Shared Citizenship Matters

After the Civil War, the amendment gave citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, black or white, formerly enslaved, and free. For the first time, the law declared that all people deserve equal protection. That idea wasn't just a political correction, it was a moral revolution. It was a promise, not only of legal rights, but of human worth. The 14th Amendment is the quiet river that has run beneath every movement for justice in this country. But equal protection doesn't happen by accident. It requires that we see our neighbors not as problems to manage or rivals to defeat, but as people to be honored. Equal protection isn't a legal loophole. It's a spiritual calling. In a time when it's easy to feel divided, the 14th Amendment offers a quiet hope that our shared citizenship matters and that we are still capable of building a society where everyone counts. To love our neighbors as ourselves isn't an idea we invented, but the 14th Amendment helps us remember it. This is Dr. Scott Morris for Church Health.