Back in 1966, Time Magazine asked, “Is God Dead,” on its cover. Buried on Page 146 of a 300+ page Sunday New York Times on January 9th, 1966 is an article on the “God is Dead” movement within certain circles of liberal Protestant theology which even many liberal Protestants were skeptical about. At the bottom is a liturgy they say was used in a chapel service at a small denominational college in the South, which they did not name. At the conclusion of the liturgy, the Chorus says, “Your God is Dead. He died in the darkness of your image. He died because he grew ill from your dreams of salvation. He died because you held his hand too tightly. God is dead.” This article, despite being buried in the massive pages of the Sunday paper, was no less talked about.
This was built on the work of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who asserted that the Enlightenment had eliminated the possibility of the existence of God. The Time magazine issue that asked the question if God was dead wrestled with the notion that modern science seemed to have eliminated the need for religion to explain the natural world, meaning that God was taking up less and less space in peoples’ daily lives.
However, one who watched the recent Northwest Tower Choir performance at Conception Abbey Sunday can’t help but wonder the opposite – God is alive and well in the hearts of many. The Choir, conducted by Dr. Stephen Town of Northwest, who has taught there since 1986, and accompanied on the organ by Dr. Sean Vogt, Director of Choral Activities at Clayton State (GA), performed eight different choral works, all based on the Psalms and other parts of the Bible and all glorifying the things of God. There were people of all ages who attended.
One such work performed was, “God Omnipotent Reigneth.” Based on Psalm 93, it reads:
God omnipotent reigneth, clad in apparel bright,
Sovereign King he remaineth, girded about with might;
By him the world alone immutably was grounded;
In heaven hath he his throne, from everlasting foundeth.
Ocean billow and breaker uplift the voice of pride;
But their mightier maker governeth wind and tide;
His laws and sure decree of holiness are telling;
Which evermore shall be sole inmate of his dwelling.
All other hymns that were sung were in the same vein. The choir performed on the same level as the concerts you hear on NPR sometimes.
Given events like the situation in Ukraine, the riots following the George Floyd death, the events of January 6th, and other events like it, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is no political solution to our problems. Certain politicians proclaim that they alone can solve our problems. Certain other politicians demand you vote for them if you want to keep the Big Bad Wolf on the other side of the ballot who is committing various evil unforgivable atrocities out of power. Much political discourse has degraded to the point where “my” side is right, “your” side is bad, and “you” are a bad person if you disagree with me and are quite possibly a Nazi or a Communist as well, depending on which ideology you think is the ultimate evil.
The solutions to our problems are not political, but spiritual. People have lost sight of right and wrong. There is the widespread belief in political circles, for instance, that war is right as long as the right politicians are dropping the bombs. But if the other side is the one dropping the bombs, then war is bad and needs to be stopped, and the person who ordered the war is a war criminal who deserves to be hauled off to The Hague to face war crimes charges.
Don’t get me wrong. We have a civic duty to vote, even if it is a vote to reject politicians who contribute to the chaos in favor of one who would do less harm. Or a vote to reject the two party system altogether. But we can no longer stick our heads in the sand and proclaim that our side is good and beyond all criticism while the other side is bad. Dissent is an essential tool of our democracy and is necessary to generate the conversations needed to move our country forward. We’re happy to run the columns of our local legislators and cover their campaigns, but the politicians that earn my vote are the ones who have the honesty to admit that they don’t have all the answers and who try to bring us together, not tear us apart.
The problem is that the explosion of knowledge that accompanied the Enlightenment has not only pushed out God, it has pushed out the search for the True and the Good. We must return to that in our education and in our thinking. But as long as there are people who are inspiring our young people to long for the true and the good, and as long as there are young people who are taking it and running with it, there is still hope in the world. No, God is not dead.
Back in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s, schools were hotbeds of learning and the search for the true and the good. We talked to the late Myrtle Risser and Icle Young, both good friends and neighbors. They both told us of the love that people in our one room schools had for each other, and how the older kids would take it on themselves to help out the younger kids so that everyone would learn. The politicians felt threatened by that, which is why there was so much rampant school consolidation and the accompanying decline of small towns.
The goal should not be indoctrination, either political or religious. The goal should be to get students to think for themselves, to start their own search for the true and the good, and to think beyond themselves. Conformity of thought is an impossibility; for instance, there was dissent in Nazi Germany and in Soviet Russia despite all their attempts to stamp it out.
Yes, subjects like reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and other such subjects are important. Sports and activities are important as well. But so are music and drama and art. When Jim Spiers was the music and drama teacher at Worth County, he was able to reach students that nobody else could. People like drama teacher Nanci Drury and current music teacher Caleb Smith are the same way. Many other teachers in the area are the same way, inspiring kids to choose the true and the good. Last spring at one of the ballgames, we were talking to three different seniors about what their plans for the future were, and one of them told us, “We like helping other people.”
If we in the media are to help heal the country and the world, then we need to be the same way. People like Dr. Stephen Town, organist Dr. Sean Vogt, and Tower Choir students Meghan Feeney, Aubrey Peterson, Kierra Shelby, Sydney Stewart, Sarah Clayton, Kaitlynn Daniels, Stephanie Houlette, Nikki Stueve, Sarah Horseman, Mary Roth, Kenzie Terhune, Jana Hinds, Miranda Mason, Katie McCollum, Elijah Katsion, Ross Rummelhart, Mason Ward, Isaac Gillespie, Jackson Parrish, Sam Stuteville, Jacob Fetter, Logan Paul, Brett Wilson, Joseph Ford, Joshua Ratley, and Alex Reid are much more deserving of coverage and recognition for inspiring the rest of us, regardless of our faith, than the politicians who try to bring us down and play us off against each other to push an agenda which only benefits the rich and powerful.
