Presidents' Day coincides this year with the Torah reading that recounts the building and destruction of the Golden Calf. We mark the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, who lost his life within weeks of declaring the Civil War to be God's punishment for the sin of slavery, and then the birthday of George Washington, who offered "fervent supplication to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every defect ... " Both presidents believed in some form of divine providence; indeed, American civil religion as a whole has always kept in view the image of God on high, just and merciful, Who seems to tolerate societal transgressions like the Golden Calf only so long and then "descends" to render swift and terrible judgment. Our greatest presidents did not agree on how closely God exercised that providence or the form taken by God's special concern for the United States of America. Their thinking remains helpful to religious Americans today.
Washington was the more circumspect of the two on this topic. Scholars divide on the exact nature of his beliefs as well as on the public expression of those beliefs. We do not know for sure whether he took communion in the Episcopal Church or how regularly he attended Sunday worship. We do know that Washington believed religion to be good for the nation and gave voice as president to a broad and sincere tolerance to Jews and Catholics. He also made frequent reference to God's providence in private correspondence as well as in public declarations. The first Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued in October 1789, urged service to "that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, of what will be." Washington's first inaugural address that same year warned that "the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."
It is not clear from these or other speeches what Washington meant by providence. Like many believers before and since, he guarded a certain vagueness on the matter. He seems to have believed, humbly but firmly, that God played a role in entrusting the United States of America with "the sacred fire of liberty" and "the destiny of the republican model of government." More he could or would not say.
Lincoln was more explicit; the Second Inaugural Address, delivered March 4, 1865, is about as strong a statement as one could imagine of divine reward and punishment on the biblical model. Indeed, Lincoln makes the point that both North and South "read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other." He was confident that the North read and acted more faithfully. Slavery was wrong. But "let us judge not, lest we be judged ... The Almighty has His own purposes."
That is the crux: Lincoln puzzles with the help of the Gospel of Matthew (18:7) over the fact that God allows "offenses" but eventually punishes the offender. God had long allowed slavery to continue but finally determined to remove it. "He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came." It could be God's will that the wealth piled by the bondsman's toil for 250 years shall be sunk in war "until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword ... "
The rabbis called this method of divine justice "measure for measure." God exacts punishment in kind for human sin. We can't always fathom the accounting. Sometimes the punishment seems to fit the crime, sometimes not. Great offenders and offenses often continue beyond the endurance of the righteous. Lesser transgressions -- or even innocence -- result in suffering. "So still it must be said" -- and Lincoln, religious to the core, said it, quoting Psalms (19:9) -- "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
Martin Luther King Jr. also affirmed God's involvement in human affairs, but hesitated to identify the workings of providence with any certainty. He speculated about God's purposes in more than one sermon -- does human freedom perhaps depend upon God's noninterference in our affairs? -- and declared that God's apparent inaction in the face of evil does not mean God is unconcerned or uninvolved. "God does not forget his children who are the victims of evil forces." King was certain about one mode of divine action, which he knew from experience: God gives us the strength to resist evil and to fight it.
I find myself this Presidents' Day -- in the shadow of Egypt's overthrow of an undemocratic president of long standing -- as perplexed as ever on the matter of God's action in history. I am drawn to Washington's cautious view of providence, to Lincoln's fear-and-trembling sighting of divine involvement in history, and to the space of genuine uncertainty that lies between them. I don't know how one can do better than Lincoln or "explain" more than King. Sometimes I think Washington's prudence is the best course. This week we are wondering what role the generals played behind the scenes in Mubarak's ouster, whether the students on the street really acted alone, what influence Obama wielded from afar -- and some believers, I among them, cannot but wonder whether there was another Player behind the scenes or from afar, plotting the exodus of this Egyptian ruler as God had once overseen that of the Israelites, according to the Book that Washington, Lincoln, and King all held sacred. This last question, I confess, is not uppermost on my mind.
I suspect that Lincoln, who knew his Bible well, remembered God's admonishment to Job out of the whirlwind. God seems to say that it is right for human beings to persist in the belief that God is just and merciful (the attributes proclaimed before Moses at the top of the mountain right after the people's idolatry down below) even though we, mere creatures, cannot hope to understand or explain the acts or intent of our Creator. We should not discern in the woes that afflict us "any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him." We should seek, as Lincoln urged, to imitate those attributes in our dealings with one another. How? Lincoln is clear on the point. Harbor "malice toward none." Practice "charity for all." Hold "with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right." Strive always to "finish the work we are in," bind up wounds, care for widows and orphans, and "do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
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My guess is that it makes the owner feel godlike.
I could never figure out how someone who delivers lashes to another human "on the wheel" could gather his family together and go to church later in the week. All is forgiven?
If mankind cannot as a species learn how to balance their mind of conceptualized ideology with it's body of ancient instincts of territoriality, sexual dominance, and individual survival then soon we are going to be the cause of our own extinction. A species that cannot live with itself having a mind and body. War is a false profit.
The President has agreed that he desires Abortion to be rare, but legal. My Christian heart understands, and joins in Obama's reluctance to prosecute women so desperate that they choose to kill their own child. I know the soul exists from the moment of conception, and that fact makes the fetus a fully formed human, despite its physical dependence upon the mother's womb. God's will is not being done either by George W. Bush or by President Obama. Hence each person must weigh the sins advocated and undertaken by each candidate.
The founders of our nation were admirable men, but I was not alive in that time, and what may seem easy and imporatnt now, probably was very different in the reality of their time. The work they did produced a nation able to embarce the poor, the tired, the hungry and the persecuted of the world. We are losing that Christian Compassion more and more every day, sadly growing farther from God.
I respect that people don't have to agree with my position on any issue, let alone every issue. But having worked on then-Senator Obama's campaign in a VERY Catholic district, I was constantly discouraged by people with whom I spoke; who agreed with the Senator on health-care, war, economics and almost every other issue, but still refused to vote for him because he's pro-choice. I don't agree with the President on every issue, but I vote for the person who best represents the majority of the issues that matter to me. It is beyond me that ONE issue could be enough to make someone a bad person.
To your last statement, I take issue with your portrayal of compassion as a Christian trait. This is not to say that Christians cannot be compassionate. Only that it is not limited to Christians. I do agree with the over-all point, though: We are losing our compassion as a nation, and growing farther from kindness and love.
I think that is basically what you are saying. See? In many ways we agree. I just don't believe that religion is necessary to the idea itself.
Unless you can form their lips into irreligious words (or actions into irreligious deeds) it's unfair to try to label them irreligious. Take Lincoln. It seems like all the biblical vocabulary found room in his sentences, words, speeches; yet some people still call him irreligious. There have got to be better American leaders out there or in history to reproach religion with (if you need to). But not Lincoln or Washington as if religion/God were stripped from their souls.
"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ." (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)
"Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. You should work all the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts. Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them." (1 Timothy 6:1-2 NLT)
"The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it. 'But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.' " (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)
In any case, ancient slavery was not anything like modern slavery. Often slaves in antiquity preferred to be slaves, as it meant, if nothing else, guaranteed employment and often a master who was humane.
"However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way." (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)
"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment." (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
Abraham Lincolin, as a Leader, as a Shepherd, pondered and ask God to know him, to understand God's word. Abraham got it, was a Good Shepherd, Lincolin understood, no such thing as slavery, with God. All human beings were created equally in God's Image. And men of such h@te, my faith is right or is wrong, men who did not agree, and who did what they did to others they held in lower esteem as human beings, m *r d*red Lincolin, because they did not get it. Speak the truth.
God is Righteousness, slavery is not so with God, for if it was God would of never free those in slavery by KIng Pharoah who was a lover of money also. God is a righteous a God who has always distributed, gives equality rights to all.
He was convinced that America would be deist or Unitarian within a generation of his death because of "reason". His deism was a product of the time he lived, as deism was a direct aftershock of the reformation that reached its appex during Jefferson's prime. This is why you almost never see Unitarian Christians anymore.
Oh and Galileo was a unique case, as opposition from the Catholic church to him came out of politics and recent events (the reformation had just happened and the 30 Years War was going on at the time) not out of "dogma". In any case, his ideas were picked up and expanded upon outside of Catholic dominated Italy, often with the outright support of the church.
Jesus and Moses did not bow down to no religions or no Government in this world. Nor did Jesus or Moses chose any favorites to any human being having money or no money, all were equally served and treated the same. There were no wealthy tax cuts lets just say that to the rich were there, by either of them.
Both Jesus and Moses disturbed the powers that be, for both Jesus and Moses, disturbed threaten their job securities of of ill gotten wealth, to build their many houses of wealth, riches, which ruled by a military powers of oppression, over their own citizens hard earned labor $$ the powers that be defrauded them of.