Last week Mark Steyn wrote, “America is seizing up before our eyes,” and that is a spot-on image. She is like a brilliantly conceived machine that, poorly maintained for more years than any of us cares to admit, has gone too long untuned; the oil of her invention has thinned out and broken down and now bit-by-bit, gear-by-gear””economically, socially, spiritually””she is making an ungodly noise and grinding to a halt.
And yet people want optimism. They crave it, especially when a president is telling one half of the country that it is “time to eat your peas” while simultaneously encouraging another half to take to the streets and demand more dessert. “Where is our Ronald Reagan,” is a phrase that rises with alarming frequency, in some comboxes, and it always unsettles me to see it, because it seems so determinedly obtuse; if we can just find someone exactly like the president from thirty years ago, we will be alright. If only someone will smile and tell us it is morning in America, again, and the city has not slid down the hill!
The biggest causal issue in the economic decline of the US is morality: ethics, integrity, honesty, faithfulness, chastity, honor, real self-sacrificing love. Without this, there can be no lasting prosperity or stability.
See the Anglican Curmudgeon’s article here: http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2009/12/debasing-currency-of-truth.html (and his other great articles on the economy)
Face it, repentance is the first order of business with each other and with God.
Anybody else taking second (and third) looks at this week’s Daily Office lessons from the Revelation?
[blockquote] Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “With such violence Babylon the great city will be thrown down, and will be found no more… and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more; for your merchants were the magnates of the earth,
and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in you was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slaughtered on earth.” [/blockquote]
In support of comment #1, the OT reading today was Ezra’s public reading of the Scriptures, leading the people to renewal and celebration.