When I was young, I heard the story of the little red hen. She wanted to make some bread, so she asked some of her barnyard animal friends to help her. The story goes through all the steps, from planting the wheat to baking bread. And at every step of work, her barnyard friends refused to help. Then she asked, "Who will help me eat my bread?" Of course, they all wanted to help, but she refused to let them. The moral was clear. If you aren't willing to do the work, don't expect to enjoy the rewards.
I work at a university. I was mulling over the strange fact that there are no students on campus this week; it's Spring Break. It used to be called "Easter Vacation". That was the origin of the week-long time away from school. It was to observe Holy Week. If you think about it, there is no rational explanation for Spring Break. The kids didn't get a break a month after coming to school in the Fall. They just came off Winter Break (which, of course, was originally called "Christmas Vacation"). They don't need the time off. But they get it because it is tradition. The same is true of Christmas time. They get a couple of weeks off school to celebrate ... well, nothing, really, because Christ has been banned from public schools.
It seems as if we didn't learn the lesson of the little red hen. We enjoy a great deal of benefits from Christianity. It was Christianity that spawned the United States. It was on the basis "inalienable rights" that were endowed by the Creator that this country was formed. It has been Christian morality that has maintained our form of government.
So, here we are, in 21st century America. We've decided we don't want to help plant wheat. We're not going to thresh the wheat. We're not even going to bake the bread. We're throwing the source of so many good things out the window as "bad religion." Still, we think it is our right to keep the good things without the basis on which we get them. We don't seem to realize that if we reject the basis of the blessings we enjoy, we will lose them.
It seems as if too many Americans never picked up the wisdom of one little red hen.
2 comments:
But people don't make the connection between our country's founding fathers' religious views and how the Constitution and Declaration of Independence came about. To them, religion is entirely a separate thing from politics. It doesn't actually influence what people do. Look at their neighbors--they go to church, maybe, but they aren't any different. And therein lies the problem. If we aren't salt & light, then the country decays. It's as true today as it was in David's day--"There is nothing new under the sun." (Eccl. 1:9)
The link between the two is being obliterated. I suspect it will be expensive for each successive generation ... if we last that long.
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