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Ruined for Life?

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Google Image In 1989 , the military in El Salvador murdered six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter in their home in San Salvador. The priests were internationally recognized scholars who wrote and spoke extensively about the need for peace and the root causes of the war in El Salvador. Their deaths awakened the world to the atrocities being committed by the Salvadoran government. In one sense, the murdered people were irreplaceable, but their Jesuit community wanted their work to continue, so one of their number, Fr. Dean Brackley, who was on the faculty of Fordham University in New York, volunteered to fill in “for four or five years.” But he became passionate about the struggles of the people of El Salvador and died there in 2011 at age 65.   One of the jobs he took on was meeting with delegations of people from the U.S. and elsewhere who came there to help, and that’s where I met him. On a visit from people from my parish who supported a scholarship program, and
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Insights on What Comes Next

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Google Image I’ve written before about my 4-year-old grandson, Leo. Many grandfathers would say this about their grandchildren, of course, but I think he’s exceptionally smart. He asks a lot of smart questions, for one thing. Currently, he’s been asking about, and referring to, death. And why not? Death is scary and many kids are into scary things, though they may not fathom what it means to die. For many adults, it’s the worst thing that can happen to a human being, something to be feared above all fearful things. For others, it’s a relief. For most, I think, it’s an enigma, at best. People of faith may ask themselves, “Did God really know what he was doing when he created us to die? Couldn’t he, or she, come up with a way of creating that doesn’t include death? Say what you want about a God who loves us. Death seems like a cruel joke. Insights from the Gospels But if we seek God in the Christian tradition, we examine the gospels, and if we’re paying attention, we get insights t
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Boring? Maybe, But Worth It

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Google Image The Internet and social media are full of articles about people who have given up on religion and churchgoing. I get it. People ask themselves why they need it. Compared to the excitement and visually and auditory stimulation of the media, church may seem boring. They may have grave doubts about God’s existence. They may be scandalized by the behavior of some clergy members. Some age groups may find religion “embarrassing,” and believe that church is for old people. I’m skeptical, however. I believe people need church more than ever. And if you find church boring, is it the church’s problem or yours? If you’re scandalized by the behavior of the clergy, you’re not paying attention to what our society is like, and you’re letting actions of others determine yours. The benefits of religion are timeless. Young people stand to gain more than the old, in my opinion. The Human Condition Now, regarding doubts about God’s existence. Doubts about everything is the human conditi
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The Essence of Christianity?

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Google Image A few months ago, I attended an event at a theater in downtown Denver. My companions and I were waiting in line in the cold, when I spotted a presumed homeless man seated on the sidewalk holding a cup. I gave him a few bucks, then went back in line. But I had regrets, not because I agree with the people opposed to giving money to people begging on the street and not because I thought I should have given him more, but because I didn’t speak to him or even acknowledge his presence. Whether to help beggars has been a bone of contention for me for some time. Some people say giving them money is a way of enabling their homelessness. I find this argument shallow. It presumes that beggars choose this lifestyle and that they could prosper if they wanted to. In my considerable experience with the homeless, that's simply not the case. Faith Compels Us Besides, and more importantly, I believe faith compels us to help such people. And the gospels don’t place any conditions o
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Can a Skeptic Take the Bible Seriously?

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Google Image This blog is called Skeptical Faith because one of its goals is to show that skepticism and faith are not mutually exclusive. That’s because though our religious beliefs may not be provable through the kind of evidence used in the “hard sciences,” faith is nonetheless reasonable and rational. The evidence for the existence of God, for instance, is at least as rational as evidence that is commonly presented in a court of law. Such evidence includes the testimony of millions – perhaps billions - of witnesses over the centuries, and inferences from studies on the origin of the universe and the origin of life. Inferences aren’t “proofs,” for sure, but in most parts of our lives, inferences are the best we have. Here’s what I mean by inferences. Since moving to Colorado and doing a bit of hiking, I’ve been more interested in identifying footprints in the snow and mud. Looking at them carefully, you can make inferences about the kinds of animals that have passed by, and even
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Should People of Faith Speak Out?

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Google Image Many people who worry about people of faith speaking out on political and social issues say things like, “They’re trying to cram their religious beliefs down our throats.” I’ve often heard or read on social and other media that kind of comment and I’m always puzzled why people are allowed to be motivated by their interest in “gun rights” or “border issues” or party affiliation, and advocate for them, but not someone motivated by their faith. Writes David French in a recent issue of the New York Times: “Anyone may disagree with Christian arguments around civil rights, immigration, abortion, religious liberty or any other point of political conflict … but it is no more illegitimate or dangerous for a believer to bring her worldview into a public debate than it is for a secular person to bring his own secular moral reasoning into politics.” Christian Nationalism French is writing against Christian Nationalism, which I’ll attempt to deal with later in this blog. But he f
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Childlike or Childish?

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Google Image Since moving to Colorado, I’ve had lots of opportunities to spend time with my four-year-old grandson, Leo. Recently, we toured the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. I know, it sounds like a bit too sophisticated for a four-year-old. But on the day we went, the museum was filled with children. About 20 school busloads, to be more exact. And we found lots of interesting things to see, even for four-year-olds. As always, I was amazed at Leo’s curiosity about the natural world, as well as his interaction with the other children at the exhibits. He was especially fascinated by an exhibit of skinless men, called “The Hikers.” It’s part of a display of human bodies and body parts that have been preserved using a process called “plastination.” One More Piece of Plastic? That word says it all, and personally, I’m not comfortable with the idea of turning a human body into one more piece of plastic, and some may believe seeing such an exhibit is not appropriate for a four
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