Giving Credit Where It's Due
I came down hard on old Babs Bush the other day, and I still think she deserved it, but her son, our President, the man I regularly pray for (if not vote for), reminded me today that there is always an opportunity to learn a lesson and get something right. What did the president do? He called for a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for September 16th. That is a remarkable action given the secularism of this age, and the disdain for prayer and religion shown by most of the leaders and citizens of other industrialized countries. It is also the action of a man who recognizes the need for humility and dependence upon God in dire circumstances. I may not always agree with the president's policies, but I refuse to be cynical about his faith. I believe that he believes, and that opens a window of opportunity for something good to happen. There is hope for a nation which still calls itself to prayer. May it be a time of reflection, repentance, and re-commitment to caring for the least among us and the world around us.
My friend over at Random Responses also deserves credit for reminding us of the larger picture sin plays in the catastrophes which plague our world. The sins of environmental neglect, racism, classism, and consumerism all find their root and sustenance in the greater fallenness of the sin nature of humanity. "For we know that the whole creation groans and labors" (Romans 8:12). We are all responsible for the sins of the world, just as we are all responsible for the death of Christ.
My friend over at Hemmeke Blog also deserves credit for not writing me off as a left-wing kook, and sharing our exchange of comments over my last post with his readers. It's nice to have discourse that doesn't devolve into nasty rhetoric. My Republican friends keep me honest politically, and I hope to return the favor. In my first post on this site, I reserved the right to foam at the mouth on occasion, which I did the other day, so I'll try and calm down now. Thanks Steve!
Let's be in prayer for one another, for those devastated by Katrina, our nation, our president, and especially for Stacey, who is still shouting at herself to do something over at First Year Minister. ;)
A picture from last Sunday's worship from St Mark's Episcopal in Gulfport.
posted by Scribe at 4:17 PM
4 Comments:
That was one of the funniest blog credits I've ever received, I think. Thanks for the prayers. Apparently they're needed, since every time I try to donate online, something weird happens so that I can't. So now my shout is being directed not so much at myself as at PayPal, my bank, and other various online donation systems.
I find that electronic things hate me, so I just donate to whomever my deacons say to with cash. It reduces my aggravation level...which is high enough living in NJ.
Anger and frothing at the mouth is required over what has happened - or the lack of what has happened - in the Gulf states. Who takes responsibility for the poverty and neglect that has resulted in the rape and murder of children and avoidable deaths? I haven't heard of anyone in the Bush Admin taking responsibility for the factors which provided the environment for that. And the prayer is all very well if everything is happening. Will there be repentance or is that too much to ask? Will it be like the people that Jesus spoke of who say sweetly "Go in peace be warmed and filled" and do not a darn thing. We would do well to remember that Jesus said "If you do it to the least of these my little ones you do it to me"...and what was done to the little ones? Do people stop to think that if Jesus is taken at His word this was done to him...that He felt the rape, the strangulation, the murder, the dying. As someone once said to me there are times when the words "Let's pray..."are a cop out. I suspect that Jesus knocked at the door of the White House but no one was home.
Thank you Eagle's Child and AMEN!!
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