"Blessed is the Nation Whose God is the Lord"

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Most of us will recognize these lines as coming from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. The Founding Fathers were well aware of the fact that their revolution, if it was to succeed at all, had to be founded on the ideas of Christianity and Christianity’s God. Although some among them were deists and others were non-believers, the fact is that these were the exception. The great majority of them understood that nothing and no one can overcome whatever obstacles are to be overcome without Divine help.

Although the preamble to the Declaration is quite famous, and rightly so, it is instructive to read the end of the document: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." Some may quibble with the words “divine Providence” thinking that they are not Christian enough. However, we would do well to remember that this was, after all, a political document and as such had to accommodate those who may have objected to making the document more overtly Christian. The Founders were fighting to bring about a unifying document around which most of the thirteen colonies could rally. Thus, they created a document that, if it was not as forcefully Christian and we would like it to be, nevertheless expressed the fact that God was at the center of their project.

It is said that, when Ben Franklin was asked what kind of nation the United States would be, he replied “a republic, if you can keep it.” For the next 80 years, the United States faced great challenges. How would this new nation govern itself? Would it follow the model of the British monarchy, or would it carve its own unique government? What role would the people, without whom the revolution would not have succeeded, play in the day-to-day life of the new nation? When many attempted to call Washington by royal names, he refused to accept the monikers and simply asked that he be referred to as “Mr. President.”

In the course of the 19^th century, the United States fought another war with Britain, acquired vast territories west of the original colonies, explore those territories and settled them, fought a war with Mexico and, eventually, acquired many of the territories that today form an enormous swath of the mid-and southwest. And of course, faced serious divisions that would eventually lead to the Civil War, the time in our nation’s history when the survival of that republic Franklin spoke about was most threatened.

As that war continued, in the fall of 1863 after the battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln was asked to dedicate a burying ground for those who had died during the battle. During his speech, the famous “Gettysburg Address,” Lincoln spoke some of the most famous words any American president has uttered, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal… that we here highly resolve 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.” Since then, the United States has face extremely grave challenges. We have fought two world wars. Other wars which were far more unpopular from Vietnam to Iraq. The nation, however, has survived every one of those challenges.

Some of us of a certain vintage will remember the Bicentennial 50 years ago. In 1976, the nation had just gone through the Watergate crisis. The war in Vietnam had ended a mere 14 months before with the defeat of America’s allies, the South Vietnamese. There we long lines at the pump, inflation was sky high, and protests and rallies were seen all around the nation, primarily motivated by racial inequities and the fight for equal rights among minorities. The US was, in a very real sense, a nation in crisis looking for a new identity and trying to determine where it should go from there.

Yet, a spirit of unity still pervaded the nation’s thinking. Speaking personally, I remember the summer of ’76 quite well. I was in New York City and was privileged to have witnessed the great multi-national flotilla that came to pay homage to the US from all over the world. My parents, siblings, other relatives, and me traveled to Canada, Niagara Falls, to enjoy a time of familial fellowship. I remember that the evenings there that year were unseasonably cold. Even so, we enjoyed ourselves because we were together. That was the summer that the newly renovated Yankee Stadium opened after two years of renovation work. It was a great treat to be able to attend a game in the new stadium in the year of the Bicentennial, a year in which the Yankees returned to their former glory by winning another pennant.

The greatest thing about our minds is not only the fact that God has given us what He did not give any other creature, rational thought, but also the fact that we are able to store memories in our minds that help us reminisce and enjoy, in a very real sense, what is no longer here. Thank God for our minds and thank God for our memories. In a society that seems at times intent on destroying our institutions and way of life, let’s remember all the  good God has given us. Let’s not be ungrateful or forgetful, but rather let’s cherish the great gifts that God has blessed us with. Today, no less than yesterday, God has richly blessed our nation and has given us abundance that is beyond compare. The people who acknowledges and thanks God, is the people who will endure! If the Lord tarries, some of our children and grandchildren will celebrate the Tricentennial in 2076. Hopefully, they’ll remember the legacy of love and righteousness we have left for them. Happy Semiquincentennial!