Maybe It’s Time to Return to Our Roots

The American flag flying with other national flags in Capri, Italy.

Since I was born on July 4^th, I guess I couldn’t help but grow up feeling very patriotic, thrilling to every sight of the “red, white and blue.” I’ve always loved spotting an American flag unfurled wherever I went, even on my international travels, including Italy and Jamaica. I recall several years ago being on the picturesque island of Capri, Italy, where “Old Glory” was waving proudly along with the Italian flag and several others, overlooking splendid yachts anchored below near the Tyrrhenian Sea.

These days being a patriot has gone out of fashion in the eyes of some. However, even though people certainly have the right to express criticism of the United States, justified or not, they should remember that’s only possible because of the freedoms we enjoy in this imperfect nation.

 

Like this flag photographed at 
Mackinac Island, Mich., Old
Glory today is tattered but proud.

What role God has played – if any – in the founding and establishing of this nation has been fodder for much debate through the years. However, it has been enlightening to read The Founder’s Bible, which presents the Scriptures in their entirety, along with hundreds of articles and commentaries about our Founding Fathers. Based on their statements and writings, the evidence is overwhelming that they had no intention of segregating matters of faith from matters of governing our country, at least in the manner the so-called “separation of church and state” is typically interpreted.

Here’s a very small sampling, taken from The Founder’s Bible, of specific things the writers and signers of the United States of America’s original documents had to say regarding the Bible and its application for public laws and institutions:

      ”It has been the error of schools to teach astronomy and all the other sciences and subjects of natural philosophy as accomplishments only, whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the Author of them, for all the principles of science are of Divine origin.” – Thomas Paine

 

      “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If ‘Thou shalt not covet’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’ were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.” – John Adams

 

      “God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both.” – John Witherspoon

 

      “To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoy…. Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government – and all the blessings which flow from them – must fall with them.” – Jedidiah Morse

 

Speaking at the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin recognized how divine intervention had undeniably contributed to the United States’ march toward freedom: “…All of us engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor…. And now we have forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men.”

 

Founding Father Benjamin Rush, known as “The Father of Public Schools Under the Constitution,” wrote “A Defense for the Use of the Bible as a School Book.” Among the numerous reasons he cited for including the Bible in the public school curriculum included: 

      “That Christianity is the only true and perfect religion; and that in proportion as mankind adopt its principles and obey its precepts, they are wise and happy…. That the Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world.”

 

Such ideas were embraced for nearly the first two centuries of our nation. In the early 1960s, the move for separating church and state as it’s presently understood gained great momentum. However, in 1950, the Florida Supreme Court said this:

      “A people unschooled about the sovereignty of God, the Ten Commandments, and the ethics of Jesus could never have evolved the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. There is not one solitary fundamental principle of our democratic policy that did not stem directly from the basic moral concepts as embodied in the Decalogue and the ethics of Jesus.”

 

It’s obvious that in many ways our nation has drifted from the views cited above, as well as thousands like them. The U.S.A. might not be the “new Israel,” but its system of laws and form of government were rooted in Judeo-Christian principles. And for a long time, our nation stood at the forefront of the mission to take the Gospel to all nations. The fact that biblical values are now being abandoned, even ridiculed, could that be at the heart of many of our society’s ills?

 

In the Old Testament, the people of Israel enjoyed God’s blessings only to later reject Him and go their own way. The price they paid each time, individually and collectively, was severe. Consider one example of the Lord’s judgment:

“What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?... I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground…” (Isaiah 5:4-5).

The United States, a nation founded on principles integrally intertwined with God’s revealed truth, for many years flourished and enjoyed a unique – even favored – position in the world. Can we still say that today? Could it be time for us to cease rebelling against the God of creation and return to our roots? 

A Day to Celebrate – or Not?

Does our Star Spangled Banner
still represent the values for
which it once proudly waved?

Independence Day can’t get here soon enough. The United States needs a patriotic booster shot. Lee Greenwood’s ”Proud to Be an American” might be suffering from embarrassment. We need to soak up some “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” and other festive marches, and stirring fireworks shows. It’s time to get good ole American bounce back in our step.

I’ve long considered myself a patriot. I attribute that in part to having been born on July 4, while my dad was serving in the U.S. Army. Yep, I’m one of those born on the Fourth of July Yankee doodle dandies – although my degree of “dandiness” is up for debate.

To this day spotting an American flag waving in the breeze makes me smile. On football Saturdays I bleed Scarlet and Gray, but all other days I’m a red, white and blueblood. Annually on Independence Day I’ve been all-in. Flag T-shirts, patriotic concerts, pyrotechnics, the whole shebang – and boom. Not only because it’s my birthday (I won’t tell how many I’ve had), but because I’ve always felt the United States was unique, unlike any other nation in history.

But lately American pride has taken a beating. Kind of like an American flag I spotted many years ago, unfurled in the front yard of a private residence in Ohio. It was flying in shreds. “Old Glory” had known better days at that home. Being the stalwart patriot I was even then, I photographed the tattered banner and published the image in the local newspaper I was editing. The caption suggested no flag should be displayed in such condition. (The homeowner, while unnamed, still was not pleased with such attention.)

I’m thinking the image of our nation finds itself in similar tatters these days. It’s not just attitudes toward the United States around the world. It’s the values, the culture of our country – what it was, and what it’s become. I’m a traditionalist, and while I appreciate the great strides we’ve made in overcoming racism and discrimination of many kinds, we’ve forgotten the distinctions between rights and privileges, liberty and license, freedom and foolishness.

This wondrous “land of opportunity” is turning into the “land of entitlement.” The grit and determination that forged our national work ethic have taken a hit, disintegrating into belief that people “deserve” certain income regardless of respective levels of responsibility, initiative and authority. Burger flippers are demanding almost as much compensation as nurses and teachers.

Political and ideological divides besetting the U.S.A. threaten to make us more “untied” than “United.” Factions insist there’s only one way these days -- “our way.” Rather than a citizenry pulling together to secure and safeguard common ground, everyone nurses agendas, intent on foisting them on everyone else.

Historical revisionists will howl and argue to the contrary, but faith was vital to the fabric of our nation for most of its existence. Today, faith has become anathema for many people despite having benefited from principles and values championed by our Judeo-Christian heritage.

Recently I was reminded of a statement credited to historian Alexander Tyler, although others attribute it to Alexander Fraser Tytler. Who knows? But it’s worth reading nevertheless:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations, from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;

From spiritual faith to great courage;

From courage to liberty;

From liberty to abundance;

From abundance to complacency;

From complacency to apathy;

From apathy to dependence;

From dependence back into bondage."

Hopefully the United States can escape this dismal cycle. But in any event, it heartens me to know that although I swell with American pride without apology, my true citizenry lies elsewhere. The Bible offers these perspectives:

“We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope” (1 Chronicles 29:15).

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world…” (1 Peter 2:11).

The Scriptures declare all Christ followers are “aliens and strangers” in this world, eagerly awaiting the world and life to come. That, regardless of whether the U.S. of A. still deserves being called the United States, is where my hope lies.