Will We Return To The One We Have Forgotten?

Will We Return

To The One We Have Forgotten?

Hosea 4

A strange, but refreshing phenomenon is taking place in our country. If you watch the news, read the newspaper, or pick up copies of your favorite magazine at the grocery store then you are being bombarded with stories about faith, God, and prayer. We’re not talking about writers and speakers like Rev. Billy Graham, Bishop T.D. Jakes, or Pastor Chuck Swindoll talking about God. People like Peter Jennings, Katie Couric on the NBC Morning Show, and columnists like Kathleen Parker are sharing their own thoughts as they reflect on the tragedy that has struck our land. They are interviewing men and women from across our country who are seeking God in these desperate times. They are reflecting on how this tragedy has caused them to think about what truly matters in life. Kathleen Parker wrote a piece for USA Today this week that sounds more like a Sunday sermon than it does a column from a national newspaper. She writes, in her article, God, Country Gain Fragile New Toehold,

One can’t help notice the silence of atheists these days. Suddenly ’’God’’ is everywhere, as ubiquitous as American flags, spreading -- as Dan Rather said in a spasm of simile-rapture to describe rumors following the Sept. 11 attacks -- ’’like mildew in a damp basement.’’ War has that effect. There are no atheists in foxholes, we’ve always known. There were none in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, we can guess. And now there are none anywhere to be found. America today is about God and country, but then it always has been. We just lost track. We lost track when we evicted God from our public institutions and when we stopped honoring our nation with the songs and rituals that defined American childhood until a few decades ago. We of a certain age remember beginning each school day by pledging allegiance to the flag, singing My Country ’Tis of Thee and, finally, reciting The Lord’s Prayer...Since terrorists brought down the twin towers and part of the Pentagon, we’ve repeatedly witnessed America’s leaders praying, singing, pledging and asking the nation’s citizens to join them. (Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services and a member of USA TODAY’s board of contributors.)

Ms. Parker is remembering something that she had forgotten. Something that far too many of us have forgotten as we, as Americans, have indulged ourselves in the sweet morsels of material prosperity, relaxed in the lap of luxury, and drank deeply from the well of wealth. It is the tragedy of September 11th that has jarred us from our coma of comfort and caused us to remember the things we learned as children. How we use to begin each day with prayer and an expression of gratitude for this land that God has shed His grace upon. Ms. Parker goes on in her column to point out that the foundation that we who are older were given, not only by our parents, but reinforced in our schools each morning, has never been a part of the lives of our kids. They do not recite the Lord’s Prayer each morning, they don’t "Pledge Allegiance" to the flag, and therefore they are having a hard time understanding what we are doing at the present time. Listen to her words as she continues her column by saying,

Since terrorists brought down the twin towers and part of the Pentagon, we’ve repeatedly witnessed America’s leaders praying, singing, pledging and asking the nation’s citizens to join them. Which is to say, our children must be awfully confused. Reared and educated in godless institutions that also scarcely acknowledge the importance of patriotism -- watching adults sing songs they’ve never learned -- they must wonder ’’wassup.’’ It’s as though America’s adults belong to a secret society to which their children have never been exposed. We’ve been so overzealously protective of newcomers to and renegades from our traditional heritage -- and fearful of offending anyone hungry for attention -- that we’ve failed to pass on the very values that made us who and what we are. Faith in God and devotion to country are values, however, that do not evolve from nothing. Both require nourishment and a continuity of commitment passed from one generation to the next. Our parents, most of whom had tasted war and paid the dues of freedom, gave us these values to which we now so readily return. We have a duty to do the same for our own children. (Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services and a member of USA TODAY’s board of contributors)

I believe Ms. Parker is right in saying that our kids must be awfully confused at this time. With so much talk about God, folks gathering to pray, and Bible’s being dusted off as they are pulled out of closets to be read at the dinner table and before bedtime - the kids must be wondering what has happened to their country?