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He then turned to Daniel 9:12-14.

He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done the like of what has been done against Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us, yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and giving heed to thy truth. Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteousness in all the works which he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice.

Fr. George went on to say that the concepts of repentance and humility are mostly absent in America, and it doesn't seem likely that we'll understand the lesson. When he first came to the U.S. he would sometimes speak of the sins he committed in prison, and people would say, "How could you commit sins? You were in prison." He smiled at this. "Of course you still sin," he said. "You sin in your thoughts."

But Americans, he says, are very proud, and are used to being powerful, and the concepts of repentance and humility are not commonly expressed even among conservative Christians. Over the years I have come to see how these concepts are the very core of the Gospels; they were Jesus' most consistent message.

But we tend to skip over them in our rush to reassure ourselves that God loves us. He does, of course, but you don't really know how much he loves you until you dare to repent. Until you see how much God had to forgive in you, you can't really see the height of his love. Not many churches where that is preached today, conservative or liberal.

Thus it won't do much good for us to spray on some superficial piety, while not taking it to deep, self-challenging levels. Fr. George said that he was very moved when he saw the Congressmen singing "God Bless America." Then he began to think, in how many of their votes and actions do these same men and women work to cast away the blessing of God?

The thought occurred to me that what the song could really mean is, "God, bless the things we already do; bless the things we have decided to do." A friend of mine says the local strip club has changed its sign to read "God Bless America," which just about sums up the problem.

This gave me a lot to think about. For years I've been thinking that the main thing America needed to do is to be humble and repent. Here comes a blow that looks a lot like things God has done in the past to kindle that response, the kind of suffering that had Israel weeping in sackcloth.

But no one, including Christians, is likely to draw such conclusions. Instead, we'll focus on how much we have been wronged, and smite our adversaries by our own considerable earthly power, and feel satisfied at videotape of young Arab men frying to death in Jeeps. If Fr. George is right, if "repent" is indeed God's message, I'm afraid we'll need more than one lesson to get it.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

A new evangelistic tract by Ray Comfort says, "God's promised blessings of health and protection from enemies are dependent upon something we have forgotten about—righteousness."

In February, Christianity Today reported on an Indian politician who resigned after claiming that an earthquake which killed tens of thousands of people was God's punishment for atrocities against Christians.

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September (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45