c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Let’s do the season of Lent differently this year. How about a “Star-Spangled Lent”?

We need one. For we Americans are on a collision course with each other and with the world that 40 days of penitence and self-examination might help us to manage better.

Let’s start by attending events that begin with the national anthem, as did two recent concerts in my area, one by the North Carolina All-State Orchestra for high school youth, the other by the Durham Symphony Orchestra. People rose to their feet, placed right hand over heart and sang along.

The national anthem isn’t a Christian hymn, of course, which is a good starting point for Lenten reflection: Patriotism isn’t defined by religion. Patriotism is about love of country, and that love, like the love of God, is open to all, not just those who hold certain religious beliefs.

Look around at who is singing. All sorts and conditions, all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, the American melting pot on its feet celebrating the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” No partisan cause or political party can claim to own that devotion.

For our Lenten discipline this year, I encourage the usual disciplines: self-examination, change of mind, prayer, fasting, self-denial, reading Scripture. I add one more: reading a newspaper. Every day, cover to cover, not just obituaries, sports and comics. With only 52 percent of Americans reading daily newspapers, we run the risk of being under-informed and therefore at risk.

Unless we seek out the news, we won’t know what is at stake in the president’s visit to India, or efforts to close torture-plagued Guantanamo, or hearings on the National Security Agency’s domestic spying, or why we have competing reports on Katrina, or the state of our economy, or South Dakota’s effort to force a Supreme Court showdown on abortion.

Those aren’t necessarily religious issues, nor are they issues on which religion points to a single conclusion. But issues like those reflect our values, and religion has something to say about values like freedom, justice, honesty, humility and servanthood.

I suggest we carry that concern over to Sunday morning. This isn’t a time for sweet stories about floods and ancient trials. The Lenten readings concern what God wants of us and how Jesus suffered. We need to consider our covenant with God and what it means to be forgiven and loved more than we deserve. We need to consider our testing in the wilderness of power, wealth and corrupted loyalties, and are we _ as a nation, as citizens, as participants in a complex economy _ remotely close to how Jesus handled that testing?

We need to be informed about what Scripture actually says and what Christians ethics is about. Politicians routinely claim that their ideologies and actions are true to “Christian values.” We need to consider whether they are telling the truth or just using our lingo to grab power.

As I envision it, a “Star-Spangled Lent” wouldn’t necessarily take a Republican or Democratic posture. Reasonable and faithful people will disagree on virtually everything. For our disagreement to be anything more than shouting, however, we need to talk with each other about our nation, our communities and our place in a brawling world. Some concerns we will take to the ballot box; some we will incorporate into our daily decisions about family, work and resources. All, I hope, we will offer up to God.

Our democracy, you see, depends on an informed electorate that is free in discussion, energetic in service, humble in resolving differences, and passionate about creating a shared space where all have value and opportunity. Those are spiritual values, too.

MO/PH END RNS

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, consultant and leader of workshops. His book, “Just Wondering, Jesus: 100 Questions People Want to Ask,” was published by Morehouse Publishing. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. His Web site is http://www.onajourney.org.)

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