Unfinished liberty
Matthew 11: 16-30 New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE July 5, 2026 Photo of the Statue of Liberty from the back, looking away from the camera, showing her torso with her left arm carrying a large tablet with July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals on it and her right arm holding up a lighted torch lined with gold, against a white background. I once heard it said that the reason men such as Roger Williams and Thomas Jefferson stood for the separation of Church and state was not to protect religion from the grasp of government but to protect the government from the grasp of religious fanaticism. Our different faith traditions are not to be a tool of the state but the conscience of the state, speaking truth to power, denouncing our government’s abuses and excess, and seeking justice for the suffering and oppressed. Even though this American experiment is now 250 years old, we are still testing the limits of this boundary. Last week, on the same day that the Texas Board of Educa...
