History: City on the hill

In 1630 future Governor John Winthrop sailed with one of the first groups of puritans to Boston. While on board he deliver what is called the "little speech". In this address Winthrop referred to the new colonies as "the city on the hill". He took the phrase from the book of Mathew in the Bible. Winthrop believed that the new colonies had a heavy responsibility from God, "for we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world." The colonies, established by groups like the puritans, were the foundation for a new nation. Eventually the colonies would revolt against Great Britain, write their own Constitution and establish a new republic. However the idea that America is a "city on the hill" has continued to be embedded in our nations history. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech in which he stated,

"Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us—and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill—constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities."In his farewell address delivered in 1989 President Ronald Reagan recounted how he believed America was doing with this endeavor, 

"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life…. And how stands the city on this winter night? … After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true to the granite ridge, and her glow has held no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home." Of course Reagan and Kennedy are not the only presidents to make this biblical reference in fact Clinton, Bush, Carter, Nixon, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, Truman, Hoover, and Coolidge, are just some of the more recent presidents who have made similar statements. The idea that America is set up as an example to the world and is accountable to God has a along standing history in our nation. Religion is so intertwined in Americas history that it is almost impossible to separate the two. Though great effort has been made to to eliminate this aspect of our history it can never be truly blacked out. Religious ideals and beliefs were the foundation on which the American society built.