Statue of Liberty
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay, courtesy of Michigan Annual Conference UMC
Special to United Methodist Insight | Oct. 14, 2025
Growing up in the 1950s, I remember learning that one of the primary reasons for people to migrate to this hemisphere over 400 years ago was freedom to worship God in a manner that was not dictated by the rulers of their country. The state dictated religious practices and personal liberty. Those who did not comply with the mandated belief system faced persecution.
Very soon, the United States will celebrate being a country for 250 years but we need to remember that our history of freedom of worship goes back more than 150 years before the Declaration of Independence!
We often hear that “this country was founded as a Christian nation,” yet seem to overlook the fact that freedom to worship as each individual chooses is one of the basic tenets that put this country in place.
I recall reading that as the representatives from the various colonies gathered in the late 1700s to begin to forge an independent country, the suggestion came to begin the gathering with a prayer inviting God to be present in their deliberations. This recommendation nearly derailed the entire endeavor before it ever started because the delegates engaged in arguing to decide who would lead the prayer and what background their belief system brought!
People came to this hemisphere to have personal liberty and freedom to worship. As human beings, we are not perfect, we have made errors, we have missed the target, but we continue to try to do better and thank God for our blessings.
The years pass and people still desire the liberties we have, to escape persecution and repression and come here. The Statue of Liberty, also called Lady in the Harbor, has the words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free ... send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden shore.”
The God who created each of us; loves every one of us unconditionally and wants a relationship with each person. Jesus taught us to love our neighbor and then shared the insight that every person on this planet is our neighbor. Strong words of anger and hate toward those deemed different or unacceptable flies in the face of Jesus' teachings. Fervent attempts to create division are counterproductive to a Christian life. We can do much better, we must do better; our future as a nation based on freedom depends on that; the answer to hate is not returning hate but to love.
Wil Meiklejohn
Wil Meiklejohn
Wil Meiklejohn is a certified lay minister in the Mountain Sky Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.