Parshall Partners

Happy Birthday, America

         Happy Birthday, America! Our nation is celebrating her 249th birthday – and there is much to celebrate.

         Despite the stunning polling data released saying 54% of Americans would vote for a president who’s an atheist, America has never had an openly atheist president.  That number is up 36 points from when the question was initially asked by Gallup in 1937.  Faith, to one degree or another, has been a part of almost every administration since George Washington.

         On May 10, 1789 writing to the United Baptist Churches in Virginia, Washington stated:

         “If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the constitution…might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it…you doubtless remember I have often expressed my sentiments, that any man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”

         John Adams almost delivered a sermon at his inauguration on March 4, 1797.  He declared:

         “With humble reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes…May that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessings upon this nation.”

         Fast forward to the 20^st century and listen to what Teddy Roosevelt said through a National Day of Praise and Thanksgiving Proclamation issued on October 24^th, 1903:

         “During the last year the Lord has dealt bountifully with us, giving us peace at home and abroad and the chance for our citizens to work for their welfare unhindered by war, famine or plague.  It behooves us not only to rejoice greatly because of what has been given us, but to accept it with a solemn sense of responsibility, realizing that under Heaven it rests with us ourselves to show that we are worthy to use aright what has thus been entrusted to our care. 

         In no other place and at no other time has the experiment of government of the people, by the people, and for the people been tried on so vast a scale as here in our own country in the opening years of the 20^th Century. Failure would not only be a dreadful thing for us, but a dreadful thing for all mankind, because it would mean loss of hope for all who believe in the power and the righteousness of liberty.

         Therefore, in thanking God for the mercies extended to us in the past, we beseech Him that He may not withhold them in the future.”

         May God continue to shed His grace on us.

         That’s my opinion. I’m Janet Parshall.