All American Girl

This is my niece, Charlotte, sleeping through the Fairfax City
4th of July Parade in the outfit her Aunty Carol bought her.

I don't know if I would consider myself an all-American girl, but I am pretty patriotic. I am thankful on a regular basis for the freedoms and privileges being an American citizen affords. I support our military. I enjoy Sousa marches, Stars & Stripes forever, bad hot dogs, fireworks and funnel cakes. After all, as a child, this is the food I ate while listening to my father play this music, honoring the USA most 4ths of July.

That is why I found myself with a flood of strong, but conflicting, opinions and emotions on July 1st as I attended the morning worship service at Mclean Bible Church in the middle of the beltway, the heart of the nation's political energy . While I enjoy being patriotic, I do not associate or confuse my patriotism at all with my Christianity; that is a rather Mormon pre-occupation, but one that also side-tracks many evangelical Christians today. In fact I enjoy the truth of this quote by a Chinese author, "What is patriotism but simply love of the food one ate as a child?"

Bolivian dancer in the Fairfax 4th of July parade
Not the food I ate as a child, but very enjoyable!

So, when the church orchestra and band played the 5 services medley, Stars & Stripes Forever, and sang "Proud to be an American" it was difficult to enjoy. When pastor Lon Solomon began his sermon by describing how American is going down the toilet, you know - homosexuality, abortion, media, no prayer in schools, promiscuity and porn, my stomach turned queasy. Just as the national anthem is not the theme song of heaven, I know that legislation in the US Congress is not the word of God nor the path to salvation. Lon finished his passionate description of the downfall of our country and asked, "How are we going to reverse all of these un-biblical forces in order to secure God's blessing on America?" At this point I was one exit row away from bailing out mentally altogether - until - Lon answered his own question:

He said, "I've got great news. We don't have to reverse all of these forces, because friends, the solution to our dilemma is found in the Biblical truth of the power of the remnant....." At that my head snapped up and my heart lifted.

The Harley Davidson Procession that immediately followed
the Bolivian dancers. A hilarious juxtaposition. As my sister said,
"In case we forgot where we were and who was in charge."
Incidentally - also not the food I ate as a child.

Pastor Lon went on to teach that rather than being concerned with changing other people's behavior, we the remnant need to be concerned with our own righteousness before the Lord. It ended up being a fabulous sermon. To Pastor Lon's credit, he certainly knows his audience and how to reach them. In my own haste to judgment, I almost missed his back door entrance to a wonderful message about God's desire for us to be concerned with our personal relationship with Him, with sharing His character with others, rather than appointing ourselves judge and policing the behavior of the world.

The link to the sermons by date page is below. I highly recommend listening to it if you find yourself discouraged by America's "moral decline" or if you minister alongside those who are and who feel it is their job to correct the moral ills of this country. I gained several good scriptural references for addressing the issue.

http://www.mcleanbible.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=3673#

ps - check back often - I feel a binge of posts coming on.....