We too quickly leave the reason for our celebrations behind. We must not do that on July 4. The tension and threatened disruption in Russia are an immediate reminder of who we say we are as a nation is as critical today as ever.
When the founders of the United States made their stand against British rule it was on the basis of an authority beyond that of mere humans. The equality they claimed was rooted in the laws of nature and nature’s God. The splendor of the Declaration of Independence is in its allegiance to the First Commandment, I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. The Declaration proclaims God as the sole Lord of creation. The premise of the Declaration is that each person’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness do not come from men – they come from the creator and are therefore unalienable.
Not a few, but all people are sacred. The sovereign God is a loving father, and all human beings are his children. God loves each and every human being with infinite care. If we have not celebrated this during the July Fourth holiday, let’s do so. It is central to all we hold dear in our democracy –-all men are created equal. This endows each and everyone with a dignity we dare not disregard.
Back of the contemporary liberation movements which are causing so much confusion and so much inconvenience, is the determination on the part of some of God’s children to claim the dignity, the rights and the destiny for which God has created them, and which our forefathers risked their lives to realize for themselves and their posterity. What is happening today in Russia is witness to this. What is happening in some of the countries of Latin America is another witness. We were born in revolution. This nation was conceived in a revolt against tyranny, and today we are seeing people in different oppressive governments believe that truth and following that guide– that all persons are created equal under God.
Freedom and peace with justice is not a political issue alone. It’s a religious and a spiritual issue. God will not forever allow a huge portion of his people to be sold for a pair of shoes; that’s the way the Old Testament puts it. To bring it up-to-date, God will not forever allow a huge portion of his people to be sold for a barrel of oil, or another nuclear warhead.
Let’s not leave our “Fourth Celebration” behind. As we reflect upon the essence of this nation’s greatness, we celebrate the sovereignty of God, and we thank God for the fact that there has been within this blessed nation of ours a residual emphasis upon the sacredness of persons.