I finished reading Michael Durant's excellent book,
In the Company of Heroes, a few months ago, but I'm still thinking about it. Toward the end of the book he tells about attending a ceremony to honor Gary Gordon in his hometown of Lincoln, Maine. He was a medal of honor winner who died trying to rescue Durant and his helicopter crew. Durant was in Gordon's hometown prior to the ceremony. With some extra time on his hands he decided to go to the local library and look up a book describing previous medal of honor winners. By looking at the card inside the cover he could tell the book hadn't been checked out for many years. The last person to have checked it out was none other than Gary Gordon many years previously.
The concept of Destiny looms big in our history as a nation and seems to play a role in our invididual lives as well. Gary Gordon probably didn't think he was destined to receive the medal of honor, but in retrospect it seems that he was. Destiny is thought of as a predetermined course of history or events. If our future is indeed set out for us in advance, what is there left for us to do but read our lines as if we are cast in a theatrical production?
In the 1840's the term Manifest Destiny became a part of our national folklore. It embodied our desire as a nation to occupy the entire continent from the Atlantic to Pacific Oceans. Manifest Destiny suggests that we are pre-ordained for certain things, but we also must take some action to seem them come to fulfillment.
Manifest Destiny came to be used as a justification for seemingly endless expansion for a young nation. The concept has since come to be synonomous to some as representative of "American Colonialism". Despite the fact that this term has taken on negative connotations for some, the concept itself is still viable.
The Puritans who first settled this country saw the hand of God at work in their establishment of a free land, "God hath opened this passage unto us, and led us by the hand unto this work." (Alexander Whittaker in 1613) They realized that God would provide but that they would also have to act.
The problem with Manifest Destiny is that it assumes we know the divine will of God. In a general sense, I believe we do. But as a specific calling it seems a little more difficult to determine. Certainly, our sense of destiny should never be used to enslave or victimize other people. If we believe the God has a specific plan for our lives and for our country, shouldn't we seek then to determine that plan and then take whatever action is necessary to realize it? This question lies at the heart of Manifest Destiny.
Within the framework of certain inviolable principles, Manifest Destiny gives us a powerful tool for achieving success from both a divine and human perspective. Perhaps, it is the need for a certain moral code (or framework) that is behind the recent controversy over the Ten Commandments. Perhaps a close examination of our history as a nation will help the courts come up with a wise ruling.