Humiliation, the Precursor for Independence

How does a nation—or a pre-nation—gird its colonial loins and fortify its collective soul for a certain battle (of uncertain outcome) just ahead? Months before it took the fateful and formal decision to establish nationhood, the Continental Congress embraced a special action, nearly unthinkable today, to prepare for its declaring independence: It turned to God.

With Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, and other portentous military clashes already in the colonial rear-view, with Congress’s “Olive Branch Petition” having been rejected by King George, the inevitability of a formal break—with its vague and maybe even deadly result—was approaching at 18th-century breakneck speed. What to do to give the disparate militias and pre-citizenry of this not-yet-country a modicum of fortitude and courage, and maybe even to gain Divine backing? Read Full Article »