Creed (2008)

In 1968, I was selected as North Carolina’s Young Man of the Year, receiving the distinguished service award.  This is an award sponsored by the Jaycees or Junior Chamber of Commerce.  The Jaycee Creed reads as follows:

That faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life;
That the brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations;
That economic justice can best be won by free men through free enterprise;
That government should be of laws rather than of men;
That earth's great treasure lies in human personality;
And that service to humanity is the best work of life.

This creed was written by C. William Brownfield in 1946, and is used in every Jaycee meeting anywhere in the world.  Jaycees are a young men’s organization.  You must get out at age 35 and become an “Exhausted Rooster.”  Like other civic club endeavors, Rotarians (Service Above Self) or Lions (Emphasis on Eyesight) young men learn early in life that, as in the Jaycee Creed, service to humanity is the best work of life.

The Apostle’s Creed is a statement of Christian belief widely used by a number of Christian churches.  It reads as follows:

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Nicene Creed is a different stating of the Apostle’s Creed which is used by Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Anglicans.  The Muslims declare a creed called the Shahada.

The problem with creeds, as is the case with our Lord’s Prayer, which is recited at most Christian churches every Sunday, is that it is just an empty recitation and most people who recite the Lord’s Prayer are not praying and pay very little attention to the words. 

For instance, in our Lord’s Prayer, it specifically says “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  It has always bothered me that we ask the Lord to deliver us from temptation but most so-called “Christians” do not mind putting temptation in their fellow man’s pathway.  Even the anti-drinking Baptists and Methodists will break their neck to get to the voting booth to vote for liquor stores in order for the alcoholics to help pay their taxes. The same so-called “church people” will break their necks to get to the voting booths to vote for the lottery or legalized gambling in order that their weaker neighbors can help pay their taxes with the proceeds from gambling. Jesus gave us one commandment:  “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”  (John 13:34)

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (John 4:16)

“My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not.”  (Proverbs 1:10)

Recently, the wife of one of my best friends in school, an outstanding doctor, a most talented man, called me to let me know that he had been found dead in a Las Vegas hotel.  She said, “He has made a fortune and has thrown most of it away at the gambling tables in Las Vegas.”  This is just one example of what gambling will do to a wonderful family.  Almost 90% of the inmates in all our prison units are there because of illegal drugs, and alcohol is a legal drug.  Addiction to drugs, gambling, smoking, promiscuity, and other addictive and illicit behaviors, which have, in my lifetime, brought ruin to homes, churches, and national values,  like the pledge of allegiance to our flag, the singing of our national anthem, and even the hymns in many churches, are just habit and empty words.

“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”  (Ezekiel 22:30)

Often I have asked for help, not only in church activities, but in civic activities and usually there was none. We have many professors of the love for God and country but few possessors of the love for God and country. In the future, as we become discouraged by the lackadaisical attitude, will there be some or none who will carry the Christian cross and the American flag?