Happy 4th of July, everyone! The 4th of July commemorates the date the Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence. (Historical side-note: it was actually passed on July 2, but the final wording was approved on the fourth. John Adams wrote his wife Abigail that July second would forever be known as the birthdate of their new country.)
The first sentence of the Declaration charted a profound new course in human culture and civilization:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This was a dramatic shift. Up until that point, most people believed that it was self-evident that not everyone was created equal. Kings were divinely endowed by God with power and position far greater than others. Those with wealth and status clearly mattered more than those without them. Up until then, it had been self-evident that society was divided into strata based upon your birth — and if that was so, clearly God must have willed it that way.
The authors of the declaration upended not just that form of government, but took a huge step in upending that theology and that structure of society. They put forward the radical new concept that human beings were all of equal value and importance. They applied the golden rule in ways that changed culture, law, and economics.
I think we can be proud of this incredible legacy. The Declaration of Independence is nothing short of prophetic in its willingness to imagine a better world where everyone is respected, everyone is taken care of and everyone’s voice is heard. It puts forward the possibility of a society where each person enjoys the rights to life, liberty, and doing what brings them joy (as long as it isn’t hurting someone else).
This prophetic push towards imagining a better world and helping move toward it, guided by the values of equality, liberty, and respect for life has been at the core of America’s ascendance. Even if it took a minute or two, It guided further steps toward applying these rights and values to non-landowning men, women, and people of color.
I am still such a firm believer in these values. And I think they can still light the way forward, helping us imagine a world with less inequality based solely on where and to whom you happened to be born. They can move us to keep taking further steps toward a world where each person is protected and respected under the law — (and conversely where no one is rich or powerful enough to be above the law, either). They can help us imagine and move toward a world with greater economic justice, where CEOs aren’t paid 100 times what their employees are. We can takes steps to create a world where each person has abundant opportunities to make a living and to make a life. After all, what is an economy for?
The truth of our world is that we belong to each other, and we are all profoundly connected. As Paul said in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ.”
This 4th, may we remember our freedom is inextricably linked to our equality — and that we, too, are not only endowed by our Creator with these precious rights, but invited to help create a world where everyone else gets to enjoy life, liberty, and happiness as well.
May we realize that our freedom is not from each other, but for each other.
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July 04, 2020 at 04:44PM
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Freedom is inseparable from equality | Clergy Corner - Woodland Daily Democrat
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