Happy Birthday to You!

(Disclaimer:  I have mixed feelings about America.  But, I still have a 4th of July post.)

As you know, tomorrow is our great and terrible nation’s birthday!  I would be completely remiss if I ignored an opportunity to give credit where credit is due. 

I will not go on and on about how this is the best place on earth.  I will not even exaggerate the supposed “Christian calling” of the founding fathers to subliminally reinforce the idea that feeling pride in America is  part of the Baptist Faith and Message, the Westminster Confession of Faith, or, heck, the Ten Commandments.  I think stuff like that is misleading propaganda.  America, or those operating under her name, has done things both admirable and abominable.  Therefore, national hubris is misguided at best.  A deep sense of gratitude, however, is hopefully unavoidable.  So, what I will do is remind you to be thankful.

While there is a long list of things to be thankful for in this country, I will only mention two.  Honestly, you could stay in constant prayer for days over these:

1. Be thankful that thousands and thousands of people from every race bled and died (and are bleeding and are dying) for you.
2. Be thankful that you can publicly call yourself a Christian or an atheist or anything in between without worrying about being beaten, burned, raped, pillaged, humiliated, or murdered by those in authority over you.

Thank you, Yeshua.

PS – Happy birthday, Shannon!