Patriotism is a form of gratitude to God for the blessing of living in the land of our birth, or in the land that is our adopted home. We recognize that God has placed us in a particular place and calls us to contribute to the well-being of our society. This necessarily involves our personal efforts to foster justice and social harmony, working with our neighbors for the common good. Life is not lived in isolation, either geographically or historically. We form part of a social body that shares an appreciation for the good things we have received from God through the generations that have gone before us. We are the inheritors of laws, customs, and a shared understanding of what is true, good and beautiful in life. We are also inheritors of certain ways of acting and thinking that need to be changed because they are unjust and harmful. Not everything that has been handed down in a society is true, good and beautiful. Some things are false, evil and ugly.

True patriotism is not blind to the failings of one’s country. Patriots recognize that not everything in a country’s history, or in its present reality, is good. Reform is not a denial of patriotism, but rather its fulfillment. We measure our love for our country by the highest standard of love, which is God’s truth and justice. When either of these is lacking, change is required.

As we observe Independence Day on July 4th our gratitude to God for living in the United States of America is renewed. We recall with thanks those who fought to free our country from the unjust oppression of her colonial masters in England. We are grateful for the determination of the Founding Fathers to create a representative form of government that would be bound by its fundamental law, the Constitution, to protect the rights and freedoms of its citizens.

Pro-life Americans are grateful for all the progress that has been made over the last 50 years to protect the right to life of our innocent unborn brothers and sisters. This progress is owing to the efforts of scores of citizens who correctly maintain that the Founders of our country did not form a union of states rooted firmly in principles of justice and freedom with the intention that one category of people, namely those residing in their mother’s wombs, could be legally killed.

The United States of America extirpated slavery as an unjust institution that violated the principles of the American founding. Pro-life Americans remind our nation that legalized abortion is also a violation of those principles. If the freedom of the American people does not include a “right” to enslave our fellow man, how can it possibly include a “right” to kill those who live in a state of temporary dependence at the beginning of life.

Love of country is a good and noble attitude, yet it must include the resolution to correct the failings that destroy the rights of those who are victimized by unjust laws.

This Fourth of July, let us thank God for the continued efforts of all those who work tirelessly to protect innocent human life. Let us thank Him for giving us a country in which those efforts advance due to the dedication of so many people who will not desist from giving a voice to those who cannot speak out in their own defense, our unborn brothers and sisters.