Anyone who doesn't believe God has blessed America just needs to take a long walk and witness her beauty posits Ken Duncan, a world renowned Australian photographer, who visited all 50 states with his camera and notepad.
In the intro to his book, Walking With God In America, Duncan writes:
It might seem funny that although I am Australian, God has given me a real burden for America. No nation in the world has been more naturally blessed than the United States, and I believe God has done that so people will understand how much He cares for the nation. America's faith in God is what had made it one of the greatest countries on earth, and faith is a beacon of hope for other struggling nations around the world.
From "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance (the phrase was upheld in 2004 by the Supreme Court 5-4 because Sandra Day O'Connor argued that the phrase is "meaningless" -- "any religious freight the words may have been meant to carry has long since been lost") to removing references to God in textbooks on American history, the place or name of God in America's public square -- literally -- is an ongoing political and legal powder keg.
I'll defer any attempts at an argument that maintaing liberty requires virtue -- and virtue requires true religion, to John Adams:
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
For now, I'll leave debates on whether or Constitution intends for there to be freedom of religion or freedom from religion and follow Duncan's simple advice to look for America's spirit in her beauty!
Acknowledgments: Panographic photographs are (c) Ken Duncan and used by permission; all rights reserved. The quote from Sandra Day O'Connor and John Adams are from Rediscovering God In America by Newt Gingrich (Thomas Nelson).
Good looking stuff...brother.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing...pw
Looking at these pictures of my homeland, some being sights I see everyday, does indeed remind ,me that our country has been blessed...not to discount the horrors of our civil war over a century ago,....we have basically lived in peace, enjoyed freedoms and prosperity that are not often seen in other countries....could it be that we have basically been sheltered by our CORE belief that God is sovereign, we live in thankfulness and acknowlegement?....for some illogical reason....we are blessed? We as Americans can not forget this....our country truly was founded on this....God is good.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading more from you!
Welcome to blogging!! :)