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No apology required: Celebrate Jamestown!

May 13, 2007 12:35 am

JAMESTOWN--One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt encouraged the people of America to celebrate the blessed providence of God through our founding as a nation at Jamestown in 1607.

He was joined by the great thinkers of his generation, including Booker T. Washington, William Jennings Bryan, and Mark Twain. One of every 29 Americans responded by traveling to the Jamestown Tercentenary.

Now for the quadricentennial of our founding as a nation, some officials are telling Americans that it is inappropriate to celebrate.

In fact, they've banned the use of the term "celebration" from the state-sanctioned remembrances. Rather than rejoice in our heritage on this--the anniversary weekend of the founding of Jamestown in 1607--we have been urged to "express regret" for the coming of Christianity to the New World.

Why this call for apologetic angst?

Leftist advocates such as Mary Wade of the Virginia Council of Indians have convinced the official Jamestown 2007 Committee that we "can't celebrate an invasion." And the political rhetoric is flying. Official quadricentennial event panelists, including speakers like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Otis Moss, have labeled our settlement as a nation a "holocaust" and a "lynching."

These sentiments have been repeated by other featured spokesmen like Ken Adams, chief of the Upper Mattaponi tribe, who characterized Jamestown's legacy as one of "annihilation [and] Holocaust"--an "atrocity."

For the first time in American history, our officials are embarrassed about our heritage on a landmark anniversary. For America's 400th birthday, the official Jamestown "commemoration" has become a homage to revisionist historiography and unsubstantiated "oral traditions."

The politically correct thought police have had their way.

And the revisionist message is clear: Christian settlers were vicious savages, genocidal murderers, and environmental terrorists. In contrast, native pagans were noble, civilized, and peace-loving. The providential history of America's founding is a national embarrassment. Children should hate their forefathers.

But there is another Jamestown that American boys and girls can remember for their 400th birthday party. It is the same Jamestown that has been honored and remembered on historic jubilee and centennial celebrations spanning the last 200 years.

It is the real Jamestown--the story of imperfect but remarkable men who were instruments of a sovereign Creator to establish a nation of law and liberty under God.

That story really begins in the 16th century with a visionary named Richard Hakluyt. A prolific author, cartographer, and ordained minister, Hakluyt is the man primarily responsible for persuading the monarchy and a generation of explorers that Virginia was the best place for carrying out the Great Commission.

His vision of discipleship and dominion was formally enshrined in the Virginia Charter of 1606.

The men who arrived at Jamestown inaugurated their settlement with the planting of a cross, thanksgivings to God, and followed with daily prayers. They would build the first church in American history, disciple the first Indian converts, and perform the first Christian baptisms.

Jamestown is the spot of America's first "interracial" marriage based on the Christian faith. In his eloquent letter to the governor of Jamestown, John Rolfe would argue for the legitimacy of marriage, regardless of skin color or national origin, where the couple was united by faith in Christ. His theological argument won the day and established a legal precedent that endured for more than half a century.

The Jamestown settlers gave the Holy Scriptures a permanent home in America. This is perhaps the most enduring legacy of Jamestown: The coming of the Bible to America fundamentally changed the history of the North American continent.

It was the Bible that communicated the hope of personal redemption and the basis for stable civilization.

This is one reason why Jamestown would become the first permanent settlement to establish a legal system based directly on the moral law of God and the applicable principles found in the case laws of Holy Scripture. This Christian "common law" was later incorporated by direct reference into our U.S. Constitution.

Jamestown also gave us our first experiment in republican representative government, a model that finds its origins in the Hebrew Republic of the Old Testament, and was formally adopted by the Founding Fathers of a later generation.

While the legacy of Christian Europeans at Jamestown is not without bumps and warts, the lasting influence of the settlement would change the world--and dramatically for the better!

Before the arrival of these Protestant Christians and the successful planting of the first permanent English settlement, North America was dominated by warring tribes engaged in activities such as paganism, cannibalism, and ritual torture.

Whether the sons and daughters of the 21st century experience a jihad of hatred against our Christian forebears--or whether they can rejoice in a jubilee of thanksgiving--largely depends on the messages we send them.

A real celebration

For the week of June 11-16, thousands of grateful families from across the United States of America will gather in Virginia's historic triangle for an unabashed celebration. In the grand tradition of great centennial events, The Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America's Providential History will trumpet a message of hope.

Boys and girls will learn to defend their history. They will rejoice in dramatic presentations, tethered hot-air-balloon tours, boat rides, and period music. Children will recite poetry, wear vintage costumes, and listen to great orators of our day tell the true stories of 400 years of the providence of God and the perseverance of the American people. For details, visit jamestown400.org.

As others engage in self-loathing and angst over Jamestown's founding, we hope that Americans from sea to shining sea will join us in celebrating our nation's remarkable history on this, our 400th birthday.