I took a two-day trip to Washington about a week ago to visit with Barrett Duke, the vice president for public policy with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (See story page 1). I love our nation’s capital. I have visited D.C. on numerous occasions and am always enthralled with the sights and sounds of the city.

When I was a boy growing up in North Carolina our family took a vacation to Washington to see all the historical landmarks of the city.

My dad took me to old Griffith Park in Washington on several occasions to see the Boston Red Sox play the Washington Senators. My dad was a Red Sox fan and his allegiance to that team has now been passed down to the fourth generation in our family. I like the Atlanta Braves, but I have been a part of the Red Sox nation since the 1940s and just find it impossible to change loyalties. Yes, for some reason my dad was a Red Sox and Chicago Cubs fan and cheering for those teams has become a family tradition through the years.

When I was a senior in high school our class took a trip to Washington to see all those monuments and memorials, but the thing I remember most was another visit to Griffith Park where I saw Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees and Bill Fischer of the Senators in an amazing pitchers’ duel. The Yankees won the game 1-0 in 14 innings and I believe Ford pitched all 14 innings and struck out 15 batters.

I am also a Washington Redskins fan and one of the trips to Washington was to see the ‘Skins play on a Monday night in October of 1991. My twin sons, John and Jerry, left Atlanta with me after church on Sunday night and drove all the way to Washington and arrived in the nation’s capital by mid-morning the next day.

After driving around the city for a couple of hours, we drove to RFK stadium, found a parking place, and slept ‘til almost game time. Jerry slept in the front seat, John enjoyed a few hours of somnambulistic bliss in the back seat, and I curled up in the trunk of the car and got 40 winks. It was a great experience and the Redskins handily subdued the Philadelphia Eagles. We drove all the way back to Atlanta after the game.

In addition to taking our children to Washington for family vacations, I have visited Washington when I preached in a revival in a nearby Maryland city, when I attended a national policy briefing sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, and when I went to the last presidential inauguration.

In my trip to Washington last week I walked from my hotel to the Capitol after Barrett and I had concluded our meeting with Senator Johnny Isakson and eaten dinner. It was hot and humid, but I wanted to stand on the Capitol steps and watch the sun set beyond the Washington Monument and cast it’s last rays of light across the Reflection Pool.

To my extreme delight the Navy Band was tuning up to present an outdoor concert on the west side of the Capital. Goose bumps surfaced on my arms as I listened to the John Philip Sousa marches and all the songs that make a patriot swell with pride. By the time they got to the Navy hymn, Eternal Father Strong to Save, tears were streaming down my face. (My dad was in the Navy in WWII).

Washington is a sightseer’s paradise, a beautifully designed city where no building can rise to a height that exceeds the height of the Washington Monument. A tourist could spend days in the Smithsonian Institute and not even come close to seeing the comprehensive collection of more than 124 million objects on display.

The nation’s capital is a three-ring circus of high-profile elected officials engaging in political showmanship, clever negotiations, and subtle compromises. It is a city of business ventures and commercial enterprises where companies offer a vast variety of goods and services. It is a city where many people still wear suits and ties to work – an extremely busy city.

Barrett Duke told me, “Washington is either a workaholic’s dream come true or his worst nightmare, ‘cause he will never get it all done. This town is full of unmarried people because there is no time for relationships.”

But there are things going on in Washington that significantly impact the nation and the world. In Washington nine black-robed Supreme Court justices regularly meet and make major decisions that affect us all. The United States Senate and House of Representatives gather in the Capitol to discuss issues and pass laws that shape our way of life. President Bush has the responsibility of providing leadership for the most powerful nation in the world. The pressure on the Commander-in-Chief is enormous. We must fervently and unceasingly pray for our nation’s leaders.

However, our hope for inward peace, moral renewal, and spiritual revival does not rest in the White House, the courthouse, or the schoolhouse, but in the church house. Barrett Duke said, “We are not going to save the nation from Washington, D.C. If churches don’t rise to the occasion, we are just postponing the inevitable.”

Instead of praying, “God bless America” perhaps we should pray for the stock market to crash or gas prices to go to $50 a gallon or for some conscience-shaking catastrophe.

Sound radical? Perhaps! But the church must be shaken from her present apathy. And history proves that the church has always flourished more in times of adversity than in times of prosperity. Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

Are you willing to deny self, take up your cross daily, and follow Christ? Anything less really doesn’t matter all that much.