The rain has ended and the snow-clad San Gabriels look down on Claremont today. \u00a0It was a starry Christmas Eve, and I gathered with friends and congregants to sing Silent Night at Midnight by candlelight. \u00a0I have experienced the service of Lessons and Carols for more than half a century, and it still moves me. \u00a0Our little Presbyterian congregation is blessed with extraordinary music. \u00a0Jenelle Westerbeck Anderson, Jerry DeMasi, and scores of others brought the evening the majesty and wonder it needed.<\/p>\n
Today in particular is is worth reflecting on the last paragraphs from Robert Putnam and David Campbell’s New book on religion in America:<\/p>\n
How has America solved the puzzle of religious pluralism–the coexistence of religious diversity an devotion? \u00a0And how has it done so in the wake of growing religious polarization? \u00a0By creating a web of interlocking personal relationships of people of many different faiths.<\/p>\n
This is America’s grace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Or to quote Howard Rice’s bumper sticker: God loves the whole wide world; no exceptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The rain has ended and the snow-clad San Gabriels look down on Claremont today. \u00a0It was a starry Christmas Eve, and I gathered with friends and congregants to sing Silent Night at Midnight by candlelight. \u00a0I have experienced the service of Lessons and Carols for more than half a century, and it still moves me. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}