Why the Promise Is Still Worth Believing In
I have to tell you something.
I had been looking forward to America’s 250th birthday for most of my life.
Ever since hearing stories about the Bicentennial in 1976, I imagined what the Semiquincentennial might feel like. The fireworks, the celebrations, the reflection, and the simple joy of celebrating the country I love.
Unfortunately, for many people, the celebration has arrived and it feels spoiled, like milk left out on the porch on a hot summer day.
What should have been a moment of national pride has become tangled up in hyper-partisanship, political grievance, culture war theatrics, and a version of Christianity that often seems more interested in power than humility.
For many LGBTQ+ Americans, that creates a particular kind of whiplash.
The symbols have not changed.
The feelings attached to them have.
When people have watched faith used to question their dignity, the language of “Christian America” does not land neutrally. When people have watched patriotism wrapped around policies that make their lives smaller, the flag can begin to feel less like a symbol of freedom and more like a warning sign.
That does something to a person.
But the American story has never been a perfect one.
Enslaved people heard soaring language about liberty while living in chains. Indigenous communities experienced Manifest Destiny very differently than it appears in many history books. Black Americans endured Jim Crow while reciting a pledge that included “liberty and justice for all.” LGBTQ+ people know the history of police raids, AIDS, Anita Bryant, Prop 8, codified discrimination, and exclusion.
The idea that everything was fine until our current political moment arrived can only be spoken from a place of extraordinary privilege.
America has always been a contest between those who would narrow belonging and those who would expand it. That struggle is not an interruption of the American story. It is the story.
That is why I find myself approaching America’s 250th birthday differently than I expected.
The question is no longer whether America deserves celebration.
The question is whether the promise is still worth believing in.
I believe it is.
Not because progress is guaranteed. History offers no such assurances.
But because generation after generation of ordinary people have pushed this country closer to its ideals.
Christian nationalism does not own Christianity.
The loudest voices do not own patriotism.
And I am not ready to surrender either the flag or the future to people who would make them smaller than they were meant to be.
Father Rich Vitale is an Old Catholic priest, writer, and media creator whose work focuses on resilience, spiritual practice, and emotional health in a hyperconnected world. Through his publication Message from the Margins, he blends theology, psychology, and lived experience to help people stay grounded without abandoning reason. Find Him @FatherRichV on most social media platforms.
