Can I Get a Hallelujah

Well, what shall I write tonight?  Nothing too down tonight.  There’s plenty to cry about but let’s raise our spirits instead.  You know I talk about how a leader is what we are missing.  But maybe a Caesar is not what we need.  Maybe we need a Preacher.  The churches have mostly rotted away and it shows.  People are empty and bitter and alone.

A man of the spirit might be exactly what this country; even this world needs.  Someone who could speak to us about how to fill up the void with meaning.  Give people hope.  I don’t think it will be someone who talks only about the hereafter.  It will need to be someone who has practical advice for this world.  And he can’t be a televangelist, at least not at first and never only.  This will have to be a hands-on man who builds his flock around him and builds some kind of community that helps people in the here and now.

What’s needed is a church that harnesses the people to help each other and builds something where everyone gets a sense of belonging to something worthwhile and true.  I think someone who could make that happen would rebuild this country.  It would have a place for all the parts of the community.  There will be things for the young, the mature and the old to do.  The young will learn, the old will teach and the grown-ups will support it with their time and money.  Eventually there will need to be a school to teach children the lessons they can’t learn in the public school.  Ideally, one day there should be a university too.  There should be youth organizations and sports teams.  There should be fraternal and sorority organizations for the kids and grown-ups.  Something will be needed to replace things like the Boy Scouts.  And the adults need their clubs too.  And the church should have charitable functions.  But these need to require that those who have been helped pay it forward by contributing their efforts to the community.

And what creed will this be?  Well, it will be Christianity but it will be non-denominational.  It won’t require that you have a required doctrine on the Trinity or the Immaculate Conception or Limbo.  If Jesus runs the Heaven you are trying to get in then you fit under this tent.

Well, that’s what I think we need.  People need to belong to something that provides a way to organize with their neighbors in a way that gives them a sense of community and fulfills their desire to belong to something constructive and adheres to what they believe is the good.

But how do you order up a holy man?  They only show up once every five hundred years.  The last one was Martin Luther (which was about five hundred years ago!).  They say that God provides what is needed.  Well, I think we are beyond need.  We’re desperate.

So, whether he calls himself Brother or Father, Padre or Reverend; it’s exactly the right time for a revival.  In fact, it may be the only thing that can save us.