Bearing Witness to the Times: Fault Lines

President Donald Trump speaks to the Faith & Freedom Coalition's
Road to Majority Conference June 8, 2017 in Washington, DC.
Photo by Alex Wong—Getty Images

                               

"Trump tells Evangelical Supporters, 'We're Under Siege'"

(Headline from Time Magazine)

Fault Lines

Some say it took about 400 years

For Rome to fall –

At least to fall all the way down.

If that is true,

People still saw it coming.

Barbarians fighting in the streets

Is no small harbinger, after all.

By the time it began to crumble

Rome had become identified

With faith and security.

Indeed, it was seen as
The full measure of Christendom.

The well-heeled faithful

Saw despair in the fault lines.

To that despair

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, wrote

The City of God.

In part, he sought to set forth

The ideal of that city

Not built by human hands

Which can guide our efforts

In living and organizing

Our public life.

The greater part

Was in the bishop’s assurance

That the end of Rome

Was not the death of faith.

Time has borne out his wisdom

And should have made it clear

That faith does not rest

Upon the foundations

Of the cities we build.

Nevertheless,

On our own shores

We set a shining city on a hill

Declaring a Christian nation.

We wed our faith

To our national pride,

Not allowing ourselves 
To foresee the day

When that city would fall.

                                                                                             ~ CK

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