Faith and Liberty Discovery Center

04/22/2022

Happy ! 🌎 What used to be a dark alleyway between 4th and 5th streets is now a beautiful courtyard area complete with cafe seating, a performance stage, and a contemplative garden. Next time you're on the mall, take a stroll between Mikveh Israel and the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center to see its transformation!

04/19/2022

On April 19, 1775, the Revolutionary War broke out with the "shot heard 'round the world" at the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Samuel Adams, a well-known Patriot and delegate to the Continental Congress, wrote to his wife Betsy to assure her of God's providence in the events unfolding:

"I am so fully satisfied in the justice of our cause that I can confidently as well as devoutly pray that the righteous Disposer of all things [Job 34:13; Proverbs 16:33] would succeed our enterprises. If he suffers us to be defeated in any or all of them I shall believe it to be for the most wise and gracious purposes and shall heartily acquiesce in the Divine disposal."

Learn more about the intersection between faith and liberty at the FLDC. Plan your visit: https://bit.ly/1ItQFrG

04/18/2022

Modern Americans aren't the only ones who have struggled with their taxes. You've probably heard the phrase, "Taxation without representation is tyranny!"

In 1763, Boston lawyer James Otis, who spoke these famous words, published what he believed to be "[Parliament's] bounds, which by God and nature are fixed...."

This included the principle that, "Taxes are not to be laid on the people, but by their consent in person, or by deputation."

Wonder what James Otis would have to say today!

04/16/2022

Faith and Liberty Discovery Center | FLDC

"Observing the rites of Passover and Easter, we're linked in time to the ancient origins of our values and to the unborn generations who will still celebrate them long after we're gone. As Paul explained in his Epistle to the Ephesians, 'He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. So then you were no longer strangers and aliens, but you were fellow citizens of God's household.'"

Ronald Reagan spoke these words during a 1983 radio address, quoting Ephesians 2:17-19 to encourage unity between people of faith.

Learn more about the role of unity in American history at the FLDC. Visit: https://bit.ly/3dzFBye

Discover the Bible’s influence on America’s founders, leaders, reformers, and historical milestones—right on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall. Journey through time from America's founding to the present, revisiting key moments where faith inspired the American pursuit of liberty towards just...

04/15/2022

in 1865 (Good Friday), President Abraham Lincoln died, after he was hit by an assassin's bullet the day before at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Two days following his death, Vice President Andrew Johnson spoke on the late president and his own hopes for the new administration:

"I must be permitted to say, if I understand the feelings of my own heart, that I have long labored to ameliorate and elevate the condition of the great mass of the American people. Toil and an honest advocacy of the great principles of free government have been my lot. Duties have been mine; consequences are God's. This has been the foundation of my political creed, and I feel that in the end the Government will triumph and that these great principles will be permanently established."

Image: The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, 1865.

04/14/2022

Looking for a part-time job with benefits? The FLDC is several Visitor Experience Assistants to join our growing team!

These frontline staff members will engage with visitors in one of Philadelphia's newest, most immersive and interactive attractions on Independence Mall. Part-time benefits include paid time-off, holiday pay, and commuter allowances.

Apply now: bit.ly/2UoH6Jh

04/13/2022

Happy birthday to our third president, Thomas Jefferson! 🥳

Jefferson, born in 1743, served in many roles. He was a statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, and philosopher, and he took a strong stance in favor of religious liberty.

In honor of his 279th birthday, we reflect on a piece of advice that Jefferson wrote to his 11-year-old daughter, Martha, in 1783:

"If ever you are about to say anything amiss or to do anything wrong, consider beforehand. You will feel something within you which will tell you it is wrong and ought not to be said or done: this is your conscious, and be sure to obey it. Our maker has given us all, this faithful internal monitor, and if you always obey it, you will always be prepared for the end of the world."

04/12/2022

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." It was in 1963 that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote these words on scraps of paper in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama.

His now-famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" makes a biblical case for nonviolent resistance and has since become a hallmark of the civil-rights movement.

At first, King was "initially disappointed" at being called an extremist for his methods of resistance, but, "gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label". He reasoned, "Was not Jesus an extremist for love: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you' [Matthew 5:44]."

King went on to write, "So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?"

Learn more about the life of the Rev. Dr. King at the FLDC: https://bit.ly/1ItQFrG

04/08/2022

"There is so much prosperity to the wicked in this world, and the good, as far as human nature can be called good, are followed by such great and manifold afflictions that some consolatory principle of trust upon divine justice is necessary to the comfort of existence."

- John Quincy Adams, U.S. President and diplomat, 1812

04/06/2022

The FLDC is searching for several Visitor Experience Assistants to join our growing team.

These frontline staff members will engage with visitors in one of Philadelphia's newest, most immersive and interactive attractions on Independence Mall.

Part-time benefits include paid time-off, holiday pay, and commuter allowances.

Apply now: bit.ly/2UoH6Jh

04/05/2022

Booker T. Washington, an American champion of education, was born enslaved but went on to become an influential leader, even serving as advisor to two presidents. Today would have been his 166th birthday.

Washington attended the Hampton Institute in southeastern Virginia, having walked 500 miles to get there from Malden, West Virginia. It was here that he found a love for the scriptures:

"Perhaps the most valuable thing that I got out of my second year [at the Hampton Institute] was an understanding of the use and value of the Bible.... Before this I had never cared a great deal about it, but now I learned to love to read the Bible, not only for the spiritual help which it gives, but on account of it as literature."

Happy Birthday Booker T. Washington! 🥳

04/04/2022

"The language of all the interpretations, the translations, of the Judaic Bible and the Christian Bible, is musical, just wonderful. I read the Bible to myself; I'll take any translation any edition, and read it aloud, just to hear the language, hear the rhythm, and remind myself how beautiful English is...."

These words were spoken by American poet Maya Angelou in 1990. Today would have been her 94th birthday, born in 1928.

04/02/2022

It was in 1681 that King Charles II of England proclaimed the Charter of Pennsylvania. The land was granted to William Penn to pay off a debt that the crown owed his father, who had passed away in 1670.

Contrary to popular belief, the colony was named in honor of Penn's father, not William. The word "sylvania" (Latin for forest) was added at the request of the younger Penn.

Image: The Landing of William Penn by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1932.

03/30/2022

By Night when Others Soundly Slept by Anne… | Poetry Foundation

Anne Bradstreet, considered to be America's first poet, was born in England and settled in the Puritan colony of Massachusetts in 1630. By Night When Others Soundly Slept, first printed in 1867, reflects on Bradstreet's reliance on faith through a sleepless night:

By night when others soundly slept,
And hath at once both ease and Rest,
My waking eyes were open kept,
And so to lie I found it best.

I sought him whom my Soul did Love,
With tears I sought him earnestly [1 Peter 5:7]
He bow'd his ear down from Above,
In vain I did not seek or cry.

Read the full poem here: https://bit.ly/3JTlp8J

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03/26/2022

Have you sat inside the Reflection Dome in the Hope Gallery?

This tranquil space is filled with songs from a variety of artists - from Chance the Rapper to the Monks of the Abbey of Notre Dame - who have been inspired by scripture to hope for a better tomorrow.

Come see it for yourself! bit.ly/1ItQFrG

03/25/2022

Sarah Grimké was a Southern-born activist and abolitionist who came to Philadelphia in the early 1820s to become a Quaker. She wrote a series of 'Letters on the Equality of the Sexes', using scripture to assert the equality of men and women:

"[The creation of Eve] was not, therefore, merely to give man a creature susceptible of loving, obeying, and looking up to him, for all that the animals could do and did do. It was to give him a companion, in all respects his equal; one who was like himself a free agent, gifted with intellect and endowed with immortality; not a partaker merely of his animal gratifications, but able to enter into all his feelings as a moral and responsible being."

You can learn more about the work of Sarah Grimké and what inspired her at the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center. Visit: bit.ly/1ItQFrG