On Living in Two Different Worlds

On Living in Two Different Worlds
Psalm 36

The governor of Texas recently held a prayer rally that aroused the ire of people who believed he was transgressing the boundary between church and state, and it also aroused the fascinated incomprehension of commentators. One remarked that it was a spectacle “that—let’s be honest—most of us in the news media don’t really get.” Praying as a reaction to an awareness of the country’s woes seems to suspend disbelief. It doesn’t work on the basis of reason. There seems to be a gulf fixed between faith and prayer, on one hand, and the big issues of national life, on the other. Yet (he went on to say), isn’t faith involved in more secular responses to the country’s woes? Economists have strong views about how to deal with a recession and with debt ceilings, but their views differ, and views on the right and the left are based on faith. We all want there to be an answer, but economics is not really a science, and the jump from problem to solution involves a leap of faith...