Happy 249th birthday, America! As a nation, we are now one year away from celebrating two and a half centuries of nationhood. Thirteen English-speaking colonies hugging the Atlantic Seaboard of North America declared their independence from Great Britain, thus challenging the modern world’s first superpower, the British Empire.
On July 4, 1776, they declared:
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.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
This statement, as unprecedented and revolutionary as it was, was joined by the equally revolutionary statement which immediately followed it, stating:
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to abolish it, andto institute new Government….”
Government gains its authority from the consent of the governed. No government anywhere in the world had declared such revolutionary things. As Abraham Lincoln put it so succinctly in his incomparable Gettysburg Address, referencing the legions of Union soldiers killed in that decisive battle:
“That these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
This revolutionary understanding of government and of the equality of all men is deeply woven into the very warp and woof of the “American Enterprise” from its very inception.
Millions of Americans have understood this essential truth down through the last 249 years, and millions more need to do so today. As President Kennedy said in his famous Inaugural Address, “the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.” (President John F. Kennedy, January 20th, 1961).
Just yesterday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson made this essential point once again, referring in his speech celebrating the passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The Speaker pointed out that the founding document, the Declaration of Independence, states that all men are “created,” not born, equal, thus assuming a Creator God.
G.K.Chesterton (1874-1936), British philosopher and Christian apologist, noted that
“America is the only nation in the world, that is founded on a creed….set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence.” (What I Saw in America)
In his Second Inaugural Address, President George W. Bush acknowledged:
“From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers….Now it is….the calling of our time.” (January 20th 2005)
And yet, despite these unprecedented, spectacular foundations and beginnings, significant segments of the current American population remain unaware. In anticipation of Independence Day, the Gallup Poll queried Americans about their “pride” in their country. Their results indicate a record low percentage of Americans are currently proud of their country.
Most disturbingly, the precipitous decline in pride in America was not evenly distributed across the general population. The Gallup results revealed that the younger you were, the less likely you were to be proud to be an American.
Fifty-eight percent of Millennials (born after 1980) were proud of their country, compared to 41% of GenZ (born after 1996).
By contrast, among Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964), 75% were proud of America. Of course, the Boomers, who were the children of the World War II generation, were taught at home and at school, and often in church, by the generation that fought, and sometimes died, for Americans’ liberty in that terrible war.
The propaganda that has been poured into succeeding generations of Americans in public schools and in the mainstream media has undermined younger Americans’ knowledge and understanding of their priceless heritage.
Edmund Burke (17729-1797), an 18th-century British philosopher, observed, “history is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn.” For too many Americans, that pact has been broken. We have not taught the younger generations the nature and value of their priceless heritage as “Americans.”
Let us take a solemn vow this Independence Day to teach our children, our grandchildren, and anyone else’s children who will listen that we are the recipients of a glorious heritage as Americans.
And we must also teach them “to whom much is given, much is required.” (Luke 12:48). We have a sacred obligation to pass on our American heritage. Explain to all who will listen what we are celebrating and why.
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.
