Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song And Praise

On this holiday weekend as we celebrate the formation and founding of our country and our independence as a nation, we frequently find ourselves thinking about certain characteristics associated with American identity. Characteristics like individualism, invulnerability, and self-sufficiency are often celebrated. Today, in our present time and culture, we are also seeing the growing disease of extreme individualism and Christian nationalism. These malignant ideologies are not at all representative of Christianity, and they do not at all represent the Christian message or connect in any way to the teachings of Jesus. Frankly, perceptions of American individualism and self-sufficiency infuse almost every aspect of our lives, including religion.  We, as a people, preserve and perpetuate the myth that we are a nation defined by the idea that people should set their own course through life.  This is reflected in so many aspects of culture.  Think of Frank Sinatra singing “My Way.”  Think of movies in which famous