America’s Covenant
Given by James Covington on November 5th, 2006
Well, we are only two days away from mid-term elections. Personally, I will be relieved! The political demonizing and character assassinations committed by both political parties in the present election have been utterly disgusting to me. I think it is shameful to the American political process and just down-right petty, almost childish behavior when politicians and media pundits act like little bullish boys in the playground shouting: “Billy is a bad boy! Billy is a bad boy!” And Billy responding “I am not. You are!” And the bullies saying: “You are too!” And Billy saying, “I am not, I am not, I am not!” And the bullies: “You are too!”
You are what? Unpatriotic? Soft on terrorists? Didn’t do your homework? Playboy? Gay!
I tell you, that ad in Tennessee defaming the character of Harold Ford, Jr., who is running for U.S. Senate, was nothing if not repugnant. I say that not because Ford is a democrat, but because the level of personal debasement that is now being resorted to in our political process. And the latest John Kerry debacle and the subsequent reactions were just ridiculous on both sides. I knew what he was talking about, but he just didn’t say it right, so there we go! In the age of the “sound-bite” that can be disastrous.
And yet, political division in America, especially at election time, is hardly a novelty. Those of you who are muttering about leaving the country should your political party lose might take a longer view. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson challenged President John Adams in our first vigorously contested election. Here is what the Connecticut Courant warned its readers to expect should Jefferson prevail. "Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will all be openly taught and practiced. The air will be rent with the cries of distress, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes."
So I don’t know. Political campaigns are always nasty but this one appears to have reached way beyond the boundaries of civility and integrity. I partly blame the media. There are so many networks competing and vying for top rankings, they will sensationalize everything and then throw it in my face everyday, until something else can be sensationalized. In the meantime, politicians search frantically for the right sound bite.
Add to this scenario the ongoing bloodshed, hostility, nuclear threats, and genocide on the world stage, well, one can easily feel discouraged. In the NY Times this week, David Brooks described the situation in Iraq as not so much a civil war as a complete social disintegration and that Iraq has always been riven by malevolent factions, on the brink of disaster. And our honorable sons and daughters continue to die everyday. Somebody didn’t do their homework. Did I say that right?
I also find myself thinking these days in the face of hostile partisan posturing, that we have lost our center as a nation. But what does that mean? Two weeks ago in my sermon at that time I asserted that human beings need to covenant with one another to nurture the home they have been given. By that I meant we need a morality that will help us construct a civil life. Do we have such a covenant? I think we do. A covenant is a promise as to how to be together based on common values and ethics. In my opinion that covenant is best expressed in America through our Declaration of Independence. Therein lies our center. Therein lies the map toward constructing a moral common life.
In the preamble to the American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
When the founders gathered one wilting hot July day in Philadelphia to hammer out their dreams into a single, ringing declaration, they were fashioning precepts as sacred as they were secular. As a group, they were not notably religious men. Not at all. But they were united, almost miraculously, in forging a union that transcended, even as it encompassed, the historical particularity of the present crisis. Fired with ardor and apprehension–the prospect of a long war, its outcome uncertain –America’s first citizens performed an almost perfect act of alchemy. In their crucible were transfigured the elements that would reflect America’s promise and set the measure for its fulfillment.
Capturing the essence of the American experiment, the American Covenant affirms those truths our founders held self-evident: justice for all, because we are all created equal; and, liberty for all, because we are all endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights. America’s fidelity to this covenant is judged by history. Living up to it remains a constant challenge. But it invests our nation with spiritual purpose and–if we honor its precepts–a moral destiny.
Jefferson described the Declaration of Independence as "an expression of the American mind"-–the genuine effusion of the soul of our country." Its preamble stands as a summation of our aspirations as a people.
Interestingly, it was an English author, G. K. Chesterton, who first said, "America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed," one set forth "with theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence." Creed is somewhat synonymous with covenant, and I use those words interchangeably. I prefer covenant, because it is a promise from the heart. Creed connotes dogma, although that was not the intent of our founders. Chesterton memorably called America "a nation with the soul of a church." Though the American Creed as fashioned by Thomas Jefferson and perfected by the Continental Congress rests upon a clear separation between church and state, the body politic does have a soul. Chesterton assumed that the American Creed condemned atheism, since it secures human rights as inalienable gifts from God. The saving irony is that this same creed (as interpreted in the Bill of Rights) also protects atheists against the coercion of believers.
In 1949, the Unitarian evangelist A. Powell Davies described Unitarianism as America’s Real Religion. He persuasively coupled the religious views of Thomas Jefferson to American first principles. Inspiring thousands of his fellow citizens to embrace our faith, Davies made explicit the connection between Unitarian core values and the faith upon which America was established: "Jefferson (Davies wrote) had seen that something deep within the [human] heart requires [freedom and neighborliness], that it breaks out from history like the brightening of the sky against a night of darkness; that it speaks in conscience and the moral law. That was Jefferson’s faith and he found it because something deeper than his own life had spoken to him. It was America’s real religion."
In fact, assuming that the universal truth of reason would soon triumph over centuries of superstition, Jefferson believed that, by the day of his death, every child born in America would be born Unitarian. Once his fellow citizens considered matters a little more carefully, everyone would surely come to the same religious conclusions he himself had. Well, that didn’t happen! Nonetheless, Jefferson was testifying not to his faith in reason alone, but also to the reasonableness of his faith. To Jefferson it made no earthly difference whether another individual believes in "twenty gods or no God [for] it neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." In a world where religion often picks people’s pockets and breaks their legs, Jefferson dedicated himself to limiting this danger. Hence his zealous pursuit of legal protections for freedom of belief.
Abraham Lincoln saw the Declaration of Independence as "spiritually regenerative." The touchstone of what he called "our ancient faith," its "sacred principles" establish the spiritual and political foundation for America. We read Lincoln’s words in our responsive reading: “Destroy this spirit, and we have planted the seeds of despotism at our own doors.” Inclusive and chastening, the American Covenant rings forth the good news that all people are entitled to equal justice and invested with equal dignity. A century later–forty years ago–within sight of the memorials dedicated to Jefferson and Lincoln in Washington D. C., Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired a new generation of American citizens when he said, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed."
As understood by Lincoln, King and many others, America is a union of faith and freedom, a union in which faith elevates freedom and freedom tempers faith. For Jefferson, the handmaiden of equality is justice. In his first Inaugural Address, he listed justice foremost among government’s obligations, calling for "Equal and exact justice to all. . ., of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. . . That should be the creed of our political faith.” Of course, none of that came to fruition overnight. Yet, by that very creed, the Negro fought the battle for civil rights and won; women stood for thier own right to vote and won; the gay and lesbian community have fought and continue to work for the recognition of their own.
That being the case, and if we agree, then how do we as citizens bound by a common moral covenant, the Declaration of Independence, look out upon the world and work for justice in this election year and toward 2008 election? As theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put it, "(Our) capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but (our) inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary." These days we know what we want, but what should we want? The politicians feed our self-interest as they seek to please us while offering little moral vision about what we might become. Few think to ask "what can I do for my country."
I think of a cartoon of a fictitious but believable Senator Craven with an aide discussing the polls. The Senator says, "Well, you're the image consultant - what are my moral convictions?"
In certain ancient Greek cities, a man (and only men could vote), before casting a vote, had to swear in the presence of the gods that he was voting to the best of his judgment for the good of the whole city." Why have w e lost that sense of the common good? Where are the candidates’ calls for sacrifice to mend our fractured society with its gulf between the haves and the have-nots, the races, management and labor, young and old, environmentalists and industrialists? Where do we hear about the virtue of voting against our self-interest and for the commonweal?
The 19th century Unitarian minister James Freeman Clark put it succinctly: "A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation."
So, thinking of the next generation, what are the policies and principles by which we should be evaluating our political leaders? What are the questions of justice and morality that we should be asking? I phrased these in my last sermon, if you are interested. Today, I perhaps repeat them and expand them, for there are many questions before us today:
Are our political leaders committed to a serious plan for ending the war in Iraq, to joining a real national debate on how to remove American forces while seeking both security and peace for Iraq, to the elimination of nuclear weapons, to supporting security and freedom in the Middle East, and to strengthening international law to fight terrorism? Do our political leaders support measures that provide for family economic success and security by “making work, work,” that promote fair and decent wages, that show a serious commitment to lifting children out of poverty, and support policies on aid, debt, and trade that would bring extreme global poverty to an end? Do our political leaders support humane and holistic immigration policies and comprehensive immigration reform? Do they insist on policies that end torture, stop human trafficking, promote religious freedom, and protect women? Do our political leaders support policies that strengthen marriage and families, restore integrity to our civic and business practices, and act to prevent violence in our society - especially the alarming incidence of domestic violence against women and children. Strong families are the essential foundation of a good society, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual families. A culture that promotes healthy families is necessary to raise our children with strong values. And parenting has become a countercultural activity in America. How do we find real solutions, and not just scapegoats? Do our political leaders support protections to clean air and water, to reduce the dangerous emissions that cause global warming, to shift from our addiction to oil and fossil fuels to cleaner, safer, and more renewable energy sources? Do they support the transformation to conservation and new energy sources that could provide jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, help solve the Middle East crisis, and even reduce the threats of terrorism?
I believe these are questions with the next generation in mind. These are questions born from the intent and passion of America’s covenant.
Before I close, let me say a few words about the contemporary relevance of Jefferson’s ideals in light of how the U.S. is perceived internationally. In many quarters of the world today America is resented–even hated–for its perceived embrace of godless and value-free materialism and the felt imposition of this moral "decadence" on world society. America is caricatured through much of the Muslim world as a godless society wedded to materialism and wanton in its exercise of power around the globe. Yet the surest guarantee for world peace remains the American ideal of E pluribus unum as enshrined in the American Creed. At its best, America witnesses to a deeply held belief in freedom of faith, the rights of conscience, and the worth and dignity of every human being.
Terrorists may hate America as the incarnation of amoral secularism, but this caricature, if justified, is an America watered down by political hubris, modernist arrogance and post-modernist relativism.
In aspiration, to be a moral people is not to be a perfect people. (Otherwise there would be no such thing as morality, perfection stifling every effort to ensure its attainment.) But the founders saw to it that we would hold ourselves to a higher standard. "An almost chosen people," in Abraham Lincoln’s words, we demonstrate our greatness not by force of might or by virtue of our unquestioned economic dominance, but through rigorous moral endeavor, ever striving to remake ourselves in our own image. When we have approached true greatness, we have been great not because we were strong but because we were good.
Such goodness today is under attack, and not only by terrorists. Some argue that, to protect America, civil liberties must be sacrificed. They forget that America enshrines a radically different truth than that espoused by the absolutists who sponsor terror.
The historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. makes this case succinctly:
When we talk of the American democratic faith, we must understand it in its true dimensions. It is not an impervious, final, and complacent orthodoxy, intolerant of deviation and dissent, fulfilled in flag salutes, oaths of allegiance, and hands over the heart. It is an ever-evolving philosophy, fulfilling its ideals through debate, self-criticism, protest, and irreverence; a tradition in which all have rights of heterodoxy and opportunities for self-assertion. The Creed has been the means by which Americans have haltingly but persistently narrowed the gap between performance and principle. It is what all Americans should learn, because it is what binds all Americans together.
So, let us all do our homework, starting with President Bush, right on down to the shoe shine boy. It’s imperative. Because, you know, we get the kind of government we deserve. Scary, isn't it? Democracy is not something we have; it is something we do.