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Baby America

  
Happy 239th birthday to the United States of America!  On this day in 1776, America adopted the Declaration of Independence. 

Not so very long ago, husbands and fathers from the poorest, weakest land on earth took up their crude weapons to declare, “Give me liberty or give me death!”  Mothers raised their children in a wild new country and pressed on to survive in a bare and empty place because they believed. They believed in something bigger than themselves. They believed in doing what was right at all costs. They believed that God Almighty had called them to worship, serve, and fight for the right to worship his holy name. They had hope. They had hope that this hard life was not all they were made for.

Today, I look at my nation and I am sad that I see these rights that they fought for slipping away. I look at my country and take a deep breath and sigh. America bites the hand of God Almighty that has fed her. She turns from the God that has protected her and stomps away like a spoiled little brat. She whines and throws a tantrum and pouts, “but I want my own way!”

And I realize, great men and women that built our country were surrounded by the same crowd. They wondered if their new country would ever survive. So, I stand and proclaim, this world is not my home!  I have hope!  I have a meaning and a purpose. When those around me turn from God, I claim his name!  

Use me Lord!  Use me for your purpose, use me for your people!  When comforts deminish, you are my hope. When my earthly rights fail, you are my freedom.  You are my freedom that can never be taken. No government can outlaw that freedom!

I am proud to be an American!  I love my country!  Today, I celebrate that I am living the American Dream. Today, I celebrate that I worship in an amazing church that preaches the Word of God. Today, I celebrate the freedom to raise my daughter with a Biblical worldview. Today, I celebrate a history of men and women that fought to give me that freedom. But beyond all that, today I worship and praise my God that is in control of it all. 

Happy Independence Day!

20 thoughts on “Baby America”

  1. Patriotism is important, and I would have been a little saddened if you did not love your country. With all its flaws the US has for the most part been a beacon for others. I do think that perhaps though you have romanticized your national origins (that is the interpretation that is taught after all). You seemed surprised that today’s America is turning its back on God, but should you be? A nation born in rebellion will produce a rebellious people, and I thin today we see the logical consequences of that rebellion. Mind you, the UK is in no better shape, and they didn’t have a US style rebellion.

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  5. “Mothers raised their children in a wild new country and pressed on to survive in a bare and empty place because they believed. ”

    For the record is was not bare nor empty. 100 million people were eradicated to make it bare. When the English arrived they discovered the paths clear of rock in the forest. They found trails flat and well kept. Why? Because the native people made them and used them.

    As for god turning his back on this nation? He may bless her people but the genocide that started with Columbus and ended only after 1986 when Eugenics was banned on reservations committed the largest genocide in the history of mankind. No good and just god would have ever blessed such a nation nor shown it favor. Especially when they do it all in his name.

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    • Deep inhale and exhale. I disagree with so much of what you said but I am going to chose to agree to disagree. Yes, much wrong was done to the native Americans and I will just leave that there. As for God being good and just, he is! Pain and suffering in this world is not an explanation that a good God does not exist.

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      • I’d love to discuss what you disagree with. But if you simply wish to agree to disagree I’m ok with that though we learn nothing by avoiding the discussion. /hugs

        Anyway good morning to ya, 337am is too darn early to be awake…Ahhh!

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        • Oh gracious! Yes it is too early! It is 9:30 here and I am still drinking coffee.

          I am definitely open to discussion. I want to make sure that this is a safe place for people to voice their opinions without each point being “debated.” So, unless a discussion is wanted, I try to stray from that. Here are my thoughts on your original comment:

          Yes. Native Americans were on this land first. As well as some British explorers and small colonies from other countries. So, why did the Pilgrims “inherit” the land? Well, so goes any country. It is not that they were the first here, it is that they were the first to establish and develop the land, claiming it as their country. (And winning. As is the beginning. If any nation).

          The settlers were friends with some of the Indians and they worked together. Example: Squanto, Samoset, and their tribes. If they had not taught the settlers to farm, it would have been their death. Some of the natives were savage. Murdering neighboring Indians, burning whole forests to catch one buffalo, and scalping was a reality. It is fact that they kidnapped, tortured, and murdered children of explorers.

          Most of the surviving settlers came to America because they were not allowed to worship in England as they saw fit. They were by no means perfect men, but they established what is now the great United States of America.

          I would like to say, that I welcome your comments and insight. I know this is not the only article you have read here. Also, I just talked about America in my response. As to God, that is the rest of my blog. I have suffered much and it has led me to believe now more than ever that God is a living God! I know that is a peace that does not make sense.

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          • Ok on what we agree upon first.

            God is a good and loving god. Yes he is. (I just don’t feel he blesses this nation as a nation. I feel he blesses many, many of it’s people but not the nation as a whole because of it’s sins. 500 years of murder and genocide is not something any god would bless. That is just my thoughts on that though I’d welcome yours as well.)

            natives did help the settlers because our faith sees all as brothers and sisters. We recognized all life is from the creator.

            Now onto our discussion. 🙂

            As for war. Early colonists described native wars and they all say the same thing. The native people could wage war for a decade and have fewer than five deaths and that wars and disputes were more often settled with games (like the Olympics) than blood and weapons. Columbus himself said they did not understand war and a hand full of his men could rule many hundreds of these natives because they didn’t understand war.

            I made two posts specifically on the Puritans and historical scholar from Harvard said the same thing as you. But there where tribes who had peaceful relations with settlers. So I posted post #2 and he quietly went away. These same peaceful relations demanded the natives convert to Christianity and even then they must stay in their own towns not allowed in “Christian European” towns. It wasn’t pretty.

            Those same colonists who came denied the very religious freedoms to the native Americans. I’ve written about that as well. It wasn’t until 1997 with the native american religious freedoms act that my faith and the faith of all native Americans became decriminalized. Up until 1939 native Americans still faced death as a possible punishment for practicing their own faith. I personally remember being told never discuss my faith outside the home because jail awaited if I did.

            Last thing I’d say is the idea of the united states is far from unique. The Lakota were living in a union just like this already I wrote about that in the “American Experiment” where women were already allowed to vote, we had a nation, states and city/tribes within those, local and national elected government, And much more including freedom of speech, access to government, freedom to worship as we saw fit, universal education for all children and much much more.

            Think how great this nation would have been had my people been treated fairly and our rights also respected. How much stronger would we be today? Had the early Christians been true to what a Christian is and treated the natives with love and respect this nation would likely be blessed by God himself.

            I can post links for you to any article I mentioned but I don;t do that on people blogs without permission.

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          • And read up scalping was a European thing. It was practiced in Europe before settlers came here.

            Scalping had been known in Europe, according to accounts, as far back as ancient Greece (“the cradle of Western Civilization”). That was 1,500 plus years before Columbus and it was practiced in various parts of Europe through the centuries. The first recorded scalping in America was a colonist who scalped natives.

            Europeans brought this cruel custom of paying for killings to the American frontier. Here they were willing to pay for just the scalp, instead of the whole head. The first documented instance in the American colonies of paying bounties for native scalps is credited to Governor Kieft of New Netherlands.

            By 1703, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was offering $60 for each native scalp. And in 1756, Pennsylvania Governor Morris, in his Declaration of War against the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) people, offered “130 Pieces of Eight [a type of coin], for the Scalp of Every Male Indian > Enemy, above the Age of > Twelve Years, ” and “50 Pieces of Eight for the Scalp of Every Indian Woman, produced as evidence of their being killed.”

            Massachusetts by that time was offering a bounty of 40 pounds (again, a unit of currency) for a male Indian scalp, and 20 pounds for scalps of females or of children under 12 years old.

            The list goes on and on. Meanwhile prior to these there is not a single account of a native ever scalping each other or Europeans. History is far from on your side here.

            Scalping was never practiced by any tribe until the arrival of Europeans who brought it here and then demanded of friendly tribes scalps for land and peace.

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                • I have some reading to do. I agree with you about textbooks. Actually, I am very passionate about that. I am trained in principal approach and taught in a principal approach school. This education follows only original texts. This teaches children, and adults, are taught facts and where to find them-how to learn. I do know the American settlers were not perfect, nobody is. Thomas Jefferson wrote his famous words “all men are created equal” and yet he still owned slaves. Great Kind David gave us the Psalms and defeated Goliath, yet he had an affair and murdered a man. I am certainly not saying to ignore sin, just stating not to throw out the baby with the bath water. It is obvious that you know more about Native American history than me. I am willing to learn. But I do believe our nation was founded on the Bible and it is everywhere in our history. I love William Federer’s book, “America’s God and Country.” It is full of Christian quotes from Greta men in American history. He also has a website that is about this very issue, “The American Minute.” I know I still have a lot to respond to. Talk to you later friend 😊

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  6. Pingback: My Article Read (7-8-2015) | My Daily Musing

  7. Oh and we agree I’ve read much of what you have written. Not nearly all because I only recently “discovered you” and I too have time constraints. BUT, I like your style, it is clean and clear. So yes I admit I’m a carolinephile.

    Hello my name is Michelle and I’m a Carolinephile..

    The first step is admitting it. 😀

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