Thinking About Lincoln

With the celebration of President's Day and the cheesy ads for Honest Abe's Mattress Sale and with the election of Barack Obama, the nation seemingly is thinking more and more about our 16th president. BeliefNet has run an "inspiring quotations" from Lincoln piece.

Here are a couple:

"When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion."

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."

There has been much debate about Lincoln's religious bona fides. I am no Lincoln scholar, but, from what little I have read about Lincoln and religion, I think many of today's evangelicals would consider him among the lost and not the saved. Yet, the first quote listed above would suggest a strong kinship with the practical religion espoused in the Christian Book of James. Having a theoretical grasp of religion is well and good, but James and Lincoln echo the words of the Hebrew prophets that true religion is in doing good, especially for those who are marginalized in society.

I do not know the source or timing of the second quote. Looking at it out of context, though, it could easily refer to the struggles during the Civil War or, more specifically, to the resolve to end slavery. In either case, the commitment to try to do what is right, whether one is certain of success or not, seems to be missing in many.

It is well for us to remember this man, any time of the year.