VIEWPOINT: Independence Day 2024

As we celebrate this July 4th, we still have many things to be proud of as a nation. In a recent email, John Massoud reminded us that, while many are trying to remove our freedoms, we remain the greatest nation ever born. We can still say our piece, and we can still (at least in Virginia) own guns and worship freely. Those of us in this neck of the woods can say we live in a place that could only have been created by the Living God (Shenandoah Valley, Virginia Highlands, Roanoke Valley).

Looking at much of the culture surrounding us, the Founding Fathers would be amazed that we have not yet become a dictatorship. They would be horrified by what those who don’t respect our heritage are trying to do to this country. Yet, they would see in Donald Trump what they envisioned for this Republic – a citizen politician who gave up making money to save the Republic from those who would destroy it. All of our Founding Fathers distrusted the concept of a political hierarchy, and all of them supported the concept of the citizen politician or citizen legislator.

Benjamin Franklin, under the pseudonym Silence Dogwood, wrote these words in the New England Courant on or about July 9, 1722:

“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or controul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only Bounds it ought to know.

This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Goverments, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together; and in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech; a Thing terrible to Publick Traytors”.

We often tend to think of our founders as ivory tower figures, but they were human beings just like we are. They worried about paying their bills, they had petty jealousies on the odd occasion. But when needed, they came together to lead this nation against the tyranny of King George III, and the tyranny of the Anglican Church, and the tyranny of big government… And did so at great cost to themselves. Most lost all that they owned. But they persevered, and they now belong to history and God.

When we celebrate with fireworks this July 4, we are continuing a tradition brought over from Europe. John Adams – who always thought that the day we celebrated should be July 2 – wanted Independence Day to be celebrated “with pomp, parade…bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other”.

As we celebrate this 4th, it would not be amiss if our celebration was accompanied with prayers for our nation’s safety and, most especially, a prayer that we can get this nation back to the Biblical values it was founded on, values that have been memorialized in our Declaration of Independence and US Constitution and the pursuit of which, has allowed God to bless this nation for over 400 years.

Again, a special thanks to John Massoud for his thoughts and observations… John is a true American patriot.

Dale Carpenter
Shenandoah Christian Alliance