We'll be back with more episodes from our season on climate in the coming weeks. Until then, we're returning to our archive for an episode we recorded back in 2021 that feels especially relevant this week.

Each year, Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks, parades, and barbecues. Celebrating July Fourth is part of what some scholars identify as America’s civil religion. And like any religion, civil religion is built in part upon foundational myths and symbols that Americans, regardless of their religious faith, believe in and rally behind.

Those symbols include documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. There are many Americans who view these two documents as sacred texts, both in a figurative and literal sense.

We're joined by our colleague Lisa Woolfork, who teaches a version of the Declaration of Independence that tackles the tension between the document as sacred text, and the reality of the government that grew out of it.