August 29

Freeborn John Lilburne, Han Yong-Un, and Henry Bergh

Author

David Barnhart
August 29, 2025

Detail from a photo I’ve shared before, a mural in Boston titled “A Wall of Respect for Animals.” 2025, own photo.

Today marks the death, in 1657, of “Freeborn John” Lilburne, an early activist in England for the rights of the people over against kings and the nobility. Many of his writings became the basis for the Bill of Rights in the United States. He was thrown in prison and physically tortured multiple times and even exiled for asserting that every human being has such “freeborn” rights. Though he served in the military and advocated armed resistance, he eventually converted to Quakerism and nonviolence. 

Today is the birthday, in 1879, of Han Yong-Un, a Korean Buddhist monk who argued both for Korean independence and for equality among people.

Today is also the birthday, in 1813, of Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC). His activism was motivated by a desire to end suffering, but detractors called him “The Great Meddler.” It is difficult for modern people to imagine the level of animal and childhood neglect and abuse that were normalized before Henry Bergh helped society to see its cruelty.   

Reflection: 

John Lilburne had a theology of radical egalitarianism, and wrote that this equality was established when God made Adam and Eve: 

…[who[ were by nature equal and alike in power, dignity, authority, and majesty, none of them having any authority, dominion, or magisterial power, one over another.”

Han Yong-Un wrote in The Buddhism I Believe In: 

“Then, what is the practical activity in Buddhism? It is the same universal love and mutual help. With or without consciousness, everything and everybody is to be loved and to help each other. It is not limited to humans only - it is applied to all beings. In today's world, with imperialism or nationalism having acquired the predominant real strength, such words as universal love or mutual help sound very detached form the reality, but the truth is the truth. And because it is the truth, it will eventually become the reality”

Henry Bergh wrote: 

Almighty God entertains no discriminating partiality for any of His creatures but His affection is extended to all alike: The insect in the plant, the moth which spends its brief hours of existence in hovering about the candle’s flame, nay, the life which inhabits a drop of water, is as much an object of his special Providence as the mightiest monarch on his throne.

Prayer: God, Who shows no partiality to great or small, help us to extend your universal love to both the human and the more-than-human world. Amen.