EDITORIAL - During the early 1830s, Samuel Francis Smith, a student at Andover Theological Seminary, studied in Germany. While there, he was profoundly impressed by the way German children began each school day with the singing of a hymn.

Smith, who would later become an acclaimed pastor, editor, and professor, decided that America would benefit from a similar custom. Working diligently, Smith scratched out the familiar lyrics to this ever-popular song:

My country ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim’s pride!
From every mountainside,
Let freedom ring.

“My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” was first performed at a children’s Fourth of July celebration held in Boston. This song, later recognized as “America,” did not disappear after its premiere; indeed, “My Country” would serve as America’s unofficial national anthem, sung at patriotic events and festivities throughout the country, until the early 1900s.

Feel the glory and splendor in these lyrics. After admiring his country and crediting its success to his forebears, Rev. Smith exclaims that, from anywhere and everywhere, freedom should ring. No, he does not say that freedom should simply spread, or multiply, or grow – but that it should powerfully, resoundingly, and unstoppably ring.

Decades later, Martin Luther King Jr. would tap into this same poignant rhetoric. Speaking on the subject of man’s intrinsic equality, King shouted:

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York…from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania…from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado... From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Yes, at one time, freedom and liberty were discussed in relation to the founding of our country and the lofty rights granted us by the Almighty. But no longer is our concept of freedom so pure and untainted. Indeed, it has become contaminated by the forces of secular-humanist, modern-day society.

During my television meanderings, I recently stumbled upon a commercial for NuvaRing, a monthly contraceptive. Lamenting the fact that women are “tied down by the everyday” routine of birth control bills, NuvaRing brags that upon lodging the device into oneself, a woman can be protected for a month’s time.

At the end of the commercial, the actress smiles, holds high her vaginal ring, and proudly declares: “Once a month’s the thing; I say, let freedom ring!”

There are those words again – “let freedom ring” – but this time, used quite differently.

Tragically, this instance is symbolic of a growing trend within our great country; liberty is less about worshiping and speaking freely than it is about copulating with whomever, whenever, and however one wishes. Even the courts, using the U.S. Constitution as their reference, have become sympathetic to this view. But are we truly to believe that the Fathers broke away from England and fought a bloody, uphill battle so that we might have sex without abandon?

In the Declaration of Independence, the Founders protest British troops, treatment, and taxation – but nowhere do they discuss King George’s restrictions on sexual freedom or reproductive rights. No, the Founders did not “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence…mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” for the sake of sexual emancipation.

They did it for something noble. Something lofty. Something righteous.

They did it for these United States – for this “sweet land of liberty” – and for the God-given political and religious freedoms America will always be known for securing and protecting.

Let freedom ring, indeed – even to those who little comprehend it.