This morning I ran a 10K race and did well. It was about 10,000 people and I finished in about 50 minutes. 6.2 miles and 50 minutes - above 8 minutes. OK, so I am not a very fast runner. But, I was the picture of consistency. I ran faster on the second half than the first.
When I got home we had "family church", as we have taken to calling it. During that time I explained to Aidan and Liam (Tara and Jonah were doing something else) that one of the sponsors of the race was "Save the Female Child" campaign, which seeks to address the problem of abortion as a means of gender selection. I explained about how female babies for many Indians were seen as being less valuable than male babies, and how this is a symptom of a much larger problem. Then I applied this to the Galatians 3:28 which says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The idea I was imparting was that having diminished value for women flies entirely against our Christian teachings.
As an aside, it is an interesting dilemma for some people on the left - are they more dedicated to the freedom of a woman to choose to have an abortion, or to gender equity? I think even the most rabid pro-choice person finds abhorrent the idea that gender alone would cause a woman to end the life of her baby. I don't mean to imply otherwise. It's just a thought....
Anyway.....
Living in India has made a huge impression on us froma spiritual perspective. Although our faith is a small minority in a sea of Hinduism and Islam, it is growing, and where it exists it has a vitality that is uncommon in the US. But even Hinduism, Jainism, and Islam have lessons for a Christian. Here's what I mean.
Faith is a very public facet of life here. The idea that faith is a private matter to be left out of public life is very non-Indian. To see facets of spiritual belief in every nook and cranny of India is the norm. Spirituality is anything but a private affair. Be it the calls to prayer five times a day, the seemingly endless flow of Hindu festivals, Jain ascetics walking the streets naked (yes, we have seen this more than once), or religious declarations emblazoned on the back of rickshaws, there is a consistent visibility of faith here. Even if we do not concede anything about the validity of the faiths in question, we have found it inspiring to see that India's day-to-day life and spiritual beliefs are so intertwined.
If the US develops a common life which is functionally secular in the common areas we will become a very sad place indeed. If we develop a common space where it is mandated that faith be disregarded, ignored, quited, dismissed, and altogether absent, we will have lost the vitality that makes us a special place. Our common life is *exactly* the place where the big questions need to be asked and explored, despite the age-old rubric which says that polite conversations does not include politics or religion. In India, all public questions are asked and wrestled with within the context of belief. Despite the fact that it can be rancorous, and even dangerous at times, to have faith such a central part of life, it is also noble and inspiring. I think this openness to faith is the precise reason that faith in Christ is growing here so rapidly.
The counterpoint to my idea may be that the US is becoming increasingly plural and multi-faceted in its faith communities. India addresses that concern, as well. India has the ultimate melange of faiths - there are Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddhists and a variety of other communities living together in relative peace. I cannot say that the country is without its tensions and sectarian violence. But with a billion people of such varied economic levels and spiritual beliefs, it is remarkably peaceful.
We went to Jonah's school the other day for an assembly (you can see the picture on a blog entry from the last week or so). During this assembly there was singing. One of the songs in the homemade song book was "Morning Has Broken", one of my favorite hymns. It was in a setting which is made up overwhelmingly of non-Christians and secular Europeans. It was ironic to me that this hymn was in front of us in school located in a land where Christians make up 2% of the population yet in the US it would have almost certainly been absent from a song book, or it might have been present, but eventually met with a complaint from a parent who was offended by it.
May our lives be enriched by the Truth, and may that Truth be evident in the US from coast to coast.
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Morning has broken,
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird;
Praise for the singing,
Praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing
Fresh from the Word.
Sweet the rain's new fall,
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall
On the first grass;
Praise for the sweetness,
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where His feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight,
Mine is the morning,
Born of the one light
Eden saw play;
Praise with elation,
Praise every morning,
God's re-creation
Of the new day.
