The 250th Birthday of the United States is July 4th, 2026. What are you celebrating?

My wife’s wisdom should guide you.

As I wrote in my acknowledgements for the General Counsel Series (The Promised Land, at 14):

A comment by my wife Suzanne after seeing the show at the American Pavilion in Epcot Center in Walt Disney World gave me the essential vision of Visions of America; she felt that we should be proud about something besides all of the wars we’ve won.

And so, for the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States, do not celebrate with gold statues or triumphal arches dedicated to the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, or the Power of the United States.

Celebrate by remembering the countless ways that the United States struggles (despite going astray (Isaiah 53:6)) to establish the ideal America first discovered by the hearts of Abraham, Moses and Jesus:

—blessing ALL people (Abraham; Genesis 12:2-3);

—challenging ALL pharaohs to set ALL people free (Moses; Exodus 8:1); and

—healing ALL hurting people (Jesus; Luke 10:25-37).

Honor those who blessed people, challenged pharaohs to set people free, and healed hurting people.

Here is an example of such blessing, challenging and healing taken from Visions of America, at pages 18-19:

Roger Williams Urges Religious Freedom

[Roger Williams] led the way in establishing religious freedom in America.

Roger Williams was constantly at loggerheads with the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay colony.

The Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England, but they did not want to stop using the power of the government to raise money for the church. Nor did they want to stop forcing people to attend the government’s churches. They felt strongly that forcing people to hear the Word of God was the best way to encourage them to become Christians.

Roger Williams believed exactly the opposite. How could people love God freely if they were forced to follow him?

Williams argued that the government should stop forcing people to give money to support one church and that the government should stop forcing people to attend church.

Instead, the government should play the same role as the captain on a ship. The government should guarantee the right of each “passenger on the ship” to worship God in the way in which that passenger thought best. . . .

Religious freedom springs from the realization that in order to love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul and mind, we must be free to love.

We cannot force people to love God any more than we can force a man and a woman to fall in love with each other. Indeed, trying to force a man and a woman to fall in love with each other is one of the best ways to make sure that they never fall in love with each other!

Religious freedom also takes away the tyrannical pretense of governments as “all powerful”.

Indeed, it is far more important that we love our God and that we love our neighbor as ourselves than that we love our nation (or any other human institution).

So, as we affirm every time that we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, nations are under God, and nations (and other human institutions) do not have the right to dictate what people think or believe.

In the 1630s and 1640s, such radical ideas led Roger Williams to flee the tyranny of the Puritans in Massachusetts and to found a new colony where true religious freedom was practiced: Rhode Island. It was a grand experiment that ultimately proved successful.

By “boldly going where no one had gone before” in promoting religious freedom, Roger Williams took a giant leap forward for all humanity.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you support Religious Freedom? Why? How?

Do you believe it is far more important that we love our God and that we love our neighbor as ourselves than that we love our nation (or any other human institution)? Why? How?

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For related ideas, please read my blogs “Building Houses on Rock: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”; “Places of Worship—Spirit and Truth”; “How Do We Build a Civilization That Is Good—That Is Very Good?”; and “Use the Ways of the First Amendment, Not the Ways of the Second Amendment”