(An Excerpt)
...We will be electing a president in November who will lead us into a new millennium, the 21st century, and I think that is going to be an awesome task because it is time to heal and reform the soul of America; or, to put it more accurately, in the language of Paul, to allow God to change how we think and how we are to act in a democratic nation; for there is much that needs healing and much that needs transforming.
I would like to share with you, over the next two or three sermons, a few thoughts that have come to me as I reflect on this healing and transformation, and the trueing of America's soul.
I will begin by encouraging each and every one of us to become more personally involved in our nation's future and stop complaining about the past....Let's not become a nation of victims. As the opening prayer of my sermon challenges us: "Let's do something with our lives."
After four years in an excellent university, a recent Harvard graduate said in his graduation speech: "Among my classmates there is one idea, one sentiment, which we have all acquired at some point in our Harvard career, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is (moral) confusion. We were told that it is heresy to hold on to any value system; fantasy to believe in oral arguments; slavery to submit to any authority but our own. The freedom we received (here) is to devote ourselves to any values we please, on the mere condition that we do not believe them to be true."
I must admit to being shocked when I read these words in Robert Bellah's book, The Good Society, because this speech reveals a terrible truth: the erosion of moral values in our American society and the loss of a moral compass to guide our lives.
This is the second chapter of The Trueing of America's Soul, a short series about our common life together in America as we prepare for elections this fall and a new millennium in three short years. Today I want to reflect on morality in America. What are some of the problems and how can we begin the process of realigning our moral compass?
We will follow the words of our young Harvard graduate and begin with a look at our schools and educational system.
Now, I am not a professional educator and confess to very little knowledge about the complexities of our modern system of teaching. But I do agree with the young Harvard graduate that we are not teaching strong moral values or demanding that our students develop virtuous character traits. Our moral compass is adrift and pointless, for there is no "true north" to home in on. We have expelled God and Godly authority from school. It is not just the right or wrong of saying a prayer before classes. What really happened, as I see it, is that we made it unconstitutional to ask God for His help or presence in our schools and, tragically, it looks like He honored our request.
Once Godly authority was expelled from our educational system, life in school radically changed. For example, in 1940 an educational research group in Texas listed the most grievous offenses in public schools. They were:
talking in class
chewing gum
making noises
running in hallways
wearing improper clothes
not putting trash in trash baskets
putting used bubble gum under desks
Last year our local newspaper, The Desert Sun, polled the Palm Desert Middle School for their most grievous offenses. They are:
drugs and alcohol abuse
AIDS
school stress
sexual harassment and abuse
depression
fighting at home
stealing
I am sure this year they would add--gangs.
This is not an issue of not saying a prayer at the start of school. It is a wholesale choice to leave God and the moral rules of God's creation out of our schools (and, if the truth be known, out of our lives). Historically, we live in a democracy in which God and His authority were always meant to be a part and parcel of life, even within the constitutional separation of church and state.
But Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation" between church and state has become so enshrined in the American mind that the phrase is now taken out of context. We have forgotten that, along with the words of the First Amendment, Jefferson added these words: "This wall is one directional. It keeps the government from running the church, but it was not meant to keep God out of government." To state it simply, separation of church and state originated in an effort to protect religion from the state, not the state from religion. Indeed, this amendment is supposed to ensure that religious principles will never be separated from the government. But over the past thirty to forty years, we have been so focused on the letter of the First Amendment that we have lost the spirit of it.
When we interview parents and ask why they want to place their children in our new St. Margaret's Episcopal Day School, they respond with two answers: first, they want a quality academic education and, second, they want that education to be embedded in religious principles and moral values. They want their children to lead and live good lives, and I think that is probably true for the vast majority of parents in this nation.
What surprises and delights me is that this is true, no matter what their religion. We now have children from Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist backgrounds--learning together in a religious environment which supports and honors all four. Indeed, classes will celebrate the various religious holidays and respect the different religious practices of each family.
When I asked one parent why he placed his child in our Christian school, he said: "First, because we trust you to honor his faith; and secondly, there is one God under whom and with whom we must all learn to live. The basic rules are the same, Brad."
And that statement is the key--the answer to the moral confusion and the world of related values of our Harvard graduate student: (1) there exists an ultimate value system; (2) we can argue morals from one central authority; and (3) we do not become slaves to that authority, but freed to live healthy, happy and, indeed, holy lives.
That central authority is, of course, God--the God who created each and every one of us and created the world we live in as a moral universe with some very clear rules and guidelines to live by. This is true, no matter which religion we accept, Christianity, Judaism, Islam or the many Eastern ways of faith. All have a God-given way of life which leads to life.
How we go about reinviting God, religion and some absolute moral values back into our educational system will be a difficult and controversial task. It will require an enormous amount of dialogue and struggle, but I think it can and must be done, all the while recognizing and accepting the diversity within our communities and plurality of beliefs, as we have at St. Margaret's church school.
Now, while I cannot begin to solve this issue today, I will push you a bit and ask: "What can we do as individuals, families and communities right now?" Let's reintroduce personal religious piety and God talk back into our public lives. Religion in America has drifted into what has been called "privatized religion." For some reason, we have agreed not to talk in public about our most basic values and assumptions of life, God and Faith. We are embarrassed to share or practice our religion in public.
Yale professor Stephen Carter explores this phenomenon in his book, The Culture of Disbelief, with his thesis that our culture now rejects religion as a valid source of public discourse, and it is not to be taken seriously. Nowadays, he says, God is a hobby and practicing our religion is acceptable only if it remains a private and personal enterprise.
This is something you can change. My challenge to you is to take your religion seriously and take your religion public. God talk and God practice may risk ridicule and embarrassment, but it is time for us to take that chance. Jesus made it very clear to His disciples--that you are the light of the world:
People do not light a lamp and put it under a bushel. No. They light it and place it on a stand to give light to all their house. Let that light so shine before all that they will see your goodness and give glory to God.
You, each and every one of you here, are meant to be God's light in this often dark and gloomy world. So go out today with your lamp uncovered, with renewed faith, and be a light to your family, in your work place, on the golf course and in this community. Talk about God with your family and friends. Pray and read the Bible together at home. When it is appropriate, witness to your faith in God and your dependence on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and learn to keep that lamp lighted. Establish some form of disciplined personal piety which will strengthen your resolve as well as your faith. If we all did this, there would be no need to reintroduce God and religion into our educational system--the children would bring Him in themselves!
Now, it is time to close Part II of The Trueing of America's Soul. I'll close with a quote from a French philosopher, Alexis de Toqueville, who came to America in the early 19th century to sort out why democracy was working so well here. He wanted to find out what America could teach his European nations about freedom (Democracy in America, 1840). "In the end," he wrote, "the state of the Union comes down to the character of its people."
Amen.
(An Excerpt)
...Remember that when you err and stray from the right path, stop and return to your center. We all make mistakes, it's what you do with them that counts. It has been my experience that when you do get caught or trapped by some lie or dishonesty, it is not the end, but a golden opportunity to get back in line...I'll close with this lovely Chinese proverb which sums up much of what I've said: "If there is light in the soul there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation there will be peace in the world." Amen.
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