America 250: The Declaration of Independence · Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. 1

   Read Romans 13:1-7 together. Kent boiled it down to three jobs for civil government: promote the common good, restrain evil, punish evildoers. Looking at the text, what does Paul hand the government — and what does he never hand it?

2. 2

   Kent laid out the six-part shape of ancient Near Eastern covenants — participants, prologue, stipulations, public proclamation, blessings and curses, ratification — and showed that the Declaration of Independence follows it, though scholars did not identify that pattern until the 1950s. What do you make of a document following a form its author could not have known?

3. 3

   "Your rights come from God. They do not come from the government." Kent said government exists to secure rights, not to issue them. What actually changes in how a person lives depending on which of those two they believe?

4. 4

   Kent did not skip slavery. He called it the national sin, quoted Condoleezza Rice calling it our national birth defect, and said it is inexcusable even though it is explainable. How do you hold real gratitude for something and real honesty about its worst part at the same time — a country, a family, a church?

5. 5

   Kent opened by saying he loves his country but worships only God, and that we do not confuse the flag with the cross. Later he told a questioner we are citizens of two kingdoms — be a good citizen of both, until one asks for what the other forbids. Where do you find that line getting blurry in your own life?

6. 6

   Kent quoted Will Durant: history is to a nation what memory is to a person. He said his own part is simply to teach people what they were never taught. Name one person — a kid, a grandkid, a coworker, a friend — you will tell one true thing from tonight to before we meet again.