Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: A Reflection

Though he said that the "world will little note nor long remember," we still recall the speech that Abraham Lincoln delivered at Gettysburg 150 years ago. He honored Soldiers, most whom we would call "citizen Soldiers" today, who perished in combat in and around that small town. I visited the Gettysburg battlefield three years ago. It remains a somber reminder of what price we may pay when we fight for principles in which we believe. We have a responsibility to know what we believe and how important those beliefs are. Some beliefs are in fact based in falsehood; they survive only when fed with erroneous information and emotion, or when lack of information allows their sustainment. Others have little consequence; in the big picture of history, it makes little difference whether the Boston Red Sox won the World Series this year or if the Atlanta Braves will do so next year. Some beliefs are philosophical: The nature of freedom, economic theories, the meaning of love. Sometimes they are difficult to establish as true or valid, but still their means of execution has a lasting impact on our lives and our history. A copy of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address hangs on the wall in my office at home. It reminds me that some principles are worth defending. Lincoln's words remind me that the man who spoke them endured merciless ridicule and cruel slander as he navigated our nation through its most tortuous years. We forget the bitter opposition he experienced even in the North when we regale him as perhaps our greatest President. Abraham Lincoln called the nation to action with him speech. He admonished his countrymen to engender "a new birth of freedom." He implied that freedom best survives in a democratic republic. We have opportunity to influence events in our nation. We may speak and write; we can assemble and we can vote. Our freedom has its best opportunity to survive when we use those privileges with respect for truth and the right of others to express their opinions. Suppressing the rights of others historically has a tragic trend of sad consequences when the other party gains power. Let us resolve that we will treat one another with respect and that we will listen to one another. Some principles are worth defending with our lives. We will thrive as a society when we defend truth, life, and freedom.

Celebrating Independence Day

I have celebrated American Independence Day in a variety of venues and ways. In 1978, I sang with a group as part of the National Celebration on the Washington Mall. It was not televised then as it is now, but the newspaper said that three hundred thousand were there. In other years I have mingled with hundreds of others to watch civic fireworks displays. Last year, I ran in an overseas shadow race of the Peachtree Road Race 10k in Kabul, Afghanistan. I've worshiped with other Christians, often engaging in meaningful times of reflective prayer and singing when Independence Day fell on a Sunday or Wednesday. This year, I remembered that the previous three days were the 150th anniversary of a great battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that shaped the definition of freedom in the United States. Abraham Lincoln's speech dedicating a memorial to that battle included these words: "It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Amen, President Lincoln. His words define also why we celebrate, and why we should remember what we celebrate, on Independence Day.