It’s time to start getting in the mood to celebrate the Fourth of July once again. We each have our own ways of observing Independence Day. I haven’t lit a firecracker since I was 10 years old. I had one go off while was still holding it in my fingers. It was the smallest firecracker made. Still I remember how my fingers hurt. My thumb and forefinger felt like they were big as my wrists for two days afterward. I didn’t lose my enjoyment of firecrackers. Now I just want someone else to shoot them off. I’m still like a child when I marvel at the intricate, colorful displays that fill the skies.

     This year is like every year on the Fourth of July. Liberty and the benefits of it are still a distant dream for much of the world’s population. For many people, liberty is very far from their reality. And they know so little about it, they cannot even aspire to it. Yet, in other places, the hunger for freedom is so intense, it makes tyrants tremble.

     Frank L. Stanton (1857-1927), is widely regarded as the first newspaper columnist. Most days for 36 years, he wrote rhymed columns for the editorial page of The Atlanta Constitution. Here’s an example:

“This world that we’re a-livin’ in,
Is mighty hard to beat:
You git a thorn with every rose.
But ain’t the roses sweet.”

     He could have been writing about our era. This is a wonderful world but it is not without its prickly points. The current stirrings in Iran are among the pricklies at the moment. Violent suppression of peaceful protests are a reminder that entrenched political power has its own reasons to retain its grip on power. It’s hard to beat this world but there are always some who are willing to try to beat it into submission.

     The role of religion almost always plays a prominent role in significant times like these. This is certainly true in Iran where the Supreme Leader is a cleric named Ali Khamenei. He is the most famous Grand Ayatollah in Islam. Ayatollah, a word that means “sign of God,” is a title bestowed on a very few clergy in the world. “Grand Ayatollahs” are even rarer. They are experts in law, ethics and philosophy. Most teach in Islamic Seminaries. In Iran, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei is not elected by the people but outranks all other leaders. As I watched this man exercise his power in response to the Iranian opposition to apparent voter fraud, I remembered a comment from Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s founding fathers: “In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty.” As a cleric myself, my natural instinct has been to recoil at the thought. In my more charitable moments, I cut Father Thomas some slack for hyperbole. But, then I look at this thorny rose of a world and Mr. Khamanei and I bow to the wisdom of Mr. Jefferson on this point. And I am reminded that all the great religions of the world are capable of producing their own Ayatollahs who are hostile to liberty.

     Why do we clergy sometimes develop a resistance to liberty? It happens when we become fearful that people will misunderstand the will of God for the world. We clergy believe that we are more in touch with what God wants for the people than they are. Sometimes the most devout priests among us are wrong. The secret to being a good priest is to love God and trust the liberty of faithful people.

• Back to Archive
• Back to Media Gallery