This year we recognize and celebrate 250 years of the United States of America. Sadly, some people oppose the celebration. Instead, they characterize our nation in the most negative terms.
I remember when we celebrated the nation’s 200th anniversary in 1976: the Bicentennial. Our country had a lot of challenges that were dividing us in 1976. We had recently come through a decade of political assassinations. We experienced the agony of the Vietnam War. We watched as the Civil Rights movement unleashed violence and strife in the streets of our cities.
In spite of all these challenges and divisions, we remembered and celebrated 200 years of American liberty. Despite our mistakes and problems, there was a sense of agreement that we were blessed to be citizens of this great nation.
In 2026, many people refuse to set aside political differences even for a moment to agree on the greatness of America. Why do so many people now think our nation is unworthy of any celebration? Have we built our nation on shaky sand or on solid ground?
Two thousand years ago, Jesus’ teaching sowed the seeds for revolutionary change. On one occasion, his enemies were questioning him about taxes, trying to embarrass him publicly. He asked for a common coin, a denarius. He asked them whose picture was on the coin. Caesar’s picture was on the coin. He was the ruler of the Roman Empire.
Jesus told them to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. With those words Jesus laid the foundation for what we now know as separation of church and state, a radical new idea where the state does not exercise power over the church and the church does not rule the nation. Each has its legitimate sphere of power or jurisdiction.
Jesus also taught that people must decide for themselves to confess him as Lord and become his followers. He never used the power of government to coerce people into making a confession of faith. When the Rich Young Ruler rejected Jesus’ invitation to become a disciple, Jesus respected the man’s decision though he disagreed with it.
Jesus laid the foundation stones for freedom of speech and freedom of religion. These are freedoms we have enjoyed all our lives, as did our parents, our grandparents, and generations before them.
The world Jesus visited knew nothing about these freedoms. There was no freedom of religion in the ancient world. Each nation, each people, each tribe had its own god or gods. To live with a certain group was to adopt and worship that group’s gods. It was expected. Anything else was disloyal or even traitorous.
We are blessed to be citizens of the United States. We can gather and worship freely according to our consciences without fear that law enforcement will break through the doors and arrest us for doing so. There are places in our world today where followers of Jesus fear losing their freedom, or fear losing their property or jobs, or even fear losing their lives for doing what we do every week.
Freedom of speech and religion are our first freedoms, bedrock principles of our nation and fundamental to our identity as a people. They rest not on the shifting sand of human ideas but on the cornerstone of God’s Truth. Our founding documents assert natural rights that come from nature’s God.
Not everyone agrees. Those who want to fundamentally change our nation and culture believe that human rights are socially constructed, that the government bestows all our rights and that the government can change those rights or take them away. But they are wrong. Government is ordained by God to protect the rights that God has given us.
Those who came before us built these great freedoms on the solid rock of Jesus’ teaching. We are blessed to enjoy the fruits of their labor. We are responsible to protect these freedoms so those who follow us can continue to enjoy them and give God the glory!
May God richly bless the United States of America,
Brother Richard Foster
brotherrichardsblog.com 