And though those're just lyrics from a hauntingly beautiful song, it is nonetheless what's to be seen; the future is unknowable, and the past is cataloged through a lens of personal and corporate bias. Only the present is truly experienced, and even it is a subjective experience. As fleeting as an single breath. Two beats of the heart. Perhaps less. We have the word of One who knows, but even his prophecy is shrouded in darkness. We can see the direction the road takes, but we discern only a handful of landmarks. And even those are open to interpretation.

I've been asking myself a few questions lately. Questions I feel compelled to seek answers to...

Why so many attacks against Christianity specifically? What other religions are as fragmented as Christianity? What significance, if any, can be attributed to this fragmentation? In terms of historical precedent, how long between Israel's initial descent into national sin before national repentance? Can that time-line be used as a model for our times? What obstacles exist to national repentance today? What evidence exists of our national-- corporate --sin?

...to list but a few.

For hatred and racism, specifically, to be eradicated, many things would have to be discarded by society as a whole, and even then the seed would still exist in the heart of every child born. Much of what passes for entertainment would need to be eradicated... perhaps eighty to ninety percent of all popular music would need to be banned from radio and television, along with most of television programing and a good many commercials. Even then, a seed remains.... Imagination. Imagination isn't evil, in and of itself, only the use to which it is put.

It is unlikely-- infinitesimally so --that our society would willing give up television and music, let alone computer games, and sporting events, and a whole host of other individual pleasures just to turn away, nationally, from darkness.

We ARE at war here... today. Just as we were yesterday, and will be tomorrow. But it's far more than any number of Iraqs and Afghanistans. It is a war we cannot win without divine intervention and guidance.

So what is it about Christianity that it is fragmented into thousands of sects, denominations, creeds and abominations? What makes Christianity so special that it has received so much interpretive attention? Why haven't other religions received the same attention? For even with Hindu's millions of gods it is still nonetheless a single unifying religion. What is so special about Christianity that it receives so much attention? So much vehemence? So many attacks?


Sure, it is not all darkness; the sun also rises. The clouds disperse and the sun shines warmly in season,and as a deterrent to obliteration out of season. But the things we choose to entertain, and allow to entertain us... the imaginations of our hearts... these draw the curtain against the light. And like the proverbial frog we become accustomed to the failing light, until we find ourselves stumbling in the dark; inured to the darkness, with conscience seared... unable to recognize... that light has gone out of the world.

Yes, it rambles. It's incoherent. But that doesn't make the shadow any less real.