THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED MAY 27, 2012
Frank Gafney was a guest on Bill Bennett’s morning radio show several weeks ago. He told of an experiment that was recently performed at a high school assembly. A guest speaker asked, “What do you think of your school’s football team?” The student body burst into a rousing ovation. He then asked, “What do you think of your teachers?” Again the students responded with enthusiastic applause (although there were a few catcalls!). Then he asked, “What do you think of your country?” There was dead silence following that question.
Gafney pointed out that young people have been subtly persuaded by both the educational system and the mass media that there is nothing exceptional about America. They don’t necessarily despise their homeland, they’re just ambivalent about it. There has been so much focus on America’s flaws that the younger generation no longer regards our country as special.
However, it’s not just high school students who don’t show much patriotism these days. Many younger church leaders are embarrassed by it. They oppose the display of the American flag in the sanctuary or the singing of patriotic hymns in the worship service. After all, “God loves all the people of the world and He is not up in heaven wrapped in an American flag, singing the Star Spangled Banner.”
So on Memorial Day or the Fourth of July there’s little mention in many churches about America’s spiritual heritage , or the sacrifice of servicemen who have died for our country. After all, many of today’s preachers were taught in high school that history is unreliable and in Seminary that patriotism is tantamount to idolatry.
I think those who consider themselves too intellectually and spiritually sophisticated to be patriotic miss several truths. First, while God loves people of every tribe, tongue and nation He does bless some countries above others and we should be thankful for his goodness. Psalm 33:12 reads, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.” That wasn’t just a promise to Israel but to any nation that honors the Lord.
Secondly, those who are embarrassed by patriotism are ignorant of America’s unique spiritual heritage. The United States was not founded as a theocracy but it was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. President John Adams, the second president, stated, “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.”
Ours is not a perfect nation but it is distinctive in that we are not subservient to a tyrannical king or an impersonal system. The United States of America is a government, “…of the people”. We are the government and we have the freedom to speak our minds, worship without government interference and to determine the future of our nation. Those are exceptional blessings – just ask the citizens of Haiti or Iran. That means we have an awesome responsibility to value our heritage and preserve it.
Thirdly, there is a lack of appreciation for America’s extraordinary material blessings. The Bible says, “Every good gift comes from above”. Nearly everyone who travels to a third-world country returns with a new sense of appreciation for how good we have it in the United States and often a sense of guilt about how selfish we have been with our riches. To fail to give God thanks for the abundant land in which we are privileged to live is the height of ingratitude.
One younger preacher told me, “We would never sing, “God Bless America” in our church because we want God to bless all nations, not just America”. I asked him, “Do you honor your mother on Mother’s Day? …That doesn’t mean you worship your mother or you don’t want God to bless other families. It just means you are thankful for your mother and the way God used her to bless your life.”
When we sing, “My Country ‘tis of Thee” or America the Beautiful” we’re not worshipping America, we’re just giving thanks to God for the incredible privilege we have of living in the freest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world. When we pay proper respect for the soldiers who died in battle to preserve our freedom we’re not glamorizing war but we are showing “honor to whom honor is due”.
This Memorial Day let’s all pause to give thanks for the brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives for the freedom we enjoy every day. Better still, take your children to a military cemetery and explain to them what Memorial Day is all about. (The above photo was taken a few years ago by my wife, Judy, when she took three of our grandchildren to Zachary Taylor Cemetery on Memorial Day.)
Why not teach your children the third stanza of, “America, the Beautiful”? It reads, “O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life! America, America, May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine!”
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