#101 | MORAL AUTHORITY
IDENTITY POLITICS | Mark Boonstra: Our Founding Fathers invoked the right of a free people “to assume among the powers of the earth, separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and..."
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MORAL AUTHORITY
Ronald Reagan often spoke of America as a “shining city upon a hill.”
The “city upon on a hill” phrase did not originate with Reagan, however.
In his Farewell Address on January 11, 1989, President Reagan noted that “the phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we’d call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.”
Seeking religious freedom, Winthrop indeed arrived in the New World from his native Suffolk, England in 1630, serving then as the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Before debarking the Arabella with his fellow puritans, he delivered a sermon entitled, A Model of Christian Charity, in which he spoke of “the precepts of the moral law” and of “the cause between God and us.” Said Winthrop:
We are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We have taken out a commission. . . . He has ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it.
Winthrop declared that we must therefore “follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God.” And be an example to others:
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.
Winthrop implored his fellow Pilgrims:
Therefore let us choose life,
that we and our seed may live,
by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him,
for He is our life and our prosperity.
In the generations that followed, Winthrop’s words continued to burn brightly. Indeed, they ignited the very spirit of the authors of our independence in 1776.
Our Founding Fathers invoked the right of a free people “to assume among the powers of the earth, separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them,” and “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,” they declared:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness.
And as they set out to establish a new form of government based upon the rights bestowed upon them by God, they pledged:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm
reliance on the protection of divine Providence,
we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
These core precepts, passed down through the generations—from Winthrop to the Founders to Reagan—remain as important today as ever.
Indeed, they are foundational to who we are as a people.
Reagan once spoke of his belief that there was a “divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans, to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.”
And he quoted Pope Pius XII: “The American people have a great genius for splendid and unselfish action. Into the hands of America, God has placed the destinies of an afflicted mankind.”
Today the world remains a troubled place.
Mankind remains afflicted.
Evil abounds.
Both within our own borders and beyond.
But God has continued to bless America.
Our God-given freedoms have enabled us to achieve great things.
Economically. Technologically. Militarily.
We remain the desired destination for those who yearn for freedom and for a better life.
America remains a special place. But along with American exceptionalism comes exceptional responsibility.
A responsibility to live by the moral compass that was birthed by such men as John Winthrop, that was embedded into the fabric of our society by our Founding Fathers, and that has now guided us as a nation of God-given freedoms for 250 years.
Can we fix all of our problems? Or those of the world?
Perhaps not.
Should we declare ourselves to be the world’s policeman?
No.
But we can be a voice of moral authority.
We can be a force for good.
We can confront the purveyors of evil.
Both here at home and beyond.
We can stand up to those in our midst who hate America.
We can stand with the people of the world who yearn for freedom.
And we should not shirk from our responsibility to do so.
We remain a beacon of hope, a shining city upon a hill, the land of We the People, of One Nation Under God, whose exceptionalism derived from our fervent belief that our rights and freedoms are inherently ours because they were given to us by our Creator.
And, so, let us pray for discernment, for a God-directed understanding of how best to address the evil within, and when and how to employ America’s unique position in the world to address the evils beyond our own borders. Through it all, let us remember our long-standing covenant with God, and respect the commission He has given us, so that we may always be a force for good, persevere against evil, and prudently assert our moral authority for the benefit of all mankind.
And as we do so, let us “put on the whole armor of God,” remembering the words of the Apostle Paul:
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. [Ephesians 6: 10-18.]
America’s 250th birthday marks more than a milestone on a calendar—it is a thunderclap reminder that a nation conceived in liberty, tested by fire, and sustained by Providence still stands. Two and a half centuries of struggle, sacrifice, and awakening testify that no empire of men has carried us this far—only the hand of God. As we cross this historic threshold, the question is no longer what America has been, but what kind of people we will choose to be for the next 250 years. May we rise with courage, return to truth, and remember that freedom survives only when its people are willing to live worthy of it.
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