Sunday, June 30, 2002
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Sunday, June 30, 2002 |
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Why Teddy Roosevelt went to church By DR. DAVID L.
CHANCEY I really enjoy the Beetle Bailey comic strip. One strip showed the camp chaplain meeting Miss Buxley, General Halftrack's secretary, on the sidewalk. The chaplain says, "It was great to see you in church yesterday, Miss Buxley." The next panel shows the chaplain thinking, "Was it ever! She brought a full house!" It's good to go to church! There are some very sound reasons for going to church on a regular basis, and some good reasons for missing church occasionally. And, of course, most pastors have heard their share of excuses for why people don't go to church. According to EthicsDaily.com, Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, believed in attending and participating in church. In 1917, in an interview with "Ladies Home Journal," Roosevelt offered these reasons for going to church: In the actual world, a churchless community a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at or ignored their religious needs is a community on the rapid downgrade. Church work and church attendance mean the cultivation of the habit of feeling some responsibility for others and the sense of braced moral strength which prevents a relaxation of one's own moral fiber. There are enough holidays for most of us which can quite properly be devoted to pure holiday making. Sundays differ from other holidays among other ways in the fact that there are 52 of them every year. On Sunday, go to church. Yes, I know all the excuses. I know one can worship the Creator and dedicate oneself to good living in a grove of trees, or by a running brook, or in one's own house, just as well as in church. But I also know as a matter of cold fact the average man does not thus worship or thus dedicate himself. If he strays away from church he does not spend his time in good works or lofty meditation. He looks over the colored supplement in the newspaper. He may not hear a good sermon at church. But unless he is very unfortunate he will hear a sermon by a good man who, with his good wife, is engaged all the week long in a series of wearing, humdrum and important tasks for making hard lives a little easier. He will listen to and take part in reading some beautiful passages from the Bible. And if he is not familiar with the Bible, he has suffered a loss. He will probably take part in singing some good hymns. He will meet and nod to, or speak to, good, quiet neighbors. He will come away feeling a little more charitably toward all the world, even toward those excessively foolish young men who regard church going as rather a soft performance. I advocate a man's joining in church works for the sake of showing his faith by his works. The man who does not in some way, active or not, connect himself with some active, working church misses many opportunities for helping his neighbors, and therefore, incidentally, for helping himself. Teddy Roosevelt was on to something important, even 85 years ago. Churchgoing is good for you and your family. Worshiping each week as a family is beneficial, healthy, and uplifting. It helps you keep your focus and prepares you to live life in the real world. It refuels your soul. It refreshes your life. Why not be in church this Sunday? (Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor of McDonough Road Baptist Church in Fayetteville. The church family meets at 352 McDonough Road and invites you to join them this Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m.)
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