What is America? Or better yet what can we say represents America and its values? Herbert Hoover once stated, “Within the soul of America is freedom of mind and spirit in man.” This leads one to think American is represented by the ideals of the people, but what if one said America is represented by the U.S. government and its policies. Nowadays, there is a disconnect between the U.S. government policies and the ideals of the American people. When asked whether America continues to follow the principles laid out by John Winthrop in “A Model of Christian Charity” one must qualify what America is, the government or the people? In “A Model of Christian Charity” John Winthrop states things such as “There is a time when a Christian must sell all
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American government didn’t start with these ideals and gradually worked into representing these ideals. For example, a commonly referred to event that completely goes against the Ideals presented in John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” is the trail of tears. It was an immoral act that defied the Law of Nature and the Law of Grace mentioned in John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity.” John Winthrop essentially stated, “One must treat others the way they want to be treated.”(2). However, the trail of tears was an act of failure to uphold the ruling of the supreme court that the Cherokees were a sovereign nation by Andrew Jackson (Wolk). This tragedy occurred due to the Indian Removal Act which forcibly removed the Cherokees from their lands to the west, but In the process, approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this forced march (Indian Removal Act). All this shows that America did not follow Winthrop’s principles, but things started to change after the Civil War when civil rights acts were beginning to get passed like the one mentioned
American government didn’t start with these ideals and gradually worked into representing these ideals. For example, a commonly referred to event that completely goes against the Ideals presented in John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” is the trail of tears. It was an immoral act that defied the Law of Nature and the Law of Grace mentioned in John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity.” John Winthrop essentially stated, “One must treat others the way they want to be treated.”(2). However, the trail of tears was an act of failure to uphold the ruling of the supreme court that the Cherokees were a sovereign nation by Andrew Jackson (Wolk). This tragedy occurred due to the Indian Removal Act which forcibly removed the Cherokees from their lands to the west, but In the process, approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this forced march (Indian Removal Act). All this shows that America did not follow Winthrop’s principles, but things started to change after the Civil War when civil rights acts were beginning to get passed like the one mentioned