When Faith and Freedom Rang Together in Philadelphia

Faith Facts

• On July 4, 1976, America’s Bicentennial celebration opened with an interfaith service on Independence Mall featuring church leaders and prayers of gratitude
• President Gerald Ford emphasized America’s spiritual heritage, declaring that the nation continues ‘with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence’
• Christian families across the nation combined worship services with patriotic celebrations, demonstrating the inseparable link between faith and American identity

My 7-year-old grandson, Bennett, donned a red, white and blue top hat like Uncle Sam. He grinned as he posed for a picture with his father, Brady, outside Independence Hall, where delegates to the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

But I’m not certain Bennett grasped the full significance of Philadelphia at the Semiquincentennial — I think I spelled that right — the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.

“I don’t want to wait in that long line just to see a bell,”

my grandson said of the Liberty Bell. His grumbling made me smile.

We were in the City of Brotherly Love to enjoy America’s favorite pastime and decided to explore a bit of our nation’s history while here. I was close to Bennett’s age on July 4, 1976, when the U.S. marked the Bicentennial.

Honestly, I don’t recall a whole lot about the 200th anniversary, except for the special coins: quarters, half-dollars and dollars. My family lived in West Monroe, La., at the same apartment complex as the late Phil Robertson, the future “Duck Dynasty” reality TV star.

My father, Bob, was about to graduate from preaching school, and we’d soon move to North Carolina. I interviewed the Duck Commander decades later but didn’t know him then.

Despite the Fourth of July holiday, I’m sure we worshiped that Lord’s Day at the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ. We maybe had a fellowship meal with star-spangled napkins and lit sparklers afterward.

At some point, I know we watched Walter Cronkite of the “CBS Evening News” anchor coverage of the nation’s festivities.

Faith Mixed With Fireworks

Since the Bicentennial fell on a Sunday, the celebrations of many Americans mixed faith, family and fireworks. The New York Times’ front-page coverage on July 5, 1976, described it this way:

“The nation celebrated its 200th birthday yesterday with pageantry and prayer, with games and parades, with picnics and fireworks, with the peal of bells and the chant of protests.”

“It began with a flag‐raising atop Mars Hill Mountain in Maine, where dawn reached the continent, and moved on to Fort McHenry, in Baltimore Harbor, where it was greeted by the rocket’s red glare of the national anthem.”

“At 2 P.M., Eastern daylight time, descendants of the Revolutionaries laid hands symbolically on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, and bells rang in the 50 states and in American communities overseas. At Independence Hall, President Ford read the day’s keynote address.”

In its August 1976 edition, Christianity Today featured coverage headlined “Bicentennial Blessings” that noted:

“Most attention was focused on the two main Bicentennial cities, Philadelphia and Washington.”

“July 4 dawned bright and warm in Philadelphia, where official observances began with an interfaith service conducted under a canopy on Independence Mall. Taking part were Greek Orthodox archbishop Iakovos, Cardinal John Kroll, and other church leaders.”

“President Ford arrived by helicopter a short time later, following a stop at Valley Forge, and delivered a televised address to the nation from the steps of Independence Hall before a crowd of tens of thousands. The speech underscored the nation’s spiritual heritage. ‘The American adventure began here with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,’ declared Ford. ‘It continues in a common conviction that the source of our blessings is a loving God in whom we trust.’ In closing, he asked everyone to join him ‘in a moment of silent prayer in gratitude for all we have received and for continued happiness in the United States of America.'”

“At 2 P.M. as a parade passed, the Liberty Bell was tolled, signaling the simultaneous ringing of bells across the land.”

A Journey of Faith and Patriotism

Penny Stafford Eubank, then 11 years old, joined her late grandparents, Gorden and Elizabeth Coley, on a 1,500-mile road trip from Longview, Texas, to experience the Bicentennial in Philadelphia. Throughout the two-week adventure, Eubank shared the back seat of a “big, four-door American sedan” with her older sister, Stacie Fischer, then 12, and her cousin Carla Matthews, 11.

Along the way, the family stopped to explore sites such as the Vicksburg National Battlefield in Mississippi and Stone Mountain in Georgia. Eubank — one of my former communication professors at Oklahoma Christian University — remembers her grandparents as people of strong faith and patriotism.

Gorden Coley served in the Marines in World War II. He was an elder of the former Mobberly Avenue Church of Christ in Longview.

The night before Independence Day, Eubank and her loved ones slept in a dormitory at the now-defunct Northeastern Christian Junior College in Villanova, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia.

“Then we got up and had Communion before we left,”

said Eubank, who now lives in the Atlanta area.

“I feel like the devotional was in a gathering area of the dorm. I remember they had chairs set up. … I guess they didn’t want to send someone off into downtown Philadelphia without having had their Sunday service.”

After the service, the family made its way to the city.

“This is crazy, but the first thing we did was go to the post office,”

Eubank said, recalling the desire to get envelopes postmarked “July 4, 1976.”

“I was in a stamp club the year before in my school, and I thought that was a great idea. So we waited in line for that, and then we stood in line for the parade.”

Eubank still has treasured photos — albeit a bit blurry — of the eight-tier, 50,000-pound birthday cake that Sara Lee baked for the occasion, of a Texas high school band marching in the parade and of her sister, cousin and her posing by the Liberty Bell and with Uncle Sam.

“I tell everyone about it. We’re talking about 250 now, but for me, the Bicentennial was a bigger deal.”

“I guess it’s more even or something. But the fact that we were there tells you something about my grandparents and what great people they were.”

Worship on America’s Birthday

Eddie Woodhouse was 17 at the time of the Bicentennial. He organized the trip that his family and three others from the Brooks Avenue Church of Christ in Raleigh, N.C., made to Philadelphia.

“I was kind of surprised that they would allow me to do that,”

Woodhouse said of making the arrangements at that age.

“We stopped in D.C. along the way and ate crab cakes in Baltimore and then got to Philadelphia. And at 17, Philadelphia was the biggest city I’d ever seen, and it seemed like the whole world was converging there.”

The Woodhouses — father, mother and three children — made the 400-mile journey in a wood-paneled Plymouth station wagon. The families stayed in a high-rise Holiday Inn.

“We took the public transportation, started to feel our way around, and every street corner had a vendor selling everything under the sun, not just the typical T-shirts,”

Woodhouse said.

“For instance, there were machines where you could insert a penny, and then you pulled down the lever, and it smashed a penny out to show July 4, 1776, to July 4, 1976. And you paid a quarter to get a smashed penny that had that as a souvenir.”

Before the Fourth of July festivities, the North Carolina families joined a throng of out-of-town guests for worship at the King of Prussia Church of Christ in a suburb of Philadelphia.

“We could not have been more warmly greeted. There were some references to the Bicentennial in the service, but then we left to get back to being the Southern tourists in Philadelphia.”

Among his memories of that day: President Gerald Ford speaking.

“The crowd was pretty deep. My brother and I, we were able to successfully work our way to the middle of that, but that was about as close as we were able to get. There were people who had essentially camped out for an opportunity to get toward the front.”

Half a century later, Woodhouse — now a political consultant who lives in Asheville, N.C., and worships with the Biltmore Church of Christ — identifies with the words of James 4:14 from the Bible.

“My, time does pass swiftly, like a mist, as James describes.”

Still, Woodhouse’s patriotism has not waned.

“The founders of our nation were brilliant. They were imperfect, but the men and women who founded our nation were brilliant, and they gave you and me a way to govern ourselves, not from the top down but from the bottom up. And as Benjamin Franklin said, ‘We have a republic if we can keep it.'”

Looking Toward Tomorrow

While most of my Bicentennial recollections are vague, I vividly recall Cronkite’s reflections at the end of his broadcast.

“Well, the party’s just about over. We’re 200 years old. It’s a milestone that makes us wonder what will become of us as a nation. We’re not sure of the future. No one can be. We don’t know what’s behind the doors that we must open. We only know that the keys we have — keys cut in Independence Hall, which became our ideals. Liberty. Justice. Equality.”

“Our people have suffered and died for those ideals. We have as a nation written a remarkable history certainly. But we should remember that we have not fulfilled our ideals even after 200 years. Correcting wrongs will be part of our future. It will demand courage. But correcting wrongs has been a dramatic part of our history. Courage is a remarkable part of our heritage. It can open the doors to justice for everyone.”

“We will be all right if we keep in our hearts the story of America. If we do, well, then 100 years from now, our country’s hearts will still be host to those ideals that we gave the world on July 4, 1776. And that’s the way it is on July 4, 1976.”

What way will it be on July 4, 2076 — the Tricentennial?

I don’t expect to be around to find out, but I pray Bennett will. Maybe he’ll even wait in line to see the Liberty Bell.

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