““You shall put the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of memorial for the sons of Israel, and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for a memorial.” (Exodus 28:12, NASB95Decoration Day (Memorial Day) was first celebrated on May 30, 1868, in the North, when members of the Army of the Republic decorated the graves of the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. Since World War I, it has become a day in which the U.S. honors the dead of all its wars. It is a sacred day among other days in what has been called the “Ritual calendar of American civil religion.” Civil religion is a way of thinking which makes sacred an alliance between religion and politics that transcends the separation of church and state as a part of an American’s national life.

The ideology of civil religion rests on these four facts: 1) There is a God; 2) His divine will can be known and fulfilled; 3) America has been God’s primary influence in modern history; and 4) the nation is the chief source of identity for Americans in both a political and religious sense. As such, the founders of America utilized Judeo-Christian values, biblical imagery, references to Almighty God, and Divine providence in every aspect of establishing the nation and setting the course for civil life.
As I consider Memorial Day, I am reminded of how our country follows Jewish culture in many ways. For example, in the case of memorial stones worn on the shoulders of the High Priest. These valuable stones were to be carefully engraved with the names of the tribes of Israel and mounted in the gold setting as a reminder to all that Aaron, the high priest, represented all people and truth never to be forgotten. Today we have military cemeteries and monuments with the names etched in the stone of all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Like Aaron, we, too, have a moral responsibility to carry the names of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom forward and not be forgotten.

We also are blessed with the gift of freedom afforded to us as a nation by our sovereign God. We must always remember that these freedoms are not free because many have died to give and maintain freedom. On Memorial Day, we should join piety and patriotism by pausing in our day and remembering our blessings, saying thank you to God. We should reflect on the 646,596 American troops that have died in battle since the end of the revolutionary war, a number that is still growing. Also, more than 539,000 have died from non-combat related causes, and honor their names.

“Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you; Jesus Christ and the American soldier. One died for your soul; the other for your freedom.”