God, America and Nonfiction

Spirituality Column #243
July 5, 2011
Current in Carmel - Westfield - Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

God, America and Nonfiction
By Bob Walters

I finally got around to reading David McCullough’s nonfiction book 1776, and realized something striking.

To be clear, this isn’t the musical 1776 about signing the Declaration of Independence. This is the exhaustively researched and meticulously footnoted 2005 Pulitzer Prize winning No. 1 bestseller that chronicles the ups and downs of George Washington’s fledgling Continental Army in 1776.

McCullough enlisted his own armies of researchers on both sides of the Atlantic to comb libraries, collections and historical societies for authentic personal letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, maps, newspapers, speeches and official correspondence that detail “what it was really like” in that place at that time.

The book ably collates countless sources into a fascinating story, liberally citing and directly quoting the American and English officers and soldiers, Patriots, Loyalists, politicians, onlookers and bystanders in their own words.

And here’s what was striking: the most elegant prose, the most common expositions and the weightiest communiqués were replete with sincere, faithful, earnest and reverent appeals to God. McCullough does not write to prove America a God-fearing country. The story itself reveals how thoroughly God was assumed to be attached to everyone’s lives and the momentous events of the day.

In 1776 America, the average conversation of the people reflected their absolute conviction that the Hand of the Almighty was intricately woven into the affairs of all.

It’s different today. The sad reality of our politically correct, postmodern, public “God” conversation in America was well represented recently by, appropriately enough, Susan Jacoby, the “Atheist Columnist” for The Washington Post. (An aside: If you have a Religion page, you have to have an “Atheist” column, right? SMH.)

Anyway, last week in this space we discussed the charming little book, Heaven is for Real. A 4-year-old boy nearly dies, really, and later tells his minister father how he visited heaven. The No. 1 bestseller is a heart-touching, simple, affirming story about Jesus, God and Heaven. It’s popular inside and outside of faith communities; scandalous among more than a few Bible-centric theologians … which is about normal.

Atheist Jacoby, reviewing Heaven is for Real with extreme snideness and confidently labeling contemporary American minds “immature,” wrote, “Only in America could a book like this be classified as nonfiction.”

Did you catch that? Jacoby says God should be classified as “fiction.”

I think … we are a better nation when we say God is real.

Happy Fourth of July.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) read 1776 because it was on sale at Costco. Also, “SMH” is Twitter for “shakin’ my head.”

Memorial Day in War and Peace

Spirituality Column #238
May 31, 2011
Current in Carmel - Westfield - Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Memorial Day in War and Peace
By Bob Walters

’Some thoughts for Memorial Day, when America remembers her war heroes who died that we might be free, fought that we might know peace, and served us that we might serve others.

-Memorial Day easily captures the context of Christian faith, as we offer to God prayers of thanks and remembrance for the sacrifice of others.

-Jesus Christ, it is supremely worth noting, died for our freedom. He invented the concept, really. It is something that never occurred to or in humanity until Christ died on the Cross, defeating death and erasing our sin: we were free. It was a gift we didn’t request, solved a problem we didn’t know we had and, with faith, provided a victory impossible to imagine: eternal loving relationship with the Creator God in heaven. That's what God wants for us.

-The Bible exhorts, “God is love.” Christ’s example teaches that love requires freedom. That must be God’s toughest task – loving us enough to provide our freedom, with which we choose whether to love God or not. God knows love resides only in the presence of freedom and the absence of coercion, for coercion robs freedom, drains the soul, stifles hope and strangles faith. Love dies. That’s not what God wants for us.

-The Bible does not mandate systems or festivals commemorating Christ, because Jesus appeared once for all, took on our sins once for all, was cleansed once for all, died once for all, and we were entrusted with His faith once for all. It’s why Jesus says of taking the bread and cup, His body and blood, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

- “Once for all” means the eternal God appeared in mortal time as Jesus Christ and entirely changed the game for humanity’s relationship with God. God no longer mandated a place or a time or a behavior – like a temple or a festival or a commandment – to access divine relationship. Christ, by His work once for all, is to be alive in our hearts always and everywhere … in faith.

-The greatest war is our war with Satan … we fight it every moment of our lives.

-The greatest memorial is our communion with Christ.

-The greatest peace is in Christ.

-The greatest victory abides not with the swift or strong, but belongs reliably to the humble and faithful.

-Victory is not a remembrance of yesterday, but a hope for tomorrow.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is named after his mother’s brother Bob, a naval aviator who died in WWII.

Freedom, Truth, Joy ... in Spite Of It All

Spirituality Column #86
July 1, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! In Westfield (IN) newspaper

Freedom, Truth, Joy … in Spite of It All
Jesus brightens our path forward
By Bob Walters

"Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose … ", from the song Me and Bobby McGee, by Kris Kristofferson; sung by Janis Joplin, 1971

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free … ”, Galatians 5:1

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17

God’s gift of freedom, in the person of Jesus Christ, is in our redemption from past sins and in our hope for the future. Freedom is about opening the door before us; not about the door behind us, whether it is open or shut.

Freedom is about not being shackled to our past.

This July 4 we will celebrate 232 years of American self determination and independence. Not every American has had the same fair shake over that time, but the greatness of America has never been in our past.

The greatness of America has always been in our promise and opportunity for the future. The greatness of America is that anyone can become an American.

I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on whether or not “America is a Christian country.” Is the Creator, i.e., God, mentioned in the Declaration of Independence? Yes. Was every jot and tittle of the Declaration an expression of Christian philosophy? No, not even close.

In a reference from Christ’s Sermon on The Mount (“salt and light,” see Matthew 5:18), is it fair to call America a shining “city on a hill,” as did John Winthrop’s Puritan sermon of 1630? I think that’s a great description of America, but nothing about the Puritan way of life had anything to do with freedom as we would call it today. It was about the strictest of religious legalism and obedience.

American freedom and Christian freedom may not be exactly the same thing, but the freedom we celebrate July 4 is a gift from God any way we slice it.

Freedom provides the opportunity for the truth to be known … hence truth and freedom are interdependent on each other. Inasmuch as Christ very plainly tells us He is the truth (“I am the way, and the truth,” etc., in John 14:6), we should be able to add freedom and truth together and get joy.

Consider this: Joy is not about what we have to lose; it’s about the Holy Spirit within us and the hope we have in Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) understands that declaring joy is easier said than done. Joy is the first casualty when freedom and truth are compromised.

Discovering a Gem

Spirituality Column #52
November 6, 2007
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

Discovering a Gem
By Bob Walters

“As a nation we have to understand that it is OK to have Godly values. If the idea of God is in our country’s founding documents (… endowed by our Creator …), in our pledge of allegiance (… under God …), in our courts (… so help me God …) and in our wallets (currency “In God We Trust”), and our country is trying to tell us not to talk about God, well, there is a medical term for that … schizophrenia.” – Dr. Ben Carson

If you haven’t yet heard of Dr. Ben Carson, I’m praying that we will be hearing more from him soon.

Carson is head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore. He became famous in 1987 for separating cranially conjoined Siamese twins at JHMI, and repeated the procedure 10 years later in Zambia. He is the author of three books with a fourth on the way, and he grew up dirt poor in the hard inner city of Detroit.

And he’s black.

And he’s a Yale graduate.

And he’s energetically Christian.

And he’s a prostate cancer survivor.

And he has a sharp eye for irony and truth.

And he’s terrific to listen to about his faith, our country, black culture, medical ethics, the American medical system, and I’m sure other subjects. No room for the long list of profound observations and wry one-liners here, but Google Dr. Ben Carson.

Carson, 56, showed up recently on C-Span which aired his Oct. 23 presentation at the Baltimore Speakers Series, a “cultural entertainment series of diverse opinions.”

Carson on America: “There is something special about us. If we work together, we can do anything.”

On overly expensive U.S. health care: “We are oriented toward sickness. When we are oriented toward wellness, we will save a lot of money.”

Does he favor universal healthcare? “No, but I favor good health for everyone.”

On stem cells: “It is very promising, but research hasn’t moved as fast as it could in America because it has become a political football. When we learn to do stem cells, there will be advancement in the treatment of neurological trauma.”

On growing up: “We spend the first 20 to 25 years preparing or not preparing for life, and then spend the next 60 years either reaping the benefits, or paying the consequences.”

He drew a standing ovation … a first for the two-year-old series, the moderator said.

Carson has been brilliant for years (he’s had the JHMI directorship since he was 32), but a televised, uber-intelligent, relevant, makes-a-ton-of-sense TV appearance can launch a lifetime of achievement into looking like an overnight success.

I’d love to see Carson in the mainstream of American commentary. It would be a great spot for a brilliant physician and a true Christian believer.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that Carson is a Seventh Day Adventist, a denomination with a solid confession of the Triune God.  To see his much discussed 2013 National Prayer Breakfast Speech, Click here: Dr Ben Carson - C-SPAN Video Library

9/11 - Faith and Clarity and Choice

Spirituality Column #44
September 11, 2007
Current In Carmel (IN) newspaper

9/11 - Faith and Clarity and Choice
By Bob Walters

In early September 2002 PBS Frontline aired “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero,” chronicling America’s and specifically New York’s religious take on the previous year’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

The show truly wasn’t about faith in God; it was about doubting God. It perpetuated the myth that those four hijacked airliners and the resulting loss of life and peace were a “senseless act.” It suggested morality is in the eye of the beholder. It said confusion about faith is normal. It indicted cultural misunderstandings.

Now six years later, if we remember nothing else about 9/11, with great clarity we must remember this: those violent attacks had clear moral purpose and made perfect sense to the perpetrators. Theirs was the ultimate act of faith. Those people attacked us because they most definitely understand our culture, which represents evil to them.

Since then we have all had to make choices about God and about our faith in the light, or perhaps I should say, in the dark, of that tragedy.

My choice was to learn all I could about God. My choice was to learn all I could about Islam. My choice was to study the philosophical and practical foundation and implications of religious and personal freedom in America.

My choice remains to love and fear God, to have faith in his plan on earth and in heaven, and to rejoice in our salvation through Jesus Christ. My choice is to fight evil where I find it, and when it finds me or those I love. My choice is to love my country.

Evil found the United States that day. God didn’t take the day off. It was a day He put us on His shoulders. It was a day to remember that God loves all mankind, and proof that our fallen world can be just awful.

I do know this: I stopped being confused about 9/11 long ago, and am able to make choices.

I choose God. I choose America. And I choose faith.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wrote a newspaper editorial, partially excerpted here, that was published in the Indianapolis Star on the one-year anniversary of 9/11.  In Bob's book Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary (2011), the clip of the original Star article from 9/11/02 is on page 243.