We now know that everything really is inter-related and inter-connected. This is true at all levels of being from particle physics to global social systems. We also know that human nature doesn't really change very much over eons of time, but the social environment in which people live does undergo significant change.

We live now in a technological civilization, unlike anything the world has ever seen. Built upon the intellectual assumptions which supported the "modern" era which saw the emergence of science, the consolidation of nation states, the industrial revolution and the first steps toward a global economy, this new technological civilization has outgrown the ideas and beliefs which spawned it. That's the reason people are now talking about a "postmodern" era.

Just as physics outgrew Newton and required an Einstein and a Heisenberg to provide fresh explanations for the way the cosmos works, so too do new social realities demand fresh assumptions. Several strands of religious thinking undergirded the "modern" world, but these have now proven to be inadequate to the task of grounding a "postmodern" technological society.

American life has always had its roots in a kind of 17th Century Calvinism which may be a distortion of Calvin himself, but which were imported to England and then exported to the colonies across the Atlantic. Rooted in the thinly populated American wilderness, this neo-Calvinism sprouted an exaggerated sense of its own importance and soon developed a hyper-individualism without parallel anywhere else.

Much good, of course, has come from the American configuration, but there has always been a blind side which embraced slavery and engaged in oppression of native peoples. The foundational American "City on the Hill" sermon in 1630 gave rise to a mythology of American exceptionalism and a form of "civil religion" which attributes to the American colonists, a role in the world simmilar to that of the biblical people of Israel. Military victory was a principal means by which the world would know of God's favor upon us. Thus the American "myth of war" was born.

From its very inception, this civil religion has been, not only a distortion of biblical Christianity but, from a Christian perspective, a particularly blasphemous form of idolatry. For centuries, the evil within it was hidden from us because rural and small town America had built in social safeguards which did not allow for the emergence of the kind of social destruction we now see.

The 17th century New England pilgrims were true Christian belivers with a real sense of their common life together, but this didn't last long. During the 19th century the real Christian roots eroded and "democracy" became the driving force of the national desire to evangelize the world in our own image. World War II was the last historical event which could plausibly justify this kind of belief. It has been necessary, of course, all along this historical journey to hide from ourselves the role that money, new territory and our own gain has played in our civil religion.

What we are witnessing now is the unravelling not just of our national fabric, but of an entire belief system. The seeds of destruction were implicit within it from the beginning, but were just not evident until recently.

Individualism, necessary and good in so many ways, but separated from the kind of relationships and the social structures which must always support it, has now become narcissm. The ability to produce for our own good and that of others has been transmuted into unbridled materialism, consumerism run rampant and greed which knows no bounds. The use of political power, always necessary, but checked in a true democracy, has become a desire to exert power unopposed by anyone.

Corruption has always been around because human sin remains, but it has now become systematic and unashamedly blatant. American exceptionalism has led us to export "democracy" to Iraq while not paying too much attention to the connection with oil, big contracts and the like. We have now become truly dangerous to ourselves as well as to others. Once again the same old blind side, but now on a much much larger scale. Continued deception over time has led us to a widespread national self deception.

The problem is not just George W. Bush and the Congress--though they are a problem. The problem is not just emerging fascism, though that may be what is coming. The real problem lies within ourselves. We not only tolerate all this, but we benefit from it.

I propose an alternate reading of Scripture upon which to base some further reflections and some steps I think we must take:

"All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people." Acts 2: 44-47.

More later on "Our Life Together."