In hearing the increasingly pervasive and sometimes hysterical and violent criticism of the United States, it might be helpful to consider the other side of the ledger.

No nation or country in the history of civilization has:

Gotten the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people;

Preserved and perpetuated so much religious liberty;

Devised such a balanced, freedom-protecting, virtue-expecting political system;

Created more prosperity;

Lifted more people out of poverty;

Defended more widely the cause of global freedom;

Spilled more of its own blood in abolishing the evil of slavery;

Fostered more technological, scientific, medical, and health breakthroughs;

Given more inspiration and hope to more liberty-loving people living within tyrannical regimes;

And been more vilified, envied, subverted, and hated by more nations, and by many within its own borders

… than the United States of America.