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Does God Have Favorites?

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Google Image Five years ago, I wrote a blog called “What’s So Great about Being Poor?” “Nothing,” I wrote, “ unless being among God’s favorites counts for nothing.” It’s true that poverty, in itself, is no great asset. Many people and organizations are trying to eliminate poverty. It would be wonderful if there were no more poor people. But Jesus, the realist, said it best: “The poor you will always have with you.” So, what should the attitude of people searching for God – especially in the Christian tradition - be toward the poor? Some may interpret Jesus’ words to mean there will always be poor people so don’t bother with them. Commit to a Religion And the question in the previous paragraph is significant. The commonly understood path toward God is to commit to a religion and follow its precepts – go to church, pray, and follow the teachings of the church. All of that is important. But because of a better reading and understanding of the Bible, many are beginning to see tha...
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“A Hundred Thousand Welcomes?”

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Google Image I’ve often written about my personal connection to Ireland, undoubtedly because all of my great grandparents were Irish immigrants and I’ve always been interested in them and their homeland. In fact, I find immigration itself fascinating. It requires people to tear themselves from their families, culture, food and often faith, to plant themselves in foreign soil. My beloved wife, Amparo, is an immigrant from Colombia, and that adds to my interest. So, I was understandably attentive to an article in a recent issue of America magazine (I hope none of you are asking, “What’s a magazine?”) entitled, “We All Belong to Each Other: Rethinking Immigration and Irish Identity.” Devastating Famines, Chronic Poverty As you may know, Ireland was for several hundred years an exporter of its people. Because of devastating famines and chronic poverty, its citizens scattered to all parts of the globe, but principally to England, the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., at least, the Irish w...
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Jesus as “nightclub bouncer?”

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Google Image Have you noticed that often, a subject appears to be of little interest until we delve into it, then it may appear to be of major importance? For me, that’s the case with “Christian nationalism.” The phrase may appear to be harmless, nothing that would affect me or mine. But in the present political climate, Christian nationalism appears to be gaining in popularity.  And I now believe that it may seriously misinterpret and undermine biblical and church teaching, making it toxic for people searching for God in the Christian tradition and dangerous for a country that purports to be democratic and just. That judgment is based on what I’ve read about Christian Nationalism, including an article in a recent issue of the New York Times in which Times columnist Ross Douthat interviews evangelical pastor and influencer, Douglas Wilson.   Transcendent Grounding “Christian nationalism” says Wilson, “is the conviction that secularism is a failed experiment, that societi...
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“Woke” or “Awake?”

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Google Image (Due to a change in my schedule, Skeptical Faith will be published on Fridays instead of Thursdays beginning Oct. 24.) I was a latecomer to the notion of “woke,” not realizing until a couple of years ago that it had become a politically charged catch phrase for all things liberal. According to Wikipedia, woke is “derived from African American English used since the 1930s or earlier to refer to awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination…. The term acquired political connotations by the 1970s and … over time, came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and denial of LGBTQ rights.” Now, it appears to be a term of derision used by the right to vilify the left. To me, it's all a bit juvenile and silly. Biblical The idea of being “awake, if not “woke,” is biblical, used in the New Testament to urge Jesus’ followers not to bury their heads in the sand but to see clearly what is going on in the world and to be ready for J...
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A Place at the Table

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Google Image If you regularly connect with social media – Facebook, Instagram, etc. – you’ll notice that they are filled with political messages from one side or another. Many are harsh; some are just plain mean. And many are aimed at people out of the mainstream – minorities, immigrants, the homeless, the poor. And they’re not coming from just one side of the issues that are generally categorized as Republican/Democrat or Liberal/Conservative. Many complaints against the “other side” that I’ve seen are either downright false, exaggerated or unproven. They often talk about the other side being “outraged” or “unhinged,” sometimes with language not suitable for a blog such as this. It’s a classic case of the end justifying the means. (I don’t want this blog to be viewed as “political,” but in the interest of truth, I believe our president is to a great extent responsible for this kind of language and vitriol. He’s providing the model for political language and action, making it seem ...
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How to Find God

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Google Image When you fall in love, you want to think of nothing else, or no one else, but your beloved. It can be close to an obsession. If you marry, as I did over 50 years ago, love eventually transforms. You don’t expect to be always aglow with emotion, to be feverish about it. Your conversations with the other aren’t always warm and interesting. You settle into a more enduring, calmer and, in my opinion, more authentic kind of love, in which you become accustomed to think about the other’s welfare at least as much as your own, close to a real “love of neighbor as yourself.” Oh, you still have those moments in which your heart melts for your beloved, but they are balanced by the joint, day-to-day tending to the needs of living. Married Love I think this understanding of married love, at least, is analogous to what may happen when we pray, or don’t pray. Says Ronald Rolheiser, priest and theologian, in his little book, Prayer, Our Deepest Longing: “We nurse a fantasy both a...
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Is Self-Love Overrated?

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Google Image There’s an ad appearing regularly on streaming video, and I assume on regular TV, showing an attractive young woman with beautiful, long black hair who has just used a hair product that has made her hair gleaming and shiny. Walking down a city street, she passes a store front with a big window and can’t resist stopping to look at her reflection, running her hand down her hair as if appreciating a luxurious garment. Her face conveys a self-satisfaction, even smugness that says, “My hair and I are beautiful. Aren’t I wonderful?” This is a message conveyed by an endless barrage of TV advertising that wants you to believe that their products – from hair and beauty products to toilet-bowl cleaners - will make you feel good about yourself. And feeling good about yourself is a cultural priority. Pop Psychology Obviously, it’s not good to feel bad about yourself, and contemporary psychology has helped us appreciate this fact. But there’s psychology as a science – which is on...
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