What Shall We Ponder this Independence Day? How About America’s Christian Roots?

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day, we should reflect on our Christian heritage. Christianity’s virtues and principles anchored our nation with a system of ethics, values, and shared vision that helped make us the greatest nation in the world. For most of its history, America has presented itself as a Judeo-Christian nation. But times are changing; we have broken the vows made by our founding fathers and we have banished our foundational beliefs. Moreover, we have forgotten the fact that the overwhelming majority of the nation-builders were God-fearing men who believe in natural law and a sovereign God. Unfortunately, we now live in a world where too many people view our nation as unexceptional and unworthy of special recognition. We do well to ponder the timeless words of the Declaration of Independence.

“Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. … Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.”
–John Hancock
1st Signer of the Declaration of Independence. History of the United States of America, Vol. II, p. 229.

For more food for thought, see Carol M. Swain’s Be the People: A Call to Reclaim America’s Faith and Promise, Chapter 1, pp. 17-19.