The Strength to be Free | July 5, 2026 | Rev. Dr. Kathryn Benton
- revlizolson
- Jul 5
- 6 min read
Freedom is…
the ability to deal with the realities of one’s situation so as not to be overcome by them.
The opening words from Dr. Howard Thurman resonated with me as I have been considering the idea of freedom. He spoke these words in a meditation entitled, The Strength to be Free on July 1, 1960. This sense of freedom…the Strength of Freedom has been seen throughout history and in the context of this 4th of July during which we are experiencing the awful stink of evil goings-on. How did Hildegarde know…how did she know what our current reality would be? The whole quote goes like this:
Now in the people that were meant to be green there is no more life of any kind. There is only shriveled barrenness.
The winds are burdened by the awful stink of evil, selfish goings-on.
The winds are indeed awful. When I hear people wanting to celebrate this 250th anniversary of this country’s independence, I feel sick. The current fascist regime represents everything that this country has avoided…namely the truth of its history. I do see signs now, though, of people understanding this…of people reminding us of the part of us that is meant to be green…that is meant to grow in wisdom and stature and in truth. We were meant to be green…we were meant to have that sense of freedom that the opening songs sung about. We were meant to overcome this awful stink. Thurman wrote extensively of the ability to overcome, in this case by comparing it to the easy path of giving up and succumbing to the shackles of the soul.
…it takes no strength to give up, to accept the shackles of circumstance so that they become shackles of soul, to shrug off the shoulders in blind acquiescence. This is easy…in simple language, you have sold out, surrendered, given up.
It takes strength to find the high prerogative of your spirit.
And you will find that, if you do, a host of invisible angels will wing to your defense.
And the glory of the living God will envelop your surroundings
because in you God has come into their own.
…the high prerogative of your spirit! Thurman is talking about something that so many in our history have done…and they were not the so-called founding fathers. They were the bold, audacious and courageous individuals and groups who were able to deal with the reality of their situation and were clearly not overcome by them. There are so many people that I could mention but I will choose just a few. I will start with one so famous, especially in my native upstate New York, Frederick Douglass. His now famous speech was delivered at an Independence Day Celebration in Rochester, New York on July 5, 1852. Here is an excerpt:
What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.
Douglass did not hold back. He certainly kept before him the moment of his high resolve. He continued:
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour forth a stream, a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
Douglass was bold and audacious…he had a courage that is clearly needed today. He knew that we could not take the easy path that Thurman spoke of. Instead, he knew of the ancestors upon whose shoulders he stood and foresaw the coming of so many after him, including James Baldwin, author of The Fire Next Time. And there were others, no less courageous, including one of my heroes, Harriet Tubman. Now I was always impressed by Harriet Tubman’s story. I keep a picture of her on my desk to inspire me, yet I became even more impressed when I only recently learned the details of her service to the government during the Civil War. She led troops for the Union army. Now this is, of course, unheard of for an African American, but what about the fact that she was also a woman. Amazing! Another woman I would like to highlight was Ida B. Wells-Barnett who uncovered the reality of lynching in this country that had been normalized. White people were desensitized, much like they are today, to the atrocities…the terror of lynching…of killing people for the color of their skin. Visiting the White House in 1898, she delivered the following words:
For nearly twenty years lynching crimes, which stand side by side with Armenian and Cuban outrages, have been committed and permitted by this Christian nation. Nowhere in the civilized world save the U.S. of America do men, possessing all civil and political power, go out in bands of 50 and 5,000 to hunt down, shoot, hang or burn to death a single individual, unarmed and absolutely powerless. Statistics show that nearly 10,000 American citizens
have been lynched in the past 20 years.
We refuse to believe this country, so powerful to defend its citizens abroad, is unable to protect its citizens at home. Italy and China have been indemnified by this government for the lynching of their citizens.
We ask that the government do as much for its own.
Now I don’t want to give the idea that the heroes…those who were adept at dealing with the fierce urgency of now only live in the past…any more than I want to suggest that our current situation is not as urgent. The reality of lynching has not stopped. It may have taken on the cloak of our police forces…those who have been the perpetrators of continuous murders of Black Americans, but it has not gone away. I spoke a few weeks ago of the murder of a child in a Walmart parking lot. No, this has not gone away. But the good news is that the heroes have also not gone away. I’m thinking about Fania Davis, who, with her sister, received the Howard Thurman Award. She spoke of police violence in the context of restorative justice and foresaw what could be called for right now. She suggests, in her book entitled, Race and Restorative Justice, that this country form a Truth and Reconciliation process to confront police violence that perpetuates the lynching.
There are many other heroes in all walks of life, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zohran Mamdani, Ibram X. Kendi and Kimberli Crenshaw to name a few. I would also add musicians, artists and so many others waking up each day to the horrendous reality of fascist ideology, racism and oligarchy and reacting with courage and truth…with wisdom and stature.
Let me be clear; this is a time when half-measures are not enough…when we cannot offer ourselves piecemeal but must, …offer one's entire self to God unconditionally rather than holding back, negotiating, or surrendering only small, comfortable parts of one's life. It is a time when we must listen to the words of Howard Thurman: …if I maintain a sense of option, I am still free. Are we free? Are we able to face the fierce urgency of now with a sense of option…a strength…and a sense that we will not be overcome? I will answer again, with "The Triumph of Freedom" by the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison…
God speed the year of jubilee the wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign,
To man his plundered rights again Restore.
God speed the day when human blood shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood, the claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good, not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end, and change into a faithful friend Each foe.
God speed the hour, the glorious hour, when none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power, nor in a tyrant's presence cower;
But all to manhood's stature tower, by equal birth!
THAT HOUR WILL COME, to each, to all,
And from his prison-house, the thrall Go forth.
Until that year, day, hour, arrive, with head, and heart, and hand I'll give –
To break the rod, and rend the gyve –
The spoiler of his prey deprive – so witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril or the cost be driven.
May we be driven to truth…to the strength to be truly free and may we overcome our current situation…with the hope of the ancestors, our current companions and with a closer walk with the all-pervading presence. Amen
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