June 6, 1944-June 6, 2014 – 70^th Anniversary of D-Day

President Roosevelt’s Prayer on D-Day

“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

“They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph…”

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

– 1st Amendment (Our “First Freedom” in the Bill of Rights)

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must…undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine

Important U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Prayer

[More of President Roosevelt’s prayer is below. An Appendix on the last page gives two competing Supreme Court positions on religious diversity.]

As President Roosevelt prayed during a national radio address, he invited all Americans to join with him in prayer. President Roosevelt’s prayer—all 525 words, bold and unapologetic, an extraordinary event in America’s religious and political history—might not be well received in many quarters today.

In fact, it isn’t! A plaque inscribed with his historic prayer is proposed for the World War II memorial in Washington. Opposition comes from some secularists and from some religious groups, who say it doesn’t reflect today’s religious diversity in America.

Of course it doesn’t! Yesterday’s big historic events shouldn’t be subject to revisionism to reflect today’s sociological features or social engineering.

Let me stress: It is impossible to pray a public prayer that is completely inclusive and reflective of religious diversity. Even the frequent Presidential benediction “God bless America” is monotheistic, non-deistic, and reflects at least a tinge of American exceptionalism in the eyes of God.

While public prayers shouldn’t be insulting and demeaning to any religious or secular system or tools to proselytize, they don’t need to be inclusive to the point where they say nothing (to the “to whom it may concern” god). Prayers must at least be prayed in good conscience, or they are phony duds.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision on May 5 (Greece v Galloway), allowed the practice of “sectarian” prayer at city council meeting. [Please check out my op-ed “Does ‘Sectarian’ Prayer Belong at Government Meetings?” under “My Writings” at www.donaldshoemakerministries.com.]

This is a welcome decision. It takes the government out of the role of determining the content and contours of acceptable prayer, which is a form of “establishing religion”. The court once said, “The law knows no heresy.” Courts shouldn’t judge a prayer to be a bad prayer, either.

When I offer a public prayer, I pray to the God announced to philosophers on Mar’s Hill at Athens almost 2000 years ago –

God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, …he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:24-27)

President Roosevelt’s Prayer on D-Day – continued (excerpts):

“Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

“And for us at home – fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas – whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them – help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

“Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts…

“With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace – a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

“Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.”

Bible Insight: God’s Will for His World Today

Those who believe in Jesus and those who don’t are all over the world today. What does God want done? Perhaps a big part of the answer can come from a lesson Jesus taught in his little story about the “wheat” and the “weeds” (read the whole account in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43):

“Let both grow together until the harvest.” (Matthew 13:30)

Christians I know and teaching I’ve heard have called for us to do something about those weeds! What we do tends to be at one extreme or the other.

Domination

We think it’s our job to pluck up the weeds and get them out of the society we want to have. Failing that, we want them to be quiet subjects of the world we will run. Some settlers to America tried this. The Inquisitions tried this. It won’t work.

Isolation

We think we must withdraw from this world and all its weeds, and set up a Christian parallel universe, a “Kingdom of God in Exile” so to speak.

This kind of thinking leads Christians to do little for the good of society. Some are totally given over to cynicism and won’t even vote because they think no candidate is right on all the issues (of course, whoever thinks this way rather self-righteously sees himself as right on all the issues).

No, in contrast to these, God calls us to live together with those who do not share our fundamental views about God, Jesus, the Bible and God’s rule in the world. This will often include our friends, neighbors, co-workers, teachers, professors, supervisors and subordinates, even members of our own families.

“Engagement” is the operative word, not “domination” or “isolation.” Not “capitulation” either. Even “tolerance” rightly understood (which it often isn’t—some who trumpet it can be very punitive against their perceived foes!) is our modus operandi.

In today’s world we should let our light shine before others and pray for opportunities to explain our faith. We should work together for justice and fairness based on commonly shared values. We should be God’s instruments of peace. We have the right and duty to influence society with our values.

But we cannot try to pluck out the weeds! The “Harvest” is God’s to determine. Till then, “Let all grow together.”

Don’s Upcoming Ministries

June 3-4 – Meeting of Committee developing Grace Brethren identity statement (Winona Lake, Indiana)

 

June 17 – Speak at breakfast for men of Pasadena’s Lake Avenue Congregational Church.

 

June 22 – Speak on theme of IMMIGRATION at Community Grace Brethren Church, 5885 Downey Ave. in Long Beach (10:30 a.m.)

July 17-21 – Attend the Conference of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches in Washington, DC. Present resolutions to the Conference as Chair of the FGBC Social Concerns Committee.

Happy Father’s Day – June 15

As a father shows compassion

to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion

to those who fear him.

– Psalm 103:13

Message of the Month—

Now Home of the “Me First” Burger?

News Item – “Burger King is scrapping its 40-year-old ‘Have It Your Way’ slogan for a new-age message exhorting customers to feel good about themselves while devouring Whoppers or Big Fish Sandwiches with fries. Now it will say, ‘Be Your Way.'”

We know what the old slogan meant. You can enjoy your burger by having it prepared any way you want.

The new slogan has nothing to do with burgers and everything to do with every individual’s autonomy. It’s a philosophy statement about life, not a promise to honor food preference. A horrible philosophy.

According to Fernando Machado, BK’s senior vice president of global brand management (wow!), that’s exactly the whole point. He said in an interview that “Have It Your Way” focuses only on the purchase — the ability to customize a burger. By contrast, he said “Be Your Way” is about making a connection with a person’s greater lifestyle.

BK says the new slogan reminds people that “they can and should live how they want anytime. It’s OK to not be perfect … Self expression is most important and it’s our differences that make us individuals instead of robots.”

As if a fast-food outlet should give us life direction! As if we need the sort of reminder they give! Ready or not, BK wants to give us individual moral autonomy so we can live as we want (as if we were not made to be social creatures with duties toward others), contentment with less than perfection (contrast “Be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect” – Jesus), self-expressing as the chief duty (instead of loving God and your neighbor as yourself), and human differences rather than human robots (as if these two extremes are the only options).

Moral independence is as old as the Bible’s Book of Genesis—with its dysfunctional people and relationships. The moral chaos in Israel’s history according to the Book of Judges—a chaos that led to rape, murder, idolatry, moral weaklings like Samson and much more—came to pass because “in those days there was no king in Israel [no authority figure who would lead with a moral compass]; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). In other words, they adopted BK’s slogan before there was any BK.

We may spout such a slogan and attempt to permeate a culture with it. But we know in our hearts we cannot take it to the “nth” degree. Then we’d have to make room for the mass murderers in Seal Beach and Santa Barbara County and for the tyrants and religious extremists who kill those who don’t conform. We also make room for the day-to-day confusion when the Self is made the center of the moral universe.

I hope BK reconsiders. I know I can’t “Be My Way” or my health will suffer, so I only frequent such places once a month or less. I already avoid one fast-food chain that markets female bodies and not hamburgers. I don’t want to think I must boycott this one as well. But maybe I have to, in order to “Be My Way.”

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Appendix: Two ways to consider “religious diversity” in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Greece v Galloway decision (source: legal daily blog The Volokh Conspiracy, May 6, 2014)

Town of Greece v. Galloway is a case about religious diversity – how to recognize it and how to accommodate it. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion upheld one version of recognizing diversity, which we might call “deep” diversity or “thick” diversity. On that view, diversity is best preserved by allowing each particular religious faith to express itself, no holds barred, provided that every other religious faith gets its turn.

But there is another way of acknowledging diversity, found in Justice Kagan’s dissent. That view, which we might call “consensus” diversity or “thin” diversity, responds to diversity by trying to find some common denominator between faiths, so that all faiths are placated, and no one faith is exalted over others. We respect diversity by each agreeing to tone down our particular faith, so as to respect the faith of others. …