God and Country
After the opening salvo of the Revolutionary War at Concord, a colonial defeat was looming. Desperate, the Continental Congress issued a call for all citizens to fast and pray, so the God might bless the nation. This vociferous summons could only be issued by a legislature that recognized and professed their faith in God. They were the same delegates who penned the Declaration of Independence.
As a nation we recognize the tyranny the thirteen colonies endured under King George III. Having been subjugated, Congress recognized everyone’s “unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Declaration’s 1,320 words is not a religious manuscript, but a political statement; a politically statement of equality.
Latent within the parchment is the recognition that we are a Christian nation. In the manifesto such phrases as “God entitle them,” “endowed by their Creator,” “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world,” are not superfluous but an intentional assertion that we are a God oriented nation. This can be attested because all 56 signers were affiliated with a Christian church.
The United States Constitution is not a religious document, but a political treatise assuring that the people will be justly governed and human rights protected. In the sweltering summer of 1787 in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, 55 delegates convened for the Constitutional Convention. In deliberation, the Bible was seldom sought. What was prominent in composing the Constitution were the Articles of Confederation, to protect us from a weak central government; all state constitutions, allowing the best sections of each to be incorporated; the writings of French philosophers, noted for extolling human rights; all British law, preventing any possible instillation of a monarchy; British Common Law, which protected individual freedoms.
Yet, God was very much present among the proceedings. Constitutional historian Catherine Bowen wrote that religion was seldom discussed but, “there sat no delegate whose ideas of government or political philosophy were not profoundly influenced by his religious beliefs and training.”
The Christian spirit has permeated the Oval Office from the first day to the present. Our first president, George Washington, kept a prayer journal, writing “and as thou wouldst hear me calling upon thee in prayers, so give me grace to hear thee calling on me in thy word.” Our forty-fourth president, Barack Obama, every morning read a devotional, with one lesson concluding, “Only one way is the path of Christ.”
The Redcoats disembarking on Boston was not our only time of national peril. When it appeared during the Civil War that the Union was in jeopardy, Lincoln permitted the words “In God We Trust” to be placed on our coinage, acknowledging our reliance on God.
The Cold War threatened our security. Eisenhower was determined to disassociate our Christian nation from the atheistic Soviet Union. On Flag Day 1954, as an evangelical statement, he added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. Eisenhower wrote, “In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future.”
It is clear that the First Amendment was to prevent the federal government from establishing a national religion. It is not clear if it prevents the government from acknowledging Christianity. It is time we dispense being “politically correct” and unapologetically declare the Christian heritage of the United States. The Founding Fathers were steadfast in avowing their obedience to God.
Dressed in rags, the South Carolina delegate who signed the Declaration, Thomas Heyward, was imprisoned. On July 4, 1781, confessing the common core of our nation he took the British hymn God Save the King, and wrote a new hymn for a new nation, God save the Thirteen States.
God save the Thirteen States!
Long rule the United States!
God save our States!
Make us victorious,
Happy and glorious;
No tyrants over us;
God save our States!
To our famed Washington,
Brave Stark at Bennington,
Glory is due.
Peace to Montgomery’s shade,
Who as he fought and bled,
Drew honors round his head,
Num’rous as true.
Oft did America
Foresee with sad dismay
Her slav’ry near.
Oft did her grievance state,
But Britain, falsely great,
Urging her desp’rate fate,
Turned a deaf ear.
We’ll fear no tyrant’s nod
Nor stern oppression’s rod,
Till time’s no more.
Thus Liberty, when driv’n
From Europe’s states, is giv’n
A safe retreat and hav’n
On our free shore.
O Lord! Thy gifts in store,
We pray on Congress pour,
To guide our States.
May union bless our land,
While we, with heart and hand,
Our mutual rights defend;
God save our States!