like Iran. Kaine's words reveal a profound misunderstanding: he suggested that acknowledging divine origins for human rights is akin to religious extremism, yet this is the very bedrock of our Republic, which is not a theocracy. Charlie called it out for what it was, a dangerous inversion of truth, where communists and statists pit faiths against each other to divide and conquer. As one listener aptly noted in the replies, Kaine has "no business being in the Senate" if he can't grasp this core principle; sadly, this remark is applicable to both “sides of the aisle”. This episode embodied what Charlie fought for: the American way, where rights are endowed by our Creator, not granted by government.

This isn't a partisan battle of right vs. left or Republican vs. Democrat; it's a crisis of comprehension that transcends party lines. Most of our public servants, regardless of their affiliation, fail to grasp this fundamental principle, treating God-given rights as malleable privileges to be expanded or curtailed by fiat. And it's not just the elites; the general populace, We the People, wander in the same fog, schooled in a version of history that severs our foundations from their biblical moorings. As the prophet Hosea thundered in 4:6, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children." This isn't mere ignorance; it’s willful rejection, a deliberate turning from the Perfect Law of Liberty that our Founders enshrined. We've traded the rock of Scripture for shifting sands of policy, forgetting that true knowledge demands not just hearing but heeding, lest we forfeit the very inheritance Charlie Kirk died proclaiming.

There isn't another nation on earth that has embodied the Gospel of the Kingdom of God like America did at her founding. This isn't to deny our flaws or the ways we've strayed throughout history, far from it. But at its core, this nation's foundations are built upon God's Word. President Andrew Jackson acknowledged this when he declared, "The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests." This truth was enshrined in the 1983 Joint Resolution of Congress designating the "Year of the Bible" (Public Law 97-280), which recognized the Bible's formative influence on our laws and liberties. I encourage you to click here and take the time to read the actual document. These principles are woven into all our state constitutions, declaring "natural rights" that come from God, not from any earthly authority.

We the People have been misled, misunderstanding the intent of our foundations, the "Perfect Law of Liberty" as described in James 1:25: "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." This ideal is literally inscribed on the Liberty Bell from Leviticus 25:10: "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." This is what Charlie stood for: that the People are free, and the government we created is barred from infringing upon these God-given liberties. Government doesn't exist to bestow rights; it exists to protect our rights and property. Every state’s constitution’s Bill of Rights are excepted out of the general powers of government, meaning officials cannot regulate or touch them. Every action of government must honor these reservations.

Liberty does not guarantee safety. As Benjamin Franklin wisely warned, "They who can give up essential Liberty, to obtain a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." The problem we face is a generation taught backwards, inverting what our constitutions (both state and federal) enumerate, reserve, and prohibit. Government servants are our trustees, operating only with granted powers, and with grants come prohibitions. Consider the Illinois 1970 Constitution, Article 1, Section 1: "All men are by nature free and independent and have certain inherent and inalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights and the protection of property, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Or the Texas Constitution, Article 1, Section 2: "All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit. The faith of the people of Texas stands pledged to the preservation of a republican form of government, and, subject to this limitation only, they have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient." And Section 29: "To guard against transgressions of the high powers herein delegated, we declare that everything in this 'Bill of Rights' is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain inviolate, and all laws contrary thereto, or to the following provisions, shall be void."

In every state and in our federal Constitution, the People's natural rights are expressed and reserved beyond the government's reach. If government vanished tomorrow, these rights would endure, for they flow from the Creator. This exposes ignorance in Tim Kaine's statements, and it's alarming. In Charlie's final show, he highlighted how such views serve a "different god," one that divides by race, faith, and ideology, much like the communists Kaine's rhetoric echoes. Our foundations, not what we’ve become, but our foundations, are what make America great and exceptional.

The modern religious system in America and across the earth tries to separate these ideals from the Kingdom of God, but it fails to see that our Founding Fathers intentionally baked biblical principles into our documents. God's government on earth isn't an American invention; it's God's idea, something our Founding Fathers arrived at specifically because they set up our Republic reflecting these biblical principles. America is the first nation since the Hebrews in the wilderness (before they rejected God's way for a king in 1 Samuel 8:5-7) to capture and enumerate these truths. This is why America is misunderstood by other nations and even by Americans themselves: we've drifted from His Word and the true Gospel of the Kingdom. It's not mere "religion"; it's a way of life and a government reflecting that life. It doesn't force all to honor God, but it ensures government servants don't interfere with the People's liberty, nor do we infringe on each other's. The Kentucky Constitution’s Bill of Rights, Section 2, expresses this concept beautifully: “Absolute and arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority.”

This is what makes America exceptional. But if We the People, and our servants like Tim Kaine, remain ignorant, or worse yet, reject this knowledge, we'll have neither safety nor liberty. America's nationalism is unique: our constitutions don't confine God's Word or His Kingdom; they spotlight it, transcending race and culture. This Gospel of the Kingdom frees nations and people without binding the King of Kings to borders. But, it’s the People’s duty and obligation to recur to these fundamental principles (See Illinois Constitution, Art I Sect 23). Likewise, other nations could experience the same if they adopted structures reflecting it. God honors the People’s desires, for better or worse.

It's time for Americans to welcome His principles back into our lives and hearts, to learn the fundamental truths upon which this nation and its states were built. Charlie's voice in that final episode wasn't just commentary; it was a trumpet call. Let it echo in us, multiplying bold doers who reclaim our Republic's rock.

Joe McElroy (@SOG217 on X) is a husband and father, deeply committed to faith, family, and restoring America’s Republican form of government. A passionate student and advocate for biblical principles found in the common law, he educates on the sovereignty of “We the People,” under God, emphasizing state constitutions, fundamental principles of law, and holding government servants accountable to their office of public trust according to the grants and reservations of power expressed in the text of the constitutions, especially through township-level action.