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If you’re a Christian and an American, you will (as Ricky Ricardo used to say) “have some ‘splaining to do” one day.
Bibles? You can own, read, give away or sell as many as you’d like. We have the ability to talk about our faith, write about our faith, broadcast our faith. And even as we can see those rights being infringed upon so often these days, the truth is if we are not growing God’s kingdom…we really have no excuse.
Is America perfect? Of course not. But if you live here, you still have tremendous freedom to live out your faith. And I believe that when Jesus comes back, he’s going to be asking what we did with the freedom we had.
While all of our stories will look a little different, how ungrateful to not be fall-down-on-our-face thankful every single day for these freedoms. But sadly, that isn’t the trend. Did you know that it has become common for college courses to present America as nothing more than a greedy, racist, hateful nation. Some schools have even removed American flags from campus because they may be found offensive. And many schools have stopped teaching American history all together.
In looking at the programs for history majors at the top 75 colleges, less than a third require U.S. History. Did you get that!? History majors are not required to take U.S. history!
And many of the schools that do require American history, accept courses like “Hip-Hop, Politics, and Youth Culture in America” as meeting the requirement.
Can I tell you…we hosted a study group for a Constitutional Literacy/American Government course a couple of years ago and every single week we were shocked. Shocked at how far we have strayed from the Constitution, and no one says anything. We realized that no one says anything because we don’t know we’re straying. How can we know we’re not on track if most of us don’t really understand the track itself? Whether you homeschool or not, I recommend this course. It’s DVD based, and I’d watch them again in a heartbeat.
Studies show that college graduates know less than the average American about basic government functions. Hmmm… Maybe that’s because some campuses have even marked the term “American” as offensive.
Friends, as we prepare to celebrate the start of our great nation let’s keep a few things in mind.
– First, let’s commit to learning, understanding, and teaching our kids an accurate history of our country.
– Second, take a moment to thank God for the privilege of living in a time and place that gives us the freedoms we have. And along with that, let’s commit to not taking these freedoms for granted. You know, I’ve thought on occasion that when the day comes (and I believe it will) that we lose these freedoms, I’ll think back on this time now and regret not taking advantage of what I could have accomplished in His name.
– And finally, can we agree that it’s stupid that you don’t have to take American history to get a degree in history? Seriously, let’s open our eyes! We cannot ignore what is going on on college campuses around the country.
Happy Independence Day everyone!
You can find more Presidential quotes here, BTW…good stuff!
I too am shocked by the lack of history knowledge of college students and the lax requirements of colleges. I teach American Literature and am shocked when students enter my classroom only having taken British Literature in high school. We are not doing our kids any favors in this. All of us need to understand our history and be deeply appreciative of the many battles fought for our freedoms and liberties.
Amen! It is truly mind boggling. I hadn’t thought of the literature side of things. That is really interesting.