The United States recently celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The authors and signers announced that they were no longer subject to the king of England. They declared they were independent.
I want to mention another word; interdependence. We seem to value our independence a lot. I believe that we also need to value interdependence.
The Interfaith Clergy Alliance knows this interdependence and knows that we are stronger when we work together, depend on one another. What happens to one affects the community.
Most of us are familiar with the phrase, “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.”
At the time this was written, while it states that all men are created equal, the authors didn’t really believe that all men were created equal. It would take years of progress before all men actually meant all men. And I would like to say that if it were written today, it would say all people (including women) are created equal and have unalienable rights.
We believe this phrase gives us the right to live the way we want without much thought to what others need.
But there is another phrase that deserves our attention, the last sentence in the Declaration of Independence. “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
This last line shows us two things about the patriots who signed it: They depended on a divine being and they depended on each other. The founders knew you couldn’t have a declaration of independence for a nation without a corresponding declaration of dependence—on a divine Providence and on their neighbors. What they are describing here is interdependence.
Sometimes we hear that this nation was founded as a Christian nation, and I want to clarify that this nation was founded on a belief in a divine being, but not only in a Christian God. The signers of the Declaration of Independence respected different ways of worshipping and allowed all to be free to practice their beliefs.
This country has welcomed people who practiced their faith in many different manners, and to be the country the signers of the Declaration were creating, we need to continue in this practice
The United States is 250 years old. While the foundation was filled with values of independence and interdependence, the United States is still a work in progress.
Let us all join in making progress toward all people living with love, compassion and dignity toward all others. Let us live for independence and also interdependence.
Rev. Dr. Linda A Holbrook is the pastor of Morgan Hill United Methodist Church. She is a member of the Interfaith Clergy Alliance and may be contacted at li************@*****il.com.
