Some 500 years ago, the Protestant Reformation divided the Christian Church. Until that time, all Christians in Europe had been Catholic. The Reformers continued to divide among themselves, while Catholicism continued to hold fast to her theology and traditions. Because religion was so much a part of the social fabric of life, the divisions led to violence, which in turn led many people to migrate to places where they could freely practice their own religion. This was the primary reason for the early European settlement of North America. Those early pilgrims, more properly called Puritans, settled mainly in what eventually was called New England and later the United States. The Puritans were followers of the theology of John Calvin, a 16^th century French theologian. Calvin taught, among other things, a theory called “Predestination”. According to this concept, God has already decided who will be saved and who will not. The number of saved is not large. They are referred to as The Elect. Since God has already decided who these Elect are to be, the question arises, how do the Elect know who they are? One way is the “purity” of their lives, demonstrated by material success. Those who become successful in this life will enjoy happiness in the next. The unsuccessful, the failures of the world – the poor, homeless, and the helpless, are to be helped by the Elect, but more so out of pity than out of love.

This idea has lingered in the consciousness of this country from the beginning of its foundation.

We admire the rich and the famous and we generally look down on what are condescendingly called “the less fortunate”.

Terms like “losers, failures, underprivileged” still emerge in our national discourse. Since there are only a limited number of successful people, we admire the few over the many.

Catholicism rejects this completely. We believe the mercy of God extends to all people. With this in mind, we admire those who rise above what others might call failure.

Among the millions of people who have to live in circumstances not of their choosing, there are many stories of people living the best they can with the cards they were dealt.

Walter Elias Disney grew up on a farm in the Midwest. He hated farming, dropped out of school at 16, tried to join the army during WWI, and was rejected because of his age. He set up an animation studio in 1922 in Kansas but went bankrupt. He moved to California and produced a short silent film with a little mouse as the featured character. You know the rest of the story.

Henry Ford, son of an Irish immigrant, also lived on a farm – as most people in the US did at the time – but hated it, too. With little formal education,he went to work for a man named Thomas Edison, but didn’t get far until he developed affordable automobiles for those who could not buy the then outrageously expensive cars. He changed the way we now live.

Four presidents of the United States went bankrupt:Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and William McKinley.

How we deal with adversity, disappointment, and loss, is the true mark of character. Not the size of our bank accounts or the number of academic degrees.

This congregation knows who Thomas Brady, Jr. is. He has been in the news. About everyone who lives outside of New England hates him. But everyone has to admire his ability to maintain calm even when he is vilified by the media, and even his own commissioner. His fortitude in adversity is much more admirable than his success on the gridiron.

The basic points of my remarks are the essential characteristics of our faith. To be sure, it feels better to win than to lose. But the true character of a person’s life is how they judge their own best efforts, not the changing judgment of others.

I assume they know this in Mountain Home. But there is no predestined outcome. One way or another, everybody can be a winner.

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