The posh Massachusetts island of Nantucket, long frequented by former Secretary of State John Kerry and former President Joe Biden, announced that it’s CANCELING at decades-long Fourth of July tradition.
The reason?
One community leader says it’s time to understand “our own whiteness.”
A church on the island announced late last week that it is forgoing the annual Fourth of July reading of America’s founding documents.
“Our cancelling the 4th of July celebration this year reflects … an on-going process within the congregation to better understand our own whiteness,” wrote Nantucket Unitarian Universalists (NUU) and the Rev. Erin Splaine of the Second Congregational Meeting House Society in a letter published by the Nantucket Current last Thursday.
The historic Nantucket Unitarian Meeting House has hosted a public reading of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in downtown Nantucket each Fourth of July holiday for the past 25 years.
Wtf. Erin Splaine, the "Reverend" of the woke Unitarian Universalist Church in Nantucket, just canceled July 4th celebrations because White people are "privileged" and honoring American history "perpetuates the harm, injustice, and anti-democratic process."
She then forbids… pic.twitter.com/uv9SDih7gn
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 29, 2026
Splaine rationalized the shocking move based on the revision of the Supreme Court’s “gutting” of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and “an on-going process within the congregation to better understand our own whiteness,” according to a now-published letter.
Splaine, a self-proclaimed “liberal and free faith” leaders claimed that white people know the rights laid out in the America’s foundational texts “have, for centuries, been tragically, often violently, and unequally applied” against non-white citizens.
“A celebration without context and the centering of the fullness of our American Story only perpetuates the harm, injustice, and anti-democratic process,” the letter said.
Splaine, a lesbian preacher, said that she will be at the church on Independence Day morning “should anyone want to talk or engage further.”
According to the New York Post, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Nantucket will fill the void and host its own reading of the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
“Those documents are aspirational. We may not be there yet, but we felt it was important to gather together and try to live up to the promises our country has made,” St. Paul’s Rev. Max Wolf told the Nantucket Current.
However, locals say St. Paul’s intervention did little to satisfy Splaine’s unpatriotic move.
Charlie Chasin, a Nantucket resident, bashed the Unitarian church’s lame-duck excuses in a letter to the editor of the Nantucket Current.
“For all its imperfections, we’re all blessed to be living in the United States and I think it’s a shame to lose sight of that,” Chasin wrote.
Amy Riley, another islander, highlighted the church’s cowardice as it shied away from a pertinent teaching opportunity.
“Canceling the reading risks becoming an empty gesture. It may signal virtue, but it does not teach history. It does not bring people into deeper conversation. It does not honor the abolitionists, reformers, veterans, civil rights leaders, immigrants, teachers, parents, and ordinary citizens who spent the last 250 years trying to make this country more just,” Riley wrote in another letter to the editor.
“The Declaration of Independence should not be treated as a fragile symbol that can only be celebrated without criticism. It is strong enough to be questioned. It is important enough to be taught. And on Nantucket, of all places, it deserves to be read aloud,” she added.
Kerry had deep ties to Nantucket—the couple was married there in 1995, and he spent decades vacationing, sailing, and windsurfing on the island.
Biden and his family are also frequent visitors to the island, and has been spotted frequenting the church behind the move.