Two very symbolic Americans \u2014 Billy Graham and Hillary Rodham Clinton \u2014 recently preached very different sermons on the state of nation\u2019s soul and what should be done to heal it.<\/p>\n\n
As a rule, politicians receive more media attention than clergy. However, this time Graham was preaching in the U.S. Capitol and he used that pulpit to deliver a sobering call for Americans to repent before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n\n
Soon, the world \u201cwill enter the third millennium,\u201d said the elderly evangelist, during May 2 rites in which he and his wife, Ruth, received a Congressional Gold Medal. \u201cWill it be a new era of unprecedented peace and prosperity? Or will it be a continuation of our descent into new depths of crime, oppression, sexual immorality and evil? \u2026 We have confused liberty with license and we are paying the awful price. We are a society poised on the brink of self-destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The first lady\u2019s April 24 message to the United Methodist General Conference, meeting in Denver, received less attention. While addressing the same topic \u2014 national renewal \u2014 her message was radically different.<\/p>\n\n
Graham stressed that \u201cAmerica has gone a long way down the wrong road\u201d and now must \u201cturn around and go back and change roads.\u201d However, Hillary Clinton argued that Americans must continue to \u201chave courage in the face of change, to be willing to struggle forward doing what we can,\u201d seeking unity amid diversity.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt is easy to complain about the problems that we face,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is harder \u2014 but far more rewarding \u2014 to roll up our sleeves and work together to solve them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
These were not political speeches, but they offered different answers to a crucial question that looms over national politics in 1996: Is America on the right moral road, or not?<\/p>\n\n
It would be wrong to pin a \u201cRepublican\u201d label on Graham\u2019s message, or to say that the first lady on this occasion spoke as a Democrat. Still, a kind of party politics was involved. For decades, historians have argued that American Protestantism is a two-party system, with one party emphasizing personal sin and evangelism and the other emphasizing the sins of society and, thus, social activism.<\/p>\n\n
Through the decades, Graham\u2019s approach has broadened to include appeals for listeners to carry personal faith into public efforts to fight racism, hunger, poverty and other social problems. Nevertheless, this recent sermon began with the story of his own revival-meeting conversion and stopped just short of offering the assembled politicians, journalists and dignitaries a chance to make public professions of faith in the Capitol Rotunda.<\/p>\n\n
Clinton described her \u201cfaith journey\u201d with images familiar to her fellow United Methodists and others raised in oldline flocks, beginning with her christening in an historic sanctuary and continuing through years of church-supported social crusades. She never mentioned \u201csin\u201d or \u201crepentance.\u201d The key, she said, was for people of all religions to cooperate in efforts to help families and strengthen public institutions, schools and social programs.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe know we need to strengthen the spiritual and moral context of our lives and we know that we need a new sense of caring about one another in which every segment of society, every institution, fulfills it\u2019s responsibility to the larger community,\u201d she said. \u201cAs adults, we have to start thinking and believing that there isn\u2019t really any such thing as someone else\u2019s child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Meanwhile, Graham has grave doubts about the ability of \u201cconsultations\u201d and \u201cdiplomacy\u201d to solve the problems that most plague humanity. A century ago, he noted, optimistic theologians and intellectuals predicted that the \u201csteady march of scientific and social progress\u201d would bring justice and peace. Instead, the 20th century has \u201cbeen ravaged by \u2026 devastating wars, genocides and tyrannies. During this century we have witnessed the outer limits of human evil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It is appropriate, said the evangelist, to ask, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe fundamental crisis of our time is a crisis of the spirit,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have lost sight of the moral and spiritual principles on which this nation was established \u2014 principles drawn largely from the Judeo-Christian tradition as found in the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two very symbolic Americans \u2014 Billy Graham and Hillary Rodham Clinton \u2014 recently preached very different sermons on the state of nation\u2019s soul and what should be done to heal it. As a rule, politicians receive more media attention than clergy. However, this time Graham was preaching in the U.S. Capitol and he used that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n