Why This Country is Better Than Yours!

This is unmistakably the greatest nation on earth. Nothing comes close to it.

I first arrived in this great country in 1988 with my family. I still remember seeing a principal spank one of my classmates. There was an announcement of his wrongdoing, and a whoopin’. Good times. This was in a public school in the late 80’s—a Stranger Things experience. Yeah—‘Murica was a different place back then. It was noble then. But now, it’s far better.

We have a government that clearly acknowledges the mercies of God. The culture has dramatically changed. We are somewhere in a negative-positive world. However the math turns out, it’s a good thing to be in this country. It’s a good thing to be in this country far more than any other. The abundance. The freedom...to worship, to serve, to protest, to overcome.

This is unmistakably the greatest nation on earth. Nothing comes close to it. The world only complains about America because it is too hot (literally) to be at ease and build; because it is too undisciplined to start institutions; too lazy to navigate the turmoil among its leaders; too overcome by religious liberalism to seek an ounce of grace from the true God. They have to live in the glories of cathedrals built centuries ago, but America lives off its past, present, and future glory.

And even when America limps, she limps with resources other nations can only dream of possessing. She sins loudly, but she also repents publicly. She produces fools, but also men of uncommon courage. She births chaos, but also churches, schools, families, businesses, and institutions that outlive the cultural spasms of the moment. Her critics feed on her freedoms while denouncing the soil that grew them.

You may assume that I am just your run-of-the-mill theocrat boasting of its Christian legacy and advocating for Christian ideals in 2026. Well, that’s quite a generous compliment. I will take it, but I’ll add one more caveat: I am also a committed realist, eagerly advocating the glories of a country that is unmatched in beauty, natural beauty, vigor, divine vigor. We are a propositional people, but we also are a people with hearty propositions.

And because I am a realist, I do not need to pretend that America is sinless in order to say that she is glorious. I do not need to baptize every act of her rulers in order to give thanks for her founding mercies. God is perfect, but he is not a perfectionist (DW). I do not need to deny her blemishes in order to celebrate her blessings. Gratitude is not blindness. Patriotism is not propaganda. To love a nation rightly is to see both her wounds and her wonders, and to insist that the God who gave her such abundance still summons her to repentance, worship, and greatness.

So, yes, I will celebrate her. I will toast her today as I rejoice with my congregation. I will teach my children to honor her in songs and play. I will give thanks that of all the places God could have planted my life, he brought me here. And I will pray that this country, with all her wealth, beauty, discipline, madness, mercy, and might, would bend her knee more fully to the King from whom all nations receive their breath.