Have you ever noticed that we Americans are often involved in conversations with each other and how
unhappy we are as a nation? We are coming out of deep recession and tremendous suffering was
generated but only for 10% to 15% of the population. That other 85% could easily be more helpful
to those who are suffering but little is being done about it. We all know the litany as these problems
manifest themselves in divorce, drug addiction, acute depression, political divides, anger and bitterness,
widespread discouragement flowing especially today from joblessness, etc., etc. We all know the list.

Well, there are countless complex problems that are facing us. There are an even greater number of
complex causes and the list of solutions seems to be on the weaker side. I recently read reviews of an
excellent book by Eckhart Tolle entitled, Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose. The author writes effectively
and covers many aspects of our lives but I lifted one particular quote that I think is important for many
of us. Tolle is talking about ego needs that disrupt our lives and even when they seem to be fulfilled
create disappointment and unhappiness. Listen to this one.

“The absurd overvaluation of fame is just one of the many manifestations of egoic madness
in our world. Some famous people fall into the same error and identify with the collective
fiction, the image of people and the media have created of them, and they begin to actually see
themselves as superior to ordinary mortals. As a result, they become more and more alienated
from themselves and others, more and more unhappy, more and more dependent on their
continuing popularity. Surrounded only by people who feed their inflated self-image, they
become incapable of genuine relationships.”

Regretfully, this very destructive weakness is common and flows directly from our wounded nature and
Original Sin. Hitler had a bad case of it and 50 million people lost their lives and most of Europe was
flattened. Happily, most of us who live in inordinate appreciation of our virtues, real or imagined, do
not cause damage on that scale, but an exaggerated ego is present in enormous percentage of conflicts
within the family, in the business world and even can affect the international community.

It is very seldom that you see a humble man who is not well liked and deeply appreciated.

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From time to time, a new motion picture comes out that can have a very powerful influence on the American psyche. Most movies are produced for a combination of entertainment and profit. There is nothing essentially wrong with either one of those goals but it does result in a lot of lackluster cinematic production. I remember when Dr. Zhivago first came out about thirty years ago that I was happy because so many Americans probably saw for the first time how terrible the living conditions of workers and farm labor was under the Russian Czars. Most people clearly understood that Communism was a failure but they didn’t know what the forces were that generated this disastrous economic attempt to establish a new economic system.
Now comes Lincoln. I find in so many ways that the movie is truly a wonderful production but I think that its approach may have startled or confused many American viewers. The movie is not a biography. It is a crisp, clear presentation of one of Lincoln’s many fights. It tells of one of Lincoln’s most important struggles and covers only a few months at the end of his life. The struggle was to adopt the 13th Amendment which would guarantee the elimination of slavery from American life. The Emancipation Proclamation was wonderful but it could not guarantee that a later Congress would nullify the document. Lincoln certainly saw this danger and fought for an Amendment in the Constitution. Some were scandalized that the movie seemed to show Lincoln as a tough political wheeler dealer willing to make deals and cut corners in order to achieve his goal. How blessed we are that he was able to do that. A weaker man might have dropped the ball.
February 18th was President’s Day and although I failed to mention Lincoln on the 12th, I am motivated by this particular holiday to think how blessed we have been many times in the presidents. I have my favorite half dozen or so. Most of us do but we need to be thankful and in many different times of crisis in our nation’s story, those with the office of president have time after time risen to the occasion. Lincoln and Washington were the best. For Bishop John McCarthy Harry Truman is also right up there at the top.

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For most of the last century, the American people and its government have been struggling to resolve a pressing need and an apparent conflict. The need is a very real one and it casts a shadow over life in the United States. The conflict flow from the natural responsibility of a people, whether it be family, tribe or nation, to convey its value system to each new generation and our current inability to do that. Throughout history, all groups have learned to do this and thus preserve their values, traditions and mode of living. The United States does not know how to do that.
All true values are ultimately based on a moral foundation. On reviewing the relationship between religion and public education, the Supreme Court has slipped back and forth several times occasionally creating a small opening for more action, but usually making it ever more difficult. Back in 2007, Texas attempted to deal with this issue by enacting a law allowing public schools to teach bible courses as a separate elective but the law demanded that the courses are required to be fair and unbiased. This is not an impossible goal. The bible is the most important book in the history of much of the world. The bible has had tremendous influence not only in millions and billions of individual lives, but in the flow of history in the public area. The bible has been powerful and often involved conflict and even hatred. This means that since it is such an important book, it would be possible to teach where it came from, what culture influences affected the bible and, in reverse order, what the bible has affected in the flow of history.
The educators had good intensions but their efforts have not been completely successful as yet. Last week, the Texas Freedom Network released a study showing that among the 60 school districts that have taken advantage of this new state law there was widespread failure to comply with the law requiring courses to be fair and unbiased. I am not surprised. It would take a very disciplined teacher to utilize a book that primarily reflects God’s activity in history and not let his or her faith show through in the classroom. In other words, the professor is not to reveal that he or she actually believes the bible, actually holds to the idea that the events recorded in it are really true. I understand that the State of Texas doesn’t want Baptist teachers clearly teaching the Baptist faith or Roman Catholic teachers endeavoring to instruct their public school students in Catholicism. However, I don’t think that the personal faith of the teacher should be a reason for making that person ineligible as a teacher or professor.
Much has been written over the last two generations about the fact that the state cannot endorse teachers supporting one particular faith and I think that most Americans solidly agree with that. On the other hand, is there not a valid question as to whether or not atheism or at least agnosticism have become the established religion of the United States of America. I wonder.

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All thoughtful Americans and citizens across the world were horrified a few weeks ago by that tragic fire in the clothing factory over in Bangladesh. There were no fire exits, no escape plans and hundreds of the employees died in agony and unnecessarily. Those clothes – blouses, shirts, socks, etc. – were being manufactured by near slave labor to be marketed in the United States of America. First the fire, then the sense of shock and now silence. We have heard nothing from the national and international associations of clothing manufacturers. Since their needs and their demand for low wages is at least an indirect cause of the tragedy, shouldn’t they be leading the efforts to make sure that this type of tragedy is avoided in the future? To date, they have been quiet – very, very quiet.
Tragedies like that used to occur in the 19th century in the United States, England and other European countries and mistakes can still occur and tragically kill innocent workers; for example, the explosion of the oil well in the Gulf operated by British Petroleum. However, happily, the developed world began to recognize the need for supervision and regulation, and the number of such tragedies has been greatly lessened. Nevertheless, there is a group in this country that is constantly howling and complaining about regulation. Regulation does increase the cost of production but nothing compared to the cost and damage that can be done by producers and manufacturers if they are not being supervised within proper limits. We would frequently find ourselves in serious trouble and pain if the various supervisory entities were suppressed or eliminated. You would be afraid to go into a drug store if it were not for the Center for Disease Control.

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“Goodbye. Be sure to study hard.”
Every morning all across the country millions of parents send their small children off to elementary school. The parents may drive them. They may go by bus. They may be close enough to walk. Whatever the case, the parents relax and know that their children are well cared for and will be home in the middle of the afternoon when they return to their routine established for the latter part of the day.
That routine is so common, so well established that the vast majority of parents hardly give it a thought. “Hi Billie…Here is a cup of hot chocolate. What did you learn today?”
Last week, however, that routine was tragically, catastrophically interrupted for several dozen families. In addition, millions of other families, as President Obama said, hold their children more tightly as they return from school. Millions of words have already been written about the agonizing, horrifying event in Newtown and I would not foolishly attempt to add anything to the conversation.
There is no meaning in this! It is just raw tragedy and humans have learned to live through and survive tragedy since Adam and Eve got on the wrong side of their Creator. However, last Friday’s situation grabs at the heartstrings of everyone. My guess is that more than half of the country’s population, and I certainly hope that I am right, actually broke out into tears as they received the agonizing information (you can’t call that news). We cry and cry, some crying hysterically. We try to pull meaning out of it but no meaning is there. Eventually our sobbing settles down and we attempt to move forward all the while holding on to each other in a desperate hope that the whole thing is a bad dream. It was not a bad dream!
Let’s pray together for all the families whose lives have been upended by this situation. Let’s pray in thanksgiving for all of us who live our lives rather safely on a day by day basis. Finally, let’s pray that our country will attempt to confront a terribly destructive situation that other developed nations do not seem to experience to the extent that the United States of America does. Should we begin to question ourselves?

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