Pope visit brings out best in America

I am not a Catholic, and do not consider the Pope to be diety. He is just a man, just like the spiritual leader, Dr. Dennis McGuire, of my prostestant denomination, the Church of God Cleveland, Tennessee. Both are a fine spiritual leaders, and certainly bring out the best in fallen, cursed mankind, and speak for excellent moral values and goals we should all strive to live by.

That said, it is still moving to see the Pope's visit to the United States, all the pomp and ceremony of President Bush meeting his plane and hosting him at the White House. The press covers his remarks, and for a day, there is positive, good values expressed in the news media. Even Rush Limbaugh had President Bush on his show, to thank him for the stirring White House visit by the Pope and hosting 13,500 people on the lawn to see him.

Any time the cynical national press, as well as non-spiritual common folk, bow and scrape before the Pope, it is a positive thing and an admission, however faint, that there is a God who governs their lives and this planet. You don't see that in popular culture very often. In fact the church, and the things of God, are more often panned, vilified and put down.

The Catholic denomination, as well as most mainstream protestant denominations are losing members. If it wasn't for Latin America, a Catholic stronghold, the church could be in even deeper trouble. The secularization of Europe has had a particularly negative effect on Catholicism, which that continent is only starting to pay for, with the rise of the Muslim faith sweeping through country after country. The attendant rise in unrest, violence and division is only beginning to manifest itself.

That ought to be a wake-up call and example for the United States, to not marginalize the church as Europe has. The moral and family values it teaches and husbands are the backbone of a free, democratic society. The reaction to the Pope's visit signifies that there is still hope for this country.

We ignore that lesson at our own peril.