That foolish cow
Rev. James T. Bartsch, Flint Hills Community Church
Originally published 02:45 p.m., July 3, 2008
Updated 02:45 p.m., July 3, 2008
The other day, my wife and I were driving northward through the Flint Hills from Cassoday toward Matfield Green on Kansas Highway 177.
We have had an abundance of rain this spring. I commented that we would never see the pastures greener than they are right now. She agreed.
As we drove on, we spotted a cow grazing next to the fence. That cow was insane. She was straining to seize mouthfuls of grass through the fence! Behind her, meanwhile, were multiple acres of the lushest prairie grass anywhere in the nation. But that wasn’t good enough for her. She had to push her boundary, because the grass beyond the fence was obviously superior to the grass behind her!
How much like that foolish cow many of us Americans have become. God has blessed us with more natural resources, more good weather, more food, more freedom, more wealth, than any almost any other nation.
And we understood the source of those blessings. They came from God. We stated in our Declaration of Independence that God and His blessings were self-evident, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. ...” Since 1789 we taxpayers have paid the salaries of Christian chaplains for the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives. In 1845 we believed in a “manifest destiny ... allotted by Providence.” We printed “In God We Trust” on our coins and our currency. John Jay, one of the framers of our Constitution and the first Supreme Court Chief Justice, wrote, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” As late as June 14, 1954, President Eisenhower authorized the addition of the words “under God” to our national Pledge of Allegiance.
And yet, turning our back on God and his blessings, we have become like that foolish cow, straining to get outside our boundaries. We have excommunicated God and His standards from our science, our public schools, our public buildings, and most of our public discourse (except when abusing His name for emphasis). We look outside our nation for morality, manufacturing, natural resources, food, financing, energy, and the interpretation of our own Constitution.
One begins to wonder if all the problems we are facing, from flooding, to inflation, to soaring energy costs, to dysfunctional homes and education, to high-priced energy, to a sea of public and private red ink, are not somehow connected to our excommunication of the Almighty.
As Isaiah said, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way. ...” And then he recited the only known cure, “But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” May God help us to turn around and face Him, and acknowledge Him as the Source of all our blessings and as the Standard by which to exist as individuals and as a nation.
“Sunday Sermon” is a forum for Emporia area ministers to share their sermons, thoughts and observations. This week’s sermon is from James T. Bartsch, pastor of Flint Hills Community Church in Cottonwood Falls.
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Posted by Weltha (anonymous) on July 3, 2008 at 3:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
And we all said AMEN! Well put.
Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on July 3, 2008 at 7:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
On another thread there is a discussion about the current trend to abolish religious symbols and thought from the public square nothwithstanding our long history to the contrary. You have raised a different dimension of the same problem. Whether we are Christian or not, the fact that our nation was founded on Christian principles and the Ten Commandments (in our criminal and civil laws, etc.) lent itself to an orderly society. By applying these principles in the family and in schools, children learned to behave in a fashion that promoted a healthy society by accepting that living by the Ten Commandments was a good thing, even to those who did not believe. Isn't it interesting to see such a direct relationship to the rejection of Christian principles in the last two decades and the crumbling of our society? When morality (i.e., Christian principles) is no longer held in high regard, we should not be surprised at the increase in crime, in abused and neglected children, in gangs, in abortion as birth control and so on. How very sad.
Posted by MerkyWater (anonymous) on July 3, 2008 at 8:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
A vote for Obama will be your ticket to Heaven. Only Obama can fix all that is wrong with this country. Trust in him by electing him in November.
Posted by alfalfa (anonymous) on July 3, 2008 at 10:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Merky Water, will Obama make my hair grow back? Seems like he is the answer to every problem.
Posted by goodoleboy (anonymous) on July 4, 2008 at 9:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)
There are very good reasons for why America is in the state it is in currently. I can assure you that are have nothing to do with the belief structure of this nation. Church and government do not mix. We are the "melting pot" of the world and with that come many people with many different values and beliefs. The mere fact that we allude to god so much in our government now is hypocritical in nature and I fully expect to see it changed in our lifetime; it’s already started with what was mentioned above.
The world is a vastly different place than it was 25 years ago. Advances in technology have interconnected the world and brought everyone closer together on a global scale. This holds true for all aspects of business and private sector alike. Its not pushing boundaries, it’s exploring new opportunities and experiences which man has done since his/her inception.
While I do agree that the standards and principles that religion offers are a great moral guideline to live by I can in no way find that that the "excommunication" of god is responsible for the nation's problems. If that is what you want to believe then great, I'll agree to disagree.
Posted by alfalfa (anonymous) on July 4, 2008 at 10:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
In order for our nation to stay great, it has to have a moral compass. I cannot see what that would be without basic Christian principals. There are so many today who simply cringe at the idea that there might be a higher moral authority than man. I myself cringe at the idea that man might be the highest moral authority.
Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on July 4, 2008 at 10:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Sometimes we hear what we want to hear. I suppose that I am guilty of that, too. I never said that the "excommunication" of God is responsible for the decay of our society. That is a different subject. What I said was that abolishing Christian principles (morality, love thy brother as thyself, the Ten Commandments) as guiding beacons, whether we believe in God or not, has directly caused the collapse of our society. Since goodoleboy pointed out that these problems began when we abolished God in the schools, in government and in our day to day lives, I agree that there is a relationship there, too. However, my point was only that living by Christian principles, even for nonbelievers, lends itself to an orderly society.
Posted by goodoleboy (anonymous) on July 4, 2008 at 11:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I tend to agree with what you say Jayhawker, just not with the author of the above article, I feel he is way off on many points and the use of a "dumb cow" as a metaphor for what we have become like is laughable at best. This man is ill informed about a great many of the topics he speaks of. In the future I would like to see a little more thought out of a pastor than the basic premise that America is like "dumb cow", its a pathetic excuse for justifying his beliefs.
Posted by alfalfa (anonymous) on July 4, 2008 at 11:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If I were to take religion completely out of this and give my idea of one reason America has many of the problems it has, I would say it is our failure as a nation (both elected officials and voters) to think long term, beyond the next year or two.
Our current gas price situation is a perfect example. 30 years ago we had the first "energy crisis". That should have been our wake up call to do something. I guess what the something is depends on who you are, whether it was drilling in new regions of our own nation, a push to get away from oil for power, whatever, it was a wakeup call.
We got a band aid solution, and for the last 30 years it appears to me have done everything we could to bring this on ourselves. Just 10 years ago oil in Kansas was hovering in the $8-$14 per barrel range. Alot of wells were shut down during that time, and there was no incentive for oil producers to do anything beyond try to survive. The consumer didn't care though, because they had cheap gas. No one bothered to think that many more marginal wells could not be produced for that price, and that there was no money for exploration in "non sensitive" areas.
So, we kept on tightening the screws on our domestic producers(they aren't all millionaires you know), took away all incentive to explore in our own nation, slapped ever more burdensome taxes and environmental regulations on existing wells, and enjoyed cheap gas. When it was cheap, nobody cared where it came from. To make matters worse, we didn't allow any new refineries to be built, and put whole new areas off limits to oil production.
Whatever your opinion on where to drill or if to drill, whether oil is the future or has no future, the truth is, if we had voters and a government more willing to look down the road beyond the next paycheck or next election, many of the problems of today could have been averted. Now what about the problems of tomorrow??
Posted by gayzettesux (anonymous) on July 5, 2008 at 6:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh you crazy christians. Hopefully one day they'll find a cure for your unexplainable insanity and you'll see the truth.
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