{"id":207,"date":"2026-05-04T11:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=207"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:09:07","slug":"exodus-and-the-american-idea-of-freedom-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2026\/05\/04\/exodus-and-the-american-idea-of-freedom-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Exodus and the American Idea of Freedom\u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ancientlevant.com\/blogs\/the-books-of-the-old-testament\/the-book-of-exodus-summary-themes-and-lessons\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Book of Exodus<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0tells the story of\u00a0how God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian servitude and established His covenant with them on Mount Sinai. The Exodus story was central to the founding of the United States. The Puritan settlers viewed their departure from England as a flight from oppression and a journey to a promised land. During\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/stevenmintz.substack.com\/p\/how-exodus-haunts-the-modern-conscience\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">the American Revolution<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, supporters of the revolution viewed themselves as modern Israelites rising against British tyranny. Benjamin Franklin\u00a0proposed including a picture of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea for the Great Seal of the US.\u00a0More than a century later,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lifespringschristianchurch.org\/from-slavery-to-freedom-the-exodus-story-for-today\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Martin Luther King Jr.<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0compared the struggle of African Americans for political and economic freedom with the story of the Exodus, and demanded that America fulfill its founding covenant.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stevenmintz.substack.com\/p\/how-exodus-haunts-the-modern-conscience\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Steven\u00a0Mintz<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0argues that the story of the Exodus has served as a master narrative for the nation of America from the Puritans to the present. Similarly,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/patricktreardon.com\/book-review-the-book-of-exodus-a-biography-by-joel-s-baden\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Joel Baden<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0shows how the text has been endlessly reinterpreted. Both defenders and opponents of slavery invoked Exodus during the American Civil War. Today, immigration reformers and nativists, socialists and libertarians alike, can cast themselves as Israel and their opponents as Pharaoh.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Political theorist\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Exodus-Revolution-Michael-Walzer\/dp\/0465021638\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Michael\u00a0Walzer<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0argues that revolution\u00a0follows\u00a0a narrative of oppression, liberation, a difficult period of transition in the wilderness, and life under law rather than tyranny, and that\u00a0this narrative shaped movements from the English Civil War through abolition and the Civil Rights Movement. He argues that liberation is only the beginning, that freedom requires time, discipline, and\u00a0law, and that political outcomes will always be imperfect.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Theologian\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reinhold_Niebuhr\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Reinhold Niebuhr<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0warned that nations often do the greatest harm when they believe they are morally superior.\u00a0Drawing on the Exodus story, he argued that,\u00a0like ancient Israel, the United States proclaimed ideals of freedom while also committing serious injustices. His central lesson was that pride blinds societies to their own wrongdoing, so justice must always be pursued with humility.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:300}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:300}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Hannah Arendt\u00a0personally had an Exodus-like experience.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">After spending nearly seventeen years as a stateless refugee from Nazi Germany, she argued that rights depend on political membership. When people are cast outside any political community, she warned, they lose\u00a0rights such as\u00a0legal personhood,\u00a0the right to work and travel,\u00a0and\u00a0the right to\u00a0equality before the law.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:300}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:300}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Exodus endures because it captures not only the hope of freedom, but the fragile conditions required to sustain it.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:300}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Book of Exodus\u00a0tells the story of\u00a0how God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian servitude and established His covenant with them on Mount Sinai. The Exodus story was central to the founding of the United States. The Puritan settlers viewed their departure from England as a flight from oppression and a journey to a promised land. During\u00a0the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511],"tags":[1784,545,1783,736,1787,1788,1789,1785,419,1786],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-american-history","tag-civil-rights","tag-exodus","tag-freedom","tag-hannah-arendt","tag-michael-walzer","tag-national-identity","tag-political-philosophy","tag-reinhold-niebuhr","tag-revolution"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Exodus and the American Idea of Freedom\u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2026\/05\/04\/exodus-and-the-american-idea-of-freedom-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exodus and the American Idea of Freedom\u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The\u00a0Book of Exodus\u00a0tells the story of\u00a0how God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian servitude and established His covenant with them on Mount Sinai. 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