Over the past ten years, the percentage of Americans who identify with a denomination or church has been declining. The reasons for this decline are complex. Some think that it only reflects what most of us have been denying for many years, namely, that we never really lived what we professed to believe.
All our faith traditions call for giving to the poor, caring for the community, and creating a sustainable society. However, it seems that for many, the bottom line becomes whether one’s privilege or wealth is compromised. The void is being filled by politics, the kind of politics that enables us to live as we want.
It seems that even our civil religion of allegiance to our Nation’s founding documents and belief in America is also breaking down. As the poet Y.B. Yeats wrote of a world collapsing in the face of World War I, “the center cannot hold.” We must find our center again if we are to survive as a society acting through civil institutions.
Prayer for the Day
We pray for a community of peace in a time of discord,
We search for ways to increase understanding in our land;
We seek not a return to an imagined past but a future full of promise,
Of who we can be as a people living in a diverse society.
Be with us, O God, so we can become peacemakers
Speaking for the truth and light of your Gospel.
In the name of him who showed us the way to make peace,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Beware of my partisanship, my mistakes of fact and the distortion inevitably caused by my having seen only one corner of events.
George Orwell, British novelist (1903-1950)
The things you refuse to meet today always come back at you later on, usually under circumstances that make the decision twice as difficult as it originally was.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
It is well with those who deal generously and lend,
Those who conduct their affairs with justice, for the righteous will never be moved;
They will be remembered forever. They will not be afraid of evil tidings,
Their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord,
Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid.
Psalm 113: 5-8
It is Patriots' Day in Massachusetts commemorating the ride of Paul Revere which actually occurred on April 18, 1775, to warn the citizens of Lexington that regular British troops were on their way to quash rebellious New Englanders. Click here to read the poem by Henry Wadswoth Longfellow.