Thanks to everyone who joined us for faith250, our series on important words in America’s history. Thanks to Rabbi Ben Goldberg for bringing this to us as we looked for this year’s interfaith discussion series.
Chip Gawle got us started with a reading and reflection on the Gettysburg Address. America's Civil War was a new birth of freedom and a rededication to the equality that had been lifted up in the Declaration of Independence but then ignored.
The following week, we began our gatherings with Rabbi Goldberg and members of Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel (KTI) by reading Emma Lazarus’ poem and with sharing our stories of migration and identity. We learned about how the Statue of Liberty is an iconic symbol of America’s place in the world and how Emma Lazarus is responsible for this, for describing the statue in the harbor as the “Mother of Exiles” who welcomes “the tempest tossed” to our shores. Immigration has been a controversial issue throughout our history but it has given our history an energy and a focus on growing and adapting.
We continued the following week with the Declaration of Independence and the way the founders inspired the world with their words even as they disappointed us with their actions. How you view America’s founding depends on what groups you are willing to include in our understanding of who belongs in America, just as Emma Lazarus imagined a nation that welcomed immigrants. Last year a PBS series by Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein looked at “The American Revolution” from multiple perspectives including Native Americans, women and people of African descent.
The following week we looked at the words to “America the Beautiful” and learned more about the author, Katharine Lee Bates. She was a trailblazing woman of the nineteenth century. Each week we applied the close reading approach we use for Biblical passages. With Bates’ lyrics we appreciated the poetry and the story behind various images.
The final week we read about a major figure of that era, Frederick Douglass. His 1852 speech on the Fourth of July in the time of the expansion of the power of slaveholders is a powerful reminder of a history we must acknowledge and understand.
America is based on values such as being a nation of laws and not a nation ruled by men. We have not always made steady progress toward democracy, freedom and justice but they are important values that we must keep our eyes fixed on. Getting together with diverse neighbors to discuss these founding principles is essential.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for faith250, our series on important words in America’s history. Thanks to Rabbi Ben Goldberg for bringing this to us as we looked for this year’s interfaith discussion series.
Chip Gawle got us started with a reading and reflection on the Gettysburg Address. America's Civil War was a new birth of freedom and a rededication to the equality that had been lifted up in the Declaration of Independence but then ignored.
The following week, we began our gatherings with Rabbi Goldberg and members of Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel (KTI) by reading Emma Lazarus’ poem and with sharing our stories of migration and identity. We learned about how the Statue of Liberty is an iconic symbol of America’s place in the world and how Emma Lazarus is responsible for this, for describing the statue in the harbor as the “Mother of Exiles” who welcomes “the tempest tossed” to our shores. Immigration has been a controversial issue throughout our history but it has given our history an energy and a focus on growing and adapting.
We continued the following week with the Declaration of Independence and the way the founders inspired the world with their words even as they disappointed us with their actions. How you view America’s founding depends on what groups you are willing to include in our understanding of who belongs in America, just as Emma Lazarus imagined a nation that welcomed immigrants. Last year a PBS series by Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein looked at “The American Revolution” from multiple perspectives including Native Americans, women and people of African descent.
The following week we looked at the words to “America the Beautiful” and learned more about the author, Katharine Lee Bates. She was a trailblazing woman of the nineteenth century. Each week we applied the close reading approach we use for Biblical passages. With Bates’ lyrics we appreciated the poetry and the story behind various images.
The final week we read about a major figure of that era, Frederick Douglass. His 1852 speech on the Fourth of July in the time of the expansion of the power of slaveholders is a powerful reminder of a history we must acknowledge and understand.
America is based on values such as being a nation of laws and not a nation ruled by men. We have not always made steady progress toward democracy, freedom and justice but they are important values that we must keep our eyes fixed on. Getting together with diverse neighbors to discuss these founding principles is essential.