"We realized we had only one alternative and that was God himself." -Jose HenriquezRescued Chilean miner, Jose Henriquez, spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D. C. (President Obama was there) on Thursday, sharing his faith and the spiritual experiences of the miners while they were trapped for 52 days.
Despite their different religions the miners began to pray together and found that prayer strengthened and revived the group.
They prayed daily for a miracle. The first 17 days they had no outside contact and very little food or water. And, as you'd expect, there were tensions among the miners.
But Henriquez talked about how the miners resolved conflicts. He stated: "This democratic community was not a secular community but a praying, democratic community."
I was fascinated by that quote because we've been talking in Seminary about democracy and the divine guidance behind our American Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Like the miners, the founders of this country were not trying to establish a secular democratic community but a praying democratic community.
Henriquez also said that a turning point for the miners was obtaining small Bibles through the tubes the rescue workers sent food and supplies. Each Bible had one of the miner's names inscribed on the cover.
I loved the symmetry between Henriquez's comments and the divine inspiration upon which our nation was founded. I suppose that technically speaking the United States was meant, through our Constitution, to be a republic versus a democracy but the point I'm making is the prayerful mindset the miners shared with America's founding fathers.
