Today’s Life-Line is:

[Americans] live by the grace of an unacknowledged inheritance from a rich godfather. The “civil” in our civilization was created by generations whose religious institutions taught them that the golden rule and the inalienable rights of citizens were ordained by God. Civic religion inculcated virtues of care for our neighbor and sacrifice for the common good. But our inheritance is running out.

It is doubtful that the imperatives springing from modern secularism can create a civil community. How can a consumer economy justify sacrifice, generosity, and the commitment of time and energy to nurture the young? In a culture that worships efficiency, speed, profit, and consumption, where do we get the mandate to love one another, to feel compassion toward those who are sick, unemployed, homeless, or old (i.e., “useless”)? I can’t help wondering if the idea of a secular civilization is an oxymoron, a failed dream of the Enlightenment.

Without some vision of the sacred, what will be the source of compassion, sacrifice, and mutual care, without which there can be no commonwealth? How will we discover values that transcend the selfish interests of the ego, the family, the tribe, the corporation, and the nation? How will we learn compassion for a stranger? Where will we get that sense of reverence for life that is the cornerstone of the desire to preserve our environment? Where shall we look?

~ San Keen

Artwork: Fritz Eichenberg, Christ of the Breadlines