Marco Rubio: Liberty doesn’t mean ‘liberation from man’s duty to family, nation and God’
August 14, 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s signing with a message about what he sees as the true meaning of freedom.
The Christian Post reports that, in the video, Rubio points to the Church as one of the institutions that’s held the nation together for 250 years and explains that liberty was never meant to be “liberation from man’s duty to family, nation and God.”
“Great nations are born of great people,” Rubio says in the video. “They cannot survive long without them.”
The Secretary of State pointed to “duty, sacrifice, service to a cause beyond oneself, [and] belief in something larger and more important than the individual” as “the causes that impelled a group of extraordinary men to declare their independence to the world 250 years ago.”
According to the Christian Post, Rubio stated: “The men who signed our Declaration of Independence understood that liberty meant something much more than being able to do whatever one wants.”
“They understood that order and virtue are the indispensable foundation of a free people and that human virtue has to be cultivated by human institutions like the family, the church, just and moral laws, [and] the habits and practices of self-government,” Rubio added.
Rubio pointed to those institutions and principles as reflective of “the true American tradition of freedom passed down to us across the generations, stewarded and defended by men and women for 250 years” and “the foundation of American greatness.”
He concluded the video by calling on Americans to “pray that it will continue for the next 250 years as well” as footage of America 250 celebrations appeared on screen.
The National Jubilee of Prayer, Penance and Thanksgiving and the Great American State Fair have already taken place on the National Mall, while the Freedom 250 Grand Prix is slated to take place on the streets of the nation’s capital later this month.
Photo: top, Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images