ANCIENT ECHOES PODCAST: WHY I NO LONGER BELIEVE IN GOD (JESSUP PA)

By Jeric Yurkanin

Every year on the Fourth of July, fireworks fill the night sky. Families gather for cookouts. American flags wave from front porches, and millions celebrate freedom, liberty, and independence.

It is a day that tells one story of America.

But there is another story.

It is the story of people who were never invited to the celebration.

It is the story of enslaved Africans who remained in chains while the Founding Fathers declared that “all men are created equal.”

It is the story of Native American nations who watched settlers move farther west onto lands their families had lived on for thousands of years.

It is the story of Black Americans who, after slavery ended, endured nearly another century of legalized segregation.

It is the story of churches that courageously opposed these injustices—but also churches, pastors, theologians, and religious institutions that defended them.

History is rarely simple.

America has produced extraordinary ideas about liberty, democracy, and human rights. It has also committed terrible injustices while claiming those same ideals. Loving a country should never require ignoring its failures. If anything, loving a country means being honest enough to confront them.

Freedom for Some

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

Its most famous words remain among the greatest political statements ever written:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”

Yet for hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans living in the colonies, those words did not apply.

Many of the nation’s founders spoke passionately about liberty while simultaneously participating in a system of human bondage. Several owned enslaved people. Others criticized slavery while continuing to benefit from it.

The contradiction was impossible to ignore.

How could a nation proclaim freedom while denying it to so many?

That contradiction would define American history for generations.

The Growth of Slavery

The first enslaved Africans arrived in English Virginia in 1619.

Over the next two centuries, slavery expanded into one of the largest economic systems in North America.

Millions of African men, women, and children were captured, sold, transported across the Atlantic under horrific conditions, and treated as property.

Families were separated.

Children were sold.

Women were abused.

Human beings were bought and sold at auctions.

Their labor built enormous wealth through tobacco, rice, sugar, and eventually cotton.

By the mid-1800s, slavery had become deeply intertwined with the Southern economy.

When Christianity Was Used to Defend Slavery

One of the darkest chapters in American religious history is not that Christians owned slaves.

It is that many sincerely believed God approved of slavery.

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, numerous white pastors, theologians, church leaders, and Christian colleges argued that slavery was ordained by God.

They pointed to biblical passages where slavery existed in the ancient world.

They quoted verses telling servants to obey masters.

Some claimed Abraham owned servants.

Others argued that Jesus never explicitly condemned slavery.

Perhaps the most infamous interpretation involved the so-called “Curse of Ham.”

Although the biblical text actually speaks of Noah cursing Canaan—not Ham—and never mentions Black people, generations of theologians falsely connected this story to Africans.

That interpretation became one of the most influential religious justifications for slavery in American history.

It was bad theology.

It was historically unsupported.

Yet it shaped sermons, denominational statements, books, and public opinion for generations.

The Bible was being used to defend an institution that treated people created in God’s image as property.

Christians Who Said “No”

That is not the entire story.

Many Christians fiercely opposed slavery.

Quakers condemned it.

Black churches became centers of resistance.

Abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass challenged churches that preached obedience instead of justice.

Harriet Tubman repeatedly risked her life to lead enslaved people to freedom.

Many ministers argued that the central message of Jesus—loving your neighbor—was incompatible with human bondage.

The Bible became both a weapon used to defend slavery and a source of hope for those fighting against it.

History contains both truths.

The Civil War Changed the Law—Not Hearts

The Civil War ended legal slavery.

But racism did not disappear.

After Reconstruction, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation in schools, transportation, restaurants, neighborhoods, and voting.

Black Americans often faced intimidation, violence, lynching, and systemic discrimination.

Many churches remained segregated.

Some pastors openly defended segregation from their pulpits.

Religious Defenses of Segregation

Just as slavery had once been defended with Scripture, segregation also found defenders within parts of American Christianity.

Bob Jones Sr. argued that racial segregation reflected God’s design.

Later, Bob Jones University maintained policies prohibiting interracial dating for decades.

Jerry Falwell Sr., during the early years of his ministry, opposed federal civil rights efforts and preached that God intended racial separation, though he later acknowledged that many of his earlier positions had been wrong.

These views were not shared by every Christian.

Many pastors marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

Others opened their churches to integration.

Black churches became the backbone of the Civil Rights Movement.

But history requires acknowledging that many white churches resisted equality.

Native America Before Colonization

Long before Europeans arrived, North America was home to hundreds of Indigenous nations.

They possessed sophisticated governments, trade networks, agricultural systems, languages, cultures, and spiritual traditions.

These civilizations were not empty wilderness waiting to be discovered.

They were thriving societies.

European settlement changed everything.

Disease devastated Indigenous populations.

Wars erupted.

Treaties were repeatedly broken.

Communities were displaced.

Entire nations were forced from ancestral lands.

Manifest Destiny

During the nineteenth century, many Americans embraced an idea later known as Manifest Destiny.

Supporters believed the United States was destined—some argued divinely destined—to expand from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

Many believed expansion represented God’s blessing upon the nation.

This belief encouraged westward settlement.

It also contributed to the removal of Native nations from lands that settlers wanted.

The result was enormous human suffering.

The Trail of Tears became one of the most tragic examples, as thousands of Cherokee people and members of other southeastern tribes were forced west under brutal conditions. Thousands died along the journey.

Faith and Expansion

Religion often accompanied expansion.

Some missionaries sincerely cared for Indigenous communities.

Others believed Native cultures should be replaced with European customs and Christianity.

Some government leaders and settlers interpreted territorial expansion as evidence of divine approval.

Others challenged those ideas and defended Native rights.

History was complicated.

Faith inspired both compassion and conquest.

Learning From History

The Fourth of July should remain a celebration of America’s ideals.

But ideals become meaningful only when they are honestly measured against reality.

America has achieved remarkable progress.

Slavery ended.

Segregation became illegal.

Voting rights expanded.

Many churches publicly repented of their earlier support for racism.

Yet remembering those victories requires remembering what had to be overcome.

Ignoring history does not honor America.

Learning from history does.

A Better Patriotism

Real patriotism is not pretending our country has always been right.

Real patriotism is believing our nation can become better.

It is celebrating freedom while acknowledging those who were denied it.

It is honoring the courage of abolitionists alongside the Founders.

It is remembering enslaved families as well as presidents.

It is remembering Native nations alongside pioneers.

It is remembering civil rights marchers alongside generals.

History is not about choosing heroes or villains.

It is about telling the truth.

The Fourth of July reminds us of America’s greatest promise—that all people are created equal.

For much of our history, that promise remained unfulfilled.

Generation after generation struggled to make those words real.

The work is not finished.

Perhaps the most meaningful way to celebrate Independence Day is not simply by watching fireworks, but by asking whether we are still striving to build a nation that lives up to its own ideals.

Freedom is not only something to celebrate.

It is something every generation must continue to pursue—for everyone.