|
7/7/2025 The Radical Soul of America: A Spiritual Reading of Independence Day By: Mitchell K. JonesRead Now "Ring out, sweet bell of Liberty—No flaw can still the immortal voice." These words, written by Milton Howard in 1938, echo the paradox at the heart of American identity. July Fourth is a day of celebration, but also of reckoning—a reminder that the love of country can take two forms: the love of a child for its mother, or the love of a cannibal for its prey. From the moment the Liberty Bell first rang in Philadelphia, announcing the signing of the Declaration of Independence, there was "dismay in the best families." The Tories of 1776, the slaveholders of 1860, the industrial barons of the Gilded Age, and the reactionary press of the 1930s all shared one thing in common: a fear of democracy’s true promise. They loved America not for its ideals, but for what they could extract from it—land, labor, and profit. Yet beneath this struggle lies a deeper, spiritual truth: America was born in revolution, and its soul has always been radical. The Sacred Fire of Rebellion Long before Jefferson penned the Declaration, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy practiced a form of communal living that early settlers would later emulate. The Shakers, the Fourierists, and the Oneida Perfectionists all sought to build a society where "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" were not just words, but lived realities. John Humphrey Noyes, the radical Christian who led the Oneida Community, saw socialism and revivalism as two sides of the same divine mission: "The Revivalists had for their great idea the regeneration of the soul. The great idea of the Socialists was the regeneration of society." For Noyes, true freedom meant economic equality, gender liberation, and communal love—a vision as revolutionary as any political manifesto. The Eternal Struggle: Democracy vs. Oligarchy Howard’s essay reminds us that every step toward justice in America has been met with betrayal.
Jefferson knew this. When the Supreme Court, under John Marshall, became a tool of the wealthy, he warned: "We have made the judiciary independent of the nation itself." Franklin, ever the wit, mocked the myth of the "rich and well-born," declaring, "Of all the rogues I have known, some have been the richest rogues." The Communist as the True Patriot Howard’s essay culminates in a bold claim: "Communism is twentieth-century Americanism." To the Cold War mind, this is heresy. But history tells a different story. The early socialists—whether the Haudenosaunee, the Shakers, or the Fourierists—were not invaders of the American experiment. They were the American experiment. They believed, as Paine and Jefferson did, that government must serve the people, not the propertied few. When Paul Robeson stood before HUAC and declared, "I am here today because my people are not yet full citizens in this country," he was speaking in the same spirit as the revolutionaries of 1776. When Earl Browder said communism was "twentieth-century Americanism," he was invoking the Declaration’s unfulfilled promise. A Spiritual Call to Remember This Fourth of July, as fireworks burst over a nation still divided by wealth and power, we must ask: Who are the real heirs of the Revolution? Is it the bankers who threaten secession at every challenge to their rule? Or is it the workers, the radicals, the indigenous nations, and the utopians who kept dreaming of a fairer world? The Liberty Bell is cracked, but its voice still rings. It calls us not to blind patriotism, but to revolutionary love—the kind that demands more democracy, more equality, more justice. As Howard wrote in 1938: "The enemies of the people today are clasping hands with America’s foreign enemies to betray her and our democratic liberties." The fight continues. The soul of America—radical, restless, and unbroken—still burns. Will we answer its call? Originally published on Christian Metaphysics with MKJ Author Mitchell K. Jones is a writer, historian and PhD student from Rochester, NY. He has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and a master’s degree in history from the College at Brockport, State University of New York. He has written on communitarian socialism and communal religious movements in the antebellum United States. His research interests include early America, communal societies, antebellum reform movements, religious sects, working class institutions, labor history, abolitionism and the American Civil War. His current research explores the intersection between modern spiritualism and the American socialist movement from the 1840s through the Civil War. Archives July 2025
1 Comment
Charles Brown
8/19/2025 02:32:31 pm
http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2025/06/blog-post_98.html Leave a Reply. |
Archives
November 2025
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed