Townhall Review | Conservative Commentary On Today's News

As the nation approaches our 250th anniversary, it’s important for us to take a moment to recognize and appreciate the role that Christianity played in the foundation of the American experiment.

Broadly speaking, there is simply no question that the basic worldview behind the foundation of our republic was the biblical worldview of Christianity.

And it didn’t begin here exclusively, but it goes way back in history into the great foundations of Western civilization.

Is America a Christian nation in terms of explicit constitutional arrangement? No. But I think it's safe to say it wasn’t considered necessary at that point for such a claim to be made.

Our Founders did not foresee a secular age coming, but in that secular age there are now important arguments to be made—arguments about the meaning and the dignity of life, about marriage and family and religious liberty. 

As we mark 250 years, it’s up to us now to continue to make those arguments and to make them loudly, make them we must. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, the USA turns 250. It comes at a time when our nation has become more sharply divided than any other in living memory.  

One man’s wisdom calls to us from an even more bitterly divided moment in American history. Six weeks before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln spoke to the bitter divisions of his day and how the American soul could look to the Lord for grace to heal them. 

“With malice toward none with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds,” Lincoln wrote in his 1865 second inaugural address. He sought to work for a “just and lasting peace” through faith—first in the Lord, and then in the potential of the American spirit to prevail.

Events vindicated Lincoln in his prayer for America. We must cling to our faith with no less strength in these times.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As America celebrates its 250th birthday, it’s worth honoring our glorious Constitution—the longest-surviving written charter of national government in world history.

Rarely have so few gotten so much so right. The Constitution protects our inalienable rights, reflecting the truth that our freedoms come from God, not government. It enshrines the principle of “We the People,” affirming that power belongs to citizens, not rulers, and that government exists to serve the people, not the other way around.

Because the Framers understood the temptations of power, they divided authority among three branches of government, each designed to check the others. They also balanced the powers of the federal government and the states.

Our Constitution ensures that Americans live under the rule of law, not the rule of men. May it ever be so.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is approaching quickly.

The document—as I often point out to my listeners—is, to quote Abraham Lincoln, an “apple of gold” protected by the “frame of silver” that is the Constitution he borrowed from Psalms there.

All Americans—indeed all the free world—have a lot to celebrate in this our 250th year of independence.

The Declaration asserted the existence of "rights" of individuals that exist before any government — no matter the form of that government— comes into being:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The great day of the fourth is, from beginning to end, about love of our country because our country defends our individual rights, rights derived—back to the Declaration— from “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.”

It is quite a gift that we have been given—a gift that needs to be defended.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Americans celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, we’ve received a special and quite unexpected gift: a spontaneous outpouring of affection from the rest of the world.

Visitors from across the globe are attending World Cup matches here, and many are posting videos expressing their delight with what they’re finding, and what we so often take for granted. Our safe streets and parks. Our barbecue. Ranch dressing. The wonders of LongHorn Steakhouse. Unlimited refills. But above all, the kindness and friendliness of the American people.

Too often, tourists fly into New York or Los Angeles and assume they’ve seen America. Now they’re discovering America’s heartland, and the enormous heart of its generous, welcoming people.

At 250 years old, America is still inspiring admiration, gratitude, and affection around the world.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.