Happy Birthday to us! Most Americans look forward to the holiday that celebrates our nation’s official birthday. On July 4, 1776, 56 founders risked their fortunes, their lives, and their sacred honors by signing our country’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence.
What many do not know is what George Washington ordered on this exact same day one year earlier. From his headquarters he issued this directive, “The General most earnestly requires, and expects, a due observance of those articles of war, established for the Government of the army, which forbid profane cursing, swearing and drunkenness; And in like manner requires and expects, of all Officers, and Soldiers, not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on divine Service, to implore the blessings of heaven upon the means used for our safety and defence (sic).”
While we joke about those who curse and drink like sailors today, our forefathers found no humor in such actions and condemned them in the strongest terms. A little over a year later, on August 3, 1776, Washington issued what became known as his Profanity Order.
In a command to his army, Washington wrote, “The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish, and wicked practice, of profane cursing and swearing (a Vice heretofore little known in an American Army) is growing into fashion; he hopes the officers will, by example, as well as influence, endeavour to check it, and that both they, and the men will reflect, that we can have little hopes of the blessing of Heaven on our Arms, if we insult it by our impiety, and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low… that every man of sense, and character, detests and despises it.”
How far we have come. Sadly, such careful attention to clean speech has been virtually abandoned today both within the armed services and the general population. It’s difficult to find a TV show, movie, or secular song that has none.
Perhaps most disappointing is that many political leaders of both parties also use language that would have made our nation’s first president cringe. Not because those words offended him, but because Washington realized that Another was listening.
Washington’s firm conviction that the God of heaven overhears each utterance motivated him to enact these orders. He resolutely believed that God would not much care for nor grant success to any army or nation that didn’t honor His name or His ways. How can we expect God to bless America today if we consistently invoke His name idly?
While the third Commandment instructs us not to use God’s holy name in vain, the Scripture goes on to tell us that nothing vile should come from a believer’s mouth and that all our speech should benefit and build others up. Jesus warned that we would have to account for every idle word and that our own words would acquit or condemn us.
As followers of Jesus, our speech as well as our actions should be above reproach. In spite of the saturation of profanity around us, we are called to higher standards of holiness. While we may not be able to shield our children from all of it, let’s make sure they don’t hear it from us. Pushing the ball back uphill is very difficult but something Jesus calls us to do.
The USA rose from obscurity to become the strongest and wealthiest nation on earth. Although we’ve made our mistakes, this country has blessed billions through inventions, financial gifts, liberty, and missions. As we consider what enabled this to occur, let’s realize it wasn’t the wealth, wisdom, or even the courage of our leaders. It was their deep reverence for and reliance upon Almighty God and His Son Jesus Christ.
May we as Jesus’ followers today fulfill Washington’s Profanity Order by our, “example, as well as influence,” for “…every man of sense, and character, detests and despises it.”
Happy Birthday USA! George