Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Pearl Harbor Day

A day that will live in infamy. That's the way Franklin D. Roosevelt described what happened 63 years ago today. In many ways, it was an event that changed the world. It united our country like perhaps nothing else ever has. Gas was rationed. Tires were rationed. A number of foods were as well. No cars were built during the war years. War bonds were sold to finance the war. Factories -- nearly overnight -- were turned from manufacturing consumer goods to manufacturing military goods. Husbands and wives were separated for extended periods of time. A nation pulled together for the common good.

Contrast that with what happened only three years ago. We were attacked. More lives lost (civilian lives, mind you) than were lost at Pearl Harbor. We face an enemy who thinks they are pleasing God by killing the infidel (that's us, by the way). And yet, those events have divided us rather than united us.

Why? What's the difference? Could it be that we are just too spoiled today? Could it be that we expect instant gratification? Because the same attitudes that are playing out on a national scale also are being seen in our churches. Rather than pulling together to promote the kingdom of God against the spread of Islam, we're biting and devouring our own. Churches are dividing like an amoeba.

Thank God for a generation that was willing to sacrifice for the common good! I pray that somehow their ideals will rub off on us.

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