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Friends,

It is the Fourth of July, a day that has always sat well with me, maybe more so now than in the past.

There is something about this country that is shocking.  It was a tentative experiment that could have failed as easily as it succeeded.  Behind the courage men of women of the tumultuous late 18th century was a somewhat humanistic, Christian-laced, revolutionary passion that we were not made to be slaves to another, but free to stretch out our gifts in self-determinant ardor.  Amazing. 

But today I am thinking how much the common ethos of freedom is lost to self-determinant ardor of specific cultural quests; group after group shouting for its place and respect.  Not that the advancement of new interests should be shunted, but that they should not become primary to the national identity, and the national identity quite well might be cautious not to become primary to the reality of God. 

We have the separation clause of the First Amendment to keep unnecessary entanglement between the church and the government.  Wise, I must say.  However, it is misplaced when the institutional caution is extended to deny God at all.  I believe God is to be at the center of this experiment in freedom, for only from the divine do the inalienable rights of life and liberty flow.  I'm not in favor of a national "church" but deeply in favor of a national consciousness of God.  I think there is a difference.

In any event, it's a great nation, under God, and hopefully indivisible. 

Thanks be to God and See you Again Sunday!

Updated: 09/29/08