"A new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success grown up to find all gods dead and all wars fought, all faith in man shaken." 
     So did F. Scott Fitzgerald describe what has come to be known as the Lost Generation in his iconic This Side of Paradise.  Ironically, though Fitzgerald's words are almost one hundred years old, they still ring true today.  More than ever, elections are won and lost on the basis of voter aspirations of economic and vocational success.  When asked at the height of the materialistic Eighties what elections are really all about, former House Speaker "Tip" O'Neil famously remarked, "It's the economy, stupid."  All too true.  People, religious or not, tend to vote on the basis of their individual wants and needs.
     This was certainly true in the Twenties.  In the aftermath of the destruction and carnage of World War I, millions of people in the West, deeply scarred by their newfound realization that perhaps the world would not get progressively better after all, retreated. They retreated into the comfort of their individual hopes and dreams.  They sought refuge in things they thought they could control, their livelihood and possessions, and not military decisions made by governments with which they had no personal contact.
     And like people do today, they woke daily to a stark reality:  all the gods are dead. We're all that's left.  We all want to believe in the goodness of the world and that of our fellow human beings, and we should.  Yet every moment we realize that this entire frame of reference is caught, caught in the grip of mortality.  We can rely on it, but we cannot count on it.
     Unless, and only unless, there's something more.