This Week's Quotation:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
—Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Liberty, Equality … and Time
Rev. Berry Behr, Interfaith Minister
As people of faith and conscience, we know what is right long before the world seems ready to live it. Enlightened thought and the moral clarity of leadership often arrive generations before lived reality fully catches up. History shows us a clear gap between the knowing and the doing.
In the United States, the Constitution was ratified in 1788, carrying within it the ideals of liberty and equality—and yet it took almost eighty years before slavery was legally abolished. It was even longer before those freedoms began to be meaningfully experienced. The gulf between principle and practice is the place where humanity does its hardest work.
This is true here in South Africa as well. The Huguenots arrived at the Cape between 1688 and 1702, seeking refuge from religious persecution in France. Here they embraced their own religious freedom. Yet, while the Huguenots could worship in peace, Muslims, Catholics, Lutherans, and others continued for many decades to be denied the same freedom. One group’s liberation did not automatically usher in liberation for all.
History shows this again and again: Freedom rarely arrives evenly.
Justice rarely unfolds all at once. The tide of change moves slowly and asymmetrically, carving its way through resistance, fear, and old structures of power.
History keeps reminding us that freedom and justice move in long arcs, not straight lines. One community may experience liberation while another continues to struggle—in the very same space. The tide of change is real, but it moves at different speeds across the shoreline of human experience. And leadership—both within and around us—often speaks truth before the world is ready to live it.
From an interfaith perspective, the lesson is clear: every tradition carries a longing for freedom, dignity, and belonging. Different stories, same yearning. While one group is free and another is not, the work remains unfinished. Sometimes the struggle of our neighbor is in plain sight, but we don’t see it—until we see it.
The tides of change may take time, but they do turn. Our task is to stay steady, to trust the deeper movement beneath the ocean’s turbulent surface, and to keep widening freedom until it includes us all.
About Open Windows
We, the authors of this blog, dedicate it to the transparent exploration of the world's sacred scripture and enlightened spiritual thought. We believe that the original inspiration of all faiths comes from a common source, named and revered in a myriad of ways. With that understanding, the innumerable symbols, beliefs, and practices of faith cease to divide. They become open windows to a common reality that inspires and unifies us. We find deeper insight and nourishment in our own faith and from the expression of faith from others.
We hope these weekly quotations and meditations speak to your heart and soul.
Yes, I am with you, Rev. Behr, in holding steady and honoring all those who long for freedom and justice within the cycles taken in each case. We look up no matter what the cries to “look out!” WITH YOU! FOR YOU! THANK YOU! Tom C.
How true, Berry, that such noble ideals as “freedom, dignity, and belonging,” though they may be written about and spoken of, take a long time to actually be practiced by human beings. The same is true of the entire spiritual awakening process that you and I seek to bring to humanity. I guess patience is called for, but given the existential crisis on earth right now with global warming and other threats, certainly an urgency is called for.