Do you remember the story of Jonah? He was the prophet who ran away rather than tell the people of Nineveh that God was angry at them, and then got swallowed by a whale. Realizing that he could not escape his mission:
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,"
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth...
http://www.usccb.org/nab/030806.shtml
We have many prophets these days, telling us that America will be destroyed. We will nuke Iran, and Russia will retaliate, and there will be all-out nuclear war. Or the United Arab Emirates will open our ports to suicide bombers and dirty nuclear suitcases. Or the artificially sustained economy will crash under the weight of graft and war, and we will be plunged into a depression that will make the 30's seem like a picnic. Or global warming will raise sea levels and swamp all the major coastal cities, which hold the majority of the world's population. And on and on.
Do we believe our prophets? We should.
Americans have much to repent of. We have tolerated, and continue to tolerate, a government that spends our hard-earned tax dollars destroying Iraq, a country that has not harmed or even threatened us, an administration that disappears and tortures people all around the world, that lies, cheats and murders with impunity. We tolerate the Bush regime because we continue to be physically comfortable, while our moral corruption grows and grows.
Where is our sackcloth? How many of us showed solidarity with the Muslim community by fasting for Ramadan? Where is our repentance, our heart?
Perhaps we believe, deep in our hearts, that the rapture vultures are correct and that we are doomed, so might as well enjoy the spoils while we can. Yet, if we use the gifts God has given us, our intelligence, our common sense, our sense of justice, our Constitution which states that ultimate authority rests with "we the people", we can yet turn things around.
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
He repented of the evil that He had threatened to do to them;
He did not carry it out.
http://www.usccb.org/nab/030806.shtml
I don't know what sins Nineveh committed, but surely ours are much worse. Many prophets are warning us, and we ignore them. We Americans have turned our backs on the rest of the world, and they are judging us for it.
(Jesus said) At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here."
http://www.usccb.org/nab/030806.shtml
Let us repent, before it is too late. Let us acknowledge that "we the people" have ultimate authority and responsibility for the actions of the Bush cabal. Let us clean out our government, and install honest folk who will represent the people, the planet, and future generations.
In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,"
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth...
http://www.usccb.org/nab/030806.shtml
We have many prophets these days, telling us that America will be destroyed. We will nuke Iran, and Russia will retaliate, and there will be all-out nuclear war. Or the United Arab Emirates will open our ports to suicide bombers and dirty nuclear suitcases. Or the artificially sustained economy will crash under the weight of graft and war, and we will be plunged into a depression that will make the 30's seem like a picnic. Or global warming will raise sea levels and swamp all the major coastal cities, which hold the majority of the world's population. And on and on.
Do we believe our prophets? We should.
Where is our sackcloth? How many of us showed solidarity with the Muslim community by fasting for Ramadan? Where is our repentance, our heart?
Perhaps we believe, deep in our hearts, that the rapture vultures are correct and that we are doomed, so might as well enjoy the spoils while we can. Yet, if we use the gifts God has given us, our intelligence, our common sense, our sense of justice, our Constitution which states that ultimate authority rests with "we the people", we can yet turn things around.
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
He repented of the evil that He had threatened to do to them;
He did not carry it out.
http://www.usccb.org/nab/030806.shtml
I don't know what sins Nineveh committed, but surely ours are much worse. Many prophets are warning us, and we ignore them. We Americans have turned our backs on the rest of the world, and they are judging us for it.
(Jesus said) At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here."
http://www.usccb.org/nab/030806.shtml
Let us repent, before it is too late. Let us acknowledge that "we the people" have ultimate authority and responsibility for the actions of the Bush cabal. Let us clean out our government, and install honest folk who will represent the people, the planet, and future generations.
In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman
