The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor
I wrote these words yesterday: on the fourth of July — the day that our nation celebrated its 250th anniversary. This is a time for people across the United States — regardless of our political differences — a time for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike to celebrate our common bond as brothers and sisters untied by the sacred principles of liberty, freedom, and justice. This heat wave was actually quite apropos. When I remember the 4th of July holidays of my youth, I recall the intense summer heat, parades, running through sprinklers with friends, and watching fireworks to end a perfect day.
Being a quarter of a millennium old, this is a good opportunity for us to pause and take stock of this America Experiment, as our forebearers called it.
It is true, that the United States has done amazing things. We built gigantic cities and innovate factories, and some of the world’s most prestigious universities and best hospitals are in the United States of America, and most of them are right here in Boston! We launched the first the airplane in 1903 and, 66 years later, landed on the moon. We ended two World Wars. We eradicated polio. We are responsible for the human genome project. We invented everything from the personal computer, the internet, the telephone, the cell phone, GPS, the microwave oven, hearing aids, pacemakers, lasers, and transistors. There is no shortage to the technological and scientific advancements that we birthed after our own birth two-and-a-half centuries ago. We live at the crux of one of the most innovative moments in human history as a country, and American men, women, and even children played a significant role in making dreams a reality and giving hope where there was none.
But we also did some terrible things. Slavery and the treatment of Native Americans are just a few of them. There are countless people whose names we’ll never know who faced horrors most of us cannot imagine, and these horrors were inflicted upon them by us. We interred 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II for no other reason than that they were Japanese. For forty years, we subjected poor, black men in Tuskegee, Alabama to a horrendous syphilis experiment that they knew nothing about. We also experimented on inmates and the clinically insane with LSD as part of the CIA’s MK Ultra mind control study. According to one source, in 2016 The Washington Post reported that even though the Ku Klux Klan’s membership remained semi-secret, in the 1930s the KKK “claimed 11 governors, 16 senators and as many as 75 congressmen — roughly split between Republicans and Democrats.” That is as disgusting as it is shameful. We are also the country that developed the atomic bomb and used it: twice. Whether you believe that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were morally and/or militarily justified or not, the fact is that we are the only country to ever use “Oppenheimer’s deadly toy,” as Sting calls it.
We have done wrong. And just as the Hebrew prophets called Israel to repent, maybe the church needs to call us all to repent — not just individually, but corporately.
We are far from perfect.
Now there are some who claim America hasn’t delivered good on her promises to all people, as Martin Luther King once said. On the other hand, there is a movement in America, however big or small, which claims that we are perfect — that we are beyond reproach. The idea that we are right no matter what we do, and that we cannot question what our leaders on either side of the aisle say, is a type of growing nationalism that is dangerous.
However, notwithstanding our shortcomings (and what country doesn’t have them), in spite of the wrongs that we have done and the good we’ve left undone, we continue to be a nation that the rest of the world emulates and comes to in order to enjoy the freedoms we take for granted (as cliché as that sounds) including safety (which is far from cliché). The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights (which are the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution) grant us freedoms that we sometimes assume are universal, but are far from it. Think of the freedoms that these documents codify: the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom to worship God however you choose (or to not worship God), to not be subjected to a criminal investigation without probable cause and be guaranteed due process. We can vote for our leaders, we have the right to privacy, and we have a shot at the American Dream, however hard it may be for some to attain (and I am not trivializing that). As the writer Thomas Wolfe said, “America. It is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time.”
We were also founded on religious principles. There are those who will say we weren’t, but, by-and-large, we were. We pledge allegiance to the flag as “one nation under God.” (Footnote: If you’re reading these words, please do not write to me and say that “under God” wasn’t part of the pledge until the 83rd Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhauer made it so on Flag Day in 1954.” Two things. One: that’s not the point. Two: I can look that up on Wikipedia, too. In fact, I just did.)
Here’s something else: our Declaration of Independence begins, “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.” Note: there is something about this document that was signed in Philadelphia 250 years ago today that we often overlook, and it’s not the whole “they really meant all white-landing owning-Protestant-men, and some of them owned slaves.” That’s a different homily. Neither the Declaration of Independence, nor the Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights, nor any other document grants us these rights. Our rights do not come from other human beings. They were given to us by God: our Creator. Our founding documents are witnesses to that gift, but they do not bestow them. This is why approximately 1.3 million men and women gave their lives in battle — and millions and millions of others dedicated their lives to protect those freedoms on and off the frontlines. Yes, I know that war is also about politics, and money, and greed, and who owns what, and who wants what, but that is also a sermon for another time as well. Most veterans do not like war. They do not want to kill or be killed. But they are willing to do what I am not so that I can say and write and preach whatever I want. Our veterans deserve our deepest respect.
So be proud to be American. Or maybe George Carlin was right when he said that we should be “happy” to be American, but not “proud.” Carlin said that he was full-blooded Irish, but he wasn’t “proud” to be Irish. “Being Irish isn’t a skill,” he said. “It’s an accident of birth. Be happy to be American, but don’t be proud. You wouldn’t say you were proud to be 5-foot-11.” (Footnote: in the very next line, wise and wacky atheist Carlin says, and I quote: “Remember, ‘Pride goeth before a fall,’ never forget Proverbs.”)
However, I am grateful that I am an American. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. That said, I do not worship my nation, or my government, or any politician. The flag is not the cross. The Constitution is not Scripture. What the flag and the cross “represent” is something given to us, but by a much higher authority. If the Framers of the Constitution were here right now, they’d say, “He’s right! And he looks like Robert Redford.”
I can hear the non-Christian say, “Are you saying that we are a Christian nation, Dr. John?” Nope. We are not a theocracy. I wouldn’t want us to be, but that’s also a sermon for another time. You are free to believe what you want to believe, no matter who you are. That is a God-given right. Isn’t it ironic: I can think of no other god who would give his creation the freedom to not believe in him. You are free to believe what you want to believe, or not believe, and so am I. But you can’t rewrite history. Most of our forebears believed in God and belonged to a variety of Christian churches and Protestant denominations, including Unitarian Universalists, who, at first, were a form of “Christian,” though different from their Calvinist cousins.
America is 250 years old. We’ve done pretty good. Sometimes we haven’t. For that, we need to repent. As the prophets told Israel, and Corinth, and all sorts of people down the line, and as my wife tells her kindergarten students: “If you know better, then do better.”
Let’s hope we pass the torch onto a generation that will take it and will be guided by God’s wisdom, carrying it into the future lit by the love and wisdom of the Holy One. Amen.