Good Sunday Morning!
1. Question – Would you say America is as divided as
you’ve ever seen her?
2. Thought – Three generations ago, most people
inherited rather than chose their religious faith. The
great majority of people belonged to one of the historic,
mainline Protestant churches or the Roman Catholic Church.
Today, however, the now-dubbed “old-line”
Protestant churches of cultural, inherited faith are aging
and losing members rapidly. People are opting instead for
a nonreligious life, for a non-institutional, personally
constructed spirituality, or for orthodox, high-commitment
religious groups that expect members to have a conversion
experience. Therefore the population is paradoxically
growing both more religious and less religious at once.
There is a great gulf today between what is popularly
known as liberalism and conservatism. Each side demands
that you not only disagree with but disdain the other as
(at best) crazy or (at worst) evil. Progressives cry out
that fundamentalism is growing rapidly and nonbelief is
stigmatized. They point out that politics has turned
toward the right, supported by mega-churches and mobilized
orthodox believers. Conservatives endlessly denounce what
they see as an increasingly skeptical and relativistic
society. Major universities, media companies, and elite
institutions are heavily secular, they say, and they
control the culture. (The Reason for God by Timothy
Keller)
“I find your lack of faith –
disturbing.”
(Darth Vader)
