Today, we celebrate the 245th anniversary of the United States of America. What Abraham Lincoln said 157 years ago is still true:
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.”
Sadly, too many of our citizens have no appreciation of our bountiful blessings. One Olympic athlete recently made national news by turning her back on the Flag and the National Anthem, claiming that it does not represent her. We have listened the last year to constant condemnation of our country as inherently white supremacist and systemically racist.
Our elementary school children are being taught that all Christians, white people and men are “oppressors.” Our colleges and universities are teaching that America was founded in 1619 to advance slavery, not in 1776 to secure liberty; that America was stolen from the natives and built by slavery; and that our capitalist economy is inherently racist. The statues of our Founding Fathers are attacked and toppled because they were evil “slave masters.” We are now taught and expected to believe that Columbus was not a Christian and heroic explorer, but a genocidal maniac.
The Left wants us to feel ashamed to be Americans and regretful that America even exists. As one famous actor reputedly worth about $50 million said recently, “We aren’t great – we aren’t even mediocre – we’re #&*@ awful.” Yet, in this “awful” country, he has done exceedingly well.
What has brought us to the point where so many of our citizens have such disdain for our country? Abraham Lincoln answers that question in the following lines of his April 30, 1863 Proclamation calling for A Day of Prayer:
“But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us…Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!”
As complex as our problems may seem, the solution is simple. We must return to the “God that made us.” We must do this as individuals, as families and as a nation. Without His “redeeming and preserving grace,” America will be seduced by the siren song of Godless and suicidal ideas.
The educational system, the mainstream media, the corporate world, the entertainment industry and the political Left are pumping poison into our culture to divide us racially and demoralize us spiritually. All they have to offer is moral depravity, Marxism and corruption. The only goal is to keep themselves in power. They would rather reign with absolute power in hellish socialism than serve in our Constitutional Republic, which secures our liberty by restraining our government.
On July 4, 1776, a miracle happened. Fifty-six patriots signed a document that changed the course of history and changed our lives. It was a unique event. For the first time in history, government was established “of the people, by the people, for the people,” as Lincoln put it in The Gettysburg Address. The sovereign would not be a king or dictator, but the people themselves.
Although my ancestors would have to wait for the promise of liberty to reach them, I am an heir to the legacy of freedom as are you and as is every American. We are the “recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven.” We are the beneficiaries of “peace and prosperity” in this nation of “wealth and power.”
America has created the highest standard of living the world has ever known. Our poor live better than the middle class in most countries. We have produced more inventions and technology than any nation that ever existed. We have done more for charity around the world than any other nation, not merely through our government’s foreign aid, but through the voluntary giving of individual Americans.
The goodwill, decency, compassion, courage and honor of the American people make us proud of our country. No matter what the anti-American demagogues say, our country is worth celebrating. Our Flag and National Anthem are worth standing for. Our country is worth fighting and dying for, and many have done just that.
We honor our Founding Fathers today, and salute all of those who have sacrificed, bled and died for our liberty.
Most of all, we thank God Who gave us this nation. He used human instruments to do it, but we must never forget that behind George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and so many others was the God of Providence. He is the inspiration behind our founding, the motivation behind our progress and the source of vision and expectation for the great future that lies ahead of us.
Have a wonderful Independence Day and may God bless our nation with renewed faith, unity and purpose.
