Americans have experienced this Thanksgiving season with a disconcerting dissonance concerning who we are as a people. There are many who want to tie being “American” to ethnicity or the length of time their ancestors have inhabited this continent. Many others, thankfully a majority, identify being American with allegiance and loyalty to a set of beliefs and principles embodied in our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, no matter how long their families have been here.
Those who espouse this credal definition, including the belief that “All men are created equal” by their Creator, that they have the right to govern themselves, and that government obtains its authority from the consent of the governed, have identified that translucent truth which makes the American Revolution and the American “Experiment” the wonder and envy of the world these past two centuries.
Ken Burns, the multi-award-winning documentarian, in his latest project, The American Revolution series, identifies the truly “revolutionary” nature of the American Revolution. Until 1776, all humanity had been “subjects” under the control of a government. The Founding Fathers were the first human beings to assert that people were citizens, and had the right to elect their government and hold it accountable to the people.
Of course, they had their blind spots as 18th-century men and women, just as we have our blind spots as 21st-century men and women. To their credit, and ours, we have often made heroic efforts, including a bloody and bitter Civil War, in efforts to correct these blind spots.
Ken Burns, being interviewed about his American Revolution documentary, said that the Revolution’s credal assertion that “All men are created equal” was so revolutionary for humanity that it was the greatest event since the birth of Christ. When I first heard the statement by Burns, I was shocked, and as a Christian, I felt it was a bit sacrilegious.
However, when I reflected on it, I felt Burns was almost right in attempting to describe the enormous influence of the American Revolution on human history. Personally, I would rank the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the most significant event in history, human or otherwise. However, excepting the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the only events I would say outrank the American Revolution in human history are the coming of the Holy Spirit in a new and mighty way at Pentecost (Acts 2) and the Reformation in the 16th and 17th century Europe and North America. Of course, without that Reformation, it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine the American Revolution.
It should be truly humbling to all Americans that we share this remarkable heritage. It is not only a privilege, but a tremendous responsibility to protect this priceless heritage and pass it on unsullied to future generations of Americans.
This Thanksgiving season, let us all give thanks for the unique blessings we experience as Americans, and let us all pledge to work diligently to not only protect, but to expand our freedoms and liberties to all our citizens and those overseas who long for the freedoms we so often take for granted.
I will never forget going to Romania shortly after the fall of the U.S.S.R. to participate in a conference on religious liberty. I was meeting with the Romanian equivalent of our Attorney General. He reached behind him and pulled a book from his shelf. He opened it to the American Declaration of Independence and read, “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.”
Then he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, “We want what you have.” I thought, “How many Americans have read the Declaration of Independence, and if so, how long has it been since they last read it?” Read it, read it to your family this Thanksgiving season, and let us all give thanks for all those who have sacrificed to protect our liberties.
Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.
