Let's turn for a moment now to liberty. We don't have to delve back a millennium, only to the 18th century, when the term was often used in years leading up to the American Revolution. Connecticut minister Levi Hart was typical in his proclamation that man by nature is a captive of sin, and that "the whole plan of Redemption is comprised in procuring, preaching and bestowing liberty to the captives." Liberty means the opportunity to do what we ought to do, not the liberty to do what we might desire at the moment. If we constantly indulge ourselves, we are slaves of our wants.

The expression "life, liberty and the pursuit of property" (or "happiness," as the Declaration of Independence put it) involves not three goals thrown together but a plan whereby one leads to the next. When God gives us life, he also gives us liberty to choose an occupation to follow or (if we are constrained as well as supported by the existence of a family business) a way to pursue it. If we choose wisely, we will engage in activity that most likely leads to both property and happiness.

Political philosopher Michael Novak has pointed out that in the Anglo-American tradition, the goal has been liberty under law, not liberty from law. The 1904 version of "America the Beautiful" proclaims, "Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law." Liberty, self-control and the external control of law all work together to keep us from being enslaved by our temporary desires. If we want to maintain independence, we should remember that.