Informed Patriotism

August 21, 2025 by

An Erosion of the American Spirit?

I am going to start this year by sharing an extended quote by President Ronald Reagan.  I’m going to begin where he finished.  This quote comes from his farewell address spoken on January 11th, 1989, over 36 years ago. On that occasion, Reagan spent several minutes recounting the events and successes of the previous 8 years.  He then spoke these words…

“Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in Presidential farewells, and I’ve got one that’s been on my mind for some time…  the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won’t count for much, and it won’t last unless it’s grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge. An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?

He continued…

“Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn’t get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties.

“But now, we’re about to enter the nineties, and some things have changed. Younger parents aren’t sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children… We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection.

“So, we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important — why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, 4 years ago on the 40th anniversary of D – day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who’d fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, ‘we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.’ Well, let’s help her keep her word. If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are.

“I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.

“Let’s start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual…”(President Reagan’s Farewell Address)

My dear students and friends of Bradford Academy,  Reagan was right.  We all need to know our own history.  We all need to know who we are and from where we have come.

 

What men? What kind of men?

I recently heard of a writer who carried around a gift card in his pocket and promised to give it to anyone who named FIVE (out of 56) signers of the DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE.  He asked many college students over the years and is now afraid the card will expire before he finds someone. How many could you name?

Sadly, we don’t know their names, and worse, we don’t know what kind of men they were. We have forgotten why they fought for independence and what freedom means.  Were they merely secularists tired of English taxes?  Or was there a deeper spiritual understanding of what it meant to live as free men?

Are we surprised that the signers would say things like, “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity…” (John Adams)? It would probably surprise us that the man who many claim was the least religious, Thomas Jefferson, would say, “No nation has ever existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man…”

Today, another signer of the Declaration, Samuel Adams, is more often identified with the Boston brewery than with a robust faith in Christ.  Sam Adams was, however, a man who often called the state of Massachusetts to prayer when he later served as its governor:

…we may with one heart and voice humbly implore His gracious and free pardon through Jesus Christ,

supplicating His Divine aid . . . [and] above all to cause the religion of Jesus Christ,

in its true spirit, to spread far and wide till the whole earth shall be filled with His glory.

Samuel Adams, Proclamation for a Day of Fasting and Prayer, March 10, 1793.

Faithful Men

Do you understand what this means?  This nation, your nation, is one whose history is saturated with Christian witness. AND we have been blessed because of it.  We have forgotten our past and are tempted to forget the God of our Fathers.  Our founders knew that without faith in Christ, without the Christian religious ethos and worldview, the foundations to build our house would be unstable and unreliable.  Without the knowledge of God’s word and the Spirit that changes men’s hearts, no free country will long endure.  There was no other hope for mankind and certainly no hope for any nation.

 

“[H]e is the best friend to American liberty who is the most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion,

and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind.

Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country.”

John Witherspoon (Signer of the Declaration of Independence), The Works of the Reverend John Witherspoon (Philadelphia: William W. Woodward, 1802), III:42.

 

The Old Testament often warns the ancient nation of Israel of the dangers of forgetting God…

  • Deuteronomy 8:11-14 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God…”
  • Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

A Call to Action

While I do not believe the United States is equivalent to Old Covenant Israel, I do believe the principle remains.  The Word of God and the understanding that Jesus Christ is Lord shaped and molded our Founding Fathers.  They built this nation on that foundation.  While not perfectly, they spoke and acted in alignment with the Christian faith.  Furthermore, I believe they were providentially blessed by it.  If we forget the God of our Fathers, we cannot expect continued blessing.

 

Let’s head Reagan’s warning and start remembering our American history.