Skeptical Faith

Google Image Among its best-read stories of 2018, America Magazine lists “Deployment to Iraq Changed my View of God, Country and Humankind. So Did Coming Home” by Phil Klay. Klay is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War and the author of the short story collection Redeployment, which won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction. In 2018 he received the George W. Hunt, S. J., Prize for Journalism, Arts & Letters. I read his story with the readers of this blog in mind. Though few of us have experienced the trauma of war, Klay appears to have struggled with faith problems shared by many who are searching for God. He started from the position of a practicing, but doubt-filled, Catholic. “Faith, for me, has always been a place to register a sense of doubt, of powerlessness, of inadequacy and uncertainty about my place in the world and how I am supposed to live,” Klay writes. Facing Human Frailty “You kneel before a crucifix. Before a broken, tortured and humilia...

Google Image Last year, I wrote an opinion piece entitled, “Why Christians Should Hate Christmas.” It was published in the online edition of the National Catholic Reporter and elicited a bit of attention, even resulting in a telephone interview for the publication’s podcast. But on some level, I regret having written it. The point of the article was that Christmas has become so commercialized, so estranged from its meaning, so inimical to Christian values, that it’s unredeemable. I mentioned that if I had the power, I would change the Christian celebration of Christmas from Dec. 25 to some other date, abandoning Dec. 25 to the buyers and sellers. That last part may still not be a bad idea, but whenever it is held, Christmas itself is a beautiful celebration. The allegorical stories of Jesus’ birth capture essential lessons for anybody searching for God. The Value of Humility Among the most powerful of its lessons is the value of humility. God – who ...

Google Image A few months ago, a church in Des Moines displayed a big banner on its building that proclaimed, “Black Lives Matter.” It should be no surprise that in today’s politically charged climate where every statement is viewed from a tribal perspective, the banner elicited backlash. And from all places, it came from the police department, whose spokesman said the banner should have read, “All Lives Matter.” Of course all lives matter. That’s implicit in “black lives matter.” The intent of the later is to focus on the lives of a group of citizens that historically and currently are less likely to be recognized as mattering. The Congregational church’s pastor said the banner was intended to bring attention to the systematic racism in society that has resulted in, among other things, higher poverty and arrest rates. Persist in Denying It I believe it’s hard for a reasonable person of good will to deny the pastor’s claim. Many people, however, persist in denying the existe...

Google Image I’m about to finish reading “The Indifferent Stars Above” by Daniel James Brown – the tragic story of the famous Donner Party, after whom Donner Pass and Donner Lake in northeastern California are named. It’s about a group of emigrants who left rural Illinois on foot and in horse-drawn wagons in the spring of 1846 to find a better life in California where the climate and pending theft of the territory from Mexico promised prosperity. Led by brothers Jacob and George Donner, the group of nearly 90 people tried a new and supposedly shorter route to California. They soon encountered rough terrain and numerous delays and eventually became trapped by heavy snowfall high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Starving and weakened by the cold and harsh conditions, they were reported to have resorted to cannibalism. Only about half of the group reached California the following year. As their story became widely known, “Donner Party” became associated with one of society’s...