What a great demonic ocean of darkness still holds sway in the world, in existence.
Where, indeed, is God in a world traumatized by natural disaster and disease and destruction? Where is Jesus’ delivering “moral arc” when millions of humans wreak havoc, harm, and slaughter?
Sure, sometimes in the midst of the suffering and the shame, a rainbow of justice, mercy, and truth does spangle the moral sky.
When Martin Luther King Jr. took up Theodore Parker’s statement for one of his anti-segregation articles in 1958 and later heralded out the prophecy in one of his famous speeches,
all heaven did begin to break loose in U.S.
And America has never been the same.
People, millions of individuals, were changed. Justice and mercy kissed, however briefly.
Yes, King’s witness for God’s love in Jesus, the Chosen, did help transform so much of how we thought and how we acted in the 1950s and 60s.
Except, of course,Wrong has lashed back since. While there is less overt racism now—thank Divine Love and human freedom and the great leaders of the Civil Rights Movement—YET so much other havoc and hell now
wrecks destruction upon many millions.
Almost 50 years after King’s ethical speeches, the condition, overall, of African-Americans is worse today. For instance, in 2013, 72% of African-American infants are born to single unwed mothers!
Where are the husbands? Where are the fathers?
WHERE?
As bad as life was back in 1965, only 24% of African-American babies were born outside of a marriage covenant then.
WHY the drastic change downward?
Currently, young African American men are nearly 6 times as likely to die from homicide as Caucasian young men. Why?
Since the start of the Afghan War, 2000 Americans have died in Afghanistan, but over 5,000 have died in Chicago!
Can’t we get a heart? Can’t God hear our cry? Doesn’t God weep?
How has Martin Luther King’s great moral dream turned into a frightful nightmare?
Even becoming religious or spiritual doesn’t necessarily seem to help. On the contrary, sometimes being a Christian appears to make matters worse. Consider that the Barna Research Group found “born-again Christians divorce more often than non-Christians,” and that Atheists have “the lowest divorce rate.”
So do we need to abandon faith to increase the moral arc?!
Let’s not even look at all the other worse destruction in the world and around the rest of the globe, especially not in the abysses of the East or Africa.
Indeed, why does the rough beast always slouch through humankind endlessly?
For the last 50,000 years at least, humans have been faced with ethical choice—with the spiritual battle between good and evil.
At this point, most readers will probably now expect this long article (in 4 parts) to give a quick spiritual and biblical fix to all this endless horror of many thousands of years. That’s how religious reflections usually end—with a sure confident answer to why God hasn’t brought the Good News to triumph, why the words of Revelation at the end of Scripture haven’t come to pass, why so often faith drastically fails, actually destroys, and utterly so.
Check out these words from the last chapter of the Bible: “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord...
That was 2,000 years ago! Many horrendous bloodletting centuries ago. Billions of humans have suffered and died.
Too long.
Have You been our dwelling place in all generations?
To be continued
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
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