March 21, 2008
Oddly
Oddly (and tragically) the one remark by Pastor Jeremiah Wright that has proven most controversial seems to me fairly basic to a responsible understanding of the Christian faith. Stripped of the emotion and the phraseology, he is saying that the United States of America stands under God’s judgment for our actions in just the same way that we believe other countries stand under God’s judgment. Surely we don’t think we get a free pass on the torture we have inflicted in our current as well as past wars, the bombings of civilian targets, resorting to armed combat for economic reasons, the practice of slavery, and on and on. I am seriously depressed at the depth of the civil religion practiced in this country that would exempt us from being held responsible for our national sins. Are any of us reflecting on this? This is not a conservative or liberal matter is it?•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••Note: The Revd Thomas B Woodward, friend and colleague, recently made these comments about one of the current misunderstandings sweeping the presidential campaign trail. I wish I had. So I asked his permission to forward them as today’s OoN. Tom lives in Santa Fe with his wife, Ann. He and I have had some considerable years in orders and especially in college and university ministries that kept us a lot on our toes. He may be reached at…
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos