Skeptical Faith

Google Image Bryce Miller, who formally worked at the newspaper where I was employed, is now a sportswriter for the San Diego Union Tribune. His very active life was recently interrupted by a diagnosis of cancer and the sometimes-frightful treatments that go with it. He wrote about it in his newspaper, and it was subsequently published in an online newsletter by my former newspaper colleagues. His experiences taught him many lessons. “I … learned that situations like these provide powerfully emotional doorways to the kindness of others, taken for granted much too often in our stubbornly divided times. Bombarded with Casseroles “ Life rafts flooded in. My younger brother, Brian, came to San Diego on a one-way flight. Neighborhood friends bombarded me with casseroles. The mailbox bulged with funny T-shirts and handwritten cards. Buoying text messages landed by the dozens, moistening eyes.” I recently moved from Iowa, which boasts that it’s the home of “Iowa nice.” But my wife...

Google Image The mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 of 2021, “included a large cohort that hoisted Confederate battle flags and Trump banners. But mixed among those standards were other signs, ones bearing crosses and references to Christ,” according to the online Church & State Magazine. “It’s clear that for some of the insurrectionists, the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election was a holy crusade.” Sadly, for many contemporary Christians, faith is not so much a matter of loving God and neighbor as it is to forcefully oppose people who disagree. I have no quarrel with expressing disagreement, much less with voting one’s conscience, but I agree with Pope Francis, who sees the church not as a powerful Christian fighting force but as a field hospital that cares for the outcast, the marginalized, the “useless,” and yes, the unbelievers. Form of Surrender? But many Christians seem to believe that failing to engage in the culture wars is a form of surrender,...

Google Image I’ve often read or observed media reports of huge crowds that turn out for rock stars and other popular celebrities, wondering if that could ever happen to a religious leader. I read that “Swifties,” for instance, the name given to followers of super star Taylor Swift, turn out in incredible numbers for her performances. In June, she drew about 73,000 people to a stadium in Pittsburgh, breaking the facility’s attendance record. In April, she drew crowds of over 62,000 on three successive nights at another venue. Then I saw the news reports on Pope Francis’ recent visit to Portugal. The pontiff, who is 86 years old, drew 800,000 people – mostly young people attending World Youth Day – to one event. Then, he drew an estimated 1.5 million people, “braving a relentlessly scorching sun,” according to CNN, packing a Lisbon park for a “Way of the Cross” event. Many Parts of the World The same thing has happened in many parts of the world this pope has visited. What accounts...

Google Image Thomas Meagher was an Irish revolutionary whom the British sentenced to death. But his hanging was commuted at the last minute, and he was “transported” to a penal colony in Australia. He subsequently escaped and fled to the U.S. where he eventually became a general in the American Civil War of 1861-65. Meagher’s fascinating but tragic life is described in a book by Timothy Egan called “Immortal Irishman,” which I recently finished reading and which I highly recommend. Among other things, it refreshed my memory about the indescribably disastrous Irish potato famine, which lasted from 1846 to 1852. It’s called the “potato” famine because rural Ireland had become fatally dependent on the potato as its principal food staple, and its harvest rotted in the fields over a period of several years. The Irish had been under the thumb of the British for at least 400 years, and the book hellishly describes the attitude of British officials toward the estimated one million people w...

Google Image I often wonder why more preachers – priests, ministers, rabbis – fail to use stories in their homilies. (Ok, I must admit I’m talking about Catholic preachers. I’ve heard few preachers from other religious traditions.) But it seems so obvious that stories are very effective in helping people understand the sometimes-obscure topics that preachers discuss. So, why are stories so effective? “We are wired that way,” according to a story entitled, “ The Science of Storytelling: Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains,” on the online site, “lifehacker .” “A story, if broken down into the simplest form, is a connection of cause and effect,” writes author Leo Widrich. “And that is exactly how we think. We think in narratives all day long, no matter if it is about buying groceries, whether we think about work or our spouse at home. We make up (short) stories in our heads for every action and conversation.” Jesus Used Them Continuously The other ...