American Pride

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Proverbs 16:18 declares, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Pride defined is a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired. I was born in the 1960’s and a proud member of the Big Red Machine era of the Cincinnati Reds, I am proud to be identified with the successes and history of the leaders of those baseball teams. I’m proud of our strong biblical heritage as a nation, the character and sacrifice of our founding fathers and every generation that has stood for our founding principles of freedom gives me great pleasure wherever I am in the world to say I am an American. To quote Mr. Lee Greenwood, I’m proud to be an American!

Sarah Holliday in the May 29, 2023 edition of The Washington Stand writes,

According to a 2023 Morning Consult poll, only 16% of Gen Z are proud to live in the United States. What’s causing such a small number of young Americans to be proud of the country they live in? On a recent episode of the Outstanding podcast, host Joseph Backholm and The Washington Stand’s Ben Johnson tackled this very question.

“That’s the lowest percentage of any generation ever recorded on a poll of this kind. … It’s also a function of progressivism emphasizing all the problems with America,” Backholm said. Johnson responded, “There’s been an inexorable march through the institutions of culture that have embedded this narrative in America, particularly in the younger generations of critical theory, the idea that America is only an institution that supports slavery.”

So today let us look back with a correct observation with American pride and thankfulness being reminded of where we came from and where God can take us if we will only allow Him permission. The year was 1774 and King George of England decided to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party. He passed the Boston Port Act, March 7, 1774, effectively closing the harbor to all commerce, intentionally ruining their economy. Surrounding towns rallied by sending food. William Prescott, who later commanded at Bunker Hill, wrote: “Providence has placed you where you must stand the first shock… If we submit to these regulations, all is gone…” he continued: “Our forefathers passed the vast Atlantic, spent their blood and treasure, that they might enjoy their liberties, both civil and religious, and transmit them to their posterity… Now if we should give them up, can our children rise up and call us blessed?”

Upon hearing of the Boston Port Act, Thomas Jefferson drafted a Day of Fasting & Prayer resolution, which was introduced in the Virginia House of Burgesses by Robert Carter Nicholas, May 24, 1774, being supported by Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and George Mason. It passed unanimously: It said, “This House, being deeply impressed with apprehension…from the hostile invasion of the city of Boston in our Sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose commerce and harbor are, on the first day of June next, to be stopped by an armed force, deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June be set apart, by the members of this House, as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition, for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights.” On the day of the appointed fast, June 1, 1774, George Washington wrote in his diary: “Went to church, fasted all day.”

The King’s appointed Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, was so upset by this Day of Fasting & Prayer resolution that two days later he dissolved Virginia’s House of Burgesses. Virginia’s colonial leaders immediately went down the street and gathered in Raleigh Tavern, where they decided to form a Continental Congress, which two years later would vote for independence from the King.

This was the first recommendation of a General Congress by any public assembly, though it had been previously proposed in town meetings at New York and Boston. A resolution to the same effect was passed in the Assembly of Massachusetts before it was aware of the proceedings of the Virginia Legislature. The measure recommended met with prompt and general concurrence throughout the colonies, and the fifth day of September next ensuing was fixed upon for the meeting of the first Congress, which was to be held at Philadelphia. Now all of us know that this set the stage for as Godly men who loved their country more than life forged for our children and us the longest living republic on the face of the earth.

Regardless of how the word of God is mishandled or how far the culture veers from the truth, June is still the month of June. It is the month we celebrate Flag Day, D-Day and Father’s Day. The rainbow is still a reminder of God’s promise and pride is still a dangerous thing. God has changed nor is He worried about the efforts of mankind to redefine His creation or remove his presence. The only real cure for the desperate need of our culture today is Jesus!

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