Both those domestically involved and
foreign observers of the American experiment were quick to recognize the Christian
influence behind the Revolution of 237-years ago … when the United States
declared her independence.
Founding Father, John Quincy Adams, made
this clear in an 1837 Independence Day speech he delivered at Newburyport,
Massachusetts. Then being 69-years old,
he began that address with a humorous question: “Why is it, friends and fellow
citizens, that you are here assembled? Why
is it that entering on the 62nd year of our national existence you have honored
[me] with an invitation to address you …?” The answer was easy: They had asked him to
address them because he was an eye-witness who could relate to them the actual
events of the American Revolution. Adams
then asked them: “Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the
world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the
Fourth of July]?” Note his answer: “Is
it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is
indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress
of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not
that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the
foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human
government upon the first precepts of Christianity?” According to John Quincy Adams, Christmas and
the Independence Day were intrinsically connected. On the Fourth of July, the Founders simply
took the precepts of Christ which came into the world through His birth
(Christmas) and incorporated those principles into civil government.
Foreign observer Alexis de
Tocqueville of France reached the same conclusion after he traveled across
America in the mid-1830s, seeking to discover what made America great. He reported his findings in The Republic of
the United States (now called Democracy in America). De Tocqueville noted: “Upon my arrival in the
United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that
struck my attention. And the longer I
stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences
resulting from this state of things to which I was unaccustomed. In France, I had almost always seen the spirit
of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to
each other. But in America, I found that
they were intimately united, that they reigned in common over the same country.”
De Tocqueville concluded: “Religion in
America … must … be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of
that country.” A half century after the
American Revolution, De Tocqueville observed that its Christian spirit still
permeated the country.
As we approach Independence Day this
Fourth of July, let us remember our spiritual origin as a nation; and in that
spirit – acknowledge it and live by it … giving thanks to our Sovereign God
from whom all blessings flow!
Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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