Urging The Unitarian Church To Reconsider Its Decision On The Fourth Of July Event

To the editor: I read Rev. Erin Splaine’s recent letter to you with great interest, and I cannot dispute the power of her language or disagree with her principles. My maternal great-grandfather was a Unitarian minister from Maine, and, although he died long before my birth, I feel a deep connection to the Unitarian Universalists and their contributions to New England culture and society.

Others must determine the wisdom of her congregation’s decision to cancel its Independence Day celebration in protest against a recent Supreme Court decision that interpreted, incorrectly in my view, an important provision in the monumental Voting Rights Act of 1965. I was appalled, and I expressed my dismay in a letter to the editor of The New York Times that was published a few days later.

However, the Fourth of July is an annual opportunity to reflect on the nation’s founding ideals. Toward that end, I bring your attention to a serious fallacy in Rev. Splaine’s reference to “the Rights and Privileges conferred by the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, and the Constitution.”

The Declaration is based on “natural rights” theory, proclaiming that all people (“men” in the original) are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” including equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration “conferred” nothing. Instead, it recognized a fundamental feature of the Founders’ science of politics: Rights come from the Creator and are held in perpetuity by all people; government is not the source of rights, so government never can take them away.

I urge Rev. Splaine and her congregation to reconsider, hold their Independence Day celebration as planned, and use it as an occasion for active protest against the daily threats to the nation’s long commitment to equality, liberty, and other rights.

Very truly yours,
Steven S. Berizzi