A blessed nation indeed

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    This Saturday, July 4th, we celebrate America’s 233rd birthday. Only 233 years ago the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Seven years later the United States of America became the free and independent nation we have enjoyed ever since.

    On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced the following resolution in Congress: “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”

    Three days later, June 10, Congress voted to name a committee to write a declaration of independence for the delegates to consider in case they adopted Lee’s resolution. The committee consisted of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Jefferson’s committee associates asked him to draft the declaration.

    On July 2, Congress approved the Lee resolution. The delegates then began to debate Jefferson’s draft. Only a few passages were removed. Most changes simply dealt with style.

    On July 4, 1776, Congress adopted the final draft of the Declaration of Independence – which in part reads: “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the power of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

    Only the blessing of God can explain the birth of this nation: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 33:12a).

    Jessie J. Charpentier Sr. is pastor of Jenkins Memorial Baptist Church in St. Martinville.