• Editor’s note: “Spiritual leaders answer” is a weekly column inviting Kaua‘i’s religious and spiritual leaders to share their doctrine’s perspective on a suggested subject. Every Friday, a topic is printed, inviting a response. Due to space limitations, submissions are
• Editor’s note: “Spiritual leaders answer” is a weekly column inviting Kaua‘i’s religious and spiritual leaders to share their doctrine’s perspective on a suggested subject. Every Friday, a topic is printed, inviting a response. Due to space limitations, submissions are edited. Thoughts or suggestions for future topics are always welcome. Next week’s subject is on fatherhood. The topic at the end of the column is for the following week.
Kahu Dr. James Fung
Lihu‘e Christian Church
The songbook that sits in the pews in our church contains some of the most beloved and patriotic songs such as “O Beautiful.” In this song that we all learned in grade school, the author shares her faith in God as the bestower of the blessings of our nation, that we never want to take for granted. As she is on board a flight across the country, Katherine Lee Bates looks out of her window and her heart virtually bursts into singing, “O beautiful for spacious skies” as she scribbles the words that will become one of the most popular of American songs. She flies over the expansive cornfields of the Midwest and is taken by the wind playing on “amber waves of grain.” And then over the Rockies she is struck by “purple mountain majesties.” She sums it all up as she writes, “America, America God shed his grace on thee …”
Don’t we all have a similar feeling as we travel across our country? We are blessed by the natural beauty, the diverse and unique wonders of the various regions of our country and the richness of our resources.
More than just the beauty of our country, as Americans we feel a pride about what we as a nation stand for. Accompanying that pride is a responsibility to share the abundance of our blessings with others. We want our patriotism to include the attitude and principles of the rightful use of freedom — to use our God-given opportunities to do good, not for personal privilege. We want our patriotism to announce to the world, not the extravagance of a self-indulgent nation, but the compassion and generosity of our character inspired by the faith in God that was and still is at the foundation of our religious heritage.
In another verse of that same song she includes a prayer, “America, America, God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law.” Yes, rightful pride in our nation is something worth celebrating. But our faith also calls us to look at ourselves (and our nation) through the self-critical and self-examining lens of truth, justice and compassion.
Here in the state of Hawai‘i it’s not hard to feel the surging sense of patriotism within us as we remember those who are memorialized at Punchbowl National Cemetery and at the USS Arizona. We are overwhelmed by the courage and heroism of those who loved their country so much that they were willing to die that their loved ones and their fellow countrymen might be free to pursue their lives. May the flag that unites us and the religious impulse that inspires us continue to bring out the best in who we are as a people who love both God and country.
Bahai’s of Kaua‘i
The Baha’i Faith requires that its followers carry out their duties to their own country and behave toward their government with “faithfulness, truthfulness, and obedience.” Baha’is bear allegiance and loyalty to their country, but that devotion does not overshadow a greater love for the whole of mankind. Baha’u’llah cautions, “It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” This concept is further elucidated in the following Baha’i quote: “Unbridled nationalism, as distinguished from a sane and legitimate patriotism, must give way to a wider loyalty, to the love of humanity as a whole … The concept of world citizenship is a direct result of the contraction of the world into a single neighborhood through scientific advances and of the indisputable interdependence of nations. Love of all the world’s peoples does not exclude love of one’s country.”
Topic for two
weeks from today
• Will you speak to us on
meditation?
• Spiritual leaders are invited to e-mail responses of three to five paragraphs to pwoolway@kauaipubco.com
•Deadline each week is
Tuesday, by 5 p.m.