This year we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, that document that not only set us apart from every other nation in the world at that time, but which also served as a springboard for the establishment of a new way to view the nature of government and its relationship with its citizenry.
This week The Atlantic Daily printed a conversation between David Frum and Fareed Zakaria, both immigrants who became Americans because of our historical commitment to important values. They, along with others note the decay in our understanding of who we once claimed to be.
Although they touched on the new American distrust in elites, the people who go to great universities, etc., and the corruption that we see around us, enriching business at the expense of us all, they did not discuss our financial inequities which are growing every day. Nor did they touch on what historian Richard Hofstadter called the tradition of anti-intellectualism in American life, which continues, largely due to a narrow view of Christian faith and belief. As Christians, we must address these very serious issues if we want to continue to have an America that is the city on the hill.
Prayer for the Day
We know there are no simple answers to our questions, O God,
But we want a certainty that we know does not exist;
We know that so much around us seems to be floundering, O Lord,
But caught in the middle of the sea, we cannot find a lifeboat.
Open us, O Holy One, to the fears and concerns of our neighbors,
Some of which we may not have but shape our society.
In the name of the One who encourages us to question,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
It sounds corny and cliché, but I still believe in America; I still have hope in America. But it has changed, not so much that it makes me lose faith in the country itself…..What we have more than any country in the world is this power to bring people in, attract them, and then assimilate them.
Fareed Zakaria, born in India
I’m hearing the gathering of the anti-American coalition of the second half of the 21st century, and it just fills me with foreboding, that as America becomes less attractive, it also becomes more vulnerable.
David Frum, born in Canada, former speechwriter for George W. Bush
The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord, searching every inmost part
Proverbs 20: 27