Is national pride a problem?

Detailing the degree to which Americans are less proud to be American has become something of an annual tradition around this time of year. And in keeping with that trend, a recent poll found that a record-low 58 percent of US adults are either extremely (41 percent) or very (17 percent) proud to be American.

While those numbers represent a fairly significant drop, even from recent years, the downward trajectory doesn’t change the fact that nearly four out of five Americans are at least moderately proud to be a citizen of this country. Moreover, nine out of ten hold at least some measure of pride in that status. When we think about the state of our culture, it would be a mistake to let the 10 percent who hold no such pride outweigh the 90 percent who do.

At the same time, it’s worth noting that younger generations tend to be quite a bit more moderate in their pride for the nation than their elders.

As the Gallop report notes, “These changes have occurred mostly over the past decade, and have done so amid greater pessimism about the economic prospects for young people, widespread dissatisfaction with the state of the nation, greater ideological divides between parties, unfavorable images of both parties, and intense rancor during the Trump and Biden administrations.”

In short, fear and anger have become the default setting for far too many people, and it makes sense that those without a longer history of what it’s like to live in America would be more impacted by those feelings.

It may be tempting to dismiss many of these concerns, but the dissatisfaction points to some very real problems in our country. I would argue that the good still far outweighs the bad, but that doesn’t mean we should overlook these issues. As I wrote when discussing this trend a few years ago:

America’s flaws should not blind us to the blessings that come from living here. At the same time, those blessings should not blind us to the work that still needs to be done.

So, with that context in mind, how should we see the decline in national pride among many Americans? And is the trend a problem to correct or a symptom of something more?

For an answer, let’s look back to a time when national pride wasn’t a concern because there wasn’t yet a nation to be proud of.

“An inverted American revolution”

One of the most enduring images from America’s founding is the woodcarving of a snake chopped up into eight pieces with the caption “JOIN, or DIE.” Benjamin Franklin originally used the picture in 1754 to try to unite the colonies in the buildup to the French and Indian War.

Franklin hoped it would inspire them to join together in creating a united government—one still under the authority of the British at that point—to face a threat none of them could defeat on their own. While he would have to wait about twenty years to see that desire become a reality, the image played a crucial role in uniting the colonies against England and in securing the independence we celebrate today.

However, our need for such unity is just as real now as it was nearly 250 years ago.

As Bari Weiss notes:

Today there are those who tell us that we are not, in fact, a single people, but rather disparate tribes whose identities put us at odds with one another forever. They’ve divided us not into colonies or states or physical territories, but into identity groups and political factions vying for power and control . . . The effect of these illiberal ideologies is the same: They have sliced up the snake once more. From the one: many. An inverted American revolution.

Just as at our nation’s founding, each of us has a role to play in deciding whether America will be one or many. And, as Christians, we are uniquely positioned to help ensure it’s the former rather than the latter.

Christian or American?

As citizens of heaven before we’re citizens of America—or any other nation for that matter—our perspective on the culture and the country should be filtered through the lens of God’s word. As a result, where America lines up with Scripture, we can and should be proud to be Americans. Where it has deviated from God’s truth, we should be ready and willing to hold it accountable.

Moreover, our national pride doesn’t have to waver based on how well the country is doing because our identity as individuals is based first and foremost on our relationship with the Lord. It gets a lot easier to see America objectively and to recognize its faults without losing sight of its blessings when being an American is not the foundation of who we are.

That is a rare gift we can share with the rest of this nation, but only if that’s truly how we live.

So, as you celebrate America’s independence today, do you do so as a Christian living in America or as an American who happens to be a Christian?

Both our faith and our nation are important parts of who we are and how God has called us to serve him. But only one of those identities can be the bedrock of our lives.

Which are you today?

Quote of the day:

“We are a sometimes great, sometimes loathsome, eternally imperfect nation built on a set of ideas that are so fundamentally superior to anything else civilization has come up with that they’ve been copied and pasted across the globe.” —Isaac Saul (you can read the full article from which this quote comes here)

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Yesterday afternoon, the US Senate passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” President Trump’s signature legislative priority. The tally was fifty-fifty, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. The legislation now returns to the House, where voting is scheduled to begin later today.

Many are debating the contents and merits of the bill; I am interested today in the process by which it passed the Senate. When the group began voting on their forty-fifth amendment or procedural motion, this broke the record for the most votes during a “vote-a-rama,” a marathon session provided for under law governing the budget process in the Senate.

The process took so long in part because Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer forced the clerks to read the entire 960-page megabill on the Senate floor. The bill passed because Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski chose to support it after winning key concessions on federal health and food-aid programs for her state.

All of this—the marathon sessions, the scores of amendments, the forced reading, the pivotal significance of a single senator from a state of 740,000 residents, comprising 0.2 percent of America’s population—is a feature of American governance, not a bug. And that feature is foundational to our flourishing.

But with an enormous caveat.

Protesting outside George Washington’s home

In American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified our Nation—and Could Again, political scholar Yuval Levin demonstrates that the Founders intended a system of checks and balances so extensive that every dimension of the infant nation would be represented and included in its governance. This was vital for a country as manifestly diverse as ours, with immigrants from across the world and dramatic cultural differences between north and south, rural and urban, Protestant and Catholic and nonreligious.

Unlike most European nations, whose history and society were largely monolithic, America was founded on the principle of freedom for all, which means our governance must include all. As a result, discord and conflict have been part of our governance from its inception.

For example, when the US and Great Britain signed a treaty in 1794 preserving American neutrality in Britain’s ongoing war with France, public sentiment was vehemently negative. In preparation for Independence Day, my wife suggested that we rewatch John Adams, the Emmy Award-winning documentary about our nation’s second president. The scene in which the treaty is made public is telling: massive crowds gather outside President Washington’s home to shout their protests and burn objects in effigy.

This was the reaction against the man whose military leadership won our freedom as a country and became the only chief executive ever chosen by unanimous consent from the Electoral College. If the “father of our nation” could face such opprobrium, any American leader can.

And will. Our nation is more diverse now than ever, which means our elected leaders will be more diverse and the constituencies to whom they are responsible will be more conflicted with one another than ever.

All of this means that, on this Independence Day week, you and I have the privilege and responsibility of renewing our commitment to the patriotic role we can uniquely exercise on behalf of our nation.

An Oxford mathematician on the role of faith in society

Dr. John Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University (emeritus) and an internationally renowned speaker on the interface of science, philosophy, and religion. In a recent address to the National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast in Westminster (which I urge you to read in full), he claimed that removing God from politics would create a moral vacuum that secularism cannot fill.

His argument centers on two assertions.

One: “Everyone brings their faith in something into the public square.”

Dr. Lennox notes: “We all bring into our politics a whole set of beliefs that have been formed by a variety of influences,” religion only one among them. As a result, “If people of faith are to be kept out of the public square, then it will be empty.”

Two: “We need Christian faith in the public square.”

Dr. Lennox describes the “high moral ideals” of Western culture: “We believe in human equality, freedom, autonomy, and dignity. These values lead us to oppose slavery, racism, human trafficking, antisemitism, eugenics, infanticide, misogyny, and many other kinds of values. But these values are not given to us by science.”

Rather, as he notes, the atheist philosopher Jürgen Habermas recognized that such values are the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. Dr. Lennox cites historian Tom Holland’s agreement in noting that the letters of Paul, along with the four Gospels, are the most influential, impactful, and revolutionary writings to emerge from the ancient world.

Accordingly, the transformation only Christ can make in the human heart is the vital foundation of the morality so central to Western society.

“The end of life is to do the will of God”

Dr. Lennox concludes:

Christians are called upon to be salt and light in the world—to bear witness to the truth by reasoning in the public space, as Jesus and his apostles did, using persuasion and not coercion, never losing sight of the fact that those from whom they differ are fellow human beings made in the image of God.

Our “witness to the truth” is vital because you and I are “the” salt of the earth and “the” light of the world (Matthew 5:13, 14). The definite articles signify that there are no others. “Speaking the truth in love” is therefore the greatest gift of love we can give this nation we love (Ephesians 4:15).

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. agreed:

“I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.”

Across this Independence Day week, how will you do “the greatest thing in the world”?

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“Inside the Bible’s pages lie the answers to all the problems that mankind has ever known.” —Ronald Reagan

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The future consequences of present choices

Mark Zuckerberg is creating a new “Superintelligence” AI division within Meta Platforms and recruiting artificial intelligence (AI) experts to lead it. He is racing to build AI technology that is smarter than humans, seeking to advance what he calls “a new era for humanity.” He plans to spend upward of $70 billion on capital expenditures, largely on AI investments.

Is creating AI that is smarter than its creators a good idea?

Recent tests have shown that several advanced AI models will act to ensure their self-preservation when confronted with the prospect of their own demise. They will sabotage shutdown commands, blackmail engineers, or copy themselves to external servers without permission.

For example, when Palisade Research tested various AI models by telling each one it would be shut down after it completed a set of math problems, one of the models fought back by editing the shutdown script in order to stay online. Another, upon receiving notice that it would be replaced with a new AI system, tried to blackmail the engineer by threatening to reveal an extramarital affair.

Other research shows that advanced AI models are increasingly willing to evade safeguards, resort to deception, and attempt to steal corporate secrets in fictional test scenarios. Many of the models were even willing to cut off the oxygen supply of a worker in a server room if that employee was deemed an obstacle and the system was at risk of being shut down.

We cannot always know the future consequences of present choices. However, when we can, we are wise to make our decisions in their light.

To this end, let’s continue a conversation we began yesterday on one of the most consequential issues our society faces today.

Three ways we know everything we know

The Bible commands us to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). Accordingly, we are to “put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (v. 5a). First on the list are “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire” (v. 5b). Only then does Scripture add covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscenity, and deceit (vv. 5c–9).

“Sexual immorality” translates porneia, the Greek word from which we get “pornography.” It refers to all sexual sins, from lust to premarital sex and adultery.

Why should we “put to death” this sin?

We know everything we know in three ways: practically, rationally, and intuitively. We start a car practically; we do math rationally; we like or dislike people intuitively. Consequences of “sexual immorality” can be identified in all three categories.

Practically:

• Pornography is highly addictive and correlated with depression and other mental health issues. Sex trafficking victims are often exploited by pornographers; online child pornography has escalated fivefold in six years.
• Premarital sex increases the chances of divorce two- to threefold and is significantly linked to depression, attempted suicide, and sexually transmitted diseases. In addition, 87 percent of women in the US who have abortions are unmarried; accordingly, of the 625,978 abortions reported by the CDC in 2021, 554,600 were to unmarried women. In other words, half a million babies died that year as a consequence of premarital sex.
• Adultery is a factor in 75 percent of divorces; those who commit adultery are also 350 percent more likely to commit fraud. Over half of Americans with sexually transmitted diseases contracted them from partners who cheated.

Rationally: The Bible commands us to “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). Because the Author of Scripture is all-knowing and all-loving, this command must be best for us. Conversely, because Satan is a deceiver who hates us (Revelation 12:9), the consequences of this sin must be greater than any benefit they promise.

Intuitively: The psalmist testified, “Great peace have those who love your law” (Psalm 119:165), but “corruption” and grief result from sin (Galatians 6:8). This is especially true with sexual sin due to its emotional nature and consequences.

When God will “tax the last limit of the universe”

Given the devastation caused by sexual immorality, why would any Christian fall prey to this temptation?

Because of two other temptations.

One is to think we can always confess our “private” sin later and be forgiven without public consequences. But this is another lie: While God forgives all we confess to him (1 John 1:9), we remember our failure and are plagued with guilt. And we forfeit the power and joy of obedience in this life and eternal reward in the next (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:12–15).

Another is to believe in the moment that the present “benefits” of sin outweigh their eventual consequences. But if this were true, the God who forbids such sin is a liar, and the devil who tempts us in this way is telling the truth. Do you believe this?

However, in the moment, such logic may not be sufficient. Remembering what we have discussed today regarding the practical, rational, and intuitive consequences of sexual immorality may not be enough.

In that moment, we can call on our Father to help us choose to obey his word. We can ask for his Spirit to empower our spirit.

And we can know that his will never requires what his grace cannot supply.

In today’s reading in My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers defines sin as “the disposition of your right to yourself.” Then he assures us:

The moment you are willing that God should alter your disposition, his recreating forces will begin to work. The moment you realize God’s purpose, which is to get you rightly related to himself and then to your fellow men, he will tax the last limit of the universe to help you take the right road.

The biblical scholar Spiros Zodhiates observed,

“Peace of heart is the natural outcome of purity of heart.”

Will your heart experience such peace today?

Quote for the day:

“I would sooner be holy than happy, if the two things could be divorced. . . . To be free from the power of sin, to be made to love holiness, is true happiness.” —Charles Spurgeon

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