By James Wilson
Editor’s Note – It seemed good as we celebrate our nation’s
independence in 2014
that we think and pray about the grounding of that independence in
dependence
on the God who gives it as a gift – the gift of American
Exceptionalism. We re-print
the following in that spirit.
Every
American president until our present leader has expressed American Exceptionalism,
but John Fitzgerald Kennedy said it best.
“We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty…The
energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our
country and all who serve it – and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.” His address speaks to the secular context of
an American dream of freedom for all – not just Americans. Yet he knew the book the Puritans tried to
live by is the explicit repository of the concepts we combine into what we call
our exceptionalism. Paul – speaking for
Jesus Christ and His Father and Spirit – says, “For freedom Christ has set us
free.” The freedom of which we speak is
not a means to an end; it is the end
of our making and creation.
Toward
that end we remain unique on the world stage as a military power that acts with
as much mercy as justice when we attack nations – like Afghanistan – who harbor
terrorists and (into the bargain) are so hateful they prohibit women from
seeking an education. We attacked Iraq because it
continued to threaten its own neighbors as it threatened us. And we remain unique in that we withdraw
quickly following an attack – as quickly as a popular government can take the
reins and stabilize the nation, and this has always been our pattern. (To those who say Iraq was about oil, where is the
Iraqi oil we allegedly stole; where is the price relief at American
pumps?) We behaved in this way with the Philippines, Cuba,
Vietnam, Eastern
Europe, Italy
and Japan;
there simply are no examples of the other way around.
When
we built the Panama Canal, we first liberated Panama from Columbian
oppressors. When we discovered the
sources of yellow fever and various other public health plagues we made our
knowledge – and our resources – available without hesitation. In the wake of both world wars we fed those
displaced by combat and led the way in their rebuilding efforts. When we led the conquest of space we also led
the drive to avoid militarizing that new frontier, and we have made our space
resources and technology available in a precedent setting movement. We drove the great wave of missionary work of
the 19th Century, and we are driving the short-term missions
movement of today, with its emphasis on local indigenous control of decision
making. Last but not least, our battles
and our struggles have always been fought out in public, whether we debate
healthcare, treatment of prisoners of war, or the spending priorities of our
nation and whether unions have the right to pressure the agenda. This is because we are – at our core – a
transparent people on a road of repenting into freedom.
It
does not seem to matter whether our leaders are liberal or conservative in
their shared commitment to what makes us Americans. Ronald Reagan said, “We have never been
aggressors. We have always struggled to
defend freedom and democracy. We have no
territorial ambitions. We occupy no
territories.” Yet Bill Clinton said, “America remains
the indispensable nation. America, and only America, can make a difference
between war and peace, between freedom and repression, between hope and fear.”
When
I taught in the public schools in the seventies and early eighties I distilled
the American Dream for my students into the opportunity for all to make twenty
thousand a year and live in a forty thousand dollar home. Those numbers today would look more like one
hundred and two hundred thousand respectively, but the reality has not
changed. Added to that opportunity is
the chance to practice our faith – whatever it may be and none if we prefer –
and work out our lives to suit our own understandings. Many will say that such opportunities exist
around the world today – and so they do.
But they never existed before America and we are the drivers of
such a vision today. Others will ask if
the French Revolution and the Soviet Revolution did not lead to the same thing;
reality is that their legacy was the Reign of Terror and the subjugation of
millions until their defeat. Reality
remains that we – at our best and so long as we serve our founding vision – are
the nation that understands that so long as we trust in God for freedom we are
set free – and not for ourselves alone but for a world to whom our guiding
light gave His life.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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