Independence Day and Church: What do you think?

Brothers and sisters in Christ (and even those who are neighbors, but not fellow Christians), I would like feed back on this topic.

Often for the United States day of Independence (July 4), churches will hold a service that commemorates this American holiday—celebrating the founding of the nation and the freedoms that come along with it. Often this will include singing the Star Spangled Banner, a few songs like God Bless America, the Battle Hymn of the Republic, etc. The message that is given will have something to do with freedom (hopefully heavenly freedom from sin in Christ and our citizenship as members of the city of God, not about the glories of the USA, as the church is certainly not the place to praise a political/state entity.)

Now, all sorts of questions come to mind about this, and I in no way can exhaust all of the questions that can be raised about such an issue. Such questions as, should this be done during a service in which we are to worship God alone? Should we celebrate the founding of this nation, since it is the nation with the greatest amount of religious freedom ever (Baptists and Methodists would probably want to celebrate this more than Episcopals or Roman Catholics)? Should we pledge allegiance to this entity, or would that be dividing our loyalty? I’m not saying that I do not have my opinions on all of these issues, but I am wondering what other people think.

Now, some may think that the issue of separation of church and state becomes an issue here. I do not think this is an issue in this case, considering that that idea/ideal has a specific meaning. That specific meaning is that there is not to be a state sanctioned/controlled religion that is enforced upon the people. Rather, people are to have the liberty to worship how and what they desire, according to their consciences (which can be deadly wrong, seeing as humans are enslaved to sin without Christ). It seems to me that few people actually understand this concept. The separation of church and state does not mean that people cannot hold prayer meetings after school (in fact, to stop them from holding prayer meetings after school is a breach of this—since that is the state enforcing the religion of not being allowed to pray after school on school grounds, and schools are public property (since we live in a government by the people, for the people). This idea also does not mean that the Ten Commandments cannot be displayed in public buildings, such as courthouses, etc. Actually, to demand the removal of the Ten Commandments is a breach of the separation. In demanding this action, the state is enforcing the religion of naturalism (which is not an objective, neutral stance) upon the people by claiming there is no higher power to which we must answer/one cannot practice his/her religion where he/she desires. A state religion is thus being enforced. But this is a rabbit trail which I will pursue no longer.

So, if you have thoughts on this, please feel free to post them. And, I should soon be able to post more frequently again since I am now finished with my two summer-term classes. I have some stuff upon which I’d like to write, and hopefully I will do so soon.