They gathered in the small boarding house on Market Street. They sat down in high-backed wooden chairs around a simple wooden table. There was no air-conditioning to sooth the summer heat. In the descending rays of late afternoon, a candle was their light. To them was given the awesome responsibility to craft a declaration; the “power to begin the world over again.”

The Declaration of Independence is the greatest, most passionate, and most beautiful expression of the spirit of individual liberty ever penned.

In our culture today, politics is seen by the Body of Christ as one of those yucky, muddy things that we don’t want to have anything to do with. Yet, whether we realize it or not, politics and government affect our lives more than anything else.

As American students prepared to end their summer vacation and return to the classroom, David McCullough died at the age of 89. He was one of the greatest historians this country will ever know. Noble, honest, fair, balanced, and thoughtful, McCullough rose with an inbred grace above the poisonous divisions of our time to teach us why we must understand and love its history if we are to better understand and love America.