Try these on for starters:

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 the separation.


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.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

In establishing their authority as free men and creating a self governing civil authority independent of the King of England, the Founding Fathers most certainly were cognizent of religion. It was their religion upon which they drew the moral authority to declare independence. It is only recently that it has become chic to deny the role of religion in our system of democracy. This notion of being among the intellectual avant guard shall pass and America can (and will) return to a philosophy of humility in government.

RJ