I am not a very patriotic person – I do not wave the flag, pledge allegiance to it, or constantly declare that this is the greatest country on earth. This is not God’s country. I do my best to separate my theology from my politics, which has left me on unfriendly terms with my. Yet, there are days in which I am reminded of the great promise of this country, of the great things that it has done, has brought about, and has inspired.
We look at the revolutions around the globe, even the recent – and God willing, ongoing – revolution in Iran. People desire the freedom which we have. The founding documents of many governments, and the United Nations as well, have written into their lives words similar to what we have lived under for over two-hundred years.
We have a great promise from our Founding Fathers, and Mothers who supported the War in various ways, that we can achieve a great government founded upon equality and respect, a government of liberty and the rule of Law. There is a promise that all men, and all women, are created equal and born with rights which no one may take away. They may from time to time repress and oppress, but when the oppressed arise, they shall regain any misplaced rights.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
When this was penned, it did not extend many of those ‘unalienable rights’ to women, nor to men of color, and further yet, many rights were restricted to only those men who owned property. Yet, like the Prophets of old who spoke without knowing the power of their words, this promise has gradually come to apply to the various segments of our country who have long been denied their ‘unalienable rights.’ I seriously doubt that any of the Founders could long foresee the equality in our society today, or the problems which we seem to have in fully extending the right to excercise those rights to all people.
The Founding Fathers agreed to a sole Creator, and seemingly to a sole equality, yet we still deny to certain ones the fully ability to participate in the American life.
Dr. King spoke about a check that was yet to be cashed,
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We have people waiting, still yet, on that check to clear, Dr. King.
We are Americans, proud, a city indeed set on a hill, loyal, willing to die for freedom’s cause, and optimistic; yet, in the past generation, we have increasingly given in to fear – not of the unknown, but the different. We have allowed our beacon of liberty to be darkened, and the promise of our Found Fathers, and the hope of oppressed peoples, to become marked with vileness.
We have seen dark times, and good times, and while countries today are threatening us, our greatest problem derives not from insane dictators from across the ocean (much like it was over 200 years ago) but from the distinctly American ability to refuse to find common ground, to have our parts wage a war of fear and destruction against one another. Today, we have our neighbors calling for the death of fellow Americans, and battles on our homeland, to save this country. This will be what destroys us – we ourselves will destroy this country by the Civil War that rages between the States, between Americans, between us all.
Today is the 4th of July, some 233 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Today is a day for all Americans to take some time and put aside differences – imagined, real, political, religious – and remember that we are Americans first, that politics come second, that this country is temporal, but the heavenly eternal. Let us keep in our prayers today, those men and women who serve our country in uniform and out of uniform who will always go unnoticed. And let us keep in our prayers those people who are still laboring for freedom, in our society and around the world.
July 4th, 2009 12:37 pm
I am glad to hear that I am not the only one whom thinks the Pledge to the flag is crazy,, I will not do it,, I don’t owe my freedom to America, or anyother thing ,I owe it all to Abba God,,,, He is the maker of us all ,
July 4th, 2009 3:56 pm
I was once quite the patriot … now, I find myself in this same position.
There are things to celebrate about being here, but my freedom and my hope don’t come from the US or anything of the sort.
Great post.
July 4th, 2009 4:24 pm
if you dont like this country and dont have pride in where you live maybe you should leave….if this is’nt the greatest country on earth (in your opinion) then maybe you should move….i have members of my family that have died and shed their blood for your and my freedom….to not take pride in this country and the people who have given their life for it is a shame
July 4th, 2009 9:29 pm
AMEN,, God said to not to love this world,not to be like the world, this world and country is NOT our home,,,, we are only here for a short while, and then on to our real home he has prepared for us….
July 5th, 2009 1:18 pm
Even when I was in elementary school I thought it was strange to pledge allegiance to a flag. I only did it because of peer pressure.
Jeff
July 4th, 2009 12:49 pm
You are right, Deb. I do not do a lot of things – I guess the way I look at it, if we use that whole render to Caesar thing, is that I owe my allegiance to God and the blood of Christ. This country, while giving freedoms, compares very little to the liberty which Christ has given us.
July 4th, 2009 9:21 pm
Tell me, at what point did I say that I didn’t like this country? Maybe it is you who should leave for not respecting one of the founding freedoms, the freedom of speech. It’s not the greatest country on earth – it should be, and it can be, but it is not. To be American is to say this, not deny this. We should not turn a blind eye to the problems that we have. Tell me, would this still be the greatest country on earth if we had slaves? Of denied basic rights to certain segments of our population? Or if we waged unjust wars? Or participated in genocide?
You see, we have done all of those things.
Exactly what kind of pride do you want me to have? A pride which I have seen today – with flags draped on roof tops, on the side of houses, on the ground? Were we celebrate the freedom of this country by popping fireworks made in China? Tell me, do you want me to have the kind of pride which denies that we must be better, that we have to better than we have been, that we must overcome those things in our short past which makes us hypocrites? Is the pride that you want me to have the kind where I look the other way when the government does some thing to tarnish the bloodstained Constitution? Do you still want me to say that this is the greatest country on earth, denying God and His Church, while we allow the murder of innocents, and drug our children with the placebos of the streets?
Of do you want me to have the pride, which you clearly have, which states that who ever disagrees with me can just leave?
You are not an American, sir, and making such comments, and hiding beyond ‘anonymous’ shows the lack of understanding of this country that you have. You, sir, are unprideful of this country, and you, sir, deny what those men and women died for.
Sir, because I do not wave the flag or shout propoganda, does not mean that I do not care some measure of pride in the country of my birth – but, pride goes beyond blindness. It calls us to seek the better, and you, sir, deny that. No, what you have is not pride; what you have is folly and destruction – but will destroy this country.
July 4th, 2009 9:31 pm
Deb – that is my credo. I believe that while we make temporal pride in things, we must remember that our pride must always be in the home prepared for us. THat is the greatest country soon to be on earth!