Weekend A La Carte (July 4)

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include a whole collection of good options. Just because it’s Saturday doesn’t mean the deals let up!

Recommended Reading

Since it is a momentous day in the United States, I thought I would give the bulk of my attention to articles about America’s 250th anniversary. Not surprisingly, there was plenty to choose from.

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I think Thomas Kidd is just the person whom you’d want to read on the role of Christianity in America’s first 250 years as a nation.

As the United States of America observes the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the question of the nation’s Christian roots seems more controversial than ever. Secularists tell us that biblical faith had virtually nothing to do with the Founding, while many today on the Christian right insist that the Founders were born-again believers who created America as a “Christian nation.”

Whatever role Christianity played at the nation’s birth, we have entered a post-Christian era in modern America. The reigning powers in American academia, business, entertainment, and law are typically hostile toward Christians and biblical morality. Freedom of self-expression has become the ultimate determiner of social justice. Traditional morality and even biological reality are often reviled as tools of oppressors. Our brave new world has made many Christians eager to recapture the nation’s spiritual origins.

In the following essay, I sketch the story of Christianity in America from the Founding to the present day, demonstrating that the church’s flourishing in America has depended not on a connection to the government but on the strength of its sovereign God.

Read: 250 Years of Faith.

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George Grant explains why and how the American Revolution was considered by some to be a distinctly Presbyterian rebellion.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, news arrived in London that a long and protracted conflict with the American colonial possessions of Great Britain had culminated in a resolute declaration of independence. Horace Walpole, the prime minister, rose in Parliament to declare: “There is no use crying about it. Cousin America has eloped with a Presbyterian parson.” It was a sentiment shared with virtually all the royalists on both sides of the Atlantic.

From the beginning of the conflict, King George III had been convinced that the leading patriot leaders were Presbyterians (a term he loosely used to describe Reformed Congregationalists as well as Presbyterians). As early as 1774, he had quipped to Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson, “Are they not Presbyterians?” In truth, the king had every reason to suspect so.

Read: The Presbyterian Rebellion.

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I found this an especially strong and interesting piece of writing. Andrew Noble writes from a Canadian perspective and considers some of the differences between an American and Canadian identity.

In the last year, Canada’s two major political leaders have told different histories of Canada’s origin. Just as the 1619 Project aimed to redefine America’s founding story, our leaders have sought to redefine Canada’s—either as a continuation of European Progress (Prime Minister Mark Carney has called Canada “the most European of the non-European countries”) or as the continuation of a more ancient “rule of law” and libertarian values (Pierre Poilievre often references the influence of Magna Carta on Britain and subsequently Canada, drafted in 1215).

Both leaders seem to be reaching for stories which avoid reference to America, due to an increasing anti-American sentiment. For Carney, Canada must reduce our economic dependence on the United States because of Trump’s rhetoric and actions. For Poilievre, Canada has a historical tie to liberty and the “Canadian dream” without any relationship to the ideals of the Republican Party. It’s a question of foundations.

They both seem to believe that who we have been implies something of who we should be. And there is some truth in this. In a similar way, being made in the image and likeness of God implies something of who we should be. Given the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, how should we think about our identity as Canadians? And how should we view our countries’ origins as Christians?

Read: 250 Years Later: Canada, America, and the Gift of Difference.

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I may be Canadian, but I still know that the Gettysburg Address is not directly related to the founding of the United States. On the other hand, Lincoln did immediately reference it, didn’t he? Anyway, I enjoyed Allen C. Guelzo’s piece on where exactly the Gettysburg Address was delivered.

“That sounds like one of those 4th-grade gags we used to pull on the backbench of the school bus, in the same league with ‘Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?’ and ‘What was the color of Washington’s white horse?’ In this case, the question has more point than we might think. Yes, Abraham Lincoln really did go to Gettysburg, the site of the greatest battle of the American Civil War, to deliver ‘a few appropriate remarks’ at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery there in November, 1863. But it is at least true, also, that he did not deliver these ‘remarks’ (he never actually called them ‘The Gettysburg Address’) within the precincts of the town. The Soldiers National Cemetery had been laid out after the battle on Cemetery Hill, on the town’s south edge, where the town cemetery (known as the Evergreen Cemetery) had also been created in 1854. But Cemetery Hill had certainly been involved in the fighting there in July 1863. Union artillery had used Cemetery Hill as an ideal platform from which to dominate the rest of the battlefield. So, yes, with those slight footnotes added, Lincoln delivered the Address at Gettysburg.

What still makes the question worth asking, though, is the uncertainty about exactly where the platform from which he delivered the Address was located on the day of the dedication”

Read: Where Did Lincoln Deliver the Gettysburg Address?

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Eddie LaRow is also pondering Lincoln, especially his “Meditation on the Divine Will” and later Emancipation Proclamation.

Whether Lincoln was a true Christian or not is, in the end, beside the point. He was — I am quite certain — used by God in his Providence to hold together the bonds of the Union in the face of almost certain rupture. Two hundred and fifty years later, we stand — though quite divided underneath — united in the fact that we are Americans. And we can look back on Lincoln’s meditation on the Divine Will and see that he too wrestled with a divided nation, but did not give up hope for it.

As I reflect on America 250 years later, I think of two blood payments. The first: the men who died on fields like Antietam — who died on American soil, by American weapons, in towns and streams and mountains with American names — and Lincoln himself, who died at the end of the conflict and did not live to see beyond it. Though they did not live to see the result, the blood they shed was enough to purchase an imperfect Union — the very imperfect Union we have today. But I am also reminded of the blood spilled by Christ, who conquered the grave. For as Paul writes in Galatians 3, “Christ bought us with His blood.”

Read: The Price of an Imperfect Union.

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More briefly:

• The Clip Stage celebrates soccer and discusses the role of video clips in the World Cup.
• When Seminaries Stop Believing in God provides an eyewitness account of a seminary abandoning the truth.
• Eikon 8.1 will take you to the new issue of CBMW’s Eikon journal.
• When Job First Heard the News that Day is an excellent little poem about Job.

Your Recommendations

Earlier in the week, I asked what you are enjoying and what you would recommend to others. There were far too many responses for me to share them all, but I did want to share a broad selection. Thanks to all who sent them along!

• Debbie just finished reading Enough and Count It All Joy by missionary Helen Roseveare. Debbie loves Roseveare’s honesty about what God was doing in her heart through the trials she endured.
• Abe is on about year five of enjoying The Week Dominator from NeuYear. He says it’s a simple and effective weekly planner that leaves space for gratitude.
• Bill is enjoying The Redeemed Man, edited by Joel Beeke, Richard Phillips, and Paul Smalley.
• Jim’s wife encouraged him to look into the Dallas Theological Seminary online courses. He chose the Gospel of John, and though he has studied the Bible for over 30 years and John’s gospel many times, he still learned a great deal through this course.
• Suzanne recommends Ed Welch’s Side by Side. She appreciates that it teaches the reader how to come alongside a person who is suffering or in sin, how to go deeper than small talk on any given Sunday, and how to get into someone’s life to a point where you can help them.
• Sara is a self-professed Star Wars nerd whose boys are young. They are diving deep into the Star Wars galaxy. “We are watching Rebels together and it’s been fun to laugh, be surprised, and all say ‘just one more.’”
• Deanne recommends sending “hugs” through the good ole mail system. Send your grandkids an old-fashioned letter and maybe tuck in a $5 bill for ice cream, then wait for them to send one back.
• Bruce says Grant Castleberry’s book, The Honor of God, is outstanding, having read it as part of a group.
• John has an increasing appreciation for gardening, fuelled by reading A Bit of Earth by Andrea Burke. He says the similarities between the gardener’s dominion of their small patch of earth and God’s continued work of sanctification in the life of a Christian are striking.
• Karen has been enjoying the “Unloaf Method”, an unconventional sourdough bread recipe where the work consists mostly of waiting and believing. “The yeast and bacteria that the Lord made in the air does the heavy lifting that yields delicious bread which is both crusty and soft.”
• Pete appreciates A Candle in the Window, a Christian hospitality network. “You host people for an overnight or two, or share a meal and conversation, and gain access to a worldwide network of places to stay for no cost.”
• Todd enjoys his daily email from photographer Ray Majoran that includes a photo, a Bible reference, and a prayer. He also enjoys his weekly email from J. R. Briggs. It is business-related, but with a gospel influence.
• Margo is enjoying Streetlights Audio Bible, a moderately dramatized NLT audio Bible available on audio streaming (e.g., Spotify). She says it’s “very easy to follow, and I’ve been able to listen through several books of the Bible while nursing my newborn!”
• Ken is not Anglican, but attended a nearby Anglican Church that is part of the Anglican Church in North America, an evangelical group that pulled out of the Anglican Church of Canada several years ago. He found the service God-focused, Christ-centered, and Spirit-led and recommends visiting such churches.

Flashback

Molded in the Master’s Hands. The Life of Peter is a relatively brief book, but one that covers its subject well. Thomas meant for his book to be helpful to Christians and, indeed it is.