(First, I know Tuesday has passed and I didn't give a book review. My computer is in the shop and I don't have time at work to put a post together, so I'll get one up as soon as I get it back.)
WOW! I've never seen an article like this before. It appeared on the Evangelical Outpost yesterday, click on the title for the link to the article. I don't totally agree with the article, but I give the author major props for even bringing it up.
There is a particular group of Americans, many of them Christians, who don’t give much thought to their material wealth. Forty-six percent of them not only own their own homes but have more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. Nearly three-quarters of them live in households which own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars. Ninety-seven percent of their households have a color television and over half own two or more. Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player while 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception. Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.*
Some of them vote Republican. Others would identify with the “Religious Right.” More than a few of them are evangelicals. This group of citizens are among the richest humans in the world yet give almost nothing in order to relieve the suffering of their less fortunate neighbors on the planet.
Who are these people? In America we call them “the poor.”
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2 comments:
where's the link?
i really liked the article. don't know about the site as a whole yet, but the article really echoed a lot of beliefs i hold. these ending comments stand out.
"Just as the pagan religion of the Roman Empire was able to incorporate other gods and give them familiar names, the civil religion provides an umbrella for all beliefs to submit under one nondescript, fill-in-the-blank term.
Our God is a jealous God and is unlikely to look favorably upon idolatry even when it is put to good service. While we should be as tolerant of “civil religion” as we are of other beliefs, we can’t justify submitting to it ourselves. That is not to say that we can’t say the Pledge and think of the one true God. But we should keep in mind that this fight isn’t our fight and the “god” of America’s civil religion is not the God who died on the Cross."
granted, i grew up in a Quaker church and went to a Mennonite Brethren university & seminary, and these tend to downplay or even stand against the role of nation in faith. i suppose i could sum it up by saying that i believe in a G-d that is without national boundaries. I respect this country and what it has provided for me, but i don't care to say the pledge. and i don't think that most people who do are affirming their faith by saying it.
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