Guest Voices: I'm a Born Again American - On Faith at washingtonpost.com

I'm a Born Again American

More than 4 million people have viewed the music video, "I'm a Born Again American," composed by the Grammy Award winning actor and composer, Keith Carradine.

It was a year ago New Year's Eve when I ran into Keith, strumming his guitar and singing some original songs for a few of us at the tail end of a New Year's Eve party. We spoke in between his strumming and singing, and I told him about a talk I was due to give in Washington and that I would be using the expression, "I'm a Born Again American." Keith was fascinated with the title. He immediately thought that it would make a good song, especially when I told him some of the stories in my own life that had prompted the rebirth of my appreciation, indeed reverence, for our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

My first such experience occurred in my senior year of high school. The American Legion announced it was conducting the first year of its historic American Legion Oratorical Contest, a title that might suggest how old I am. (Let me help you, 86). Each contestant was to speak for some 8 to 10 minutes about some aspect of the Constitution. The title of my speech was "The Constitution and Me." It represented a Jewish kid who had developed a fierce revulsion for the rantings of Father Charles Coughlin, an anti-Semitic Catholic prelate who enjoyed a vast radio audience at the time. I was awed by this vulgarian's right under our Constitution to speak his mind, as reprehensible as it was to me and my right to contest him as fiercely and outspokenly as I might.

Just a few years later, with the outbreak of World War II, I enlisted in the United States Air Force and flew 52 missions over Germany, never for a day losing sight of all we were fighting for, among them, the guarantees of equal justice and equal opportunity under the law as laid out in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Many years later, with the advent of fundamentalist ministries proliferating across the television spectrum, mixing politics and religion, I believed those constitutional guarantees to be under attack. Americans were not to be judged good Christians or bad Christians depending on their political points of view, as these preachers would suggest. I was moved to take action one morning when I heard one such preacher ask his television audience to pray for the "removal" of a Supreme Court Justice.

The sixty-second television spot that I am happy to share with you resulted, and it spawned People For the American Way, which for the last 27 years has been the bulwark against the influence of any one religion on the political life of our country.

In 2001, my wife and I purchased an original copy of America's birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, printed the night of July 4, 1776, and sent by horseback around to the thirteen colonies, to be read aloud in the town squares. The document has been travelling for the most part ever since we purchased it, to town halls and public libraries, to state houses, colleges and public schools.That effort morphed over the years into Declare Yourself, a nonpartisan effort to get young people to register and vote.

With the help of sports and entertainment celebrities and dozens of Internet partnerships, we have registered more than 4 million new voters online. The song, "I'm a Born Again American" by Keith Carradine is an adjunct and extension of Declare Yourself. As I write this, 4.3 million people have viewed the music video on our website BornAgainAmerican.org.

Known as the creator of Archie Bunker and All in the Family, Lear is a longtime television and movie producer. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1999. He is the founder of People for the American Way.

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Mr. Lear,

Although I love our country dearly and believe with all my heart there are only three things to die for: God, Country and Family – I am saddened by the attempts to manipulate the constitution by so many “patriots” in public office and public service. Which of course includes many religious organizations.

On the other hand, I am joyous and truly celebrate the resilience of our Constitution. We still enjoy freedom that has been assaulted since the Constitution was first signed.

So, yes I celebrate being an American. But, I stop short of being a born again American. I guess this makes me born American who struggles with the issues of discrimination, the abuse of the marginalized, and the plight of the working poor to mention just a few of my deep concerns.

That being stated, I am thankful to be in this great country and to have people write freely to praise our heritage and possibilities.

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