July 4th Message from Bishop Poulson Reed
This Anniversary Is About The Pursuit
“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.” The Declaration of Independence
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is noteworthy that the three God-given rights identified in our founding document are life, liberty, and not happiness but its pursuit. What exactly Jefferson meant by “the pursuit of Happiness” in his initial draft is debated, as are his influences. Was he thinking something like “property,” and did he mean happiness in an individual respect, or something more to do with virtue or the common good? Whatever the original intent, I like the word “pursuit” in a broader sense, as we mark this anniversary.
Our country is not, as some would say, utterly evil from its birth, nor, on the other extreme, nearly perfect and beyond critique. It is, rather, a never-ending pursuit to embody, in every generation, the ideals of our founding. We are a young nation: only about three full lifetimes' old since 1776. There has never been a time in our nation’s history, even at its birth, in which we were not falling short of the Declaration’s lofty sentiments, not least in our full recognition of equality, as highlighted in the many failings of the founders themselves. And yet, there is something noble not only in the Declaration’s words, but in how we have striven so imperfectly to live them out. We can love our country, and still seek to learn from and improve upon its flaws.
In our current season of political turmoil and division, it is important not to let this anniversary slide past relatively unnoticed, but to celebrate it, holding our attention on its very human contradiction: a beautiful and divinely inspired ideal, and the failings (both individual and collective) that make our pursuit of it a struggle that will never fully be won. And it is the role of the Church not to seek greater control and influence over the State, which would damage both, but instead to keep enough distance to be a voice of conscience, speaking for those without power whose rights, though unalienable, we pursue still.
