Black warned that historically great civilizations, like the Babylonians
and Romans, =B3did not so much explode and implode.=B2

He listed pointed
similarities between the fall of the Roman empire and present day America,
including a decline in religion,

an erosion of family bonds, an obsession
with frivolous sports and a government that devotes excessive amounts of
revenue to the military and armaments.

U.S. Senate Chaplain Urges Spiritual Solutions to Social Problems

U.S. Senate Chaplain Urges Spiritual Solutions to Social Problems

U.S. Senate Chaplain Urges Spiritual Solutions to Social Problems

U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Clayton Black delivers the morning's keynote
address during the 2007 Montana Faith Community Impact Summit at the
Flathead Valley Community College.

Black, who visited Glacier National Park for the first time the previous
day, gestured out the window, praising fall in the Flathead.

³I havenıt seen colors like this outside of a Monet painting,² Black said.
³Some of this yellow is just off the chain, as they say in my
neighborhood.²

Black, a former Navy admiral, went on to describe American freedom as ³a
flickering flame,² a fragile but carefully tended idea about basic human
rights ³that needs to be guarded.²

³While our founders intended a separation of church and state, they never
intended a separation of God and state,² Black said. ³There is a spiritual
dimension to who we are and what we are about.²

Black warned that historically great civilizations, like the Babylonians
and Romans, ³did not so much explode and implode.² He listed pointed
similarities between the fall of the Roman empire and present day America,
including a decline in religion, an erosion of family bonds, an obsession
with frivolous sports and a government that devotes excessive amounts of
revenue to the military and armaments.

³Ladies and gentlemen the parallels are frightening,² Black said. ³Sin is
an equal opportunity destroyer; sin donıt care that your name is America.²

But Blackıs overall message was one of optimism that the summit could,
through a spiritual perspective, brainstorm solutions to issues facing
Montana.

³Thatıs why weıre here,² he said, ³to cooperate with divinity in solving
the problems of our time.²

Black warned that historically great civilizations, like the Babylonians
and Romans, did not so much explode and implode. He listed pointed
similarities between the fall of the Roman empire and present day
America, including a decline in religion

U.S. Senate Chaplain Urges Spiritual Solutions to Social Problems