Learning to Love America Again

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Visit Focus on the Family.com/strengthen families to learn more or call 800. The A in the word family as we celebrate Independence Day tomorrow I have a question for you to be celebrating for the right reasons. Here's one perspective, and I wonder if you can relate in our generation since the 60s.

We have begun to stop thinking about the greatness of America and the great heroes Nathan Hale Paul Revere what we we started to focus more on the antiheroes on the villains on the shortcomings on the things we've gotten wrong as you said is utterly important to know those things so that we don't repeat them to understand that we have not been perfectly done all these things wrong. But if you get to a point where you're only focusing on that. It's exactly the same as if you're saying I will not hear one negative thing said about my country is America love or leave it, get out. Both are wrong. That's Erica Texas and author, speaker and radio host and he truly loves this country and he also recognizes that we made some mistakes in this nation over the past 240 years or so. Eric will share more insights with us today on Focus on the Family your hostess focus presidents and author Jim Daly and I'm John Fuller. When you think about a job. We don't have many heroes in our culture today.

We don't trust heroes. I think the message in the culture from the messengers are don't trust him and don't trust our leaders or whatever celebrities we may follow.

We just don't trust generally and there's a dangerous cynicism in this country, which is very unfortunate, especially among Christians because despite all of the concerns and issues we see in today's society. We know God is always at work is working in people's hearts and through institutions like the church and even our government to fulfill his kingdom and let me say this, we should never forget how blessed we are to live in this exceptional nation with the democratic principles of liberty and justice that we all enjoy and you know I've traveled to about 70 countries. In my work here Focus on the Family and the differences between those nations and ours are quite obvious and I remember the first time I returned from an international trip. I literally got down on my hands and knees and kiss the term, recognizing that as a boy returning from war, but it it made an impression on the things that we have in this country are so valuable, so special, especially when you see how it doesn't work in other places, how people's rights are trod upon etc. and I'm telling you that the founding fathers with all of their normal human inconsistencies and frailties. They were really wise men who set up a system that recognizes the heart of man and the motivation of reward, and I hope we can maintain this great experiment that we all refer to it as not Eric's point. America isn't perfect. We never were. I don't know who claims that it's perfect is just really good and will likely make mistakes in the future. There's no doubt about it, but we do have so much to celebrate. And that's why we want to share this great conversation today. My taxes has been on this broadcast many times and he is offering some really intriguing perspectives for us to consider today and I will explore book he wrote called, if you can keep it. The forgotten promise of American liberty we've got it and there details in the episode notes and now Jim, here's how you started the conversation with Erica Texas on Focus on the Family Eric were talking about your wonderful wonderful book. If you can keep it. Let's start where that title comes from because it is a phrase that was use a statement that values by one of the framers. You Benjamin Franklin. He was exiting Philadelphia's famous Independence Hall in 1787. They had just created the Constitution which really means they had just created the United States of America. I mean we think of 1776.

But the reality is that we won the war. 1783. We kind of bumbled around under the articles Confederation trying to be a country, but we didn't really have a federal government that was very strong. We didn't know if it was gonna work.

So they had to go back to the drawing board and create our government. They said it's not working. Let's go back. Let's figure it out, so all the you know important guys get together and Independence Hall the same place with a signed the Declaration of Independence in July 4, 1776 and now they are there to create Constitution and when it's all over. Benjamin Franklin walks out of the building and this woman Mrs. Powell of Philadelphia says to him, Dr. Franklin, what have you given us a monarchy or a Republic. Now she wasn't joking around.

So he says a Republic. Mdm., if you can keep it and when he said if he can keep it we can think of. Franklin is kind of jokey like he thought a it's a Republic, if you can keep it. You now try but he was not joking he was serious in the sense that he and all of those in the room who had created this Constitution would created this new government understood that the only way it would work. The only way it would work is if the people kept the Republic. If the people actually governed themselves. You cannot have self-government if the people don't step up that's you and me and everybody listening. If the people don't step up understand what's necessary and govern themselves. So when Franklin said this, he was only a few years from his own death three years he was an older man. He had no idea if 50 years 100 years in the future. This government would exist when he said this, if you can keep it. It was a charge to every future American if you don't keep it, by definition, it goes away at something like the way it will go away. You have a role to play.

You need to understand what it means to to govern yourself. That's what the book is about and what I basically say is that in the last 40 or so years we have forgotten what it means to live as free Americans, we have forgotten what our role is and we basically abdicated our role, and unless we remember what this is and begin to do the work that we have been doing for these 40 years goes away.

Eric we are in it, not in a great place.

Let me ask you this question because when you look at world history or US history. I actually love history we read a lot of history reading Andrew Jackson's biography right now. There's been episodes in our history, which have created fear that it's not in the last it's it's popping seems that our Republic is right. So when we look at the last 40 years will why is it different. Why should we be more concerned in these 40 years than we were the previous hundred and say well I wouldn't say that we should be more concerned than we were safe, the Civil War, but we should be as concerned why because anybody thinks that our country does bumbles along and continues to exist doesn't have any clue of what America is. This country is fragile. Our form of government is not supposed to work. It supposed to fall apart unless you have a citizenry that takes a solid active role in governing themselves. Now how does that happen. First of all, you have to teach people what is it mean to govern yourself you have to teach people what is it mean to be an American for 200 years we were doing that we were teaching young people. And we ourselves the older people knew what is it mean to be an American. How are we different from other countries. What is wonderful about what we have and why is it worth a great effort to keep it and by the way when not keeping it just for ourselves with keeping it for the whole world because we actually want the whole world to borrow these ideas to steal these ideas to live out the liberty that we have to have the freedom we have religious freedom and economic freedom and opportunity. All of this stuff was not given to us by God.

Just for us was given to us to be really a shining beacon to the whole world. That's where you get this image of the Statue of Liberty. We exist for others it's a fundamentally Christian idea that shining city on a hill that if we shine the light of liberty which is very connected to Christian faith and to virtue the whole world will say hey I want a piece of that. Can I be like that and so this is something that we have basically stopped teaching in schools for 40 years. You don't get these messages on TV on the TV programs you don't get these messages and films. We have adopted since the 60s, a kind of anti-American narrative and anti-heroic narrative. If you hear about George Washington. Instead of hearing about the infinity of heroic things he did you hear all he was a slave owner. We have done a profound disservice to this generation, and even to our generation us growing up in the 70s or whatever that we have not taught these things if you have a couple of generations. That doesn't understand the stuff and that is not living it out.

That is, I'm not being hyperbolic. That is the end of America and we have not been doing this and we need to get very busy when I appreciate that were celebrating Fourth of July in the creation of our country. There was a personality you really highlighted in your book and that's Nathan Hale. Most people don't even know who Nathan Hale is Jeff who was the end. What was he doing and how did he contribute to the nation will I want to say this, that one of the reasons I wrote the book is to explain all this up, but also to put the stories in the book that I think are the seminal stories Nathan Hale Paul Revere George Washington Y with a great what'd they do if we don't know the stories we can't really be Americans. I mean let's put it this way, America is an experiment in ordered liberty. America is an idea when an ethnic group. There's no such thing as an ethnic group. We are from my parents are from Greece and Germany and people are from Mexico and China from all around the world, and they become Americans.

My parents are as American as George Washington because they bought into an idea to become an American is to buy into an idea. So, if people don't know what those ideas are we now become America in name only, we become Americans" and the whole thing goes away. So I said one of the most important things is to know your stories to know the history and the heroic stories of people like Nathan Hale because these stories inspire you every nation and every culture has heroes and you say you know as Greeks celebrate every year their own independence.

They may celebrate these heroes. They're not ashamed. They don't say oh, Greece has its faults.

Whatever they say of course we are false, but let's celebrate our heroes in America.

Nathan Hale stands as one of the great heroes of the revolution, he was first of all, profound Christian. He went to Yale University. His dorm is still there today you can see it. This young man decided to enroll as a Christian and as an American patriot. He wanted to fight for his country and then George Washington needed some spies because the British in their intelligence efforts. You know were really beyond our own. We needed some Americans willing to go behind enemy lines and to do the brave work of being a spy Nathan Hale volunteered he was eventually caught by the British and Hank. He was 21 years old. He was hanged about three quarters of a mile from where were sitting in an orchard on the east side of Manhattan was an orchard was a farm.

He was hanged. He was 21 years old. The people who hanged him were moved by his character. They knew that this is an uncommon man and when he was hanged.

He said my only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country. He was paraphrasing something from one of the I think the Romans had said I forget who it was but this was what he said when he was being hanged 21 years old. My only regret is that I have one life to give for my country. This man's death was celebrated among all of the, the, the revolutionary soldiers.

They said this is our hero. We're going to fight for him. He was 21 he was young he was Christian and he was a great man and so his name was. They wrote a couple of ballads about him, and over the decades and the centuries we've celebrated Nathan Hale so you said is a great man, but he was executed at 21 so what, there's a contradiction there in perspective for what he did. Well, it's his willingness to say I'm willing to die for my country when he said my country. He didn't say a my tribe my peeps. This was for a noble idea of liberty which he connected to his Christian faith. There was something beautiful.

He was willing to die for his country and when I say he's a great man. I mean, this was not a man who ran away from danger or who ran away from any trouble. He basically said what can I do for my nation.

Young people need to be inspired that to give yourself or your country is a noble thing. We've all always here, but as examples of how so-and-so was killed in a war that didn't mean anything or whatever, that's not right. It doesn't mean we shouldn't mention as examples, but if you only mention those examples, you do a profound disservice because thousands and even millions of people have died for noble causes and if we don't tell people is such a thing as a noble cause that nothing matters. Look out for yourself. You're creating a generation in a whole world of selfish people who by the way, will implode.

We cannot be a great nation or great world.

We cannot have peace unless we aspire to these noble ideas and so one of the great stories from our own history.

Is this young man Hale that ceric my Texas on Focus on the Family and he's sharing inspirational stories from his book. If you can keep it. The forgotten promise of American liberty.

And of course, understanding and protecting our liberty can be challenging these days, especially when current events and trends seem to undermine the values of our faith. And that's why we've created an online resource called the daily Citizen which can help you navigate today's news and issues from a biblical perspective.

We urge you to check it out at the link in the episode's and now more from our conversation with your taxes on Focus on the Family.

Eric, you mentioned the last four years. The stories of not been sure generally prior to that, most of us on 55 in the early days of school. I got a lot of that history and understood her. George Washington was yeah I don't think we caught Nathan Hale, which is what they unfortunately that was the beginning of that history will you and I catch a lot of Hale and were right on the cusp so got some of it but not all well right and some people in different parts of the country in the South. They were much better about this, but generally speaking, the 60s changed the heroism of people. People want talk about heroes they so talk about antiheroes a set celebrating the dark side. They start talking about the negative narrative of what we did to the indigenous populations of the Americas. They talk about slavery by the weights important to talk about that stuff. But if that's the only stuff you talk about. You do a profound disservice to history because we as a nation abolished slavery.

We repented of our sins of racism, we abolish Jim Crow laws. Most of that by the way, came out of people of serious Christian faith, which is another very important part of the American story, and a part of my book.

If you can keep it. Is that all of the founders, every single one of them even Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson understood that without virtue and robust faith.

America cannot exist. America cannot function that has not been taught in schools for over 40 years. We took prayer to the public schools we need to understand that what we have our form of self-government.

Real liberty cannot exist without a people of virtue and most of that comes out of faith. All of founders got that. But in our generation. We have completely forgotten as we don't teach it.

And by the way, because it's true. Even if you don't like it, we ought to be teaching this in the schools, public schools, and there are some people that are beginning to talk in that way secularist Oakland that are Sammy's things, that it would be very positive for us to do that but I want to get to the divide. That was the second half of the question. We do have this great divide in the culture today. Yeah, where it is only the dark side. It's all have the negative the embarrassment of it. Very little about the positive and have those are very positive who want to sometimes negate the negative you and not address it. Only loss but the bigger question is how do we begin to pull this back together for so that our Republic can survive hi okay first of all in the book I talk about how I believe we are obliged to love our country. Now, as Christians, how do we define love.

That's the other thing love doesn't mean I agree with everything but if I have a son or a daughter who's not behaving the way I like what is it mean to love that child. Do I just say hey, keep on doing bad stuff.

No. But do I want to curse this kid and saying you'll never amount to anything. Europe you've always been this way you're just like your mother or you just like your father.

That's to curse rather than to love.

That's to judge and through judgment to curse and so to love is to call someone higher. So to love your country doesn't mean to agree with all the bad stuff but it means to praise it for the good stuff when you praise a kid for what he does well or what she does well your calling them higher. You're saying that at the bottom of everything. I love you I want you to be better. We have to have a healthy view of what is it mean to love your country and if we do not love our country.

We killer country just like a kid. If you refuse to praise a kid, you're so mad at that kid that you will never praise him, you will never look at him, you will never say you did a good thing it because I don't want you to ever forget all the bad stuff you did.

If you do that, we know that that cripples the soul of that kid, I would argue that we have done that that the larger culture has done that to this nation that if you do not celebrate what is good and beautiful true in America first lawyer telling a lie because those things happened and they need to be celebrated.

But secondly, you're limiting America. You're basically destroying America, even though you claim you're not your destroying it.

And I think that that is what is happening that the voices and the culture that want to focus on how everybody's racist and we haven't dealt with this and we have dealt with this we have always had problems, but I would say to her credit, as a nation we have always tried to get it right and when you start saying it's not good enough. It's not good enough.

It really is like telling a kid you'll never be good enough, you'll never be good enough. You crush that kid and the kid eventually says we know what, I'm not even try anymore. I really think that there's a lot to celebrate in America and by the way, if you don't teach kids what is great about this country.

They really can't even know who we are as a people we should have done great things in the world and I would argue, as I said earlier that the greatest thing about America is that we have been a nation for others it's a Christian idea DeBono offers a Jesus is the man for others. We want to help the whole world. We have been generous in all kinds of ways with blood and treasure.

But even with trying to export our ideas of liberty when I say this is our idea. We love to bring economic freedom and religious freedom all around the world, but if we're not taking care of it, keeping it you know here then we don't have any to give away is only for its importance in one of the tough questions. Eric and I I've talked with African American leaders in this country about this. You know, when you look at the founding fathers. They didn't deal with slavery at that moment and there's a deep wound in that community that the they didn't yeah K Natalie very real apps that I would suggest interestingly enough and you know somebody will jump on that and say will that was culturally acceptable.

It was the economic engine almost things to try to justify but I would also suggest that they at least created the framework that over time and that that's hard it would be remedied.

You think they understood that the Constitution would eventually some of them to some of them definitely did, and some of them didn't. I mean, again, this is one of these things that it's so complicated a note you can talk on one side of it, or on the other side of it.

I think you have to talk on both sides of it. Sin is sin. I mean, slavery is sin. But when you look at it historically the entire world was filled with slavery until the 19th century when Wilberforce abolished it in 1833 in Great Britain. It's not like America was the only place in the world with this is existed all over the world and 19th century humanity finally battles for this so it's very easy to say all George Washington is a hypocrite in Jefferson's a hypocrite. Whatever, by the way your hypocrite and I'm a hypocrite if you're Christian you understand you are not perfect. You get stuff wrong so it's easy for us to point the fingers the fact of the matter is that they did. As you just said create a framework whereby we went to war and 1/2 a million people bled to death to defeat slavery. I mean, God would prefer that we didn't have to go that route, but we did. I mean, these are think the sins that needed to be repented of but if we can ever celebrate that. I mean, is there a time when you say praise Jesus we abolished slavery. It's not like a foreign power came in and force us to abolish slavery. We of our own accord.

Abolish slavery. We abolished Jim Crow laws in America.

If you can't celebrate that something is wrong with you. You have to be able to celebrate the good stuff. If you want the right to criticize the bad stuff yeah is a your parents were Greek immigrants in this country can agree.

My dad came from Greece and my mom came from Germany and today they are Americans. And in that process. You were born here raised in New York. That 9/11 happens that what had to be a profound moment for you from family.

What is it mean now to be attacked in that way right. What were your thoughts on that day. I actually right about that in the book because it was as a result of 9/11 that I fell in love with my country. I realize that I didn't really love America because I was I went to Yale and that whole world of academia. It's kind of a liberal culture really teaches you that patriotism is something for you know Hicks it's something for the past with we were more mature and sophisticated, and we don't go run around America's great and I think we carry that way way way too far and I remember. And again I write about this in my book.

If you can keep it but there was some months after the attack I was a very weird time in New York. Very somber time and I was on a speed ferry going to New Jersey with my wife and our two-year-old at the time to visit our in-laws and we passed the Statue of Liberty and it was a glorious day and I looked at the Statue of Liberty and I suddenly got choked up and for the first time in my life.

I got choked up about my country and about the liberty and I thought to myself, look at that statute facing outward, welcoming the people that spat on our face welcoming the whole world to come to our shores as we can let the men as we can afford to assimilate them. We look outward, and we say give me your tired, your porcelain people. They were nation of immigrants. That's the whole point is that we've always been outward focused, and we've always said no matter what were not here for ourselves, but after this attack on 9/11 to see the statue still standing. You know like very close to where the attack happened holding the stages got to me I just got choked up and made me think that I have not love my country and I've not appreciated with this country as I thought about my parents passing the statue liberty. I write about that in the book to that they when they were in their 20s. My dad on a ship. My mom and another ship they saw the statue and they didn't go up as a nice idea.

What a bunch of hypocrites. Nonno, they said all, thank God I get to come to America I get to have an opportunity I get to raise my children as Americans and to have sons and grandchildren that will be Americans, and that will live the American dream. I get to do that. I my parents passed that on to me and I think sometimes if you live in America it's easy for us to take it for granted but at 911. It it just it hit me when that's powerful and that's the way I think that kind of an event as dark and as evil as that was, that is the silver lining that comes from that to leave I was over we have and for a lot of people.

Eric, it's been great to have you with us once again thank you for the biographies that you've written and the ones that your writing. That's just it is a real encouragement for all of us, so thanks for the labor of love that you go through with each of those books. Thank you for it is truly my privilege. Thank you. This is Focus on the Family with Jim Daly and our guest today was Erica Texas talking about his book if you can keep it. The forgotten promise of American liberty.

John that conversation with Eric was so inspirational and I hope our listeners were motivated and challenged by it's good to be reminded about the great things we have in America today and let me encourage you to get a copy of Eric's book I we barely covered what's in there.

It's filled with the such rich history and fascinating stories that I know you're going to enjoy and you may want to share some of it with your own children or maybe your grandkids if you could send a gift of any amount Focus on the Family today will get a copy right out to you as our way of saying thank you and let me remind you about our matching gift campaign this summer. Thanks to some generous friends any financial gift you send will be double so $25 becomes $50 and so on. It'll save more marriages, more parents will be equipped to lead their families and more people hearing about the great news of Jesus Christ. So let's help more families by working together this summer and I let me say thank you in advance for your generosity donate to get your copy of Eric's book I would get the details in the episode notes trusting you. Have a great wonderful Independence Day weekend with your family and chicken to celebrate with your church family as well and then join us on Monday when we hear a powerful reminder about praying for your children that I knew in that moment. As God whispered to my heart the same as you and I are talking right now that God was speaking to me and he said to me he said drunk. Don't give up. These boys need someone to fight for them and I have chosen that person to be on behalf of Jim Daly and the entire team here. Thanks for listening to Focus on the Family I'm John Fuller inviting you back. As we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ. Lately my family has been feeling tired and restless and even a little case for you.

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