1 week Ago
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com . Want to purchase today’s print edition? Here’s a map of single-copy locations. Sign up for our daily newsletter here The election is history and we move on, dealing with the voters’ choice between two unpopular candidates.
Millions are unhappy, but four years are a blink of the eye in this great nation’s 240-year history, and we must endure the government we deserve, as Jefferson opined. Other important concerns beset our land. One is the directionless state of recent generations, strangers to any religion, seeking some value in the unsettled lives they pursue or, in some sad instances, seeking to end their young lives.
Many middle-aged people are also adrift, having tried and left more than one of countless newer churches that have confused the practice of faith. A recent study claims younger people spend as much as 60 percent of their time online, and only 2 percent in church. Formerly, we spent time with friends, family and co-workers.
Do we truly find inner peace, let alone happiness, staring at an electronic device? Rather, it is face-to-face interactions with people that bring gratification. Also, numerous folks, young and older, would rediscover purpose in life if they could somehow connect not to the internet, but to Almighty God. One place to interact with humans — and God — is in a church, mosque or temple.
I can discuss only Christianity, not the other Abrahamic religions, Islam and Judaism, or significant Asian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. To those who have grown up in or belonged to a Christian church, only to have drifted away, remember that the doors are always open on Sunday. Anyone may visit and observe, and priests or ministers are available for questions or counseling.
Most churches actively welcome converts from previous affiliations. Converts now make up nearly half the active parishioners of my Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church. One cannot simply “join” Orthodoxy; there is a process of embracing and education — a test of the candidate’s commitment — leading to Chrismation.
The Catholic and Episcopal churches have rites of initiation that can take months, ending in confirmation. Other major Christian denominations such as Methodism, Presbyterianism, Lutheranism and the Baptists are among 200 various Christian churches that usually have specific doctrinal steps along paths to membership. Religion remains widespread in world populations, Christianity being dominant with 2.
4 billion followers. More than 80 percent of people worldwide still claim affiliation with a religion. However, the United States is one of the top three nations in unaffiliated populace, a major change from our origins.
Because some people whom churches count as affiliated actually no longer identify with their faith, even higher numbers have abandoned religious practice. Do these folks still believe? Atheists deny any divine existence, and agnostics profess neither faith nor disbelief; rather, they see the mystical or spiritual as unknowable. Atheists view the teachings of biblical scriptures, eyewitness historical accounts, as modern mythology.
Indeed, it takes a particular mindset to profess faith in an omnipotent creator, that faith being principally rooted in biblical education. We either believe, or we can’t. The late historian Arif Dirlik wrote, “It has been a conceit of modernity that religion must disappear in direct proportion to the progress of a modern culture identified with the Enlightenment goals of science and rationality, and expressed in social, cultural and political life in secularism.
” Yes: The drive of secularism to erase religion from our daily lives is relentless. Religious intolerance may have a sometimes regrettable and violent history, but in America today, the dominant intolerance is by secular enforcers against religious believers. Global communication technologies facilitate the homogenization of lifestyles and the embrace of secularism.
Leaders wishing to appear politically correct rarely acknowledge the Judeo-Christian principles upon which our country was founded. Moral codes by which we elders were raised are increasingly ignored by one newer generation after another. But what do we see among younger, unchurched citizens? We see that they are searching, seeking some raison d’etre, or meaning in their lives.
To those who recognize no supreme being, the metaphysical or spiritual is bunk. Well, there exist nonreligious options that would enrich their lives: serving their country, whether in the armed forces or in any organization such as Pacific Discovery, GVI Planet (environmental projects) or Peace Corps, just three of dozens of worthy volunteer groups. So many people in this world need assistance, and directionless youth could step in and step up.
Alternatively, they could push aside the secularism associated with modernist ideology and investigate what religion offers. No, science does not disprove the existence of God. “A little knowledge of science makes you an atheist; in-depth knowledge of science makes you a believer in God,” wrote Louis Pasteur, founder of microbiology and immunology.
There are countless other references where renowned scientists admit that many things about the natural world, about our human minds and bodies, simply cannot be explained by science. Finally, consider prayer. Presumably, agnostics and atheists do not pray.
But then come times of loss, or illness, or life-threatening situations. People send cards and messages, many saying “You are in my thoughts and prayers,” or even “Praying for you.” Do nonbelievers simply scoff at such sincere communications .
.. accept the thoughts but spurn the prayers? I truly wonder.
As was frequently declared during World War II, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Life’s exigencies have a way of opening minds and hearts. As we live out our lives, we encounter many changes, certainly not all happy ones.
Through it all, no matter what mistakes we may make or losses we may suffer, when we are ready, God is there — for all of us. So long as they’re sincere, He will hear your prayers, even if they are the first, clumsy ones that ever came into your mind. As St.
Paul wrote, “The peace of God passes all understanding.” If you cannot find peace within you, seek and find it in church..
