The whole basis of the founding of our country is that our freedoms come from God. God created Adam and Eve, and they were free. Free to succumb to temptation, free to try the apple, free to sin, free to lose their perfect communion with God and their perfect life in the Garden of Eden. So we humans don’t always make the best choices, but fighting for God-given freedoms is always the right thing to do.
Our founding fathers were smart to recognize, value, and fight for every human’s God-given rights. The self-evident truths that the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle everyone to freedoms including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They were also very brave. The role they took on and the leadership they provided were critical. The freedoms that the founders believed were so important that they are specified in the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. It’s called “The Bill of Rights”. Nothing could be more obvious than the absolute necessity of these rights.
Freedom was fought for then, freedom was fought for to abolish slavery in America, and it is being fought for today, in America as well as in places around the globe. There may never have been a time when freedom wasn’t being fought for somewhere in the world. America is special. There has never been a country like it. It is a nation founded in purpose and defined by it from the very beginning. American exceptionalism is the idea that the United States is inherently different from other nations. The values, political system, and historical development of the U.S. may be unique in human history. Do we not believe that our country is both destined and obligated to play a distinct and positive role on the world stage, to set an example for all nations?
A 1630 sermon by John Winthrop is now famous mainly for its proclamation that “we shall be as a city upon a hill.” Beginning in the 1970s, Ronald Reagan placed that line, from that sermon, at the center of his political career. Tracing the story of America from John Winthrop forward, Reagan built a powerful articulation of American exceptionalism - the idea, as he explained, “that there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.” In 2012, American exceptionalism - as summarized by the phrase “city on a hill”- became an official plank in the platform of the Republican party. (From "City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism" by Abram C. Van Engen.)
"The flames kindled on the 4th of July, 1776, have spread across too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume the engines and all who work them." The self-evident truth that "all men are created equal; endowed by their creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (Thomas Jefferson) remains the powerful philosophical and moral foundation of the American republic itself. Yet, as we are seeing today, the advance of freedom and democracy is not a straight path, but one that also suffers setbacks.
Today Americans are fighting for the very freedoms that our country was founded on. Cancel culture, mainstream media, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Business, socialist- and Marxist-leaning liberals are all working against those freedoms and the very ideal that is America’s dream. We fight with words and votes, with mental, emotional, physical, and financial weapons. Most of all we fight with prayer. We know God is on the side of the Judeo-Christian values that represent our most important laws, morals, and Biblical teachings. Unrealized by many conservatives, a battle has been waged for the last several decades against these intrinsically American tenets. Conservatives are waking up and being shocked by riots called peaceful, gender identity pushed on 5 and 6 and 7-year-olds, Americans thrown in jail, treated cruelly, and no charges even brought against them. And a president who makes harmful and horrendous decisions that hugely impact families, businesses, the strength of America’s military power, peace, and prosperity, tremendously adversely affecting the lives, liberties, and pursuits of happiness of Americans, his supposed constituents.
Americans have kept their republic and built it to be strong, but it will only remain so under constant vigilance. Is America living up to her potential, to her obligations and commitments? Perry Miller, who portrayed himself as a “lone wolf,” was not the only one with concerns. He believed that America’s influence might be short-lived. “History is littered with the corpses of civilization that reached the limit of expansion, dug in behind walls and moats, and there yielded to decay,” he proclaimed.
Let us not allow America to continue decaying. Let us continue to fight for all the Constitution promises.
The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is a fight for the freedoms of the Ukrainian people, freedom from Putin’s authoritarian rule. The Russian citizens are suffering too. When leaders grab for power for personal benefit, citizens pay the price. Ukrainians are showing patriotism and bravery, stepping up to fight with more than words, or money, or weapons of prayer and support. They are stepping up with weapons of war, putting their very lives on the line – as the freedom fighters who helped found America did. Would Americans take up weapons of war and stand and fight today? Or, due to fear, will we go down without a shot being fired? Will we accept bad actors’ dictates without question? Will we bow to social pressure because we don’t want to make waves?
I like to share the quote below, but I want to add that not just Christians, but all those with Biblical values, should labor to be of influence in the world, for “It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains”. – Patrick Henry
"... a Christian, to the extent of his empowerment, should labor to be of influence in the world. That influence is first of all spiritual, but it can take the strategic form of the economic, the political, and other modes as well. The preservation of our Christian opportunity is a cause for which we must labor in this world. Indeed, the integrity of the nation—which is one of the powers that be and ordained of God—is the worthy object of a Christian’s prayer and efforts. -Dave Breese
Sources: https://www.heritage.org/political-process/commentary/the-american-experiment, https://www.unitedstatesnow.org/what-is-american-exceptionalism.htm, https://www.neh.gov/article/how-america-became-city-upon-hill, https://bigessaywriter.com/blog/essay-about-human-rights-rights-and-freedoms, https://www.newsweek.com/majority-americans-would-stay-fight-if-russia-invaded-us-poll-1686050.
Guest writer
From Texas CD-03 Republican nominee, Keith Self:
As we celebrate the anniversary of our nation’s independence, I want to take this opportunity to share with you an excerpt of George Washington’s General Orders from July 2, 1776:
“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army—Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect—We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world—Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions—The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny meditated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
I encourage you to share these inspiring words with friends and family this weekend so they too can reflect on the resolve of our Founders to save their fellow citizens and future generations from tyranny. Further inspiration can be found in the last stanza of our National Anthem that reflects commitment to faith and freedom.
“O! thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;
Bless'd with victory and peace, may our Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – ‘In God is our trust!”
Our nation has two great founding documents, unique across the world, The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. May we rededicate ourselves to the defense of those two great instruments of liberty and the rule of law that they define.
See the full text of these George Washington’s General Orders here.
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Texas specific - This video with some Texas counties’ representatives - sheriffs, attorneys, mayors - speaking out about the border, declaring an invasion, tells the stories of the humans being trafficked, of the harm to Texas citizens, of the damage to Texas lands, of the number of deaths from Fentanyl. The speakers thank Governor Abbott for what he’s done and ask for him to respond more strongly to stanch the dire consequences of the human and drug trafficking to Texas, to Texans, and to every state and citizen in America. This is the source website.
For two fun and interesting articles on the history of the Yankee Doodle Dandy song, click here and here.
A bit of trivia - I like vocabulary and grammar. Yes, I know, weird. Even if you don’t have that same weird, you’ll be entertained by this clever lesson about ‘different from’ and ‘different than’.
Until next time…
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