The events in Washington D.C. on January 6 19 months past have been much in the media lately thanks to the televised report of a Special Committee investigating that “insurrection.” Video tapes showed the movements of angry men and women using violence to establish a new world order less onerous than the present. Committee members warned that portions of the tapes might be too disturbing for young or sensitive minds.

It reminded me of the words of Benjamin Franklin who wrote, “True religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness” because “only a virtuous people are capable of freedom… as nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” People laying siege on the Capitol Building, because they felt the president had called them to arms, was little more than the consequence of corruption and viciousness filling a spiritual vacuum.

An American Religious Identification Survey annually asks Americans how they identify themselves religiously. The survey of 2010 was the first time in American history that fewer Americans claimed to be religious than did not. When it was reported, columnist Tom Purcell worried then that our republic was in jeopardy because of the religious sloth of the populace, that non-religious people would lack the resources necessary to differentiate good from evil, so to choose the difficult good over the easy, expedient evil.

I share Purcell’s worries but I pass him in worry like Road Runner passes Wiley Coyote. I worry that people with no spiritual muscle distance themselves from the only source that does not disappoint hope nor dissemble peace. It’s the difference between loading the Scott’s Turf Builder in the spreader to broadcast its nourishment to the waiting grass, and leaving it in the garage thinking it will feed the grass without leaving the bag. What’s more, one cannot just decide to have faith even if there seems to be good reason for it. Though it can be developed, I think originally my spiritual sensitivity came to me like my male pattern baldness and if I don’t fill the spiritual hole in me by traditional disciplines, it will be filled with something else, and silly religions might take up that space. G. K. Chesterton said as much: “When people stop believing in God, it’s not that they believe in nothing, it’s that they believe in anything.” Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies illustrates this well with the tale of pre-adolescent boys, shipwrecked on a deserted island. Unfettered by adult guidance, they piece together a society with values and habits, including worship of a wild boar and the cadaver of a World War II aviator. Without the resource of disciplines and guidance, the human spirit will devise task-specific religions to satisfy the perceived need of the day.

I’m glad that Purcell finds value in religion. It means I’m not alone in that. If only we would look for inner nourishment in tried and true places instead of in shiny baubles and cockamamie schemes! On the other hand, it’s frightening to think that the handicap of anesthetized spirits will not only penalize individuals but doom our republic to less freedom and more totalitarianism.

Yet history and faith seem to point to a future worthy of hope. Building cultures and societies based on the truth that life is a gift and ultimately the universe is benevolent has always survived threats and doomsday prophets. What else would you expect from a power that spun out the universe according to a divine blueprint, and now cheers on the creation and its inhabitants? This is the stuff that keeps cultures and societies whole. What’s more, when chaos has its evil grip firmly around your throat, it’s a very good friend!