All Saints Episcopal Church - Rector Ed Bacon advocates impeachment investigations of Cheney in July 1 sermon!

Written by: Patrick Briggs on Jul 2, 2007 12:43 PM EDT

Rector Ed Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena gave a remarkable July 4th Sunday sermon!  At the end of this 2007 church year Rector Bacon has come to the conclusion that judiciary committees in both the House and the Senate should begin impeachment investigations on Vice President Cheney.

The video of this sermon is posted here:

 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4952162068744554410&hl=en

I'm proud to be a part of a progressive community which has a church like this speaking truth to power so effectively and strongly.  I'm both a leader of the Pasadena chapter of DFA and a member of this church so I'm doubly proud!

I've cross-posted about this sermon here:

 http://www.streetprophets.com/storyonly/2007/7/2/0431/76860

and here:

 http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/2/22420/71917

I think too often progressives have felt a need to disassociate themselves from two things the conservatives have hijacked.  One is our flag and patriotism.  The other is Christianity and what it stands for.

 In fact both of these should serve as tremendous sources of inspiration and strength for progressives.  All of us should feel the pride of what this country was founded on and exercise the good patriotism that William Sloan Coffin advocates here:

 “There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover's quarrel with their country, a reflection of God's lover's quarrel with all the world.”

For those of us who are religious progressives, our faith should inform and ground our actions as we attempt to restore a stronger sense of community.  One which exercises compassion both within our progressive circles and, very importantly, which reaches out to those that might be seen as our enemy. 

When we take back the flag and religion from the right, we can more capably live up to the ideals expressed in Langston Hughes' great poem "Let America Be America Again".  Happy 4th of July!!

Originally published in Esquire and in the International Worker Order pamphlet A New Song (1938)

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home-- For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!

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Location: Pasadena, CA 91104