Renewing Faith in American Democracy
January 2022
Hello Friends.
YESTERDAY’s headline, January 6, 2022, One Year Later: Signs of a Nation Deeper in Peril. It doesn’t matter which side of the issue you stand, everyone is feeling it.
Said beautifully by Steven C. Rockefeller in his recent essay “Renewing the American Democratic Faith”, the founders of the United States of America embarked on an audacious experiment. Could a diverse group of people given individual freedom and political sovereignty work together to build a unified nation that promotes freedom and advances equality, justice, and the common good?
Their hopes for creating a free, self-governing society rested on an innovative constitution and judicial system with checks and balances that recognized certain inalienable human rights. But they also knew to succeed, it would require a moral and spiritual foundation. As Steven so eloquently says that while the founders lived in a very different world from ours, their thinking in this regard is one key to rectifying the deficits in our democratic practice in the twenty-first century.
We are a nation represented by diversity of cultures, religions, lifestyles, and beliefs, but it is our opportunity to reawaken a shared faith in unifying democratic ideals and values that can provide everyone in the US with an inspiring sense of national identity and common destiny. The USA, in this regard, is on the leading edge of this shift in consciousness Lead with Love so often talks about. It is required to be able to carry our individuality alongside our understanding of a shared humanity and beyond. To tap into a true faith and belief that all people are created equal, to not marginalize others based on race, religion, or ethnic origin, creating and implementing a compelling, inclusive vision of the common good.
Democracy is a moral ideal. In an essay written by John Dewey “A Common Faith”, Dewey envisions a nation with its’ foundations rooted in a faith of shared ideals and a personal way of life. Faith, when integrated in vision of ideals and values, inspires wholehearted commitment to a way of being and relating in the world, which in turn becomes a relational spirituality that integrates spiritual life and everyday life.
It is a beautiful vision to continue to strive for. It could remain the most powerful, transformative social and political ideals ever articulated and practiced. However, given the human condition, the strength of narrow self-interest, and the corrupting influence of money and power, advancing freedom, equality, and justice is a never-ending task.
There are so many distinctive ways our founding fathers fell short of the spiritual mission of our democracy. America has been, and will always be, a work in progress that is a force driving social change. This requires renewing the nation’s faith in its founding moral and political ideals and giving fresh expression to what faith and commitment to the common good means.
Freedom and equality together with the ideals of individual rights, the rule of law, justice, and the common good are the fundamental values at the heart of the spiritual and ethical vision that expresses the true spirit and deeper meaning of American democracy.
The Enlightenment movement taught that when the inborn moral and spiritual capacities for empathy, sympathy, and love are supported and nurtured, people are naturally drawn to form friendships, cooperate, and build community. As we abandon older forms of social order and look for new ways of holding the American people together to build a ‘more perfect Union’, we should envision the spirit of freedom and equality being infused with these natural feelings of sympathy, love, and benevolence, crating the new social ties and bonds needed.” – Steven C. Rockefeller
George Washington’s Farewell Address shared a hopeful vision of a nation “bound together by fraternal affection with malice towards none, with charity for all.” Together, we can recommit with an expanded understanding to build towards a cohesive, culturally diverse society inspired by our love of freedom and a compassionate spirit of respect for the equal dignity of all persons. Democracy is indeed a deeply rooted spiritual practice – with reverence for humanity and all life on Earth. Lead with Love.