This July 4, 2026, our country celebrates its 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The most well-known sentence in this famous document is, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Fifteen years later, those liberties were spelled out in the First Amendment to our new Constitution. These included the Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Peaceable Assembly, and the right to Petition the Government. These freedoms are crucial for maintaining a democratic society.

Freedom goes beyond the cry for independence by our founders 250 years ago. According to psychiatrist William Glasser, freedom is an inherent and important psychological need. Making decisions without excessive external constraint is necessary for our overall wellness, for unalienable rights of life, liberty, and happiness. Satisfying our need for freedom also brings us a sense of empowerment that allows our creativity to flourish. 

Long before this nation was formed, Jesus spoke of freedom in his very first sermon at the synagogue in Nazareth. The gospel writer Luke tells us that Jesus read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah: 

            “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
            because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
            He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
            and recovery of sight to the blind,
            to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
            to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (4:16-19)

This mission and these ideals certainly align with the values set forth by our nation’s founders. From a Jungian depth psychology perspective, “freedom for the captives” and “release from the darkness” could also refer to freedom from what psychologically and emotionally holds us prisoners – our fear, worry, depression, and shame. “Recovery of sight to the blind” could also refer to opening our inner eyes to the beauty and goodness that is still all around us, when it is so easy to only focus on the darkness.

Psychiatrist and WWII concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl, tells a story in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. One evening, when the exhausted prisoners were resting on the floor, eating their meager bowl of watered-down soup, a fellow prisoner rushed in and told the other prisoners to quickly come outside to see the beautiful sunset. Outside, they saw a magnificent display of changing cloud shapes and grey, blue, and red colors in the sky. After a few minutes, one of the prisoners commented, “How beautiful the world could be.”

Frankl wrote, “There were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom… It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions” (Man’s Search for Meaning).

Saint Paul wrote to the fledgling followers of the Way in Galatia, “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (3:28) and “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” (5:1)

I have faith that freedom will truly be made manifest throughout this country and throughout the world. With this faith, I hope with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that:

…we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together. And that will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!”