“Americans are a religious people. 90% of us believe in God, 70% affiliate themselves with an organized religion, 38% call themselves committed Christians. Substantially more people in America believe in angels than they do in evolution. This religious tendency is not simply the result of successful marketing by skilled preachers or the draw of popular megachurches. In fact, it speaks to a hunger that is deeper than that, a hunger that goes deeper than any particular issue or cause. Each day it seems, that thousands of Americans who are going about their daily rounds–they’re dropping off their kids, they’re driving to the office, they’re flying to a business meeting, they’re shopping at the mall, they’re trying to stay on their diets–and they’re coming to the realization that something’s missing. They’re deciding that their work, their possessions, their diversions, their sheer business is not enough. They want a sense of purpose, a narrative arc to their life; they’re looking to relieve a chronic loneliness, a feeling supported by a recent study that shows Americans have fewer close friends and confidants than ever before, and so they need assurance that someone out there cares about them, is listening to them. That they are not just destined to travel down that long highway towards nothingness.”
On a related note, Frank Schaeffer writes on The Huffington Post why he’s Pro-Life and Pro-Obama.
Curse you Hawkins! I’ve been sitting on that quote for weeks (well, more accurately in the form of the audio of the entire speech). I’ve just been waiting for the right moment to post it.
Now I must wait longer!