Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Happy Birthday America

Happy Birthday, America. You’re what, 234 years old now? How about that!

It seems like yesterday when you sent that wonderful farewell letter to Mother England. You were declaring your independence. Good for you! Do you remember what it said? Let me read it to you.

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

And, here’s the part that’s often quoted: 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.”

Well, isn’t it interesting that God and Creator are mentioned. Unfortunately, these days God is taking a beating. The great men who had the courage to separate from Mother England felt God was blessing their decision and would be watching over them. After listing all of the reasons why they were upset with the King, notice how they ended this declaration with these words:

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”.

How about that? They called upon Divine Providence. It looks like they really never stopped thinking about God.

Guess what. Since they made that momentous decision, we seem to be forgetting that God. Our culture is morally polluted and our environment is physically polluted. It’s safe to say God is not in our thoughts and actions as He once was.

Granted life is different now. But, that’s no excuse for the greed and corruption in government and business and the breakdown of family values. Believe it or not, same sex marriages are gaining acceptance and respectability. Heaven help us.

Another thing. God is not welcome in schools. He’s not to be mentioned in our Pledge of Allegiance or taught that He created the world. Soon, no one will be allowed to say “God bless you” when someone sneezes, for Pete’s sake. We seem to be thumbing our noses at that God.

The good news is you are a beautiful country. In fact a song was written to describe you: “ O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains’ majesty above the fruited plains. America, America, God shed His light on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.” There’s that God reference again. That’s the same God your forefathers wrote about.

Well, look. I’m not going to ruin your birthday. Let me simply congratulate you on this special day. Do I dare mention His name again?

OK. God bless you, America.