Sanctuary

I'm sitting here at a Theravedan Buddhist monastery enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.  Historically, churches have been a place of peace and refuge, but these days this is the only place of sanctuary I have found where I am welcome.  It's sad that churches seem to have lost their way over the centuries particularly in the last couple of generations.  So much of the kindness and caring has turned into just another big business.

In the late 1950s, the words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance to distinguish the USA from the godless communists of the Soviet Union.  Since then our society has not only become non-religious, but actively anti-religious.  While there have been a large number of horrible things done in the name of religion, it has also provided us with a moral and ethic basis to reach the success we are enjoying today.  Along with the loss of religious beliefs, we are seeing a precipitous decline of Western society.  Maybe they are connected or maybe not.  Personally, I think they are connected, I think we have lost our way and our dedication to something greater than the individual.

I can't say that I know what to do about this situation, but the problem has become so acutely obvious that it's a significant part of my motivation to go to seminary and try to do a little bit of good in the world.