By Jim Denison
I’m old enough to remember a day when most people trusted the authority figures in their lives. When employees respected the companies they served, fans believed in sports heroes, and communities esteemed bankers and scientists and elected leaders.
That was then, this is now. At this writing Washington is polarized over immigration reform and over financial reform after a win-lose showdown on health care. Toyota, once the most trusted automotive brand in the world, is recalling yet another vehicle. Ben Roethlisberger has shoved Tiger Woods from the sports-scandal headlines, at least for now. Larry King is going through his eighth divorce, this time from his seventh wife (he remarried one of his former spouses and later divorced her again). The surprising part of all this to me is that none of it is surprising.
Paul Johnson, writing in a recent issue of Forbes magazine, compares current attitudes regarding bankers, scientists and politicians to the prevailing sentiment a generation ago. There was a time, he reminds us, when a bank president was an esteemed leader in the community, a person who helped create prosperity and direct the progress of the city. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, many bankers are associated with greed, recklessness, and incompetence.
Scientists were once white-robed “secular saints” whose proclamations were trusted as truth. Now, as the climate-change debate rages, skeptics of global warming are sharpening their rhetoric. Johnson speaks for many: “The image of the scientist who puts the pursuit of truth before anything else has been shattered and replaced by a man on the make or a quasi-religious enthusiast who wants to prove his case at any cost. Science is becoming the tool of campaigning warfare, in which truth is the first casualty.”
I write a weekday devotional essay based on the morning news; our ministry then e-mails it to 17,000 subscribers. Recently, I responded to Earth Day with two essays on the basic facts of climate change as I understand them. A small number of readers were highly offended. One replied, “I can’t believe you are swallowing that hogwash.” A second advised, “your recent sermons would be more appropriate in a Unitarian church.” One responder had a somewhat different slant: “Hopefully, Jesus will return before any of this stuff gets critical. Then things will get REALLY BAD for a few years.” There’s your devotional thought for the day.
Political leaders were once admired and respected by those they led. A recent poll asked Americans to name our five greatest presidents. Their answers, in order: Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and George Washington. Each of them was connected in some way to a sense of America’s prestige and “manifest destiny.” These days, when a politician calls a press conference to admit a moral failure, no one is shocked.
In such chaotic and conflicted times, the peace Christ gives may be our most persuasive witness. Do you know the story of John Wesley’s conversion? While on a voyage to evangelize the American Indians, he came to admire the Moravian Brethren who shared his ship. On Sunday, January 25, 1736, the most violent storm they had yet encountered threatened to swamp their vessel. The main sail was shredded while the sea poured in between the decks. Most passengers screamed in terror. The Brethren calmly sang a hymn of worship.
Wesley recorded in his journal what came next. “I asked them afterwards, ‘Was you not afraid?’ He answered, ‘I thank God, no.’ I asked, ‘But were not your women and children afraid?’ He replied mildly, ‘No; our women and children are not afraid to die.” Their peace was the catalyst God used to bring Wesley to transforming faith.
In talking with anxious people about these troubled times, I often find myself recommending this admonition: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). With this promise: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (v. 7).
It’s not safe to sail the storms of these days without such peace. Who is listening to the song of your heart today?