Faith and Community
In the rich, 304-year tapestry of esteemed members of the First Congregational Church of New Milford, one person towers over all: Roger Sherman. While his portrait hangs in the Yale Art Gallery, and his impressive biography is featured in books on the Founding Fathers, his spirit lives on in our community.
Following the death of his father in 1741, when Roger was 19, his mother moved the family from Newton, Massachusetts to New Milford, living there until 1761 when he moved his family to New Haven. He was a cobbler, merchant, surveyor, lawyer, justice of the peace, and issued an annual almanac.
The family was devout in the Christian faith. Sherman became a Deacon of the Congregational Church. He also served as the Treasurer of the building committee for a new meeting house on the green. He was very intentional about funding the education of his two younger brothers, both of whom became pastors in Connecticut.
While history books never fail to highlight the significant fact that Sherman signed all four founding documents of our new republic: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Association, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution as well as authoring the Great Compromise establishing a two-part legislature, we cherish his local church and community dedication and leadership.
From family stories, he knew about the worse smallpox epidemic in Boston in 1721, the year he was born. It was this devastating outbreak that motivated Puritan minister Cotton Mather and Harvard doctor Zabdiel Boylston to variolate hundreds in the initial experiment of inoculation in North America.
Sherman was one of a small circle who succeeded in introducing inoculation to the New Milford community. The disease was greatly feared and considered almost inevitable.
Many leading religious voices of the time opposed inoculation, arguing that smallpox, measles and other epidemics afflicted people for a divine reason. To inoculate was to oppose God's will.
Racism kicked in, too. Opposition came from those who pointed to the roots of inoculation being in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and was, therefore, a heathen practice.
As a person of faith, Sherman embraced science and advocated for community health. His faith prevented him from being captive to this bigotry dominating some quarters of church thinking at the time.
Today, our congregation gives public health for all persons the highest priority. Wearing masks, social distancing, and other Covid-19 protocols are being strictly followed. Faith and health walk hand in hand.
Saving lives and celebrating life run deeply in most world religions. We turn frequently to what Christians call the two great commandments. Jesus paraphrases the Torah: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Loving your neighbor during a pandemic is a challenge new to most of us. Taking all precautions to protect our family members motivates us to be diligent and alert. Reaching out to the community at large and sustaining our support calls for courage, vision and hope.
We need bridges! Roger Sherman was an early New Milford citizen when the simple wooden bridge washed out more than once during storms. He joined others to have a more substantial bridge built over the Housatonic River. Many in our faith community desire to build bridges over our growing gaps in politics, values, views of science, and any number of social justice issues.
Sherman skillfully broke the deadlock and bridged the critical concerns of the large states and small states during the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. His concept of a legislative structure providing each state with equal representation in a Senate and representation based on population in a House of Representatives prevailed. It is known as the Great Compromise or the Connecticut Compromise or the Sherman Compromise.
His experience as a Deacon gave him a fundamental faith in the goodness of all people, enabling him to hear and comprehend opposing viewpoints. I greatly admire this gift of character and have tried to practice it throughout my ministry. I’ve yet to have a theologically homogeneous congregation. Diversity of thought reigns! This is healthy but does require quiet bridge building in order to prevent fracturing.
Sherman did not own slaves. He did work with the slave-holding states during his political career and this leaves him open to charges of complicity. This is a worthy discussion just beginning to take shape. Faith communities have opportunities to join with academic communities in re-examining colonial history through the lens of racism.