The Tea Party of Montana lists “The 28 Principles of Liberty” . http://www.freedomlibertyteaparty.com/Principles-of-Liberty.html
The first of these is as follows:
1. The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is
natural law.
The Tea Party of Montana says explicitly that “natural law” is the “only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations.” Not all of the Tea Party advocates say that “natural law” is “the only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations.” But enough do that it is worth making explicit why this claim is not only wrong but an attempt to smuggle in a host of other assumptions about God and religion.
To begin with, the term natural law is itself complex and books have been written about it. Typically natural law is contrasted with the natural rights tradition that emerged from it in the seventeenth century.The natural law tradition is typically associated with Thomas Acquinas and other Christian and Jewish religious thinkers because it places God at the center of the philosophical system. This tradition is known for reconciling Christian and Jewish views of God with Greek philosophical ideas. In this tradition, God’s Reason, as understood by a reading of Scripture, and the Laws of Nature are one and the same thing.
The Natural Rights traditional is typically associated with the emerging modern tradition in the seventeenth century and associated with thinkers such as Grotius, Hobbees, Pufendorf and John Locke who build on but fundamentally transform some of core religious assumptions in the natural law tradition. Typically, when people say that the natural rights tradition is at the heart of the American vision, they are assuming that the American founders were influenced by the natural rights tradition, particularly the work of John Locke among others.
The notion of natural rights is itself problematic and arguably not at the heart of the American founders’ vision, as I detail elsewhere. But the Tea Partiers who claim that natural law is at the heart of the American vision are attempting to smuggle in a very traditional Christian and Jewish view of God that clearly was not at the heart of founders’ writings. So when they say “natural law” is the only reliable basis for sound government lets not be mistaken. They are claiming that only a society with a religious conception of God can have a sound government. To this I say, give me liberty or give me death!
