How to start curing America’s ills?
America is beleaguered by a public health crisis of loneliness and isolation. Studies continue to find that virtually every sector of American society feels lonely and experiences isolation. Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, shared in his 2023 advisory report Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation that “people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, from every corner of the country” feel that they “shoulder all of life’s burdens by [themselves]” or that if they disappeared tomorrow, “no one will even notice.”
Experts argue that increasing loneliness and isolation contribute not only to despair but also to ever increasing levels of divisiveness, vitriol and violence. These are exponentially magnified through the social media megaphone fed by our need for recognition and meaning.
Our nation is heading in the wrong direction. And as a recent poll showed, the majority of American voters are convinced of this alarming reality. All national indicators point to the fact that we are in the midst of a spiritual crisis. We are together, but we are alone. We are whole, but we are broken. We all know there is something wrong with the national soul, but we are not sure of a remedy. It is time for We the People to seek for the healing for our national soul from beyond ourselves. Amidst all of the solutions being offered to heal our nation’s soul, we would do well to consider the Lord’s Prayer as the best starting point for this national renewal.
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Since Christ first uttered the Lord’s Prayer over 2,000 years ago, it has had a profound influence on the lives of countless people from every stratum of life. Most of us as adults can recite the Lord’s Prayer. If not, then we are at least deeply familiar with many of its clauses and certainly with its infamous beginning, “Our Father which are in Heaven.” Familiarity, though, can often breed benign contempt. We may “know” the Lord’s Prayer. But do we really know the Lord’s Prayer?
In our current and dark national moment, the Lord’s Prayer may be the most indispensable prayer we could ever utter. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us that God is not just an ephemeral deity or force. God is Abba Father. As Father, he is our creator and designer and, thus, we have a divine origin and purpose. We are not meaningless or alone. Moreover, God is ever present as Forgiver, Provider, Deliverer, Protector, and Almighty. The Lord’s Prayer reminds us that we are not isolated, that God is always ready to comfort, forgive, provide, protect, and save. The Lord’s Prayer is a reminder that God — the Father in Heaven — is always good and gracious to all. This is a powerful antidote and healing to our loneliness and isolation. But, as Christ teaches his apostles, we must desire these blessings and pray for them.
The Lord’s Prayer exhorts us that we must embrace humility and forgiveness. If it is true, as has been said of James Fenimore Cooper’s appraisal of America in his Leatherstocking Tales, that the “essential American soul is hard … it has never yet melted,” then the Lord’s Prayer is the divine ice-melt we desperately need. It forces us to recognize that all are in God’s debt. And if He — the Forgiver — is ready to forgive, then we must be ready to embrace others, bring them into our company, and both offer and receive forgiveness. In a moment when our endemic hubris is at the root of our vendettas and vitriol, the Lord’s Prayer calls us to exchange our baseless pride for humility and forgiveness. This is the salve that can commence our healing. But, as Christ teaches his apostles, we must desire these blessings and pray for them.
The Lord’s Prayer provides us with a moral guide beyond our own earthly visions of grandeur and human might. There is a Kingdom that will never end and a Divine Will that is righteous and just. It is God’s Kingdom and his will that serve as the compass for all earthy kingdoms and willful pursuits. Our laws, our traditions, our mores are not the final say of life. It is the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, as Christ taught during the Sermon on the Mount, that are the standard for justice and the righteous scale to guide human actions. The buck stops with God and his Kingdom. And the Lord’s Prayer commits us to desiring God’s Kingdom and his will above all else. But, as Christ teaches his apostles, we must desire these blessings and pray for them.
American history is replete with examples and calls for prayer in times of national need. We are now more needy as a nation than we have ever been. And amidst all the proposed solutions to address our current moral crises, prayer is often curiously missing. We still have the opportunity to correct this. But we must quickly decide that we truly desire healing and peace, and that the Lord’s Prayer is an indispensable start toward the healing of our nation. Let us then begin to pray.
Gerson Moreno-Riaño, Ph.D. is the president of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
