Monday Morning Music Ministry

7-6-26

We are coming through a spate of celebrations surrounding the 250th “birthday” of America. Literally, the signing of the Declaration of Independence – not independence from the British monarchy itself, nor of the country known as the United States (1787), but the Fourth of July is a traditional and useful date. So we celebrate.

Dates are useful tools when they assist people who are losing touch with important aspects of their heritage; and aspects of our heritage are useful indeed when we need, as I believe, to appreciate their current situations. We cannot know where we are, in an important sense, unless we know how we “arrived” here. Who founded our nation – and are we a nation or a country? – and what was rejected, not just established, in that founding? What gifts did leaders bestow on their people and design with us in mind? What lessons did they learn and impart? What dreams did they have… and do we appreciate them?

More essentially, do contemporary Americans know the difference between a democracy and a republic? How many students – how many adults – understand the details of sacrifices made by uncountable American patriots since 1776? Why (according to many statistics) are most Americans either indifferent or hostile to principles of earlier American leaders – individual responsibility; personal probity; marital fidelity; the nuclear family; the sincere practice of Christian religion; not being, as a nation, subservient to a foreign country.

Old-fashioned standards? Yes. Principles that carried expiration dates? God forbid. Yet we have let that happen.

History has eras and chapters. Recognition of this viewpoint helps us understand our society, and ourselves, for good or ill; but conveniently for instruction. If we pay attention. For humankind, the life and Resurrection of Jesus is the dividing line of our “story”: one life, one covenant, one relationship with God and man before; a new life, a new covenant, new relationships with God and humankind after.

Regarding America and its current state, readers will note that I am a student of Theodore Roosevelt. Many are the reasons that I admire him and in major ways have devoted my life to his career, his example. He possibly was the most observant Chrsitian of all our presidents, certainly no less so than others. He titled three of his 40-odd books from Bible verses. After the presidency he shunned lucrative job offers to become Editor of a small weekly Christian magazine. He wrote an article for a popular family journal, “Nine Reasons Why Men Must Go to Church.” On a West Coast trip he altered his schedule to deliver, totally impromptu, five 90-minute speeches about the duties of a Christian in American society…

TR did not explicitly wear his faith on his sleeve, as it were, despite his vaunted exuberance and these forms of witness. But he practiced it.

This is one reason that Theodore Roosevelt stands as a human fulcrum in American history. Presidents since him have seldom referred to Christian faith as frequently, or with such zeal, as he did. Exceptions would include, at least at times, Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan. Before TR the list is long: George Washington, John Adams, James Garfield, William McKinley, and especially Abraham Lincoln, the speeches and proclamations of whom, during the last year of his life, are like sermons.

There are many other before-and-after aspects to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. With rare exceptions, the office was weak until TR, who invented the Imperial Presidency, a strong chief executive. For good or ill, America itself became an empire under TR, and has not looked back. He developed the Regulatory State, with the national government playing a positive role in many aspects of life from the national parks to public safety. (As the author of three books on TR, I am convinced that the current Bureaucratic State he would view as a Frankenstein monster; it was Wilson who perverted progressivism).

Theodore Roosevelt’s role is more significant, especially this year, than all these reasons. Coincidentally, he became president exactly 125 years after the Declaration of Independence. And this year is exactly 125 years after he became president.

We can see this, mathematically, as a trivia fact… or we can pause to consider What Now? What’s Next? What can we learn, what should we regret, what can we restore? I maintain that we have nearly squandered the riches and blessings of Almighty God; that we have in many ways sinned against Him and frankly are deserving of punishment, individually and as a country. Our churches are frequently apostate, our popular culture is shallow and filthy, our society often is immoral, abusive, and indulgent. We are an aggressive, far-flung, corrupt empire… a bankrupt, rude, resented city on a hill.

Is there a civilization that has ever sustain itself, having made such choices? Should we assume that America can long endure thus?

Rather than seeing America’s “birthday” as of the “first 250 years,” let us see Today as the starting-point of a Revival… maybe the commencement of a third, bright, shining, course-correction for the next 125 years. Pray to God – the god of Our Fathers – that this may be so.

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Click: Faith of Our Fathers | The Great Controversy