As I was watching my grandson play baseball a couple of weeks back, I spotted the following on the back of an acquaintance’s T-shirt: “The Constitution does not need to be rewritten; it needs to be re-read.” I thought to…
America’s founding rejected a king and a state religion, Raushenbush and Bowen say
Juneteenth and Independence Day offer models of the kind of religious freedom America should embrace, according to Interfaith Alliance President Paul Raushenbush. “On July Fourth in 1776, the Founders declared independence from a king who was given absolute power because…
Must our quests for liberty be mutually exclusive?
There’s a strange tension in the minds of many people between the desires for independence and community. It comes up often in conversations about churches and denominations. A church may want to be independent yet participate in the community of…
‘Baby, you’re a firework!’
Do you think arriving at 9 p.m. for fireworks that begin at 9:25 would be early enough? If you do, then the New York Police Department would like to have a word with you. We could have guaranteed ourselves seats…
This Fourth of July, let us reclaim patriotism
Not since the Civil War has the United States faced such ill winds as we experience this Independence Day. The very idea of American democracy is under assault from internal forces convinced they are the lone defenders of democracy. The…
Look underneath Lady Liberty’s skirt
Did you know there are broken shackles representing the end of slavery partially hidden underneath the skirt of the Statue of Liberty (Lady Liberty)? Wow! It is amazing the extent to which we have been and continue to be willing…
What, to the white American, is the 19th of June?
On July 5, 1852, the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester invited Frederick Douglass to give a speech on the 76th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which became known by its central piercing question, “What, to the American slave, is your…
I’ll take the fifth!
The sun is setting on another Fourth of July. The record heat, with its over 100-degree days, continues in dry, parched, sweating, Georgetown, Texas. It has been hotter than …, well, you know! At our house, we enjoyed this holiday,…
Lady Liberty beckons us to ask hard questions in these days
In the year 1883, Poet Emma Lazarus wrote her sonnet, “The New Colossus,” to raise money for the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty would stand. The sonnet ends with the poignant, passionate words that were added to the…