Forgetting Our History


 

 

The deep divisions that have haunted American society over the past two decades continue to haunt us. Some are asking how to create a bridge between the various parts of our Nation; others are asking whether it is possible to create that bridge. Although how people saw the economy played a role in the election, the issues go far beyond it.

 

If we look at the creation of right wing nationalism that has the audacity to put the word Christian in front of it, what we see is fear of change from an idealized past that never existed. In the idealized past groups of people were not only marginalized, they were excluded from the vision of what America should be.

 

Forgetting our history leads to a focus only on the here and now with no real thought to the future beyond how much money we can make.  Our Founders used the word posterity to describe the dream of a greater future, one that encompasses all, not just the wealthy.  Our society must benefit all, or it will benefit none.

 

Prayer for the Day

 

Called to embrace all as our brothers and sisters,

    We recoil from those who would exclude us;

Warned by our past history of division and greed,

    We look fearfully at imagined possibilities.

Ground us, O God, so we continue to work for justice,

    Moving us beyond even our own divisions.

In the name of the One who strengthens us,

    Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

 

Thoughts for the Day

 

A great deal of the future of liberal democracy depends on whether its institutions… can be made to bear the weight of religious visions and cultural aspirations …

            Robin W. Lovin, ethicist, Southern Methodist University

 

Radically inclusive liberalism entered the world on the tongue of Jesus of Nazareth … it will only survive in a secular form if it is nourished by a faithful remnant of Christian congregations.

            Alan Bean, writing in Baptist News Global

 

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out,

   Who spread out the earth and what comes from it,

Who gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk upon it:

   I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, taking you by the hand, kept you;

I have given you as a covenant, a light to the nations,

   To open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon

From the prison those who sit in darkness.

            Isaiah 42: 6-7