LOSING THE SOUL OF AMERICA

Earlier today when I was thinking about the situation we are in since the election, it occurred to me that in a way we are fighting for the soul of America.  As never before in our history--almost--we are at a crossroads where the ideals with which our founders used as building blocks for the underlying principles that were unprecedented since the founding of civilization.  Through our Constitution they formed a type of government dedicated to the perpetuation of those ideals with a kind of flexibility that has afforded our citizens and our leaders to develop within a framework that allows for historical changes.  

Our founders also very wisely set up a system of checks and balances between the three branches of our government to prevent a dictatorship and to try to ensure that all citizens who voted would be able to truly take part in our participatory republic.

But we are in a crisis today.

And as I continued to meditate on what exactly the soul of America might be, the words of Thomas Paine came to me concerning men's souls rather than the nation's soul.  You no doubt have read or heard them before this:

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated"--Thomas Paine (The Crisis)

In writing about the crisis concerning whether or not the freedom from English rule announced in our Declaration of Independence would be truly won from Great Britain, Paine denounced the power of the British monarchy as tyranny.

Thomas Jefferson, too, believed that tyranny was worth fighting against, of course.  In a quote from a letter he wrote to another one of our founders, his friend Dr. Benjamin Rush, that is carved in marble on a panel in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., he stated, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

The thing is that with less than a week in office, this administration is already approaching a kind of tyranny that threatens our freedoms and the liberty that we hold so dear.

If you don't agree, consider the diminishment of free speech imposed on government workers of several federal agencies.

If you don't agree, consider the proposed idea of registering people of a certain religion that threatens our freedom of religion.

If you don't agree, considered how soul-stealing to our nation and ideals the executive order targeting the cutting off of immigration from specific countries based on the predominant religion of those countries  is.

And in terms of defining the soul of America, we can make a case that this soul was first brought to life by the Declaration of Independence when it affirmed that our Creator provided that all human beings were created equal and given with rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Of course that soul was damaged and diminished by our founders when the Constitution was written to exclude non-white men and women and all other women from the equality so gloriously described in the Declaratiom.

But we've come a long way, baby!

Or at least it seemed like we had up until the election and the activities of the new administration in this first week.

I'm with Thomas Jefferson in abhorring and pledging hostility against every kind of tyranny.  And I think Thomas Paine would recognize that this, too, as a time when human souls are being tried.

Make no mistake, the battles have begun and we are in a struggle for the very soul of our nation in order to preserve the freedoms, opportunities, and ideals we say we hold dear.

Those freedoms, opportunities and ideals do not just belong to a select minority of people who happen to have won an election because of a system that was set up to ensure that the wealthy stayed in power whether or not they won the popular vote. The rights and freedoms, the access to opportunities and the ideals that under gird our society and ensure the perpetuation of our nation have been paid for and  guaranteed over and over by men and women in uniform on local, state and federal levels who have fought and died to preserve our nation.  

At story time tonight my second grader grandson spontaneously showed off to me that he has memorized our Pledge of Allegiance. He was doing very well, and even had his hand over his heart and pretended to be looking at our flag. But he needed a bit of prompting at the part that goes, "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." There are some big words there, and even though he mostly remembered the whole Pledge, I'm not sure he really understands what the "indivisible" part means.  And probably if we asked him to define what exactly "liberty and justice" are, we might see that he doesn't ractually know yet.

But, like most American kids, I have already heard him say to his brother, "It's a free country, so I can" . . . do whatever he has been told he can't do. And I can remember saying that when I was little, too, because as Americans we have all been taught that.

And since even before the founding of our nation, people fleeing tyranny and oppression have come here to find the freedoms we hold so dear and to have liberty denied them by the governments of their countries of origin.  

So there's the rub.  

We are in a crisis again, just as our founders were when Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson wrote about freedom from tyranny, and when Abraham Lincoln defended what they had founded that was "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal," but flawed when they decided to continue to allow slavery. 

The soul of a nation can be lost just as the soul of a human being can be lost.  The clear and present danger we face includes, but is not limited to the limitations of freedom of speech for some federal employees. We stand to lose the integrity of our commitment to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States that all federal public servants and military members from the lowest ranks to our commander-in-chief vow when embarking on their sacrifice to serve our nation.

This crisis is no small thing and we cannot take it lightly.  We have our work cut our for us and must have courage, resolve and focus as we covenant to organize and act In the service of our country to join the ranks of those about whom Thomas Paine wrote because, again, we have been born in another one of those "times that try men's souls."

If you do not believe me, you have probably stopped reading a long time ago.  But if you do, please indulge me while I repeat what Thomas Paine wrote:

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated"--Thomas Paine (The Crisis)

May the Lord be with us in the days to come as we fight to save the soul of our nation and that "celestial article," FREEDOM, for all.