Archived Messages
With malice toward none, with charity for all.
February 04, 2009
In his second inaugural address in March 1865, Abraham Lincoln called for a new vision. During his first term as president the nation suffered through the bloodiest, bitterest conflict our country has ever known. It was truly brother against brother.
Just six weeks after he spoke these words, Lincoln lay dead.
We can’t just stand by our beliefs. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln because he thoroughly, passionately disagreed with the president.
But Lincoln’s words ring true for us today, calling us once again to rise above our differences to bring about reconciliation and collaboration.
Last month we saw the inauguration of a new president. Now is a time of hope and of new beginnings. We too are called to put away the past with its blame and anger and greed. To work together, in honesty and respect, to help one another out of the economic miasma in which we find ourselves. And to do all we can to “achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”