Welcome to Our American Stories, where we uncover the powerful tales that built our nation. Today, we journey back to a moment that planted a profound seed in the American spirit: the arrival of the Pilgrims and Puritans seeking religious freedom. Imagine the courage of John Winthrop and hundreds of others, crossing vast oceans on ships like the Arabella, driven by a dream of a new home. It was during this epic voyage, in a sermon known as “A Model of Christian Charity,” that Winthrop painted an unforgettable picture of what America could be – a shining “City Upon a Hill” for all the world to see, deeply rooted in the Bible’s influence on American history.
This powerful vision wasn’t just for Winthrop’s time; it became a guiding light for generations, shaping our very identity and foundational principles. From presidents like Ronald Reagan who echoed its hope, to countless patriots embracing the idea of a land built on shared values, the “City Upon a Hill” remains a core part of our American story. Join us as Robert Morgan, author of One Hundred Bible Verses That Made America, reveals how these defining moments and the Bible’s timeless words continue to define our enduring pursuit of American freedom and a better tomorrow for all.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
The Pilgrims, as we know them, were Puritans fleeing religious persecution in England, and after their arrival on the Mayflower in 1620, thousands upon thousands of more Puritans emigrated to America. They were some of England’s best-trained scholars, barristers, educators, and clergymen. On April 8, 1630, a fleet of four ships left the Isle of Right, carrying yet another seven hundred Puritan immigrants to the New World. Among them was John Winthrop, a noted English lawyer who was distressed by the persecution directed towards his fellow Puritans from King Charles the First. Joining Winthrop afore the flagship Arabella were his two young sons, but his wife, Margaret, wasn’t able to join him until the next year. John and Margaret, and an unusual act of devotion, forged a plan for keeping their love alive during their separation. They agreed together to think about each other for an hour every Monday and Friday afternoon. Well, at some point daring or maybe before or perhaps just after the voyage, Winthrop prepared and preached one of the most influential sermons in American history. He called it “A Model of Christian Charity.” It’s also known as the “City Upon a Hill” Sermon. In this speech, Winthrop, who is a lawyer, not a clergyman, painted a compelling vision of the future of American society as he imagined it to be, and, borrowing the words of Jesus from Matthew 5:14, offered an image that has been repeated for nearly four hundred years by presidents and patriots alike: that America is a ‘shining city on a hill’. Winthrop said this to his fellow Puritans: “The only way to provide for our posterity is to follow the counsel of the prophet Micah: to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. For this end we must be knit together in this work as one man. We must entertain one another in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of superfluity for the sake of one another’s necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together with all meetness and gentleness, patience and liberality. We must alight in each other, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in this work as members of the same body. So shall we then keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us as his own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness, and truth than formerly we have been acquainted with.” He went on to say: “We shall find that the God of Israel is among us when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding settlements across the land, ‘The Lord make it like that of New England.’ For we must consider that we shall be a city upon a hill. The eyes of all of the people are of Honus, beloved.” He said, “there is now set before us life and good, death and evil, and that we are commanded this day to love the Lord, our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his ordinances and his laws, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the God of our fathers may bless us in the land, whether we go to possess it.” It was there that Winthrop called America a city on a hill for all the world to see. Or as Ronald Reagan liked to say, “a shining city on the hill”?
The past few days, when I’ve been at that window upstairs, I’ve thought a bit of the “shining city upon a hill.” The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we’d call a little wooden boat, and like the other pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free. I’ve spoken of the “shining city” all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind, it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds, living in harmony and peace. A city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it and see it still.
Winthrop’s vision of America is compelling, but it bears remembering that Jesus Christ first coined that phrase, and he gave it in his Sermon on the Mount to refer not to America herself as such, but to his followers, the Church on this earth. He told us in Matthew 5: “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. And glorify your Father, which is in heaven.” That’s the way that Jesus used that image, and at one time or another, almost every president has reminded us of this iconic symbol of American freedom: that our nation, “the Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free,” is a “shining city on a hill.”
Had a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hangler. A special thanks to Robert Morgan, author of One Hundred Bible Verses That Made America: Defining Moments That Shaped Our Enduring Foundation of Faith, by a book by two the Story of a City upon a Hill. Here on Our American Stories, Lee Habib here, and I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily again. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories Podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming.
Discover more real American voices.
