Midweek Message – Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Some Thoughts as the Fourth of July Approaches

The great preacher, William Sloane Coffin, once wrote that there are three kinds of patriots, two bad and one good. “The bad patriots are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics of their country. The good patriots are those who carry on a lover’s quarrel with their country, a reflection of God’s eternal lover’s quarrel with the entire world.”

Year by year as the Fourth of July approaches, I, as part of my personal effort to be a good patriot, read again Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

This masterpiece of oratory reminds me that, like all nations, our nation’s history is imperfect, that the liberty we celebrate is unevenly experienced and that the gap between our profession that all are “created equal” and our practice of this profession, remains and even grows.

In his speech Douglass said, I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.

My hope is that we will affirm Coffin’s understanding of patriotism and willing engage in a lover’s quarrel with our country.

My prayer is that, as part of an honest retelling of history, we will take Douglass’ testimony to heart and that our retelling. will, by God’s grace, become one of the pathways toward a kinder, gentler nation. My further prayer is that once again recalling his faith-filled challenge will help us all avoid the errors of both uncritical love, and loveless criticism, of the United States of America.

Pastor Jim