The Thin Line of Liberty
A Sermon by the Rev. Jan Carlsson-Bull
for All Souls Unitarian Church, New York, NY
Preached on WQXR Radio
July 7, 2002
Have you ever stood at the prow of a ship entering New York Harbor?
Perhaps you're headed to this land for the very first time. You're arriving
as an immigrant, drawn by the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion,
the promise of sanctuary. Or maybe you've been away for an extended
period, and you're coming home. You spot a figure far off. It looms
on the horizon. And then, there she is in all her glory, Lady Liberty,
with her torch raised high, bidding you welcome.
You gaze at her, perhaps with tears rolling down your face. She assures
you with her steady presence that life will be good, perhaps life will
be better. Your eyes fix on her face. How is it that she appears so
calm, so self-assured-287 million children and more on the way! No wonder
she pays such close attention, more watchful than any lighthouse, more
attentive than any armada. She keeps vigil and awaits our arrival and
bids us welcome.
Whether we have entered this land on a luxury liner, a sorry looking
steamer,
a passenger jet, or by birth, we're all, in the words of Emma Lazarus,
"huddled masses yearning to breathe free." We're all in search
of that perfect freedom, that perfect liberty. It is that search that
most deeply defines our spiritual identity as a nation. And of course
we're all in search of that perfect mother, who welcomes us and lights
our way, while protecting us from any who would do us harm.
But this mother isn't any more perfect than our own. Nor do we discover
here perfect freedom or perfect liberty. My life and yours mirror the
grand experiment in which we're engaged as a nation. We're an aspiring
democracy. We welcome and we don't welcome. We include and we exclude.
We pledge liberty and justice for all, while our post September 11th
anxiety soars and our desperation seduces us into the trade-off of democratic
values and practices which we profess to treasure for a security that
no one can guarantee.
Thomas Paine spoke to this over two hundred years ago in his "Dissertation
On First Principles of Government":
"An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads
men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws.
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy
from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent
that will reach to himself." Paine's statement is not unlike that
teaching that courses through so many faiths-what we do to others, we
do to ourselves.
While civil and civilian courts are operant and necessary for ensuring
accountability to the common good, due process and other democratic
practices are now in jeopardy. Unitarian Universalists have long stood
for freedom, reason, and tolerance. Yet freedom, reason, and tolerance
are now in jeopardy, for our anxiety looms large and the goal of
security-however illusory perfect security is-seems to justify whatever
means are employed to attain it, however extreme those means are or
might become.
To ensure that liberty itself is secure, as the spiritual and moral
underpinning of our nation, we need to be as vigilant as that Lady in
the harbor. In the spirit of Thomas Paine, the American Civil Liberties
Union has described our government's quest for new and Constitutionally
questionable powers after September 11 as an "insatiable appetite."
The ACLU has "argued and continues to insist that the dichotomy
between security
and liberty is false: … that we can be both safe and free, and
that government policies should not be based on the myth that liberties
must be curtailed to protect the public."
These sentiments echo those of another American. The date was September11,
1858. The words are those of Abraham Lincoln:
"Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted
in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage
of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have
planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors."
Liberty walks a thin line. Consider the history of the Liberty Bell.The
growing populace of the colony of Pennsylvania called for an official
building to house the governmental body. Construction of what is now
known as Independence Hall began 270 years ago, in 1732. Plans included
a bell tower. Upon completion of the steeple in 1751, a bell was hung,
but its sound was deemed too faint. A new bell arrived in the late summer
of
1752 and was hung the following spring. It cracked on the first peal.
The metal was simply too brittle. Another bell was cast and placed in
the steeple of the State House, but its sound just didn't appeal to
those discriminating Philadelphians. Yet another casting was completed
in 1753 and hung again in the tower. It is this bell that we recognize
as the Liberty Bell.
Now there are manifold stories about the crack in the Liberty Bell.
Some say the bell cracked sounding a fire alarm in the winter of 1824.
My favorite is that a band of young boys rang it with permission, but
were sent swiftly home after the steeplekeeper noticed a change in tone
and a foot-long fissure. The crack that seemingly rendered it un-ringable
occurred on the occasion of Washington's birthday in 1846. While the
crack fills myth and legend, nothing has filled the crack. I think this
is a good thing indeed, for
that infamous crack in our Liberty Bell reminds us that liberty itself
walks a thin and jagged line. Liberty itself is fragile.
Yes, I'm glad to be an American, but the democracy that infuses our
identity
as a nation is an acquired skill. This country wasn't born with a mature
democracy anymore than any of us were born ready to defer to the common
good.
Democracy is an experiment. Liberty is not perfect. Nor is freedom
absolute.
Yet Lady Liberty can remind us of those who were here first, for the
rest of us were immigrants, her huddled masses, her rowdy children,
her prodigal daughters and sons, and all of us belong to her grand family
aspiring to democracy. All of us, as children of God, take our first
breath in the spirit of independence, whose promise comes with life
itself.
On this Independence Day Sunday, we are reminded of how frayed we are
by the
events of this year, how fragile our democracy can feel, how watchful
we all must be to secure the liberty that we cherish, while knowing
that life itself is a gift, fraught with uncertainty. Yes, I am glad
to be an American. I am grateful to be an American citizen.
And yes, I am ever challenged to honor our Mother in the Harbor so
that this nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all will prevail. Amen.
Sources:
Insatiable Appetite: The Government's Demand for New and Unnecessary
Power After September 11, An ACLU Report, 2002.
Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government,
Paris, July, 1795.
http://www.freedomwriter.com/quotes.htm
http://www.libertybellmuseum.com/faqs.htm
http://www.ushistory.org/libertybell/index.html
