Ordinary Days #18: Fourth of July

I was born

   a citizen of Rome. (Ac 21:28)

The Roman Commander is impressed: “This man is a Roman citizen”—a citizenship which got the Apostle Paul out of difficulties and freed him to go about the Empire proclaiming the Gospel and planting churches along the way. On the Fourth of July we celebrate our American citizenship and recall its founding Document—the Declaration of Independents signed by 56 delegates in 1776: “With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence;” and they “pledged to each other their Lives, their Fortunes and their sacred Honor.”

Recently, organizations like the 1619 Project tell a different story. Nicole Hannah-Jones, in her 1619 lead article “The Idea of America,” says of our “Declaration of Independence”:

The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, proclaims that ‘‘all men are created equal’’ and ‘‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.’’ But the white men who drafted those words did not believe them to be true for the hundreds of thousands of black people in their midst. ‘‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’’ did not apply to fully one-fifth of the country. Yet despite being violently denied the freedom and justice promised to all, black Americans believed fervently in the American creed. Through centuries of black resistance and protest, we have helped the country live up to its founding ideals.

Nevertheless, these flawed men managed to put forth our founding ideals. Ideals which Hannah-Jones tells us “black Americans believed fervently,” and “through the centuries of black resistance and protests,” have “helped the country live up to its founding ideals.” There is truth in that. Great ideals are always bigger than ourselves—making hypocrites of us all. Our founders where not unaware of this tension. It is a tension that will lead to “a great civil war,” as Lincoln tells it, “testing whether that nation… conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created… can endure.” So far, we have endured “to form a more perfect union.” “This terrible war” brought us the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments “to secure the blessing of liberty” for all our citizens. 

In spite of the fact that this is not the Kingdom that awaits us; we do well to celebrate and be grateful. Like the Apostle, most of us were just born into it. Our American citizenship comes to us as a gift.