The United States of America will celebrate Independence Day this weekend.
240+ years ago a group of British citizens in the colonies of New England became frustrated by unfair taxes. They tried to reason with the King of England, but were shut down. Eventually, this led to a revolution. The Continental Congress declared its independence from England on July 4th, 1776. A war ensued, and between 1776 and 1783 France and Spain joined the war against Britain. It is estimated that nearly 70,000 Americans died during that war. In 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed and England granted independence to the United States of America.
Independence. It is such a powerful concept.
Let me tell you right now. I am very grateful that I was born in the United States. The US Constitution is definitely the best human system going. The first amendment protects our freedom. It says,
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
That is amazing, especially considering that every other government in the world was run by the tyranny of one person or an elite group.
I like my independence.
AND…
As I to grow deeper in the love of God and my horizons expand I am continually exposed to the stories of so many people in the United States who don’t experience the same kind of freedom and independence that my social location affords me.
As a pastor and professor of spiritual formation how can I reconcile this disparity?
I find it helpful to turn to this simple model of developmental psychology.
The path of maturity for human development moves through three basic stages.
- Dependence. An infant will die if left alone. A child is completely dependent upon a more mature human for survival. The child is not able—physically, intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually—to survive and thrive.
- Independence. The developing child must go through a process of weaning from the dependence phase. She must learn that she is now physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually able to encounter life as an individual and make choices without the supervision of those upon whom she depended as a child. Many ancient and pre-modern cultures had clear ceremonies of liminal space that served as rights of passage from childhood to adulthood. This is good and right, and often very painful for the family system. Modern, Western, Industrialized Societies have extended this liminal space of differentiation into an incredibly long process called adolescence (read more on that here).
- Interdependence. While the process of learning independence is good and healthy, it is not the whole picture. The truth of the universe is that nothing exists completely alone and nothing has everything within itself to survive. All things are interdependent upon other things for survival. The mature human recognizes the truth of Genesis 3:18 when God said that it was not good for the human to be alone. We were created for community and we must learn to rely upon each other, offering our strengths and allowing other’s strengths to complement our weaknesses. (read more on the spiritual journey of growth here).
The American Revolution was a necessary moment in the lives of the British colonists. The tyranny of the King of England was unjust. The Declaration of Independence was the beginning of the adolescent phase for those white, british colonists.
It was good.
AND, it is not God’s dream for the world.
During the colonists’ revolution, I wonder how God felt about their African slaves? I wonder how God felt about the indeginous people that were slowly being driven out of the land and/or murdered? I wonder how God felt about the fact that women and children and the poor had no rights.
The biblical witness declares that God stands with the oppressed of the world, calls them to speak truth to unjust power structures, and promises to be with them until all nations are blessed and shalom (actual peace) is the rule of the day.
This is a difficult, messy process.
Jesus called it the “Kingdom of God” or “The Commonwealth of the Heavens.”
Jesus modeled that kind of life for us and invites us to follow him into a messy, interdependent life where we remember God’s promise to Abraham that he (and we) are blessed to be a blessing to all nations.
As we grill our hot dogs, attend parades, and ooh and aah over fireworks this weekend, may we remember that God is calling us into a deeper life. May we, as American Citizens, strive to grow up and out of our adolescence and deepen in maturity and the love of God for all people.
May we join with Jesus in a Declaration of Interdependence.
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We have a bill of rights. What we don’t have is a bill of responsibilities to go with them. The end result is that we’re impoverished by what ethicist Daniel Callahan called ethical minimalism. This is the ethic of the mythical Marlboro Man for those dinosaurs like me who can remember the days of tobacco adverts: come to Marlboro country.
In Marlboro Country you are free and nobody can tell you what to do with your freedom. You are autonomous in the root sense – you give the law to yourself. You are able to pursue your interests, plans, projects, and desires, as long as you do no harm to others. In Marlboro country the only obligations or duties or responsibilities that constrain your freedom are those which you freely accept or create when you make a promise or sign a contract. The only obligations you have are the ones you freely assume.
Marlboro country was always visualized as desert landscapes of the American Southwest, a lone cowboy looking off at an empty expanse, only companion his trusty steed. Many of the actors and models used as the Marlboro man would go on to meet their end by lung cancer, as did my Dad who smoked Pall Malls with their co package logo, white siblings against a red background emblazoned with the motto: in hoc signo vinces, which is grist for another day at the mill.
Ethical minimalism is, it can be argued, the basis for libertarianism, the de facto basis for capitalism. It can work if pursued justly in a company of wholly competent , mature adults, assuming the full context articulated by Adam Smith. However, it’s much simpler to abbreviate the context into a vague commitment to justice, not otherwise grounded except as “fair exchange.” And as for the late stage capitalism which conditions the Western world we presently inhabit, CEO as ubermensch, even the minimal constraint, “do no harm” is ejected in the march towards . . . what? Reading the signs of the times, it would seem to be a march towards domination by economics, seeking advantage rather than equity in exchange, fashioning power as money, now no longer modeled and symbolized as weighty gold, but freed from materiality it can become digitized as crypto currency and streamed as flows if electrons, unconstrained.
It is also a march into what’s being called transhumanism. To rectify the inadequacies of our organic matrix, we grab the controls of our physiology not merely to heal, but to transform and direct our own development as organisms but our future as species. We dictate the purpose and direction, we make our own future, set our own goals. Or at least the ubermench does, the elite as always setting the tone for fashion and taste. The rest of us have our place: in the Matrix, with our blue pills, the consumer goods which are the consolation prizes in late stage capitalism.
Independence is not a goal but a waypoint on the journey. Evolution has brought us to the descent of species and the outlier of the uber mensch in this version of the story. But there’s another story. A better story.
The story that sees evolution as ascent understands responsibility as a requirement, not a self-selected preference. The story which shows the centrality of community understands about fallen sparrows and how no one, nothing is disposable. The story that understands and embraces sacrifice and service as gift, as vocation, as participation, sees our destination as celebration catered with juicy rich foods and pure choice wines, where there is song and dance, where there is a beloved community, held together by each one’s commitment to all others, and the commitment of the one who promises to dwell with us.
So indeed let us celebrate July 4th and the relative degree of freedom it is meant to commemorate. And I suppose it’s ok to celebrate independence, with the reservation that our missing bill of responsibilities is the indispensable context for our natural rights. But on July 5th, let’s also celebrate putting that waypoint in our rear view mirrors and continue the journey. Look out ahead for the crossroad where the crazy guy is flagging you down, trying to get you to turn off the desert Inrerstate I-40, onto a narrow off-road path, giving you a funky new tie-dyed or Hawaiian or bowling shirt for the destination. He can’t promise the road won’t be rocky, but if you take his directions and his red pill, he’s promising it’ll be one great party at the end of the trail.
Beautiful, compelling, and well said, as always, Don. Thanks for sharing.