Growing up in the 70s, my siblings and I used to love watching the School House Rock educational songs on television. From School House Grammar’s “Conjunction Junction”, “Interjections”, and “A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing”, to their America history lessons like “I’m Just a Bill”, “No More Kings – A Shot Heard Round the World”, and “The Preamble (to the Constitution)”, the Geis kids all joyfully sang along, and learned some valuable lessons along the way.
The American history songs seemed to impact me the most and made me proud to be an American. Having just participated in the city of Montgomery, Ohio, 4th of July parade with the staff of the Christian Blue Network (and our mascot, Trusty the Lion), I was amazed at the thousands of people – young and old, wealthy and (seemingly) not – of all ethnicities – that had gathered to celebrate our nation’s independence. It was truly remarkable, and humbling at the same time.
For some reason, God, by His sovereign grace, chose for each of us to be born in the most wealthy and free country in the world, at the most prosperous time in human history. While we know (and read in the news) that all is not right in the United States, nor anywhere else on the planet, we do (still) have one freedom that daily illuminates our lives as believers – religious freedom, ensured by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution of the United States.
In this month’s guest blog “To Whom Much Is Given: Celebrating Freedom and America’s Independence Day”, our dear friend and regular contributor Hugh Whelchel of the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics, poses the question “How are we stewarding this (religious) freedom?” As followers of Jesus Christ, we acknowledge that true freedom can only be found in a relationship with Him, so we, therefore, have an ongoing moral and civic responsibility to engage our culture.
I encourage you to read on, and, like me, be enlightened by Hugh’s perspectives.
Darrel Geis
President
Christian Blue Network
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” – Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America