The Struggle for Freedom

Sermon by Paul Sharp

Narrator: The struggle for freedom in America presents a profound paradox. America is a country that was, in the words of Abraham Lincoln “Conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” In fact, our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, contains these inspiring words. “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.”

And yet it was all a lie, or maybe just wishful thinking. All men were not created equal. Blacks were held as slaves and deprived of their life and dignity. Women were treated as second class citizens without even the right to vote. The American Indians were dispossessed of their lands and driven out onto barren reservations. Those who thought differently, believed differently, or came from a different background were often persecuted and discriminated against. It would take a constant struggle over the entire history of the nation before the promise of America, that of freedom and justice for all, would begin to be fulfilled.

Even today the struggle is far from over. While women and racial minorities have finally gained the right to vote and legal protections against discrimination, the subtle biases and economic disparities remain. In most parts of the country, gays and lesbians lack the basic right to marry the person they love. Immigrants and migrant workers are abused and mistreated, often by the very government agencies that are supposed to protect us.

It has been a long and bitter battle. Unitarians and Universalists were often in the forefront of that struggle. They swelled the ranks of the abolitionists, fought to improve the plight of those in mental hospitals, and started schools for the blind. They supported women’s right to vote, and fought for their equal rights.

During the Civil War, more than 600,000 Americans on both sides died, more than in all the other wars that America has fought combined. Near the end of that war, Abraham Lincoln tried to bind up the wounds of the nation in his Second Inaugural Address.

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address – Read by Jay Anglada

Four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it—all sought to avert it. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained.

Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

Narrator: The emancipation proclamation and the 13^th Amendment freed the blacks from slavery, and the 14^th and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution in theory gave everyone the right to vote. But not of course, if you were a woman. The Suffragette movement began after the Civil War and continued for more than 50 years before the political system finally deigned to accord the right of the ballot in 1920, through the 19^th Amendment. One of the heroes of that struggle was Susan B. Anthony. This is what she had to say in 1873 about Women’s Right to Vote.

Women’s Right to Vote, Susan B. Anthony – Read by Liz Hausburg

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says: “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people – women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government – the ballot.

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.

Narrator: At the end of the 1920’s, America was plunged into a Great Depression. The stock market crashed, and people lost their savings, their homes, their jobs. In his second Inaugural Address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to give the nation hope and a way forward.

From the Second Inaugural Address by Franklin Roosevelt – Read by Russ Steffy

I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of natural resources. I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be raised far above the level of mere subsistence.

But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens—a substantial part of its whole population—who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.

I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day.

I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

But it is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope—because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

Narrator: Roosevelt’s vision became the cornerstone of our great economic security programs – Social Security, and later Medicare and Medicaid under Lyndon Johnson.

While the economy recovered during and after World War II, the economic gains were not evenly distributed. After the Civil War white supremacists regained political control of the south and subjected blacks to 100 years of suppression and violence. Jim Crow laws enforced segregation and inequality, and kept blacks from exercising their political rights.

But the winds of change were blowing, and blacks who had fought for their country in World War II were not content to return home to a system of injustice and second class citizenship. This came to a head in the Civil Rights movement, led by the NAACP and by a charismatic young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. Unitarian Universalists were early supporters of the civil rights movement. James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister was murdered in Selma, Alabama, after he and twenty percent of the denomination’s ministers responded to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call to march for justice. In 1963, Martin Luther King led a march on Washington, DC, where he delivered his most famous speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

“I Have a Dream.” Martin Luther King. Read by Jay Anglada

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

Narrator: Much has happened since the early days of the Civil Rights movement. Discrimination, while still rampant, is no longer legal. Segregation in schools, restaurants, hotels, and drinking fountains no longer exists. Many blacks took advantage of their newfound opportunities to gain higher education, enter a professional life, and make economic gains. A black man even became President of the United States. But vestiges of the old ways remain. A young black man growing up today has a 16% chance of going to prison, versus 2% for a white male. And the area of open discrimination has shifted, from blacks and women to gays and immigrants. As always, Unitarians were in the forefront of seeking change, openly welcoming bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender individuals into our congregations, and affirming the right to same sex marriage in 1996. In 1993, the gay and lesbian community led a march on Washington. One of the speakers, Urvashi Vaid, had this to say:

Gay Rights, Urvashi Vaid. Read by Liz Hausburg

With hearts full of love and the abiding faith in justice, we have come to Washington to speak to America. We have come to defend our honor and win our equality. But most of all we have come in peace and with courage to say, “America, this day marks the end from exile of the gay and lesbian people. We are afraid no more. For on this day, with love in our hearts, we have come out across America to build a bridge of understanding, a bridge of progress, a bridge to a land where no one suffers prejudice because of their sexual orientation, their race, their gender, their religion, or their human difference.”

The Christian supremacists are wrong spiritually when they demonize us. They are wrong spiritually, because, if we are the untouchables of America – then we are, as Mahatma Gandhi said, children of God.

When all of us who believe in freedom and diversity see this gathering, we see beauty and power. We call for the end of racism and sexism and bigotry as we know it. For the end of violence and discrimination and homophobia as we know it. For the end of sexism as we know it. We stand for freedom as we have yet to know it, and we will not be denied.

Narrator: Americans seem to be very slow to learn the painful lessons of history. That freedom is never free, that in fact it is one of the few things worth dying for. That freedom is indivisible. One can never be completely free oneself, while denying freedom to others. Both slaves and slave owners were diminished by the injustice of the system, and we had to fight a war to expiate the guilt. Injustice for some, leads to injustice for all. We repeat the mistakes of the past, with a different set of players, and different victims.

But the story is also one of hope. No country in the world has done more to advance the cause of freedom than the United States. We fought and died in two World Wars to protect the freedoms of others. In the words of Winston Churchill, “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities.”

In many of his speeches, Martin Luther King, Jr. uttered the immortal phrase, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” President Barak Obama had those words woven into the rug that sits in the oval office. But what few people realize was that when Martin Luther King uttered those words, he was merely echoing the words uttered in 1853 by Theodore Parker, a Unitarian Minister and abolitionist.

We would like to end with the words of Barack Obama, uttered in the cold of New Hampshire. His words serve as a rallying cry and a beacon of hope for all who strive in the enduring struggle for freedom.

Barack Obama, “Yes We Can,” read by Russ Steffy

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been
anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail
toward freedom through the darkest of nights.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and
prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this
world. Yes we can.