Skeptical Faith

Google Image In the midst of a recent heat wave, my wife, Amparo, and I chose to paint our tool shed in the back yard. Ill-conceived timing maybe, but for various reasons, we needed to get it done. It’s a big, wooden shed and several times I wanted to quit for the day. But while sweating profusely and ignoring the aches in arms, feet and legs, I kept going, thinking of the phrase, “get’er done,” the term popularized by comedian Larry the Cable Guy. I may have seen Larry in a few promotions on TV but don’t recall ever having seen one of his acts. But the online site, “Urban Dictionary” declares the term is “ an utterly stupid expression apparently coined by … Larry, which  more or less  means "do it…." "Just Do It" Similarly, Nike, the athletic shoe manufacturer, promotes its products with the slogan, “Just Do It.” These phrases may appear to be mindless expressions of impatience with the details of a job, promoting a thoughtless rush to simply finish it. But...

Google Image I don’t fly often but I was recently on a flight when a man in front of me on the boarding bridge got my attention. I had notice him earlier at the gate. I estimate that he was around 80 years old. Tall, but robust, he was a bit stooped, which was noticeable even in his wheelchair. He had on a wide-brimmed straw hat, which seemed a bit strange because we were in the Anchorage, AK airport. He was with a female traveling companion whom I assumed to be his wife. When passing from the boarding bridge to the plane, he needed her help because he had abandoned the wheelchair in favor of a cane and was struggling. Out of the blue, he turned to me and said, “When I was younger, I was strong and could walk anywhere. But I had a stroke, and this is how it left me.” Lacking Strength Understandably, he was struggling not only with getting on the plane but in accepting his condition with all its limitations. I can certainly relate. I’m constantly bemoaning the limitations...

Google Image National Public Radio recently aired an interesting interview with Carolyn Chen , sociologist and professor of ethnic studies at University of California at Berkeley. She’s the author of “Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley .” Studying the culture of Silicon Valley, she discovered that work there had become a religion for many employees. For them, she writes, "the workplace was the last meaningful institution standing. It was an institution that offered the best means for meaning, identity, belonging and purpose."   Her book appears to extend that observation to a broader workplace, according to the online summary on NPR, proclaiming that “subtlety but unmistakably, work is replacing religion.” It notes another, similar story in the New York Times with the title, "When Your Job Fills in for Your Faith, That's a Problem. "  A Bit Exaggerated   First off, the demise of religious faith may be a bit exaggerated. This fro...

Google Image  Is anybody but me annoyed by those little sticky labels on individual pieces of fruit, such as peaches, plums and apples? When I first noticed them several years ago, my first thought was, “This is something that obviously conveniences the producer or seller, but not the consumer.” They have bar codes, so they are a help to the sellers like supermarkets who often employ people at checkout counters who seem not to eat fruit and not to know the difference between a peach and a plum. In trying to remove the label, I often have to tear the fruit’s flesh. But I am also bothered by the arrogance involved in putting a corporation’s label on something that is produced by nature, no matter how much the producer manipulates the fruit’s growing conditions and genetics. 'The Other Seed Parable' It’s reminiscent of what I would call “the other seed parable” in the gospels, found only in Mark’s gospel. It says the kingdom of God is like a man who sows seed “and sleeps and...

Google Image A friend once told me he was raised Methodist but that the church had “very little influence” in his life. His parents were still avid churchgoers, he said, but he lost interest and now had no religion. The man was, however, a good person, in my view, treating others with respect and promoting social justice, which is a hallmark of Methodism. In my view, the religion in which he was raised had a great influence on him, and I told him so. (He eventually became a Catholic.)   I also know a woman who was raised Catholic but rejected her faith and feels no sense of belonging or sense of loyalty to the church. She, too, is a good person, treating others as she would want to be treated and always interested in helping others.   No Influence? Did all her pre-teen, post-teen and young adult years as a Catholic have no influence on the person she is today? She would probably not acknowledge it, but I believe that the church’s teaching about love of others had a p...