- I was gone for two weeks traveling and return to a country very different than the one I left, thanks to U.S. Supreme Court rulings that question privacy, bodily autonomy, the ability to regulate weapons of war, the separation of church and state, rights of Indigenous people and the welfare of our planet, with the ability to conduct free and fair elections in the docket for next term, which could cede control of national elections to partisanship and not the state constitution.
I am sad but also committed to the fight. As the text for Sunday says, “Do not grow weary in doing good” (Galatians 6:9). Now is not the time to retreat but to continue to pursue the values I hold dear.
But on this Canada Day, I am also grateful to carry two passports. And although not perfect, ths past year Canada had the good sense to mute its celebrations to focus on the horrible atrocities that happened to Indigenous people, especially in the residential schools.
Perhaps it is time for we in the U.S. to follow suit and instead of a party, take time on this Fourth of July to pray and reflect on who we are, why it is vital to maintain a separation of church and state and what freedom and justice for all really means.
