Benjamin Franklin famously said that we have a Republic, if we can keep it. Our founders knew that our Constitution and our country could not work unless the American people had a strong and clear religious faith, strong family life, and a strong commitment to public service.
Sadly, at this point in our history we have fallen from these ideals. Our country is now engaged in a social, moral, cultural and political civil war. We have fallen dangerously below ordinary political differences into a swampland of irrational, vicious separations that are eroding our Constitution and the Rule of Law. In fact, our present fall is not just in what we are doing, which is our moral life, but it goes all the way to who we are, which shows us our very souls, our very meaning of who we are as humans and as Christians, i.e., it goes to our spirituality.
The present crisis calls for the deepest possible reawakening of our true meaning as humans and as People of God. In the process, we need to clarify and deepen our understanding and expression of our faith. What we do follows from who we are. Therefore, our moral conduct follows from our spirituality, which shows us that we are images and expressions of Jesus, the Eternal Christ, the presence of Divinity on earth, who is living and acting in today's world in and through us.
Our faith is vital to our politics because it shows us the wholeness and integrity of who we are. It also shows how to see and understand the very meaning of our government and country. In the heart and mind of Christ we do not simply accept all the particulars of any political party. We choose political leaders and programs that can most realistically work for our whole society, a society that is marked by love for all without exception, with emphasis on the poor, sick, vulnerable and outcast.
Today, our faith is telling us that we have to make vital, life and death choices. One very important example arises from the fact that we are divided between the challenge of abortion and the challenge of a broken Constitution rising from a continuing attack on the Rule of Law. Looking at the whole picture, it seems clear that we have to face the challenge of our broken Constitution and the Rule of Law. If they fall, America falls. No empire is guaranteed to last forever. We don't know what amount of chaos will follow if America falls but in the chaos abortion will be pushed into the background as we struggle to rebuild our broken country.
Both challenges are spiritual because, as I said above, both show us who we are as Americans and as Christians. These are no ordinary times. I suggest that the danger to our country is so immediate and so great that we are being called to put our particular concerns aside, no matter how vital they are, and to focus on the life and death concern to make our beloved country whole again.
God bless America.
Sadly, at this point in our history we have fallen from these ideals. Our country is now engaged in a social, moral, cultural and political civil war. We have fallen dangerously below ordinary political differences into a swampland of irrational, vicious separations that are eroding our Constitution and the Rule of Law. In fact, our present fall is not just in what we are doing, which is our moral life, but it goes all the way to who we are, which shows us our very souls, our very meaning of who we are as humans and as Christians, i.e., it goes to our spirituality.
The present crisis calls for the deepest possible reawakening of our true meaning as humans and as People of God. In the process, we need to clarify and deepen our understanding and expression of our faith. What we do follows from who we are. Therefore, our moral conduct follows from our spirituality, which shows us that we are images and expressions of Jesus, the Eternal Christ, the presence of Divinity on earth, who is living and acting in today's world in and through us.
Our faith is vital to our politics because it shows us the wholeness and integrity of who we are. It also shows how to see and understand the very meaning of our government and country. In the heart and mind of Christ we do not simply accept all the particulars of any political party. We choose political leaders and programs that can most realistically work for our whole society, a society that is marked by love for all without exception, with emphasis on the poor, sick, vulnerable and outcast.
Today, our faith is telling us that we have to make vital, life and death choices. One very important example arises from the fact that we are divided between the challenge of abortion and the challenge of a broken Constitution rising from a continuing attack on the Rule of Law. Looking at the whole picture, it seems clear that we have to face the challenge of our broken Constitution and the Rule of Law. If they fall, America falls. No empire is guaranteed to last forever. We don't know what amount of chaos will follow if America falls but in the chaos abortion will be pushed into the background as we struggle to rebuild our broken country.
Both challenges are spiritual because, as I said above, both show us who we are as Americans and as Christians. These are no ordinary times. I suggest that the danger to our country is so immediate and so great that we are being called to put our particular concerns aside, no matter how vital they are, and to focus on the life and death concern to make our beloved country whole again.
God bless America.
