I’ve been involved in an interfaith effort about Prayer in America that will result on a special PBS program to be aired by the end of February. Representatives of different faith traditions: Muslim, Catholic, Baptist, Jewish, Orthodox and Unitarian Universalist have been meeting with Shirley Winslow of PBS for several months to discuss the James P. Moore’s book “One Nation Under God: The History of Prayer in America.” Attached to the PBS special will be a half hour Rhode Island interfaith conversation about prayer for us here. In preparation for this program PBS has organized a conference on the subject for January 24th at URI South Kingstown. You will receive the announcement through the ABCORI notes. At this conference I will be co-leading a workshop on Prayer and Forgiveness. After reading the pertinent material I am awestruck by the depthness of the topic.
Dr. Susanna Morrill, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Lewis and Clark College, states that the themes of prayer and forgiveness have receded from American public discourse. I think the impact of this is huge for our society. On the one hand, prayer has become obsolete for many; more and more people claim not to be religious at all in our Country. Of course we must accept the reality that we don’t live in a Christian Country, and as Baptists we celebrate the diversity. But the issue here is that secularism leaves out all forms of religious expression, not only Christianity. On the other hand, forgiveness is not an option for many. We are imbarked in a war of retaliation; we hope for death penalty to be a way of getting even with harsh criminals, and we claim our privilege to bear arms as our God-given right to destroy those who attack us first. Perhaps you, like me, don’t identify with any of these feelings, but what are we doing about it?
The power of forgiveness for the purpose of healing is invaluable. If we don’t learn to forgive one another, and even our enemies, we will never be whole as a Nation. Let me clarify that forginess is always possible because it’s a matter of the heart. Now, reconciliation requires repentance. I would not forgive an abusive husband and stay in dangerous relationship. I would leave the abuse, and forgive in my heart. If we carry the resentment everywhere we go, we are the ones to suffer. The healing qualities of forgiveness go in every direction. We must forgive ourselves and believe that we can live without guilt. We can accept God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ and his restoring gift. We can forgive others who have hurt us and move on. We can also repent and ask for others to forgive us for our own wrongdoings.
In this we must understand the difference between repentance and guilt. When I worked in hospice I dealt with a lot of people with guilty feelings. Some of them had real things in their past lives that required true repentance. But many others had unfounded reasons to feel guilty. After trying really hard to explain to people that there was no reason to feel that way I realize you cannot change the way people feel just by telling them. Something larger that this was needed. So, I remembered-how could I forget?-the concept of Grace! What do we do with our guilt, real or undounded? We receive the grace of Jesus and accept his forgiveness. Dr. Harold Dean Trulear, Associate Professor of Applied Theology at Howard University Divinity School, says that “the experience of forgiveness brings with it a chance to begin anew the journey of life.” We shall not dwell in our past guilt. We cannot go from generation to generation dragging the guilt of our foreparents injustice to African or Native Americans, for example. We must repent; true repentance in this issue means the end of all racist feelings. And then we must move on at once without re-living the experience over and over again. That’s real cleansing. It requires radical love-a topic I have addressed before- and a close relationship with the giver of grace.
Would you give me your thoughts on this?
5. May 2008 at 04:55
“…more and more people claim not to be religious at all in our Country. Of course we must accept the reality that we don’t live in a Christian Country, and as Baptists we celebrate the diversity.”
I do not understand what you are trying to say here. If I take the statement at face value, it seems to me you are saying Baptist should celebrate the diversity of darkness and light.
John 3:18-20 (NIV)
18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.[a] 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
Unless one is a Universalist, a Baptist Christian whose world view is shaped by the scriptures believes that non-believers will be condemned for eternity. We believe that only because of God’s unmerited grace we are saved from God by God and therefore our hearts should mourn the diversity of non-belief in modern America. How can we faithfully carry out the great commission if we have no heart for the lost? How can we have a heart for the lost unless we get over this politically correct mindset of the god of diversity, “I’m okay - you are okay, it doesn’t matter what you believe”? We shall do nothing for the diverse lost souls of America if we do not see them as lost. We must love our neighbor enough to tell them they must repent and believe. We must love our our neighbor enough to tell them what sin is, that we are all sinners and how a just and Holy God demands blood as a payment for sin. We must love our neighbor enough to explain that that blood payment was made by the only perfect and innocent man that ever lived and that by believing in Him we can have imputed to us both His righteousness and His payment for sin through His death on the cross.
My thoughts for what it is worth.
Richard Dooley
UBC Newport
5. May 2008 at 04:57
“We are imbarked in a war of retaliation; we hope for death penalty to be a way of getting even with harsh criminals, and we claim our privilege to bear arms as our God-given right to destroy those who attack us first. Perhaps you, like me, don’t identify with any of these feelings, but what are we doing about it”
I think you are confusing two things. Yes, we are a government of the people by the people, but the actions of our government must be seperated from our actions as individual christians. Goverments are established by God, they are God’s servant and they do not bear the sword in vain, they must be free to defend themselves and their laws with all needed force including deadly force. Mercy can and should be shown by governments at certain times but this cannot be the normal mode of operation. Allowing every criminal to run free by offering forgiveness to all would not make for a very safe environment. Even individual christians who must have the normal mode of showing mercy and forgiveness to all, must at times punish wrong doings, otherwise you will neither be fit to be a parent nor any kind of boss. Christians must also be allowed a good conscience to serve in the military and police forces of America where the use of deadly force is part of the job. I shudder to think of a day when christians are not allowed to serve in either.
More thoughts…
Richard Dooley
UBC Newport
16. May 2008 at 22:46
Mr. Dooley,
I don’t think that Dr. Davalle is suggesting Universal Salvation in the least. She is referencing one of the highest values that we have as Baptists which is ‘Soul Freedom.’ Early Baptists, especially in this country went on record in sermon and published pamphlet proclaiming that everyone was created by God with the freedom to respond to God as they saw fit and that they should not be influenced or coerced by the government in any way. Jews, Muslims and Atheists should be free to worship (or not) because God created them with that freedom. A faith that is coerced is no faith at all. Many Baptist’s were staunch supporters of religious freedom because they came from a context in which they were oppressed from worshipping as they saw fit and they did not want that oppression to continue, for themselves or for others.
Dr. Davalle is not suggesting that we not share our faith, but simply stating a fact. We live in a religiously and culturally diverse nation. Historically Baptists have respected other faiths. It is in this context that Dr. Davalle is speaking. And this does not stop us from sharing faith.
As for me, I have a hard time believing that God would condemn a faithful and devout Jew or Muslim say… who has loved God and neighbor and attempted throughout life to live faithfully. But that is just me… and I don’t think that is Universal Salvation.
16. May 2008 at 22:57
In regards to your second point Mr. Dooley
I think that your suggestion that governments are established by God and are God’s servants is a terribly over-simplified view. Together we could name many governments that I am sure you would agree could hardly be called God-ordained; Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Pol Pot, the list could go on and on. I do not see how you could defend your broad thesis that governments are established by God when these governments are the example. I presume that you are thinking of Paul’s statement iin Romans 13. I suggest that you look to some other passages in the Bible. Try 1 Samuel 8: 1-22 for instance. Israel is clamoring for a King and both Samuel and Yahweh are not very happy about the idea. Read God description of governmental authority. Read the Magnificat in Luke. What do you think Mary is saying about the ruling authorities there? Many scholars think that the story of Jesus casting the Legion of demons out of the Gerasene demoniac is a veiled political statement against Roman Authority. And the four horsemen in Revelation are a description of the cruelty and oppression of the Roman Authority. The Bible is largely critical of governmental authority. to simply submit to any governments policies, especially when those policies are not in keeping with our Christian values is tatamount to idolatry, worshiping the state instead of God. ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…’ Jesus taught us to pray. Our ultimate allegiance is to God’s kingdom.
Finally let me say,
Dr. Davalle didn’t say let criminal’s run free. She called into question the ethics of the Death Penalty.