As America approaches its 250th birthday, a question hangs over the nation that goes far beyond politics: What kind of people are we?
Ironically, the debate recently played out in America’s pastime. Several San Francisco Giants players wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night caps. Major League Baseball warned the players for violating uniform rules, while critics interpreted the Bible references as a rejection of the LGBTQ community. The players maintained they were expressing faith, not hatred. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo) is demanding answers from MLB, alleging discrimination against Christian players. The controversy reveals a larger reality. America is increasingly divided over the role of Christianity in public life.
This division extends far beyond baseball. Across the country, battles continue over parental rights, religious liberty, education, gender policies, and freedom of expression.
Courts have wrestled with cases involving parents seeking greater authority over what their children are taught in school. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that government may not treat religious viewpoints as second-class rights, whether involving school choice, religious education, or parental objections to certain curriculum materials. Cases from Maine and elsewhere have highlighted ongoing tensions over religious freedom and parental authority. Many believe schools, corporations, and government increasingly view traditional Christian convictions as obstacles to cultural issues such inclusion. Thus, a growing clash between competing visions of freedom.
The contrast with America’s founding era is striking. The founders disagreed on many issues, yet most believed religion was indispensable to self-government.
John Adams famously wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
George Washington warned in his Farewell Address that “religion and morality are indispensable supports” of political prosperity.
While the founders rejected a national church, they generally viewed biblical principles as a foundation for virtue, personal responsibility, honesty, and civic order. They knew that liberty without moral restraint eventually becomes license, and a republic without virtue becomes unsustainable. The American experiment depended upon citizens capable of governing themselves before attempting to govern others.
Today, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, America faces a choice. The nation can continue drifting toward a public square where faith is tolerated only when it remains private, or it can recover an understanding that religious conviction strengthens freedom rather than threatens it.
Christianity built hospitals, charities, schools, missions, and countless acts of service that shaped the American character. As the nation celebrates its founding, perhaps we face the great challenge of remembering the moral foundations that made liberty possible in the first place.
As Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people.” Galatians 5:1 exhorts to stand fast in the “liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.” Advice that we would do well to practice if we want to last another 250 years.
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Sources:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf (Carson v. Makin)
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-297_4f14.pdf (Mahmoud v. Taylor)
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-20-02-0361 (George Washington Farewell Address)
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102 (John Adams, October 11, 1798)
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript (Declaration of Independence)