Skeptical Faith

Google Image In his book, “Who Needs God?” Rabbi Harold Kushner tells this story. A man receives a message that a relative died and left him valuable property. He was to contact his rabbi for details. “Excited, he went to the rabbi, only to be told that the relative was Moses and the valuable property was the Jewish religious tradition.” The man was disappointed that his legacy “was religious wisdom and not downtown real estate,” writes Kushner, who became famous for his book, “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Many modern people, some who say they are “spiritual but not religious,” have various reasons for rejection of religion. Here are a few of the most common mentioned by Kushner, and my brief response to each. ·        Distrust, sometimes even contempt for, official representatives of religion. That may be warranted in a few cases, but it really doesn’t address one’s own spiritual and religious needs. ·     ...

Google Image When I was a reporter, I did a story about Ed, a man in his 80s who took round-the-clock care of his demented wife. Alzheimer’s disease had already attacked her motor skills. She could make noises but couldn’t form words; she could barely move her limbs and spent most of her time standing or sitting still, seemingly staring into emptiness. Ed bathed her, took her to the bathroom and fed her. He wore an old tweed sport coat, one pocket bulging with a wind-up alarm clock which he set to go off every four hours. It had a loud, irritating ring, but it signaled when she took medication and he never missed giving it to her exactly on time, day and night. Even though Ed had been doing this for 10 years, I never heard a complaint from him. On the contrary, he took it all as the normal thing to do when someone, especially a loved one, needs help. And she was the love of his life. The Power of Love I was deeply moved by his dedication, impressed by the lengths to whi...

Google Image Ellie Wiesel, author, Nobel Peace winner and survivor of the Holocaust, experienced the worst of what life can throw at a human being. The camps created by the Nazis where Wiesel was a teenaged prisoner were places of evil incarnate. Prisoners and guards operated on the basest of animal instincts. Living felt worse than dying. Millions of prisoners were murdered, often on the whim of a guard or officer. Before the Holocaust, writes Robert Douglas, Jr., Wiesel had been “one of the most devout Jewish children. Up until the end he waited for God to intervene (in the camps) in Biblical fashion. When that intervention was not forthcoming, he began to doubt in God and in His mercy.” That began the lifelong anger at God about which Wiesel wrote in numerous books. Many Are Angry But Wiesel, who died last year, is not alone. Many people are angry at God, because of the death of a loved one, failure at work or school, financial distress, even the perceived failure o...

Google Image The Vatican recently named the first-ever American-born person to be an official “martyr,” considered to be a step in the process to be declared a saint. Though a Catholic, I’m not a fan of the canonization process. I do believe, however, that it’s valuable for those of us searching for God to know about people like us who were apparently successful in their search. And the newly declared martyr, Stanley Rother, who was murdered in Guatemala in 1981, was like many of us. He grew up in a small farming community in Oklahoma. A mediocre student, he liked to work with his hands. In the small village in Guatemala, where he spent 13 years, h e built a farmers' co-op, a school, a hospital, and the first Catholic radio station, which was used for catechesis to the even more remote villages. Padre Francisco When he arrived there, the Mayan Indians in the village had no native equivalent for “Stanley,” so they called him Padre Francisco after his baptismal name of ...