Are Shopping Centres …so say the many.
And they would be right.
When Anne and I head off for church on Sunday we often remark on how busy the roads are. In the past, Sunday morning traffic was light at best but now it varies little …perhaps it is even more than on regular weekdays.
And for the most part, these travellers are not off to Church; rather, they are off to shop.
Sadly, Secularism and not Spiritualism is the watchword of our time.
And that brings me back to the events that have unfolded in Boston Massachusetts over the course of the last several days.
When all was done and the all clear whistle sounded, the good denizens of Boston did not flock to their nearby churches and synagogues for comfort, rather they headed to the Boston Red Sock’s Stadium to come together as a community in one large group hug.
In years gone by, in the face of such evil, congregations would gather to sing How Great Though Art, but this week at Boston Stadium the songs ricocheted off the score board were Sweet Caroline and of course their National Anthem.
There was not much room for God in their zeal to mend.
That is not to say the group hug at the Red Sock’s Stadium was a bad thing since truth be told I would have loved to have been part of it. It is just that this reaction to evil without including a Spiritual dimension, seems hollow.
Spirituality itself can be misused as exemplified by the two young militant terrorists. They, like countless others of their comrades in arms, have distorted one of the World’s great Religions for their own selfish mean-spirited purposes.
We in the West on the other hand have turned away on mass from the Greatest World Religion…Christianity. It is a Religion of Love, Kindness and Forgiveness and in it we would find the strength to persevere against our adversaries.
And without Christianity, it comes down to Secular vs. Misguided Spiritual.
As to the outcome of that struggle, your guess is a good as mine.
As I see it …
‘K.D. Galagher’
