Recognizing the ‘invisible hand’
Dec 21, 2016, 8:48 AM | Updated: 8:55 am
So far, the main criticism of my new book “THE AMERICAN MIRACLE: DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN THE RISE OF THE REPUBLIC,” involves the claim that we’re not unique in seeing God’s special blessing for our country. Don’t the British sing, “God Save the Queen” and don’t many other nations believe in divine favor? The difference is that other nations evolved over centuries but America was uniquely, purposefully created. When does British history begin, for instance? Under the Celts, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons or the Normans?
America, by contrast, began in 1776, the product of “intelligent design,” not random evolution. Those who want to give credit to our Founders for that design should note that even the unconventional religious thinkers among them saw themselves as instruments, not authors, of a providential plan for the new nation.
They agreed with Washington, who used his first Inaugural to praise the “Invisible Hand” that shepherded 13 loosely connected colonies to independence.
The rise of our nation is, indeed, an “American Miracle.”