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U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Neil Gorsuch reportedly received criticism for calling America a
creedal nation, [1] meaning that the
nation was founded upon a creed but the Justice is right: We are a creedal
nation in the sense that we are founded upon a philosophy and not upon
ethnicity or race and it is a philosophy that is applied to all people who are
citizens of the United States irrespective of their gender, skin-color, age,
economic or social status, ethnicity, nationality, or even religious,
political, or philosophical leanings and that philosophy is the philosophy of
freedom, liberty, and equality for all people no matter their background, walk
of life, or where they might be on the social scale but unfortunately, most
have very little understanding as to what the philosophy of liberty is.
Granted that they
may have some idea as to what freedom might be; we have a Constitution that tells
us what our rights are and it is the idea of freedom and liberty by which our
identity as a nation, people, and civilization is defined and which has set us
apart from virtually all other nations in the world and if we did have a proper
and adequate understanding of what the philosophy of liberty is, then we might
be better able to understand what Justice Gorsuch means when he says that we
are a creedal nation and as I read the criticisms against the Justice for his
statements, I found them to be based on a very poor understanding of what the
Justice meant when he said that we are a creedal nation. For example, John Daniel Davidson said of
Gorsuch’s statements:
It’s amazing to
see Gorsuch start with talk of “an idea,” then go into detail about the
Founders—men who shared a common culture, more or less similar views on the
West and Christianity writ large (with a few exceptions, yes), and were all
products of British colonial civilization in America—and then pivot back to
this tired trope about America being a “creedal nation.”
They cannot seem
to get out of this mental rut—or they don’t want to. America is not a really
great idea. It’s a people and a culture derived from England and Christian
Europe. Anyone who wants to be an American must adopt that culture as their
own.
It’s not racist or
xenophobic to say this, it’s simply the truth. And it would be nice if we had
leaders and public figures who were willing to speak the truth on our
semiquincentennial. [2]
Gorsuch certainly
wasn’t denying that American culture was largely derived from that of Europe
and he certainly was not denying the spiritual heritage or principals upon
which the philosophy of liberty is founded and which in turn defines the
identity of our nation as it was upon the philosophy of liberty upon which our
nation was built and established and the philosophy of liberty upon which our
nation is built rests upon is founded upon principles that are not merely
political, or even cultural or philosophical; they are founded upon principles
that are spiritual in nature as is made evident in the opening statements of
our own Declaration of Independence:
When in the course
of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of
the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of
nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires
that they should declare the causes which impel them to separate.
We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness….[3]
Another critic of
Gorsuch’s statements, Sean Davis stated:
If America were a
creedal nation, then America would regularly be denaturalizing and deporting
anyone who rejects the creed, either in word or deed. But that never happens,
so you know this is just empty rhetoric.
The Founders
clearly stated that America exists to secure the blessings of liberty for us
and our posterity. There’s nothing in any founding documents about America
being created to support anyone who mouths a creed at naturalization while
crossing their fingers behind their backs. [4]
And while I would
certainly agree with his sentiments, Davis is only showing that he doesn’t
really know how our government is structured.
Neither SCOTUS nor Gorsuch can just simply throw anyone out of the
country who doesn’t sincerely accept and adhere to the philosophy and creed of
liberty. That would take an act of both
the legislative and executive branches, which by all rights they should do, and
if both the legislative and executive branches were to proceed to remove from
our borders anyone who rejects the creed of liberty upon which our nation was
founded and their attempts to do so were to be challenged and contested in a
court of law, it would then be up to SCOTUS, if such cases were to reach them,
to decide whether or not to uphold any executive or legislative acts to strip
of citizenship and remove from our borders anyone who rejects the creed of
liberty upon which our nation was founded, an even if Gorsuch himself were to
agree that anyone who rejects the philosophy of liberty should be removed from
the country, that isn’t something that either he or the rest of the Justices
can just simply do.
After examining
the criticisms against Gorsuch for calling our nation a creedal nation, it
seems that his critics are reading far too much into his statements and they
don’t really have a full and proper understanding of how our government was
designed to work and if the people did have a proper understanding of how our
government was designed to work, perhaps then they might understand why we do
not always get the results and changes that we want to see transpire and be
implemented in as timely of a fashion as we would like to see.
As I was writing
this piece, I took some time to watch the complete interview that National
Review’s Dan Mclaclin had with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and in that
interview, Gorsuch said how distressed he was how few people have an adequate
knowledge of our history or of civics:
there are a variety
of reasons why we don't teach history and we don't teach civics anymore and I'm
very distressed by it because surveys suggest like 13% of eth graders are
proficient in history at grade level, 22% in civics.
And if you think
it's bad for them, well, let's go to college. Turns out like 18% of colleges
require a course in American history. One lousy course. And adults six and 10
cannot pass the
citizenship test
that my wife took…
Are we teaching
enough or law students learning enough of the founding era?
No, no, no,
they're not. I get disturbed when we're
sitting in the conference room and there's Charles Evans Hughes and you know,
Taft over there and I have law students in here who don't know those men. Can't
recognize them. I bring them into my chambers and they don't recognize James
Madison, okay? Smart young law students and I just think it's tragic. They all
want to change the world. Great. I say great. There's a lot of improvement to
be made. All right.
But if you don't
know your history, if you don't know why the gate is there,
why it was put
there, you just want it removed. Well, watch out. Here come the buffalo. You
need to know your history…
I mean, almost
nobody's read the Articles of Confederation, for example, which to know how we
got the Constitution, you got to know what they tried first.
First, you need to
know why we rebelled, right? What were the complaints?
Why did they feel
the need to do that?
Is it just tea in
Boston Harbor? Did it have something to do with juries and judges, their lack a
lack of independence of them? And did it have a lack of representation in their
voices there? Did it have a little bit to do with the ideas that we think about
with federalism? and then of course… with the experiment with the with the
articles. You know, why did we get rid
of those? Maybe we
went too far the other direction. We wanted to decentralize in our fight
against the king and we went to the opposite extreme. Maybe the Constitution
was a way to try to find a middle ground. But nobody learns about that anymore…[5]
As Thomas
Jefferson himself stated in a letter to a Colonel Charles Yancey “if a nation
expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what
never was & never will be”; [6] that statement also repeated in a
paraphrased form by Justice Gorsuch himself. [7]
And as scripture
itself states, a people perish for lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6) the source of
knowledge being the Lord God Almighty (Prov. 1:7) who made the heavens and the
earth and all that is in them and He being the source of knowledge is also the
source of wisdom (Ps. 111:10) and it should be no wonder that when our academic
institutions excluded God from their curriculum that they also cut themselves
off from true knowledge and true wisdom and now teach for knowledge and wisdom
that which is foolishness and consequently have left multitudes in ignorance of
those things that might lead them to the knowledge of the Lord and in removing
the knowledge of our Creator from the institutions of education, they have also
removed from along with the knowledge of our Creator, much of our history and
so present a shallow and false history, causing multitudes to believe in lies
that they might otherwise reject if the knowledge of our Creator had not been
excluded.
If, as Jefferson
states, knowledge is essential for the maintaining of freedom, then ignorance
is the enemy of freedom and if the source of knowledge and wisdom is the Lord
God Almighty, then the source ignorance and foolishness is Satan or the Devil
and both forces and powers have been warring with each other for the souls of
mankind ever since man was created, but this age-long warfare between God and
Satan had begun before the world was created and it began in the Kingdom of
Heaven when Satan, who was then called Lucifer, thought to make himself equal
to God which led to him and any who had sided with him against God to be cast
from their positions in Heaven (Is. 14:11-21, Ezek. 28:12-19) and it was after
he had lost his war for Heaven that Satan than took his war against God to the
earth, but before evil came to the earth, the Lord God had made the earth to be
a place in which only goodness, light, and life would dwell and in which existed
a perfect and uninterrupted harmony between God, man, and nature until the day
that Satan, in the form of a serpent, crept into the newly created and
uncorrupted world and led the first man Adam and his wife Eve to commit a fateful
act of disobedience that would from that day forth change the entire world and
mankind for the worse and the act of disobedience that he caused Adam and Eve
to commit that would be of such astronomical consequence was the eating of a
fruit from a certain tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It was the only
tree whose fruit God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat from, having warned them
that in the day that they ate thereof, they would surely die. (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:3)
but with false assurances and empty promises, Satan caused them to eat of that
forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:4-5) making think that they would be more enlightened
and even divine but instead of receiving the greatness that they were promised,
they were reduced to an inferior state and the only thing to which they had
become enlightened was to the shame that came upon their nakedness when sin
entered into them after the eating of that forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:7 and just
as they had been warned of God, the sentence of death was placed upon them.
(Gen. 3:19) for it was in that day when Adam and Eve ate of that forbidden
fruit that sin entered into them and from them, the sin which entered into them
and brought about their eventual deaths, was also passed down to all of mankind
for all of us are descendants of that first man and that first woman and
because we are their descendants, we have also inherited the sin that entered
into them (Rom. 5:12) and because of that sin which we have inherited, we all
sin in some form or fashion and as a consequence we all die for as it is
written, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) but sin is not merely confined
to outward behavior or performance or even the words we speak, but it is rather
the inherent inward corruption of our very nature defiling our thoughts,
hardening and darkening our hearts, and corrupting our very motives which is
why it is written that we are not defiled from that which comes from without,
but that which comes from within (Mt. 15:11, 18-20) and which is why it is
written that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23)
which demands of us nothing less than moral perfection and not just in our
outward acts but also in our inward as well which is why it is impossible by
our own efforts and our own goodness to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, for
sin taints, corrupts, defiles, twists, and distorts more than we can comprehend
and the effects of sin are not merely confined to mankind, but all of creation
is subjected to a curse because of sin which is why it is written that the
entire creation groans and travails in pain to this day (Rom. 8:19-22) but not
only that, the transgression that Satan led Adam and Eve into committing made
him justified in claiming lordship over all the nations, kingdoms, and empires
of the earth, (Mt. 4:8-9, Lk. 4:6-7) which is why he is called the prince of
this world (Jn. 12:31, 16:11)
Through empty
promises of increased knowledge did Satan cause Adam and Eve to sin against God
who is the source of all knowledge and the source of all wisdom and by a lie
led them into a bondage and tyranny that they never could have imagined; the
bondage and tyranny of sin and death and not only they themselves but the
entire world which would be followed by a multitude of other oppressions and
tyrannies which would be built upon a multitude of lies that would follow that
very lie that brought about that fateful transgression which brought sin,
death, evil, and darkness into the world and which made Satan the father of
lies (Jn. 8:44) and by that lie, he is also a murderer (v. 44) for it was by
that first lie, that sin and death came into the world through the first two
people into whom it had entered and then was passed down from them to the rest
of mankind, subjugating all of humanity to the sin which brings eventual death
to all who are born into this world; the effects of both not confining
themselves to humanity, but also subjugating all of creation to a slow and
painful destruction thus making Satan a destroyer (Jn. 10:10) and not only does
the lie by which he deceived Adam and Eve into eating the very fruit by which
sin and death came into the world and infected all of creation make Satan into
a murderer and destroyer, but he is also a thief and usurper for by way of the
transgression was the dominion over the earth initially given to Adam (Gen.
1:26) diminished by way of Satan claiming lordship over the nations and
kingdoms of the earth but not only is Satan a destroyer of lives and of
creation, he is also a destroyer of souls for by way of the lie which brought
about the transgression which brought sin and death into the world and which
subjugated all of creation to pain, misery, and suffering that would have
otherwise not been, a separation and estrangement stands in between God and man
and it is because of the sin into which we are born that we are estranged from
our Creator with whom there would otherwise be a perfect and uninterrupted
harmony and fellowship, for that which is in sin cannot be allowed into His
direct presence or into His Kingdom lest Heaven itself be defiled just as the
earth has been defiled and a day is coming when sin will reach its full measure
and will have to face eventual judgment and that includes all who remain in
their sin and they who remain in their sins have nothing to look forward to but
a terrifying and everlasting punishment in the never-ending torments and
darkness of Hell and it was in the day that sin and death had entered into
mankind and into the world that the age-long war between God and Satan became a
war for the souls of men to this day and that war for the souls of men has
resulted in a multitude of other wars and conflicts that have taken place
throughout our history but there is good news.
And the good news
is, is that though the Lord God Almighty be holy and perfect and though He be a
God who must, in His holiness, goodness, and righteousness, eventually punish
all evil and all wickedness, He is also a God of unmeasurable love and mercy who
is not willing that any should perish in their sins and face eternal damnation,
(2 Pet. 3:9) but that all would come to repentance, and therefore has done for
us what we could never do for ourselves in that He, in His graciousness has
purchased redemption on our behalf in Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son, (Jn.
3:16) who came to us in the flesh, (Jn. 1:14) and being without any sin (2 Cor.
5:21) was made that perfect sacrifice (Heb. 7:26-27) that was needed to take
away the sins of the world and because of His perfect goodness, He was able to
offer Himself up on our behalf to satisfy the demanded penalty for all sin and
granting mercy and grace through the shedding of His blood on the cross and
after having died, rose again from the dead three days later that we might be
justified in Him (Rom. 4:25) if we will but call upon His name so that we might
be saved from what would otherwise be a terrifying everlasting punishment if we
will but call upon His name (Rom. 10:9, 13) and believe in our hearts that God
raised Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9) for it is by calling upon His name in
sincere repentance that salvation is granted and our souls made clean from sin
thereby liberating us from the threat of eternal damnation and with that
cleansing comes a new spiritual transformation (2 Cor. 5:17) that causes us to
no longer desire to follow after selfish and worldly pursuits but after those
things that pertain to the Kingdom of Heaven,
to no longer take
pleasure in those things that are evil and displeasing in the sight of the
Lord, but in that which is good, right, and pleasing in His sight,
to no longer
desire to walk in the lies of this present world, but only in the truth that
comes from Christ Almighty who is the source of all truth, (Jn. 14:6)
no longer placing
our hopes in the things of this present world, but looking forward to that new
and better world to come, (Rev. 21-22)
to no longer rely
on worldly resources, men, or even our own power, abilities, skills, and wisdom
for our needs and provision but upon God who is able to meet all of our needs,
recognizing that the resources of this world and even the people He brings into
our lives are but instruments and vessels through which God meets our needs and
that the skills, power, knowledge, and wisdom by which we might acquire our
provision are provided and instilled in us by God, (Mt. 6:25-33)
to no longer fear
what men can do to us, but rather fearing the God before whom we will have to
one day give an account for how we lived our lives, (Mt. 10:28)
to no longer look
to corruptible institutions within our society for direction and order in our
lives but to God who, by His written Word has given us laws and precepts to be
applied to our lives and which serve to produce and maintain an ordered life, and
who, by His Holy Spirit which comes to dwell within us upon repentance,
establishes in our lives a course and direction in our lives to pursue for His
glory,
to no longer seek
our own glory but the glory of God,
to no longer rally
behind corruptible men, but instead behind the incorruptible God in Heaven
bearing in mind that those men and women God raises up for our edification are
but instruments and servants of His for that respective purpose to which He has
called them,
to no longer seek
to align ourselves with the things of darkness but only with the things of the
light,
to no longer trust
in the wisdom of the world but only on the wisdom and knowledge that comes from
above, (Jas. 1:5) nor depend on corruptible earthly authorities to swiftly
administer justice, but only in the power of God to deliver us from evil.
And it is this new
inward transformation that reconciles us to our Creator (2 Cor. 5:18) from whom
we had once been estranged and just as our souls are cleansed from sin and our
spirits regenerated in Christ Jesus thereby liberating us from the eternal tormenting
punishment that must come upon all who remain in their sins, so one day we look
forward to the liberation of our bodies from death itself when our mortal and
corruptible forms are transformed into that which is immortal and incorruptible
and from that which is imperfect to that which is perfect (1 Cor. 15:51-55, 1
Thess. 4:13-18) and lastly, creation itself will be delivered from the curse
placed upon it because of sin when it is made into a new and better world (Rev.
21-22) and liberated from the hand of our adversary Satan, who presently claims
dominion, when he is given his final sentence and cast into an everlasting
tormenting fire prepared for him and his followers (Mt. 25:41, Rev. 20:10-15)
and in that new world which will be made, there will be no sin, no death, no
decay, nor any curse, nor any evil, or violence, suffering, misery, grief,
sorrow, mourning, pain, or hardship of any sort for all of these will pass away
with this present world. Instead, there
will only be light, life, happiness, joy, contentment, peace, and rest before
the Lord God Almighty.
And this is the good
news that Satan does not anyone to know or embrace it has always been his
intent and goal to prevent as many souls as he can from entering into the
Kingdom of Heaven and so he does all in his power to shut the Kingdom of Heaven
in the faces of men who might otherwise enter in and just as he did with Adam
and Eve, he falsely assures, by way of many elaborate lies and deceptions, that
there is no danger of judgment and blinds them to their need of redemption,
suppressing anything that might possibly lead them to the truth that sets free
(Jn. 8:32) and if tyranny begins with a lie, then it can only stand to reason
that freedom begins with truth and with the source of all truth which is God
but without the knowledge that leads to that truth, there can be no freedom and
so, it should be no small wonder that there should be powers at work within our
nation and throughout the world that are fighting to keep ignorant as many as
possible of any knowledge that might lead them to that very truth that will
grant them that true and authentic freedom that begins with the redemption and transformation
of the soul, even if that means making them ignorant of the things of history, civics,
science, or anything else that might lead them to the source of liberty who is
their Creator because the first thing that the spirit of tyranny must capture to
establish influence and power over the multitudes of souls that it seeks to
hold captive is the capture of hearts and minds through elaborate and cunning
lies and deceptions, replacing an honest education and faithful reporting and
transmitting of information with propaganda and the worst part about it is that
the hearts and minds taken captive take that which is a lie for the truth and
that which is truth for a lie but even that is not enough because that spirit
of tyranny must then further secure his hold on the hearts and minds he has
taken captive by suppressing, by any means necessary, anything that might undo
the lies and deception within the hearts and minds of the captive souls that
might possibly lead them to the God who brings true freedom and true liberty
and out of spiritual darkness and bondage.
And if you reader
have yet to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins
and somehow find yourself in a darkness and captivity for which you might have
no explanation; perhaps there is an empty void in your life that you have been
attempting to fill but to no avail or perhaps you find yourself suffering from
pains and anguishes for which you can’t seem to find any closure or perhaps
when you do think about death, you are faced with uncertainty about where you
might end up after death and are questioning whether or not your efforts to
live the best life that you can are falling short, then I sincerely urge you
reader, in sincere faith and in sincere repentance to call upon the name of the
Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Spiritual
peace is but a sincere prayer of repentance away:
"Lord Jesus I
need you.
I realize that I
am a sinner
who has fallen
short of the glory of God
and that my
goodness falls short
of your standard
of Moral perfection.
Please forgive me
of all of my sins.
Come into my heart
and into my life
to be the Savior
and Lord of my life.
Make me into the
servant and follower
that you want me
to be.
In your name Lord
Jesus, I pray.
Amen."
Know that God is
not concerned with the words that you use to call upon Him forgiveness, but
with the attitude of your heart and if you have, with all sincerity, have asked
Christ to forgive you of your sins, placing your trust in Him only for your
salvation and in nothing else, then your sins are forgiven and your place in
Heaven is certain.
End notes:
1. Jon Brown, “Neil Gorsuch faces backlash for
claiming US is 'creedal' nation: 'Entirely incoherent'”,
Christian Post, May 8,
2026
https://www.christianpost.com/news/neil-gorsuch-faces-backlash-for-claiming-us-is-creedal-nation.html?utm_source=notifpush.com&utm_medium=web-push
2. John Daniel Davidson Post, X, 12:03 PM, May 6, 2026
https://x.com/johnddavidson/status/2052101923034272043
3. The Declaration
of Independence, July 4, 1776
4. Sean Davis Post, X, 1:09 PM, May 6, 2026
https://x.com/seanmdav/status/2052118529772560750
5. National Review, “Justice Gorsuch Speaks with
NR About His New Children’s Book on 1776,” 5:25-5:59, 19:42-20:21, 20:43-21:35
Youtube, May 4, 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzuoH7T0SAg
6. Thomas Jefferson, “Thomas Jefferson to
Charles Yancey,” January 6, 1816
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-09-02-0209#:~:text=if%20a4,all%20is%20safe.
7. National Review, “Justice Gorsuch Speaks with
NR About His New Children’s Book on 1776,” 10:56, Youtbue, May 4, 2026
Scripture
references:
1. Hosea 4:6
2. Proverbs 1:7
3. Psalms 111:10
4. Isaiah 14;11-21, Ezekiel 28:12-19
5. Genesis 2:16-16, 3:3
6. Genesis 3:4-5
7. Genesis 3:7
8. Genesis 3:19
9. Romans 5:12
10. Romans 6:23
11. Matthew 15:11, 18-20
12. Romans 3:23
13. Romans 8:19-22
14. Matthew 4:8-9
15. Luke 4:6-7
16. John 12:31
17. John 16:11
18. John 8:44
19. John 10:10
20. Genesis 1:26
21. 2 Peter 3:9
22. John 3:16
23. John 1:14
24. 2 Corinthians 5:21
25. Hebrews 7:26-27
26. Romans 4:25
27. Romans 10:9, 13
28. 2 Corinthians 5:17
29. John 14:6
30. Revelation 21-22
31. Matthew 6:25-33
32. Matthew 10:28
33. James 1:5
34. 2 Corinthians 5:18
35. 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, 1 Thessalonians
4:13-18
36. Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:10-15
37. John 8:37
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