CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (RNS) — The prompt for the after-dinner discussion was a familiar phrase: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”
Some 90 members of nine religious congregations gathered in the fellowship of hall of University Baptist Church recently to begin a study of the Declaration, with its foundational claim that “all men are created equal.”
They are just one of some 30 interfaith “clusters” in 16 states participating in Faith250, a new initiative intended to mark the country’s 250th anniversary, or semiquincentennial, this July 4th. These clusters are now pouring over “America’s sacred texts” as part of a mission to revive democratic values they feel have been eroding.
“People are really concerned about what’s happening in our democracy,” said Meg Peery McLaughlin, the co-pastor of University Presbyterian Church and a program organizer. “They have been hungry for a place to bring their concerns about what’s happening and encounter what our shared faith may have to say to it.“
In addition to the Declaration of Independence, the faith clusters will study other foundational texts including Katharine Lee Bates’ 1893 anthem “America the Beautiful,” Emma Lazarus’ 1883 poem, “The New Colossus,” and Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
The Chapel Hill cluster comprises members of 22 faith com …