Christian America

A headline on MSN caught my attention this morning. Funny thing, after I finished reading the linked article, and mind you, I read kind of slow yet not THAT slow, I clicked on my homepage (msn.com) to see the title and put it in this post and it was already gone. Hummm...funny considering the topic. Thanks to my back arrow, I found that the Newsweek article is titled, “The End of Christian America,” just in case you want to read it yourself. Sorry, I’m too lazy to add the link.

I have aquired a revived interest in religion during the past nine months, but there are so many different aspects and beliefs that I don’t want to delve into the subject too much in this venue. I just feel the need to express something that I have experienced recently. My church (ELCA Lutheran) is attempting to read the Bible out loud, cover to cover, during the season of Lent. I signed up to read yesterday afternoon and experienced books near the end of the Old Testemant that I don’t think I knew existed. I read most of Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (Of course, I knew this one existed.), Micah, Nahum, and ended with Habakkuk. I will just say that each was extreemly easy to read and understand, and they were very interesting, especially in light of what is happening in the word and our country today. The books have a lot to do with the corruption and greed of the wealthy, oppression of the poor and needy, and the lack of a culture’s focus on God even after His multiple attempts for its attention (especially in The Book of Amos).

I may have my beliefs and you may have yours and I guess I am writing this more to give readers something to think about during Holy Week than to make any sort of point. I often ponder how nice a world it would be if the super-rich person gave more to those in need rather than having seven cars and a jet parked in his/her driveway. We just need to be good or maybe better people and I think that every religion has that basic principle in common.

In the Newsweek article, there was one line that stuck out to me. I am going to close with it, just so you have something to think about.

“Religion is not only about worshipping your God but about doing godly things, and a central message of the Gospels is the duty of the Christian to transform, as best one can, reality through works of love.”