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Even as a child growing up in Canada, we had respect for the United States. Yes, we were taught to love Canada, but early on we heard about the great and influential country to our south. Little did I know I would eventually attend Dallas Seminary where I would meet my future wife, Rebecca, and we would reside in the Chicago area for essentially the rest of our lives. Since I became an American citizen many years ago, I can say with deep-seated confidence, “I am proud to be an American!”
Rebecca and I, along with our three daughters, paid a visit to Washington D.C. fifty years ago on America’s 200th anniversary. We visited monuments, read the fragments of Scripture on several government buildings, and on our way home, stopped in Gettysburg where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech where he said regarding those buried there, “That these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Yes, I do believe the United States is an exceptional country. America is far from perfect and always will be, but having visited many other countries, I can say there are none as prosperous and free as the United States. America pioneered a revolutionary form of government, creating the world’s first enduring constitution built on the idea that “We the people” have the right to govern through our elected representatives. No other nation in modern history has sent more missionaries or provided more financial support to Christian ministries around the world—building hospitals, orphanages and schools and, most importantly, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
A Christian Perspective on Our Constitutional Republic
The United States is not a democracy, it is a constitutional republic. That means winning the national popular vote isn’t enough, the candidate must win 270 Electoral College votes. And in my opinion, one of the wisest decisions was to establish a divided government with three equal branches (legislative, executive, and judicial), congressional representatives for each state based on its population, and all states having two senators regardless of the population size.
Thankfully, we do have mechanisms in the Constitution to redress our failures as well as those that allow us to move forward in a positive direction. Benjamin Franklin, answering a question as to the sort of government the delegates of the Constitutional Convention had created replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”[1] He was emphasizing the responsibility of the people, knowing that such a republic could not be kept if our freedoms are misused.
America has always been willing to help other nations when they are in a crisis. A few years ago, Rebecca and I visited the American cemetery in Normandy, France; we also have stood at war monuments in Washington D.C. reminding ourselves of both the high cost of freedom and the unpredictable outcome of foreign wars.
This morning, in my devotional time, I poured out my heart to God on behalf of the United States. We cannot quote the words of John Adams often enough, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.... Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”[2]
Can a Divided America Be Healed?
Today, we are deeply divided morally, politically, religiously; we even disagree on the kind of country we want in the future. The God who has blessed us is also the God who will judge us for forsaking the Judeo-Christian ethos that gave birth to our Constitution. While we acknowledge that we cannot predict our future, we must cry up to God on this special birthday of our country, repenting of our many personal and national sins so that we, by His mercy, might be a country that honors God.
No one knows what happened to Humpty Dumpty, we just know he fell and became unfixable. But a friend of mine added to his story with a challenging outcome:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty back together again.
But then something surprised
All the king’s men.
God’s people bowed down
To repent of their sin.
Strange as it sounds,
And a little bit odd,
A healing occurred
Explained only by God.
Back on the wall,
Humpty took his place.
But it could not have happened
Without seeking God’s face.
So for all God’s people,
There’s a message to heed.
America’s our Humpty,
And to God we must plead.
Shattered, divided
And broken within,
God’s waiting for us
To repent of our sin. [3]
We have much to thank God for as we celebrate our 250th birthday. But only by God’s mercy can we survive, and “under God,” be a beacon of light to the world.
[1] Richard R. Beeman, Ph.D., “Perspectives on the Constitution: A Republic, If You Can Keep It,” National Constitution Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/education/classroom-resource-library/classroom/perspectives-on-the-constitution-a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it.
[2] John Adams, “To The Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, 11 October, 1798,” The Online Library of Liberty, https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/john-adams-religion-constitution.
[3] Steve Hale, Awakening Now or Never, vol. 1 (Riverstone Press, 2023), 57.