We all are prone to putting people we love and admire on a pedestal. We are also often prone to being skeptical, even cynical about those we don’t love and admire. We make angels out of some mere men, devils out of others. We overlook the clay feet of our heroes and overlook the humanity of our enemies.
This is true not only of people but of peoples. That is we can elevate one nation above all proportion, or demonize a nation. Today one nation celebrates the anniversary of its founding. America is exceptional in world history, and we have much to give thanks for.
Our founding principles, of limited government, equality before the law, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are all wonderful things. Liberals, however, hate those principles. Which is why they hate our country.
We would be fools, however, if in reaction to that hatred we were to blind ourselves to weaknesses in our founding fathers. Our fathers claimed all men were created equal, but were comfortable with some men being the property of others. They, like the rest of us, did not live up to their noble aspirations.
We are a nation that finally freed those being held in bondage. But did so through violence that left millions dead. We are a nation that welcomed some yearning to be free to Ellis Island, while also a nation that locked up Japanese Americans in internment camps. We are a nation that created more prosperity than the world has ever known, and also a nation that confiscated the gold of its own citizens. We are a nation that was founded on limited government but now enforces empire around the globe.
Worst of all, we are a nation that fought the genocidal Nazis, murderers of 6 million and less than a generation later determined that unborn babies are not worthy of legal protection, that they are less than human, with more than 60 million unburied. The same flag represents both the Greatest Generation and the Never Born Generation.
We are a nation where the state subsidizes “artwork” of a crucifix in urine and jails those burning rubber on “pride” flags painted on our highways. We are a nation that is as far from our founding as Israel was from its founding when God sent them into exile.
To be sober-minded we need to remember the full reality of both our history and our present. We need to not throw out the baby of biblical wisdom in our founding principles with the bathwater of our national rebellion against those principles. Let us celebrate everything good that God in His grace blessed our country with.
Let us also, however, repent for every failure we’ve had along the way. Let us in turn repent for all our rejection of His blessings in our own day. And let us pledge our allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ who reigns over all principalities and powers. He has never let us down, nor will He ever. On this and every Independence Day, let us remember and give thanks for our dependence on Him.