Religion in Daily Life

C By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org

New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey broke his left femur (thigh bone) on Friday, February 1, 2002, when he stepped off a four-foot ledge in the sand on the Cape May beach. What happened to him then shows us how differently we see life now than in ancient times. Doctors repaired the governor’s broken leg. Years ago, someone asked anthropologist Margaret Mead, “What is the first sign you look for to tell you of an ancient civilization?” The questioner may have had a primitive tool in mind, but Dr. Mead replied, “A healed femur.” She explained that when a person broke a femur in those ancient days, he couldn’t survive unless someone helped him rather than abandoning him.

Aging is one reason we see our daily life differently. Consider the differences 30 years makes. In 1972, there was long hair; now there’s a longing for hair. In 1972, there was acid rock; now there is acid reflux. In 1972, people were trying to look like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor; now people are trying not to look like Marlon or Liz. In 1972, people were going to a new, hip joint; now they’re receiving a new hip joint. With the passing of the years, we see our daily lives differently.

Significant events are another reason we see our daily lives differently. After the Holocaust of six million Jews during World War II, people saw Anti-Semitism for the seeds of hate it was and is. After events in the South made us see little black girls killed when black churches were bombed, and people attacked with police dogs and fire hoses, we saw prejudice and discrimination differently. When a small, 22-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was beaten because he was gay and hung on a fence in Wyoming to die in 1998, we saw to what ends the hatred of homosexuals could lead. The Terrorists’ attacks on September 11, 2001, made us all see our daily lives differently.

New light causes us to see our daily lives differently. The light of new learning has come to us from the sciences and from a study of the literary development of the Bible. This changed the way we saw ourselves, the age of our planet, and the origins of the writings that were later collected into “The Books” – The Bible. Similarly, new light from personal experiences causes us to see differently. The friends of Jesus of Nazareth saw him in a new light during an experience on a mountainside. Our own experiences affect the way we see the common ventures of life – marriage, birth, work, sickness, and death.