{"id":19529,"date":"2020-11-25T09:41:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T14:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19529"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:43:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T15:43:10","slug":"one-god-of-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19529","title":{"rendered":"One God of the Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Thomas Merton:<br>\nContemplation and Action<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>One\nGod of the Earth<\/strong><br>\nWednesday, \u202fNovember 25,\n2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4LZbvexG6Ec\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>One\nway that our growth in love becomes stuck is when we identify so much with our\ngroup or country that it replaces our faith in the One God of all. As we see in\npolitics in the United States, most people only know how to love people who are\nlike themselves with regard to their race, their nationality, their religion,\nor their political party. Thomas Merton especially warned about the phenomenon\nwe know in our day as \u201cChristian nationalism.\u201d When belief in country and\nreligion merge as one, the alternative way of Jesus takes a back seat. I invite\nyou to read Merton\u2019s challenging words with willing mind and heart:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A\n\u201cChristian nationalist\u201d is one whose Christianity takes second place, and\nserves to justify a patriotism in whose eyes the nation can do no wrong. In\nsuch a case, it becomes \u201cChristian faith\u201d and \u201cChristian heroism\u201d to renounce\neven one\u2019s Christian protest and to obey the dictates of the (unchristian)\nNation without question. Instead of that Christian independence which realizes\nthat the Nation itself may come under the higher judgment of God, there arises\nthe notion of a \u201cChristian\u201d obedience in which the faithful are urged to accept\nthe national purpose on the justification of any and every means. They renounce\nall judgment and choice in order to follow secular authority blindly since \u201cthe\nGovernment knows best.\u201d. . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ngreat question then is one of clarification. We can no longer afford to equate\nfaith with the acceptance of myths about our nation, our society, or our\ntechnology; to equate hope with a naive confidence in our image of ourselves as\nthe good guys against whom all the villains in the world are leagued in\nconspiracy; to equate love with a mindlessly compliant togetherness, a dimly\nlived and semi-radiant compulsiveness in work and play, invested by commercial\nartists with an aura of spurious joy. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard again:\nWhile we can be grateful for any freedoms and privileges protected by our\nnational governments, we cannot allow them to claim that they are themselves\nthe foundational source of those rights. That role belongs to God! Our love and\nrespect for human dignity must be extended to people of all nations, not just\nour own. I wrote this prayer almost ten years ago on the anniversary of the\nSeptember 11 attacks. We need the grace of universal solidarity to join the One\nGod in our ever-expanding love for the world: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God of all races, nations, and religions,<br> You know that we cannot change others,<br> Nor can we change the past.<br> But we can change ourselves.<br> We can join You in changing our only<br> And common future where Love \u201creigns\u201d<br> The same over all.<br> Help us not to say, \u201cLord, Lord\u201d to any nationalist gods,<br> But to hear the One God of all the earth,<br> And to do God\u2019s good thing for this One World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"288\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Screen-Shot-2020-11-25-at-10.40.15-AM-500x288.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19532\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Screen-Shot-2020-11-25-at-10.40.15-AM-500x288.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Screen-Shot-2020-11-25-at-10.40.15-AM-300x173.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Screen-Shot-2020-11-25-at-10.40.15-AM-768x442.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Screen-Shot-2020-11-25-at-10.40.15-AM.png 1976w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Merton: Contemplation and Action One God of the Earth Wednesday, \u202fNovember 25, 2020 One way that our growth in love becomes stuck is when we identify so much with our group or country that it replaces our faith in the One God of all. As we see in politics in the United States, most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19529"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19534,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19529\/revisions\/19534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}