The Way We Were
In his 1630 sermon, A Model of Christian Charity, John Winthrop originated the American “city upon a hill” image, referring to the proposed Puritan community in Massachusetts Bay. Apparently, he was drawing this picture from the words of Jesus in Mat 5:14, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Ronald Reagan later popularized this expression, modifying the description to “shining city on a hill” as a portrayal of America, his Irish temperament giving him latitude to dramatize the phrase by depicting the city as “shining.” President Reagan in using this phrase was tapping into imagery held in the hearts of many if not most of Americans across our history.
My personal affection for America, which has been substantial, was birthed during my growing up seven miles from Valley Forge Park. When I was about 12 years old, on summer days, I used to ride my bike to Valley Forge to walk through Washington’s headquarters and look at the meager soldier’s quarters that remained. There was also a lookout tower that kids loved to climb and a spring running out of the side of the mountain where a kid could get a drink and adults would fill large water jugs. Yes, in those days kids would take off for the day for such activities and their moms did not know where they were, or worry, as long as they showed up for supper. Those days riding around Valley Forge instilled in me a deep love for our nation.
We used to sing “My Country Tis of Thee” when I was in sixth grade. It was much later that I learned that the British had previously tarnished the reputation of that melody with the lyrics of “God Save the Queen.” I still recall the love for America I felt as my sixth grade class sang,
“My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.
For college, I attended West Point. On parade days we marched in formation out onto “the plain,” the Academy parade grounds. I recall standing at attention, holding my M1 rifle at “present arms,” while the band played the National Anthem. As the words of the Stars Spangled Banner coursed through my mind, I could see in my peripheral vision the chapel riding high above the rest of the campus. It would occur to me on those occasions that this picture symbolized the essence of my deep patriotism: future soldiers in training on the plain below, guided by our profound Christian heritage elevated above.
I share this personal background with you to make the point that whatever I write in articles that follow about the United States must not be viewed as arising out of a lack of love for America. However, honesty demands that we do not allow America’s past to blind us to present reality.
Which Uncle Sam?
Since the identity of America comprises the major character in the drama addressed in this series of articles, clearly identifying the America we have in mind constitutes the essential foundation. Politically, I identify myself as a conservative. I find that as conservatives talk about America, they seldom stop to think about whether the America they are envisioning in their minds describes an image from America’s past or corresponds with the one that now exists. Instead, we assume that its identity is self-evident, and that identity usually corresponds to the shining city on the hill.
This tendency to hold on to past identities seems to be characteristic of human nature. I lived in Arkansas while the university football team was having some good years. I still tend to think of it as a serious contender even though they have not been in the running for some time. Likewise, it seems that many Democrats think of the party of Bill Clinton and find it difficult to switch their thinking to Bernie Sanders and AOC. And we tend to hold on to previous perceptions of England and Ireland, finding find it difficult to update our perspective to current realities existing in those nations, that include the strong influence of Muslim minorities.
However, history moves on, and change does occurs. How often have you heard people say, “This is not the America I grew up in.” Such statements confront us with the fact that America is not some static reality but an entity that has undergone change and continues that process. Even more consequential to this analysis, not all change conforms to normal development. If that were the case, we would not need to give so much attention to defining America.
Let me illustrate. If your Uncle Joe grows up, goes to college, becomes an engineer, gets married and has kids, and becomes a grandparent, in that case, when we refer to good old Uncle Joe, everybody has a good idea of who Uncle Joe is. However, if in his early 50s, Uncle Joe, who had worked designing parts for Ford Motor Company, wins fifty million dollars in the lottery, retires from Ford, trades in his old Ford Ranger truck for a Mercades convertible, and spends most of his time on the beach in the Bahamas, in referring to Uncle Joe we would need to specify which Uncle Joe we had in mind: whether we are talking about pre-lottery Joe or post-lottery Joe. Adding to this identity crisis, it might have been that Uncle Joe had always been a caring and faithful husband, and his lottery proceeds just allowed him to provide his wife with many added material blessings. However, sadly, his winnings may have made him a target for a much younger woman who viewed him as a cash cow, and he succumbed to her advances. In that case, when referring to Uncle Joe, we would have added reason to stipulate whether we had pre-lottery or post-lottery Uncle Joe in mind. His life had not undergone normal progression but had made an abnormal turn.
The articles that follow reveal that America is not like normal Uncle Joe, moving through the natural aging progression of life, but more like the Uncle Joe who experienced a life altering event. Consequently, we must examine that development in America’s history and the impact it has had on the United States. Only then will we be ready to address the issue of American in prophecy. I sense that those who cannot find America in prophecy have in their search for America omitted this essential piece of the exercise. They continue to think in terms of the good old Uncle Sam we have all come to know and love. They are not including in their perspective the culture-altering event in the trajectory of America. The description of that event comprises our next objective.