Prayer

And now we come to the end... It's been quite the semester. I have learned quite a lot about our society, and have formed relationships with some of its newest members. I am now about to step out of the bubble of my private Christian liberal arts school, and into the world of the rich and the poor, the homeless and the mansion-dwellers, the hungry and the over-fed, the successful, the hopeful, the well-established... and the failures, the hopeless, and the immigrants. I will graduate from a hugely expensive university with little but a tiny scrap of paper to show for it (which society tells me that I need), and the learning which that paper represents (which is of much more value. Priceless, in fact).
America, to me, means consumerism, a house in the suburbs, and a life in the rat race. It also means exploitation of the 3rd world, atrocities carried out in the name of democracy, and a military force larger than that of the rest of the world combined. Sorry for the judgment and cynicism. I realize that other countries would probably be no better if they had as much power as we... All of that to say; I think the best way to end this series of blogs is with a prayer.

May God lead us away from arrogance and hypocrisy and towards humility. May God give us the strength to give up our greed and spread the wealth to those who truly need it. May America give up the idolatry of Nationalism and instead seek the God of Truth who shows up in the faces of our brothers and sisters all over the world. May we move away from individualism and toward community, building relationships of love with those we used to ignore or despise. May we pull away from our television sets long enough to recognize and respond to the ill-effects of the non-committal sex and mindless violence with which our culture is unhealthily saturated. May we be a people who seek justice for the poor and helpless. May we learn to love laughter and peace. May we lead the way in laying down our weapons (or turning them into farm equipment). May my skepticism be proven wrong.
Amen.

Would America still be America without War?

by: Sarah

I'm driving through town and I see an American flag at half mast. Why? The word on the street is that a soldier died today. Someone local. There is a sense of mourning and heaviness in those words. Even if I didn't know him, I feel this loss.

How many bumper stickers have you seen on the topic of war. Cafepress has 38,800 war related bumper stickers for sale. When was the last time you bought a newspaper that didn't have at least one article on the topic of war? Google "Support our troops merchandise" This is making money. One website even has a "Patriotic Gazebo Decorating Kit"

What would happen if ever our country wasn't at war? There is so much time and money spent on war endeavors from the national level to little jelly bracelets saying, "Support our Troops". Where would all that money go? What would we do with all that time and energy? Is war at the heart of America?

John Lennon sang "All we are saying, is give peace a chance" . But what if we actually did? Brush aside all those doubts of if that could ever happen and think about it for a moment. We have such a momentum on the topic of war. What if that topic no longer existed. What would we talk about? Write about? Make bracelets and gazebo decorating kits about?

Would we need to redefine "America"? What would you say?