Delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers, Florida 3 October 2004

Last summer, I was struck by how often political candidates spoke of values. On the stump, both Mr. Kerry and President Bush say, "I share your values" to audiences. At first, It seems an invitation to fellow feeling. Then, it often seemed to me to be some kind of code, but I never could quite make out what it meant.

Yet, I notice each is usually careful not to say just what he means.

They are not alone. In August before the Republican Convention, Senator John McCain warned of enemies who "hate every value we hold dear." Which enemies? Which values? Just a few weeks earlier, Barack Obama, Democratic senatorial candidate from Illinois intoned "our constitutional values." What, precisely, does he mean?

Well, to think about American values, the Constitution is a good place to begin. We might grant life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as core values and call it a day. But the more I thought about "American values," the more complex and contradictory it all became. Even the core is ambiguous.

For instance, as a boy scout years ago, I earned the Pro Deo et Patria (For God and Country) award. I did not find it strange to link patriotism with God. Indeed, as debate over the Pledge of Allegiance Protection Act suggests, our nation long has identified love of country with a holy mission. Personally, I could care less whether our money or pledges of patriotic loyalty invoke one god, many, or none. Yet, an American value is this sense of divinely inspired manifest destiny. Since our origins, Americans have felt that we are, in St. Augustine's words, a light on the hill, the next best thing to the city of god.

In contrast, our nation's founders then and many Americans today (I among them) were rational skeptics. Many were atheists, or at best deists, who subscribed to John Locke's notion that nothing is foreordained or divinely sanctioned. What makes American unique, is that we choose our life course, individually and as a nation. We make agreements. We pass laws, and so forth. At core, we are a secular nation. This outward contradiction of divine versus secular is enshrined (can you say that of something "secular"?) in the First Amendment to our Constitution. Our founders foreswore against any linkage of god and country, with the paradoxical result that the religious life is a core American value, even among the irreligious.

Ask most Americans, they'll put Freedom on the top of the American values list. A second thing I learned in my youth was the importance of free speech as the way to truth. From soap-boxes to commercials, from letters to Congress or the paper, we Americans value having our say. Compared to other places in the world where speaking up lands you in jail or worse, it is a core value. Yet, our nation is rife with moments when freedom did not include questioning the power of the state. Speaking up has often been a very dangerous thing to do. In 1798, Congress passed the Alien & Sedition Acts which gave the state broad powers to deport or arrest non-citizens and to declare as treasonable any publication the government did not like. Just over two hundred years later, the so-called Patriot Act does much the same thing. If you have the wrong last name, getting a job or on an airplane . . . well, you know.

Loyalty to one's country is a good value, an American value. Sadly, in times of fear and danger, conformist loyalty trumps liberty. As they say, loose lips sink ships. Have you noticed recently how vice-president Cheney and Attorney General John Ashcroft have used the language of treason - "providing aid and comfort to the enemy" - to describe any who question the war in Iraq? The accusation of disloyalty and calling dissenters traitors is quite intentional. The threat of arrest is clear. It was the same with Martin Luther King and demonstrators against the war in Viet Nam. McCarthyism has never been limited to the cold war. Yet, I ask: which is the American value? Are only those who support the state patriots? Or those who object? After all, Jefferson said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

Free speech is a mixed bag. It upsets the status quo. Often, it just upsets. The urge to quiet is found all along the political spectrum. Liberals want to curtail hate speech. Conservatives want to rid the media of salacious sex. Nearly everyone wants to get rid of those awful political advertisements!

This last year, Fox television host, Bill O'Reilly, famously demonstrated the sentiment. "Shut-up, shut-up" he kept telling guests who failed to agree with him. Well, that's not the American way. In a democracy, you're supposed to speak up.

Free speech may be an American value, but if you act on it, you'd better watch out. Recently, The National Lawyers Guild warned of a "pathology of a government so frightened of its own citizens that it classifies them as probable enemies, with rights of free assembly and free speech simply no longer available to the citizens of this country." "I share your values," our politicians proclaim. Oh yeah? Which values, my friends?

The rhetoric of the campaigns suggests an apocalyptic urgency. "Everything is at stake," says John Kerry. So does George Bush. Each side argues the very heart and soul of the nation is at risk in this election. In a time of war, every politician wants to claim they are the ones representing true American values. A time-honored American value, at least in politics, is to cast suspicion on the character of your opponent. "I share you values" can be a code to declare the other guy at best misguided, dangerously reckless or possibly the enemy of God, the corrupter of children, and the preferred choice of Al-Qaida. Raising the anxieties of the electorate is a time-honored American value.

Another American value is to not learn from history. American values have been fluid with time. That might even be our genius. So the question of what is an American value is hard to answer. The Constitutional invocations to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and government by the consent of the governed are where you begin. After that, American values change often. Recall, at our founding, a citizen was defined only as a land-owning, white male. Women had no status; blacks were only 3/5ths a person. Happily, that American value regarding who is a citizen evolved. Slavery was abolished. Suffrage and full citizenship were won for women and people of color. To see every citizen as born free, equal in dignity, with rights and protection in the law is a core value. We have become a more inclusive society, dismantling barriers to opportunity premised on ethnicity, class, race, gender, or age.

Yet, Americans remain a nation divided when it comes to valuing all our citizens. Jim Crow laws have been repealed and Civil Rights law Act adopted. Still, people of color still get the short end of the stick, even to the point, here in Florida, of having their right to vote compromised. Elsewhere, racism remains rampant. Just this month, the State Fair Board in Mississippi ruled that a white supremacist "has a right" to a booth and to circulate a petition in support of Edgar Ray Killen, the suspected 1964 murderer of three civil rights activists.

Sometimes freedom is very much at odds with human decency. Some Americans see some other Americans as not worthy, not equal citizens under the law. This is demonstrated even more by the nasty debate over who can get married. The Irish and Catholics may now apply, but gays or lesbians, . . . forget it.

Perhaps we can get some traction for our question with some comparison and contrast. There are those core values: freedom of expression and association, equality, fairness, and liberty with justice for all. Our nation is sustained by bedrock values such as valuing the individual, the family, and hard work. Americans also value a broad tolerance for differences and are prepared mostly to live and let live. Americans value personal responsibility, and, frankly, - as disasters such as the four hurricanes pounding our state show - a wonderful generosity of spirit and compassion for others.

Yet, there are shadows. I am bothered by the notion that freedom has no rules or the notion your rights need show no respect for mine. I worry about the loss of basic manners. I hate the coarsening of our public talk. I despise the intrusion of boom boxes booming foul, misogynistic, hate-filled language as I walk through a park. And I loathe those who hide behind the 2nd amendment, pandering to our fear of violence, and who encourage even more violence with the escalating distribution of guns.

As a religious teacher, I condemn the narcissistic claim that the individual is utterly sovereign and owes little to others. Not only does this destroy any sense of community, it corrupts the soul. Our humanness flourishes when we show respect for others and common decency. We grow as persons when we care for the common good and those less fortunate. Are these not also American values?

Americans value free enterprise. That's good. Adam Smith thought not only would that make for a prosperous society, but it would also cultivate human dignity. Working to improve your life and that of your family has indeed done both. Yet, something's gone wrong. Enlightened self-interest has lost its light.

In recent years, the argument is made that democracy and unrestrained capitalism are one and the same. Theologian Cornel West calls this "free market fundamentalism." He argues it is anti-democratic, ascribing sacred, magical power to markets so no other values matter. Deregulate, privatize, ship jobs offshore, pollute the rivers and the air, cook the books, and never pay taxes - now isn't that an American value! - anything to improve the bottom line is a mantra for the elites and the politicians they have bought.

This is a perversion of Adam Smith, who believed work had a moral obligation not just to aggrandize the individual, but to strengthen our common bonds. Just the opposite follows from this worship of capitalism. Is it an American value that the richest 1 percent of Americans should control nearly one half of the nation's wealth? Is this the American way? Is this just?

Perhaps the bitterest debate over American values has to do with the notion of justice. Most Americans value fair-dealing. We object to social customs, work rules or laws that benefit one segment of American society at the expense of another. But how do you redress the legacy of the past - most notably that of slavery? What does it mean to have a level playing field of opportunity? We Unitarian Universalists really struggle with this. Affirming and promoting equity, justice, and compassion are among our core values. But how? What is the best way to deal inequity and injustice?

The American way of dealing with the social inequities, generally, has been the tax code. For generations now, Congress has sought to promote social policy by using the tax code to redistribute wealth. We're encouraged to have children; there's a deduction. We're encouraged to buy homes; there's a deduction for that. We're encouraged to give to charity; there's another deduction for that.

And so it goes, one deduction after another and the tax code itself has become a labyrinthian maze of one special interest after another - often at the expense of the common good. That is an American value! It is alive and well today. And not paying taxes if at all possible, this too is an American value. Who cares whether FEMA and other public interest agencies like it are sufficiently funded. "Let people keep their money," President Bush argued in support of his tax cuts - the bulk of which benefitted the already well off.

Redistributing wealth to benefit those with wealth and power is not new. At our founding, the Constitution was biased toward ensuring the well-being of the landed gentry and the mercantile classes. Justice for all is not to be found there. Social commentator Arundhati Roy argues,

"Right now, the coalition of the powerful elites across the world are making it very clear that they are not even interested in justice."

The global corporation has no interest in fairness, social equity, let alone the common good. It's only loyalty is the bottom-line for the owners. Sumner Redstone, the 81 year old CEO of Viacom said recently he was voting for Mr. Bush, not because he thought him the better candidate, but because he believed a Republican administration would be better for Viacom. I don't recall the exact words, but they were something like, "Viacom has been my life; its interests are mine." When the politicians declare, "I share your values," is this what they mean?

When I set out to explore this question of American values, I did not realize what an incredibly rich topic it would be. Certainly, more than a sermon's worth. I know I am omitting many other values worthy of our consideration - notably with regard to foreign policy. So, let me lift up one more before you have a say in the matter during the "Congregation Conversation" period of our service.

The right to privacy is not in the Constitution, yet is an honored American value. Every since Colonel Christopher Gadsden designed the yellow Don't Tread on Me flag for the Sons of Liberty in 1775, Americans have valued the right simply to be left alone. Do a Google-search for American values, you will find site after site arguing that the great evil of our time is government of any sort. Remember Ronald Reagan won an election, saying: "Government is the problem."

Today's privacy advocates reflect a deeply held American value: suspicion of all things governmental - particularly when the bureaucrats want to infringe our liberty in the name of security. Don't tread on me and keep your nose out of my private affairs! Of course, there is a shadow to privacy to the extent it denies our mutual obligations - such as the prevention of child-abuse or other criminal activity, or the underwriting of social security. Privatization is not necessarily a pure good.

I should note in passing that "privacy" is the right that ensures a woman's freedom of reproductive choice. It is an ironic contradiction that many economic libertarians are governmental intrusionists when it comes to moral questions, particularly with regard to human sexuality. The so-called pro-life advocates would use the power of the state to ensure Catholic Christian teaching be the enforced law of the land. Most Americans hate abortion, including Unitarian Universalists, yet support a woman's right to her dignity and self-determination. I among them. Don't tread on me is still a worthy slogan. Don't tread on the rights of my sisters, whom I love.

Here's the American value I treasure most: for all our contradictions and competing interests, we are still a nation of laws. The public square is generally open to all who want to be there. Arguing for your point of view is our central liberty. Persuasion, not coercion, is generally how we change things. In that, we can thank those Enlightenment rationalists, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Jefferson and Madison.

No, we're not a perfect union, under God or otherwise. Yet, those core values of liberty and democracy still guide us toward becoming a more perfect one. Unitarian abolitionist, Theodore Parker gave Mr. Lincoln those famous words: we are a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." As long as we do that, this great land will prosper. And that is an American value! Amen.