As we gather to celebrate yet another birthday of this once grand and glorious  confederacy - let us take a moment, bow our knee and as did Daniel, pray that Almighty God forgive the sins of this nation:

"O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from Your commands and laws. We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings,[presidents] our princes, [senators and congressmen] and our fathers, and to all the people of the land...

.....We do not make requests of You because we are righteous, but because of Your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay..."Daniel 9

 "One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alterations... and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.... The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism....

"And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion [i.e. Christianity]. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

"...a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. ...it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens... facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without odium, sometimes even with popularity..."

The above is a portion of George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796, but it somehow seems appropriate, perhaps even more today than it was then.

"But my people would not listen to me. They kept doing whatever they wanted, following the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They went backward instead of forward." Jeremiah 7:24