Religious apathy in America

According to The Washington Post, of people in America,

— 44 percent told the 2011 Baylor University Religion Survey they spend no time seeking “eternal wisdom,” and 19 percent said “it’s useless to search for meaning."
— 46 percent told a 2011 survey by Nashville, Tenn.-based LifeWay Research that they never wonder whether they will go to heaven.
— 28 percent told LifeWay “it’s not a major priority in my life to find my deeper purpose.” And 18 percent scoffed at the idea that God has a purpose or plan for everyone.
— 6.3 percent of Americans turned up on Pew Forum’s 2007 Religious Landscape Survey as totally secular — unconnected to God or a higher power or any religious identity and willing to say religion is not important in their lives. (Cathy Lynn Grossman, "For many, ‘Losing My Religion’ isn’t a song: It’s life", The Washington Post's "On Faith" blog).

This is alarming, but not so surprising.  Secularism is indeed growing in American society today.  Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught, "As prophesied, we live in a time when the darkness of secularism is deepening around us. Belief in God is widely questioned and even attacked in the name of political, social, and even religious causes. Atheism, or the doctrine that there is no God, is fast spreading across the world" (Elder Robert D. Hales, "Seeking to Know God, Our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ", October 2009 General Conference).  The Prophet Nephi also prophesied, 

And behold, others [the Devil] flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance.  Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment" (2 Nephi 28:22-23).

The Mormon Eagle seeks to refute the misguided and erring generations of Americans who say it is OK to deny God, or cease looking for Him because they cannot find Him or prove His existence.  God does exist, and all will eventually see Him, notwithstanding the wicked and ignorant try to explain him away.  He does have a deeper purpose for all mankind, which purpose is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39).

I myself know God exists, and that all can find Him if they diligently seek Him, for, as Paul saith, "He be not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27).  For those searching for God, His full truth and whole doctrines can be found only within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in no other church, as both the Bible and Book of Mormon testify.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

9/11 Destruction Allowed Us to Spiritually Rebuild

From the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog, we read the words of the Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

"The calamity of September 11th, 2001 has cast a long shadow.  Ten years later, many of us are still haunted by its terrible tragedy of lost lives and broken hearts.  It is an episode of anguish that has become a defining moment in the history of the American nation and the world.  This week, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, along with Tom Brokaw, will pay its own homage to the unforgettable events of September 11, 2001.

"There was, as many have noted, a remarkable surge of faith following the tragedy.  People across the United States rediscovered the need for God and turned to Him for solace and understanding.  Comfortable times were shattered. We felt the great unsteadiness of life and reached for the great steadiness of our Father in Heaven. And, as ever, we found it.   Americans of all faiths came together in a remarkable way.
Sadly, it seems that much of that renewal of faith has waned in the years that have followed.  Healing has come with time, but so has indifference.  We forget how vulnerable and sorrowful we felt.  Our sorrow moved us to remember the deep purposes of our lives.  The darkness of our despair brought us a moment of enlightenment.  But we are forgetful.   When the depth of grief has passed, its lessons often pass from our minds and hearts as well.

"Our Father’s commitment to us, His children, is unwavering.  Indeed He softens the winters of our lives, but He also brightens our summers.  Whether it is the best of times or the worst, He is with us. He has promised us that this will never change.

"But we are less faithful than He is.  By nature we are vain, frail, and foolish.  We sometimes neglect God. Sometimes we fail to keep the commandments that He gives us to make us happy.  Sometimes we fail to commune with Him in prayer.  Sometimes we forget to succor the poor and the downtrodden who are also His children.  And our forgetfulness is very much to our detriment.

"If there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from our experience of that fateful day, it may be that we owe to God the same faithfulness that He gives to us.  We should strive for steadiness, and for a commitment to God that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives.  It should not require tragedy for us to remember Him, and we should not be compelled to humility before giving Him our faith and trust. We too should be with Him in every season.

"The way to be with God in every season is to strive to be near Him every week and each day.  We truly 'need Him every hour,' not just in hours of devastation.  We must speak to Him, listen to Him, and serve Him.  If we wish to serve Him, we should serve our fellow men.  We will mourn the lives we lose, but we should also fix the lives that can be mended and heal the hearts that may yet be healed.

"It is constancy that God would have from us.  Tragedies are not merely opportunities to give Him a fleeting thought, or for momentary insight to His plan for our happiness.  Destruction allows us to rebuild our lives in the way He teaches us, and to become something different than we were.  We can make Him the center of our thoughts and His Son, Jesus Christ, the pattern for our behavior. We may not only find faith in God in our sorrow.  We may also become faithful to Him in times of calm."