...From every, uh, hillside, let freedom ring!

Happy Fourth of July! I really had a good day today, from breakfast at church to picnicing in the park, today was just an overall good day. First, we went to church, where everyone had breakfast together. It was sausage and biscuits and gravy, a good Southern breakfast, if a bit heavy. Then we went to the service where we sang some patriotic songs, had a flag ceremony, and had a great sermon. Then we went to my Sunday School teacher's house for lunch. Some of the other members come from Brazil and they brought their grand/mother, who speaks no English. It was interesting trying to communicate Spanish to Portugese. Later we went to the Miller Amphitheater in Herman Park to listen to the Houston Symphony and watch the fireworks. The weather was perfect. It had been a hot afternoon but cooled off by the time we all got there. There were mobs of people covering the whole hill (the one hill in Houston). We were far enough from that perimeter that the mosquitoes gorged on the fringes and didn't bother us a bit. I really got into the music and our simple picnic was very good. At one point, the announcer said that they were going to play the official songs from each of the branches in the military and if you were from that branch you were supposed to stand up. It made me proud when I thought of all my relatives who could stand proudly for each of the songs. I think the only branch my family hasn't covered is the coast guard. Although I have to give a point to Jeremy because when they played the songs, the Marines were the only ones who stood at attention. All the army, air force, and navy people just kinda stood there, slouched, or looked around the crowd. According to my count, that gives Jeremy 3 points and Micah 1 point, although Micah officially just started three days ago. They played the 1812 Overture complete with canons but their fireworks had to be broken into sections due to high winds. It felt like a good clean, traditional 4th of July. Everyone from the community, coming together to celebrate as one nation. Lots of food, people were polite, every skin color, every shape and size. Everyone equal. The only thing that would have made it better was if they all could worship God together. That would be awesome beyond belief.

So much for the Founding Fathers being Deists. I was listening to David Barton on Focus on the Family the other day and he mentioned the fact that many people today claim that our Founding Fathers were Deists. A Deist is someone who believes there is a God but that after creating the world, He left and that we can't really know anything about Him. But, he continues, if that were true, why would 27 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence have seminary degrees? Why would they start the American Bible Society? Why would they start a national Sunday School association? Why did they on Sept 10, 1782 approve "a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools." Wait, Congress can't do that! That would be a violation of the Separation of Church and State. Well, obviously the Founding Fathers didn't understand what that truely means, they only wrote it but didn't understand it. My prayer is that the America will come back its Christian foundation before we ruin our country.