On the Side of “The Better Angels”
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes, Pastor
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Greeley, Colorado
July 2021 Newsletter
On July 3rd, 1776, following the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams wrote to his wife, reflecting on what he had shared in Congress concerning the importance of that day:
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever.” [John Adams, edited by Kees DeMooy, The Wisdom of John Adams (NY: Citadel Press, 2003), 18.]
This year we gather to fulfill John Adam’s prophecy and to celebrate the freedom that we experience and enjoy! As we look back at what this freedom cost our founding fathers, we must be reminded that we are the care-takers of that freedom and we should not expect to fulfill our responsibilities without paying a similar price.
This year as we celebrate, we are facing multiple issues that are pulling at the very soul of our nation. Some of the concerns include conservatism vs. progressivism, immigration, education, religious liberty, spending and a myriad of social issues including depression, drug use, alcohol consumption, race relations, violence, domestic extremism, and prevalence of misinformation.
Author Jon Meacham offers timeless insight in his book, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels (NY: Random House, 2018). His introduction: “There’s a natural tendency in American political life to think that things were always better in the past. The passions of previous years fade, to be inevitably replaced by the passions of the present. Nostalgia is a powerful force, and in the maelstrom of the moment many of us seek comfort in imagining that once there was a Camelot – without quite remembering that the Arthurian legend itself was about a court riven by ambition and infidelity. One point of this book is to remind us that imperfection is the rule, not the exception.”
Meacham recommends that “those with deep concerns about the nation’s future” do the following: 1) Enter the arena, 2) Resist tribalism, 3) Respect facts and deploy reason, 4) Find a critical balance (recognizing that one side rarely has a monopoly on righteousness), and 5) Keep history in mind.
If you do those things, you’ll be on the side of “the better angels.”