Sunday, June 2, 2019

Healing Cultures


First Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, NC


But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
    what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
    be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
    take God seriously.
Micah 6:8 The Message (MSG)

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, 
will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
John 14:26 New International Version (NIV)




I just finished three books that address moral quests within our American culture. The question for me was what moral quests have been formative in my life?  Has it been a theme or an event?  How does it connect with the cultures around me?  

A critical influence was another earlier book by Jonathan Imber, Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine.  He described the waining theological influence on the practice of medicine.  My response has been a search for a personal and professional moral foundation.  This blog has been part of those explorations.  

That brings us to “trust” in those around us and in God.  Do we really live out “In God we Trust”?  The answer is clear each Sunday in the  congregational confessions.  That confession along with forgiveness is the basis of a healing trust.  A “glue” that holds us together in a world that wants to pull us apart from each other and God.  

So what brings us together and brings peace in our culture wars?  I think it is more than what we believe and what we do!   We need the magnet of the beauty that God has left us!  That beauty is what brings us to together!  The “awe” in and of our lives is all around us; a wonderful gift not of our own making.

Marvin


References:

Brooks, D. (2019). The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life. Random House.

Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion.
Irving, D. (2016). Waking up white: And finding myself in the story of race.

Imber, J. B. (2008). Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine (1 ed.). Princeton University Press.

Hage, M. L. (2012). Burdens and Benefits.

Hage, M. L. (2017). The Beauty of Healing.


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