Bethlen Almanac 2000 (Ligonier)

Az amerikai egyháztestekben - In other denominations

$35,000 to support widows and orphans in Hungary in the wake of World War I. This generous spirit has motivated the Federation’s support over the years for everything from Red Cross ambulances to congregations in South America and Canada to choir tours from Nyíregyháza and Debrecen. Such activities are not “extracurricular” but integral to the Federation’s mission of serving not only material, but also cultural and spiritual needs.

Now, as you know better than me, the Federation has always required a delicate balance between pragmatism and altruism, between the material and spiritual elements of its mission. It is, as Charles Daróczy put it in 1961, - a business with a sacred calling. Again and again, its leadership has had to negotiate a creative tension between being competitive - keeping up with the changing requirements of the insurance industry, providing attractive and professional services - and reaching out in faith, love, and fellowship. Both are essential to the Federation’s work and identity; take either away and the Federation will not survive. So it is crucial to acknowledge that the pragmatists and the idealists are both loving and faithful stewards of the Federation’s dream - it is their partnership, with all its creative tensions, that drives the fraternal movement

But can these ambitious dreams be sustained into the 21 st century? It should come as no surprise, given the many dire predictions that have been made about the Federation’s fate over the last century, that once again there’s a lot of bad news out there. Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone, has argued that we are witnessing a general decline in associational life in America, a decline that threatens many of the civic groups created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to Putnam, Americans are joining fewer associations and engaging in fewer group activities. As his title suggests, even if they do go bowling, they bowl alone. He believes these changes bode ill, not only for traditional associations, but also for the health of American democracy overall. What is causing these trends? Putnam tentatively offers several reasons - television, changes in the workforce and in gender roles, increased mobility - all of them factors that he argues isolate us, gobble up our time, and turn our lives into a hectic rush.

There is much truth in what Putnam writes. We can easily paint a grim picture of ourselves as a society where fellowship is reduced to email, neighbors are strangers, doctors spend 5 minutes per patient and communicate via automated message systems, and even fast food takes

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