Preaching from Acts 17 — where the early Christians were dragged into court for saying ‘there is another king, Jesus’ — Pastor Kent Keller answers a question that flares up every Fourth of July. He starts with his own loyalties, plainly: ‘I love my God. I love my country. I worship my God. I do not worship my country.’ Patriotism is good; it becomes something else when we wrap the cross in the flag. Was America founded Christian? The historical evidence is real — the Mayflower Compact, Winthrop’s ‘city upon a hill,’ the Declaration’s four references to God — yet the founders deliberately refused an official state church, because faith can never be forced and the gospel persuades rather than coerces. Underneath the whole debate is the confession the church has made for 2,000 years: we have no king but Jesus. Grateful citizens; faithful first to Christ — and the freedom that lasts is not political but the freedom Christ won at the cross (Galatians 5:1).