Will America find a moral compass?

The United States was never meant to be a Christian nation. Our founders envisioned a secular state in which religion would be pursued with complete freedom. Government was to operate under a constitution that laid out the rules of the game. The interpretation of our constitution has been an exciting exercise for nearly two and a half centuries. In our pursuit of a more perfect union, we have amended our Constitution several times, and I suspect more amendments will be made as we continue our history.

Setting the rules by which we play our national game is of great importance, but a companion exercise must be played if we are to achieve our potential.

Inevitably our nation must define the underlying values that will direct the work of our elected officials. This is a role that has historically been played by religious people, primarily by Christians. Religious people successfully brought their values to the table at the founding of the nation. Religious people and organizations have reappeared in times of stress and trial. Notable examples are the role they played to end slavery and the role they played to bring full rights first to women and then to African Americans. In the past, religious people have shown their ability to shape the conscience of the nation.

In preparing to write this column, I was prompted by an article in Christian Century magazine to review a book that I had read more than 25 years ago. Robert Bellah and others wrote “Habits of the Heart” in the mid-1980s. In it is a section that is titled “The Public Good, The Uncompleted American Quest.” America has always given lip-service to equality, but our record falls far short of measuring up to the standard that we have set for ourselves.

James Madison, one of the chief architects of the U.S. Constitution, wrote, “The public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is the supreme object to be pursued.” Madison recognized that for America to achieve its promise, it had to maintain a public virtue. It is a virtue that cannot be captured or insured by a written document such as the U.S. Constitution. Religion had the power to supply that public virtue.

The United States is at a crossroads in its history. We are at a pinnacle of world influence. We are an empire with unparalleled wealth and power. The premise of this column is that as America has attained its place as the world empire, public virtue has weakened to a point of impotence.

I recently noted a cartoon by William Haefeli. It catches the essence of our dilemma. Four adults are in the midst of dinner conversation. One is saying, “I’m in the market for an easier religion.” The easy religion for which he is looking will never provide moral direction for our nation.

The ’60s and ’70s could have been American Christianity’s finest hour, but it was not. The nation was experiencing social fruit basket upset.

America was fighting a senseless war. War protests seemed chaotic. Racism was challenged. Women demanded their full partnership in society. Patriarchal marriage was battered. The seeds of gay rights began to sprout. With the exception of the Black church under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., the social revolution that took place found little moral direction from ministers and churches. Ministers and churches failed to respond to the challenge. Churches escaped the public chaos into a message of personal salvation. Personal salvation was enhanced by the ecstatic experiences of Pentecostalism. High-tech entertainment was added to the churches’ tool bag. Passion for the public good was lost in the process.

In retrospect, during the last half of the 20th century, while Billy Graham was filling the world’s largest stadiums and televangelists were dominating our television screens, the moral sensitivities of our nation were turned over to the pursuits of the super rich and the rule of giant corporations. Neither operated with the restraint of conscience. Wealth and power guided their operation.

The yet unresolved recent economic crisis in America is the fruit of our folly. At the center of the crisis were corporations that were “too big to fail.” From the perspective of a government without virtue, it had no choice but to bail out the most selfish and corrupt influences that have ever threatened the nation. Corporations by definition have no soul and no ethic beyond the bottom line of profit. As corporations have evolved in America, people are no longer in charge of corporations. Corporations are in control of people, who have become nothing more than puppets on corporate strings.

Scandalously, most of America’s religious leaders and institutions have remained silent and have become duplicitous in America’s moral and ethical demise. They should know better! The core ethical message of the Jewish and Christian scriptures is very clear. Our moral well-being demands that we answer “yes” to the question “am I my brother’s keeper?” The Old Testament laws of hospitality demand that we provide for the vulnerable. The needs of sojourners, widows, orphans, the blind, the lame and the poor are a part of the public common good.

I would like to lay the blame on large corporations and on those who have bought into their riches for the rich scheme. However, the real blame falls to religious institutions and leaders who have abandoned the nation’s need for public virtue. Unless we regain our moral compass, our founders’ dream of a nation built on the common good will be a dream that died.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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