An "unpopular" 4th of July Post… Why this is Not a Day to Celebrate…

UPDATE: After you read this post and comment, Mason pointed out a very good article from Christianity Today written by Historical Christian Scholar Mark Noll (he is read in seminaries across America)… It asks similar questions from a historical perspective.

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ORIGINAL POST:

With all of that said, I have been struggling with the idea of the 4th of July for the past year or so. Each year we get together and remember the day when America won her freedom. We reenact the story through live action plays, we set off fireworks as a display of joy, and we sing prideful songs about our freedom from oppression. In many ways, we treat Independence Day like the Jews in Jesus’ day (and even to this day) remember the exodus from Egypt. Now here is the issue I have: No matter what position you hold in regards to being a Christian and war (I happen to lean towards a nonviolent stance), I cannot justify glorifying the ‘wining’ of our independence from our friends across the pond, even from a ‘just war theory’ viewpoint. How can we celebrate that we killed thousands upon thousands of people (MANY OF WHICH WORSHIPED THE SAME GOD!) over the fact that they were taxing our mammon with out giving us representation in parliament or whatever?!!!!! This seems just plain wrong!!!!! Yes, there might be some kind of justice issue here, but the greater injustice to taxation without representation is the violent killing of our brethren.