“This evening my church gathered with three other churches in the area to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. Here are the remarks I prepared to open the time of thanksgiving, prayer, and singing.” - Andy Naselli
“According to a Lifeway Research study, 50 percent of US Protestant pastors believe their church should do something special to commemorate the country’s special birthday this year, including 16 percent who strongly agree. Slightly fewer (47%) disagree, and 3 percent aren’t sure.” - CToday
In the spring of 1774, the British Parliament was debating the Intolerable Acts, as a response to the latest conflicts with the American Colonies—the Boston Tea Party in particular. On April 19, Rose Fuller moved that the tea tax be repealed. Edmund Burke delivered a speech in support of the motion. Excerpts appear below. The speech was more than twenty pages long and Burke had to pause at least once to recover his voice (full text of the speech).
“Nationalism is patriotism on steroids; it is patriotism degenerated into jingoism and chauvinism. It is near idolatry of country and often appears in mixing celebration of nation with worship of God.” - Roger Olson
“It stands contrary to 400 years of Baptist history and everything I believe about religious liberty. I’m opposed to the idea of Christian dominion, churchly dominion over the operations of government” - Barber
“A new Gallup poll has found that only 38% of adults in the United States say they are “extremely proud” to be American, the lowest percentage recorded since the analytics and advisory company began asking the question in 2001.” - C.Post
“These findings represent a small decrease from a 2016 Lifeway Research study, when 61 percent of pastors felt such worship service elements were important.” - C.Today
“Most pastors (56%) say it’s important to incorporate patriotic elements into worship services the week of July 4th to celebrate America, including 27% who strongly agree” - Lifeway
“On July 4th, Hobby Lobby took out a full-page ad in multiple newspapers featuring a prominently placed verse from the Bible along with numerous, pro-Christian, pro-Bible quotes from our Founding Fathers and other key leaders in our history. It then closed with an appeal to seekers to find out more about Jesus.” - Michael Brown
“53% of Protestant pastors say ‘our congregation sometimes seems to love America more than God.’” - Stetzer
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