Yesterday Alexander Solzhenitsyn died at the age of 89. He was a winner of the Nobel Prize and changed the world through his writings. He exposed a system of Russian prisons called Gulags. He spent 8 years in one of those prisons. In his work, “The Gulag Archipelago” He shared with the world the cruelty and mistreatment that was a part of that system.

He was a major force in the bringing down of the communist system. For a number years he was exiled from Russia and spent that time in Vermont. He was a commentator on the American culture and talked about how secularism was having a terrible impact on America.

I am sure that most of our young people today will not recognize the name but he is a great example of how one person can make a difference. It is not an overstatement to say that through his influence as a writer and speaker, he had an impact on the whole world.

I do not believe that his death will be greatly noticed. We have a tendency to forget about the past and concentrate on the future. I believe that is because of our self-interest and the greed of the American culture.

Through his life and his writing Solzhenitsyn reminded us of the importance of moral values and the impact Christianity should be having on our culture. Guess where that is supposed to start. It should start with the body of Christ. What we are doing and studying is not just to have something do. It is critical to the future of our culture and our country.