On Wednesday, November 21, the Reverend Frederick Hoover addressed the Portage Exchange Club for their annual One Nation under God program. Pastor Fred, as he is called, is the minister of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Portage and a member of Portage Exchange. He has conducted the One Nation under God program for the past five years.
“When I was thinking about this phrase this week, I realized we do pretty well with the ‘One Nation’ part, and we do pretty well with the ‘God’ part, but we seem to have trouble with the ‘under’ part. If I am ‘under,’ then somebody is ‘over’ me, and we, as human beings and as Americans, often have difficulty with that concept,” Hoover said.
He talked the distinction between ‘religion’ and ‘faith,’ and said that we can never separate faith and what we truly believe from how we live our lives. Drawing from recent news events such as the vice-presidential debates and the General Petraeus affair, he discussed morality issues and societal issues what happens when private faith and public life collide.
“What you really believe in your core will dictate how you conduct your life,” he said. “I think our Founding Fathers really understood that concept.”
He quoted from seminal American documents such as The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and George Washington’s Farewell Address to show the deep and abiding faith expressed by and guiding our original leaders.
“As I see it, the hope for our nation is not in a party, our hope is what God brings to the table: a true unity whereby I look beyond my own wants and my own agendas and look to the needs of others. That’s an amazing thing. Of course, we have examples throughout history where religion has done the opposite of that, where religion has done no better than the secular governments—and sometimes worse--as far as hurting or abusing or repressing people. But when it works at its best—when God’s people work at their best—and they put other people first and love and forgive, that has the best shot at healing our country and help us get back to the ‘One Nation’ part.”