I follow the example of Scripture.

The Fourth of July ought to be a Holy Day. Not just a holiday; a Holy Day. I don’t say this in observance of some civic religion that eventually boils down to statism; I don’t assert that America is the Holy Land or some other such nonsense (Manifest Destiny, etc). I’m not a 1900s Progressive any more than I’m a 2000s Progressive. I say that July 4th should be a Holy Day because of the example of Scripture.

See, on multiple occasions in Scripture, whether in the Pentateuch (Ex. 20:2; Deut. 1-4) or in Nehemiah (8:1-8) or in Acts (7:1-53), the renewal of a covenant (or another holy message) is preceded by a recounting of history. Now, this recounting of history references back to the history of Israel, the people of the covenant. There’s a part of that which America’s history can’t get at (and in that part of the recounting, I have as much right to the sacred history as any ethnic Jew- and more). But there is a sense in which a recital of American history, such as July 4th ought to include, is a meter way to remember and celebrate His covenant with His people.

The church is not limited to America, but America is built by the body of God, the church (including in part the institutional church, but more importantly the Christian family). When I look back at American history, I look back at a history of God’s covenant faithfulness to His people, at His mercy to a folk often in rebellion, at the outworking of a heritage stretching back to Washington, the Plymouth Compact, Knox, the Magna Carta, Alfred the Great, Holy Scripture, and Moses.

July 4th ought to be to Americans a day to look back at the goodness of God and rejoice in it, to declare, ‘This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it’ (Ps. 118), to say, ‘Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that built it’ (Ps. 127) while we look around at the house we are in. It should be a day also of national introspection: looking at the horrendous evils we have regularized in our society and its governments- family, church, state-, and how we ourselves can strive against those evils. It should be a Holy Day to dedicate our national life to God, not just with words but with intention and preparation for enactment (Ps. 119; Jam. 2).

God bless.