Today we celebrate one of the momentous events in the history of our nation--its beginnings--and the history of the world. Representatives of 13 original colonies united and dedicated their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor to begin a nation dedicated to and founded on the proposition that all people (the term "men" was the generic use of the word) are created equal and are endowed by ...our Creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--in that order.
America has never been perfect--we have been guilty of the grave sins of severe injustice and mistreatment of Native Americans and African American slaves, and we have many sins in our history, including the grave sin of abortion in our present time. But for the most part America has been a nation that has sought God, has sought to do what is right, that has provided opportunity and freedom for people in our country and throughout the world, we have fought for freedom and against tyranny and injustice, and we have generously fed the hungry and sought to welcome strangers and been a land of opportunity where even people of little means can work hard and work out our hopes, dreams, and visions, even if we have to start small, and achieve some measure of fulfillment and contribution to the common good.
America is not perfect and we must repent of our national sins of greed, arrogance, materialism, sexual immorality, abortion, and attempts to forget the God Who provided the dream and the provision to keep us alive and make our country great and prosperous enough to be able to share with
so many people throughout the world.
Let us repent of our sins, let us turn to the God Who has protected and provided for us and made us a great nation, because without Him we never could and never will be able to do anything. Let us recommit ourselves to the vision of our founding fathers and mothers and our founding principles based on the Judaeo-Christian ethic. Let us commit ourselves to electing leaders who hold to these principles and this vision and who humbly and gratefully look to God as our Source of blessing and vision. Let us hold fast to the exceptionalism of the vision of liberty, justice and opportunity for all, repent of the ways we fall short and realize that this exceptionalism should not be a matter of boasting, pride or arrogance but of a higher vision rooted in God.
Very good reflection, Arlene. We, as a nation, have to remember to place God in the center of all we do. We have to recall the words of Jesus, in Mark, chapter 12, to love God with our whole being, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Once we live out these two directives of Jesus, we will then be a nation that God will be pleased with.
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