Go Away, God

jesus, sad, perplexed, betrayal, Christianity, Catholic

“Go away, God”—that’s what our nation collectively has told Him—”Go away, God.”

Just consider a few examples:

  • 1962: School-sponsored prayer banned by the Supreme Court.
  • 1973 Roe v. Wade makes abortion legal throughout the land
  • 1980: Displaying the Ten Commandments in a school deemed unconstitutional.
  • 1992 The last time a US President’s Christmas cards actually mentioned Christmas

This handful of data points from the mid-20th century may be interesting, but consider current research results on belief in God and morality

Survey Results Show Alarming Trends

A 2019 Pew Research Center poll of 38,426 people in 34 countries looked at the connection between morality and a belief in God. Less than half (44%) of US residents think it’s necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values, down from 56% in 2002. Only 26% of Canadians believe there’s a connection between belief in God and morality. So, perhaps only indirectly, we hear, “Go away, God, we don’t need you for morality.”

Another survey, this one from a center related to Arizona Christian University, shows that the majority of Americans don’t believe that Jesus is the path to salvation. Rather, they think that being a good person is sufficient. “Go away, God; I’m a good person.” Based on that survey, conducted in early 2020, 58% of Americans believe that no moral truth exists. What is right or wrong, 77% believe, is determined by factors other than the Bible. Some points to ponder when considering these results include, “Just what is a ‘good person’? If there’s no moral truth, what makes one’s choices ‘good’ or ‘bad’?”

As well, if belief in God is not necessary to live morally, how do we explain current events? Are abortion and euthanasia morally correct, even though they contradict natural law and divine law? Where do looting, rioting, and property destruction fit into the moral life without God? Are these just “good people” living out their respective moral truths? Let’s look at a few observations that others have made over the last three centuries regarding our country, morality, and belief in God.

21st Century Observations of a Chinese Marxist

In a short video, the late Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School recounts a discussion with a student of his. The student, a Marxist economist from China, told Christensen he’d had no idea just how critical religion is to the functioning of a democracy.  The student explained that it was not because the government was designed to oversee what everybody does that democracy functions. Rather, democracy works because most people, most of the time, voluntarily choose to do what’s right.

The point of this video, from 2013, was that in the past, most Americans attended church or synagogue regularly. They followed the rules in place because they believed they were accountable to God, not just to society. Christensen’s conclusion: if you take away religion, you can’t hire enough police to maintain order. This is worth some serious thought. It especially demands consideration, as religion continues to lose its influence over the lives of Americans and lawlessness seems to be condoned by some elected officials. “Go away, God—we know what’s best here.”

20th Century Reflection of a Venerable Archbishop

Ven. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen told us that we get the leaders—the politicians—we deserve. Thus, when we abandon our values, or choose the world’s values, in our political choices, we have to face the consequences:

A nation always gets the kind of politicians it deserves. If a time ever comes when the religious Jews, Protestants, and Catholics ever have to suffer under a totalitarian state, which would deny to them the right to worship God according to the light of their conscience, it will be because for years they thought it made no difference what kind of people represented them in Congress and because they abandoned the spiritual in the realm of the temporal (The Catholic Hour).

No one should expect any leader to be perfect. We’re all humans, and although made in the image of God, we have sinful habits and imperfections we must address. Yet, when we elect officials who thumb their noses at the Truth, why would expect them to behave morally more often than not? We’re just saying, by our actions, “Go away, God; we know what’s best for us.”

19th Century Impression of a French Diplomat

Going back another hundred years, Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at the influence of religion on our nation’s governance model. His observations, from the early 1800s, on the influence of religion in America, bear a striking similarity to those of Christensen’s student:

“Never have I felt so much the influence of religion on the mores and the social and political state of a people than since I have been in America, and it is impossible here to ignore the necessity of this force for motivating and regulating human actions.” From the letter of Alexis de Tocqueville to his family in France, June 20, 1831 – Yale Tocqueville Collection

America had not yet collectively chosen to follow its many idols and ignore the King of Kings and Lord of Lords when he wrote this. But times have changed, haven’t they?

18th Century Wisdom of a Founding Father

Closer to the founding of our country, James Madison spoke of the need for us, as citizens, to be virtuous and wise in selecting the people to lead our nation:

“…I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks–no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

So, our fourth president tells us, it’s delusional to think that we can maintain liberty and happiness without first living virtuously. It really is our responsibility to exercise prudence and wisdom, living as best we can lives of virtue, and selecting leaders who can lead the country in a virtuous way. But—have we done it? Have we collectively voted for who and what are prudent? Or did we simply pursue our own narcissistic desires?

Plenty of Blame to Go Around

How on earth did we get to where we are now? It’s easy enough to point a finger at those “other people” who are doing “this,” or not doing “that.” We individually might hold beliefs to the effect of, “They all need some fixin’, mind you, but me–I’m basically all right. Just fix the rest of ’em, and we should be okay.” We all have some culpability in this situation. It will vary for each of us, but we might ask if we’ve lived the life Our Lord called us to live, to the extent He asked of us. Have we attempted to grow in our faith and relationship with Jesus? Are we trying to live more virtuous lives? What have we done to demonstrate our faith to others, especially when challenged about it? Have we allowed acedia and/or pusillanimity to take over our souls? Do we take an active part in carrying out the work of Christian discipleship? Or are we simply consumers, relying on someone else to carry the load?

Coming to a Crossroads

The US is coming to a crossroads. We could be facing circumstances in daily life, the likes of which we’ve never seen. We Catholics and other Christians could see some disheartening times, even to the point of forcing us underground. Plenty of alleged visionaries and locutionists claim to receive or have received dark and foreboding messages. Entire websites cover end-times prophecies and related matters.  No one knows the day or the hour, but we all know that sooner or later, we’ll arrive at the end of this temporal life, one way or another.

Sooner or later, we all—each one of us—will have to account for our decisions here. Will we say that we lived our lives the way Our Lord told us to live? He wasn’t ambiguous about it. There is one Truth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We are either with Him or against Him. There’s really no middle ground. There’s not your truth, my truth, his truth, her truth—only THE Truth.

No, God–Don’t Go Away–I Want to Come Back!

“But I’m only one person—what difference can I make?” The only person you can control is you. Even that requires the grace of God, first for the awareness of our sinful habits and imperfections, and second for the ability to change to more virtuous behaviors. There are some things we simply can’t do on our own, no matter hard we try. We need Him. So, lean into God, spend time to build a deeper relationship with Him. Really get to know Him through prayer with Scripture. Open yourself up to His healing grace and let Him begin the healing process.  Through His healing and forgiveness, we each can become, with His grace, instruments of His. We can work for His greater glory and the salvation of other souls as well. There’s no time like now to look at where you’ve been, where you are, and where you are headed.

Pray for the grace to grow in virtue, and to be filled with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to help you. Through your grace-filled life, show others what it’s like to love God, to abide in Him, to live for Him, and His greater glory. Let your family members see what true Christian discipleship looks like. If you’re the head of a household, exercise your role–fulfill your responsibility–to lead your family to God. If you fall, (and we all will), get back up with God’s grace, and start over.

Pray for this country; pray or its leaders, and for its citizens. And pray for Holy Mother Church, our clergy and religious. Pray with a fervor as you’ve never prayed before.

“If I fail often, I will come to know my weakness ever more clearly, and, with peace of heart, I will promise to grow.” – Ven. Bruno Lanteri

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3 thoughts on “Go Away, God”

  1. Pingback: Go Away, God | ROMAN CATHOLIC TODAY

  2. Hold on God, I need you!

    Cancer is no easy battle and no amount of tears or spitefulness can cure it. Cancer is one battle that cannot be settled by swords. One fight that cannot be settled with angry words. One war that cannot be settled with violence. When fighting cancer the only ammunition you really have is your strength, your will power and your ability to hold on, keep your faith and pull through each and every day.

    What If Faith is Not Enough

    When reality finally hits you it hurts
    When the truth comes into focus it’s brutally painful.
    Hope isn’t always enough
    It’s not always a happy ending.
    What happens when faith is not enough?

    I get hot flashes
    My depression splashes
    My soul is cold like stone,
    the fear of being alone.

    So now I lay me down to sleep
    I pray you lord my soul to keep
    Don’t let me die before I wake
    I pray you lord my soul do not take.

    I barely have a past
    And may have no future
    —- Empty pages of a book
    —- A story left unwritten
    —- A life left unlived
    —- A hope left in the dust.
    Please don’t take me yet
    Your mercy you won’t regret
    I am down on my knees
    Begging you please
    Don’t take me away.

    At night I dream a misty graveyard
    A tombstone the name I cannot see
    A flashlight in the darkness
    A figure so lifeless I cannot breathe,
    Then I awake not as fearless as I may seem.

    If this is my future
    And if it comes to pass
    And this breath be my last
    Then this thought to you I cast.

    What if faith is not enough?
    Then life would be rather tough
    With nothing to believe in
    And nothing to justify
    Nothing to keep you sane
    Nothing to grasp when you fall
    You will have nothing,
    nothing at all.

    Sometimes that is how I am
    Falling in the darkness
    With nothing to take hold
    This feeling leaves me cold
    hearted, soulless, empty.
    All I feel is the pain of being unreal
    No one knows how this life feels,
    when you are so lifeless.

    So now I lay me down to cry
    I pray you lord you can’t let me die.
    Now I lay me down to sleep
    Close my eyes without a peep
    Never to be opened again.
    ———————————-
    More Poems about Faith

  3. Pingback: MONDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit

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