The Great Roots of a Great Nation

"If you wuz born in America, you got a 90-yard head start in a 100-yard race." - Earl Pitts (alter-ego of radio-host Gary Burbank)

As we prepare to celebrate another Independence Day, it is fitting that we consider the blessings of living in America.

We live in an exceptional country, though we are not exceptional people. There is nothing extraordinary in our DNA. We are no smarter or nobler than anyone else on the planet.

But we have the good fortune to live within the most dynamic political system ever devised by man. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to that group of statesmen who declared American independence back in 1776, and who stood firm throughout the military and political clashes that followed to successfully establish the world's greatest democratic republic.

Has there ever in history been such a gathering of political, philosophical and spiritual leaders? Could America have been birthed without the contributions of men like Patrick Henry, John Witherspoon, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, John Hancock?

We are free today because we stand on the shoulders of these giants.

Admittedly, in practice, America has not always lived up to the ideals of her founding. The national sin of slavery took generations to resolve, and even today we still deal with some of the consequences of that shame. Our treatment of the native Indian populations was unconscionable. We have had our share of crooked politicians who abused government power. At times greedy industrialists have exploited the working class.

This is not a perfect country. But as Winston Churchill so famously observed, "Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

No other nation on earth offers the opportunities for common people to improve their lot in life like America. Nowhere else are people so free to pursue their dreams and ambitions. No country on earth is more diligent about protecting individual liberty than the United States.

America is a great nation because we are united by great ideas, which are proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence: "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."

These are revolutionary notions. They turned the world upside down in 1776.

Take special note of that phrase "endowed by their Creator" because it is fundamental to understanding America.

The men who founded this country shared a faith in God. In their declaration to the world of our independence, they boldly asserted their belief in a Creator who endows us with individual worth, because we are each made in his image.

They shared a biblical worldview, and an understanding of our fallen human nature. That is how they were able to craft a system of government founded on noble and lofty ideals, yet still designed to work practically in the day-to-day tumult of the sinful human condition.

Sadly, America has been drifting away from God for several generations now. We are turning away from our spiritual heritage. If our nation, founded on faith in God, chooses to deny His providence, what hope is there for us?

As John Adams wrote, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."

After studying American society for several years, the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville concluded in his classic 1835 book Democracy in America that “America is great because she is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

If we hope to pass on the blessings of liberty to our children, we need to turn our hearts back to the Creator who made all of these things possible. Can any reasonable person study the history of America's founding and not perceive the hand of God orchestrating the creation of this great experiment in self-government?

We ignore the Creator who established this country at our own peril.

We are not great people, but we do live in a great nation, bequeathed to us by great statesmen, who understood the power and authority of our great God.