I am standing at the steps of the Jefferson's Memorial.
I feel that the love of one's country is as important as the love of family, church, and friend. The founding Fathers "mutually pledge to each other their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor" in establishing this nation in 1776. To many today, these are empty words that have no meaning. But to those Americans that hold our nation's vision of greatness and hold our nation's purpose high, we have a moral obligation to God to safeguard this republic.
As John Hancock marveled, the Lord gave this country "a name and a standing among the nations of the world...I hope and pray that the gratitude of their hearts may be expressed by proper use of those inestimable blessings, by the greatest exertions of patriotism, by forming and supporting institutions for cultivating the human understanding, and for the greatest progress of the Arts and Sciences, by establishing laws for the support of piety, religion, and morality...and by exhibiting on the great theater of the world those social, public, and private virtues which give more dignity to a people, possessing their own sovereignity than the crowns and diadems afford to sovereign princes."
The United States of America is a nation established under the guiding hand of the Divine Providence. George Washington in his military campaigns often expressed his faith that he could "trace the finger of Providence through those dark and mysterious events" that gave rise to the United States of America. Our nation owed our existence to the Divine Covenant between our God and our people.
This nation to many represent a "New Israel"...one nation, under God, a promised land to the oppressed of the World who came to this country looking for God's blessings. What made this country great is not our long history or established cultural traditions, our greatness is in our belief that our existence has a Divine Purpose.
The American experiment to many mean that the principles of Judeo-Christian tradition is upheld among the hearts of its citizens. It is these principles that give us our national strength, morality, and character. Only by worshipping and conducting ourselves in such ways that are honoring to God would we ensure that the American experiment would be with us and our posterity.