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It’s always a bit scary to re-visit some of your thoughts and musings from the past, but here’s a piece I wrote 16 years ago (why do I suddenly feel old?) that I still claim.

By Danny McKenzie
June 13, 1993

While we are engrossed in our public wailing and gnashing of teeth over the state of the world today, we need to take time to consider the manifestations of the Rev. Ernest Fitzgerald.

“The need of our day is not a code of ethics, but a creed,” Fitzgerald told 2,000 or so of us United Methodists congregated last week in Jackson for our annual conference.

In that one so very simple statement, Fitzgerald, retired bishop of the Atlanta Conference of the United Methodist Church, not only identified what is wrong with our society, but also what can be done to correct it.

Fitzgerald’s logic was as plain as his words: A creed, a system of beliefs, would, in layman’s terms, keep us honest. A creed would force us to come to know ourselves better, thereby forcing us to live together in harmony.

So many among us don’t understand their purpose for being. That hardly qualifies as a revelation. A day-to-day existence is the best they can do. Hope is not in their vocabulary.

And there are those who are getting by, some doing quite well, but who still have no purpose in life. They just know they’re supposed to work hard and everything else will take care of itself.

But that, Fitzgerald told us, is not enough. The human mind, he said, demands explanations to the ultimate questions of life, and that the simple accumulation of facts doesn’t always guarantee complete and satisfactory answers.

“We need to not only have something to believe in, but we need to know why we believe in it,” he said. “Our creed determines our behavior.”

Those of us trying hard to be Christians are familiar with the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and many others we read with great regularity – and sometimes pay attention to. Each time we read them we are looking closely at what we profess to believe in and who we, as Christians, are.

Introspection is good for the soul – for the soul of the individual, for the soul of the country.

Our Declaration of Independence is perhaps the closest thing our nation has to a creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. …”

Those very plain words were written by Thomas Jefferson nearly 217 years ago. How powerful have they proven to be?

Mr. Jefferson and those who endorsed his profound document were a group of unusual men whose brilliance was matched only by their courage. Their courage was made strong by their hope.

In the middle of complete chaos and total turmoil, these men determined there could be a better way of life. Seemingly, there was no reason for them to look to the future, but they did and they declared it would not be bleak. So, Mr. Jefferson wrote their “creed,” and they signed it. And the world was changed.

Who among us would say it cannot be changed again?

If, however, our society is to change for the better, those of us in our society must look at how we are living our lives. We need a creed to serve as a set of guidelines for our lives.

The Rev. Jack Meadors, bishop of the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church, reminded us that “how we live can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“If we believe that the past was the best we can do, then that is what it will be,” Meadors said in the closing worship session of the annual conference. “But if we believe the best is yet to come, then that is what it will be.”

That, of course, should be the very first item on any creed of any nation or of any society. Understanding, then, that it will not be easy, we must always believe the best is yet to come.

We must have faith.

© Danny McKenzie