Skeptical Faith

Google Image Have you ever lost your billfold or purse? I’ve lost billfolds over the years and looking back, I marvel at the panic that it causes. Your driver’s license, credit cards, insurance cards and cash (the least worrisome because I carry very little) are all at risk. Everything is, of course, replaceable, but you can’t help but be intimidated by the thought of the hours you’ll spend trying to replace them. Losing valuable things is traumatizing. If you’ve read my recent blogs, you will have noticed that I’ve been commenting on a book I’m reading called “Jesus: an Historical Approximation” by Jose Antonio Pagola, a Spanish theologian and Scripture scholar. I’ve found the book fascinating because Pagola uses modern sciences – archeology, history, anthropology – to uncover the world that Jesus lived in. It makes the narratives and parables much more understandable. Didn't Get It Pagola’s readers may find the gospels more understandable by reading the book, but the author...

Google Image I’ve written at least two previous blogs on this subject, knowing that many say they are spiritual but not religious. And up front, let me say that I believe no one, and no religion, has the market cornered on spirituality. What I’m not convinced of is that a do-it-yourself spirituality is the best way of finding God. I’d like to share a few ideas about how I believe spirituality and religion are not necessarily at odds. I say “not necessarily” because I believe there are some people - maybe many - who are religious but not spiritual as well as vice versa. But the two are by no means mutually exclusive. To me, it's a false dichotomy. Also, up front, I want to say that my views on this subject - spiritual but not religious – have changed a bit since staring to read, “Jesus, An Historical Approximation” by Jose Antonio Pagola, a Spanish theologian and Scripture scholar. Jesus' Parables Pagola is good at explaining and providing background on Jesus’ parables. ...

Google Image On March 4, 1933, at his first inauguration, President Franklin Roosevelt gave a much-anticipated speech that was broadcast by radio nationwide. Tens of millions of Americans heard it, according to Wikipedia. It was the peak of the Great Depression when unemployment reached more than 25 percent and bank and farm crises had a firm grip on the country. In Germany, Adolph Hitler had been named chancellor and just a few days before Roosevelt’s speech, Nazis began rounding up their political opponents. An ominous event. “So, first of all,” said the president, “let me assert my firm belief that  the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself .” It was a pivotal speech in which Roosevelt rallied the nation to address its problems, but I’m sure many Americans were skeptical because there appeared to be a lot to fear. Hate on the Rise That seems to be the case today. The political situation is a mess; war seems to again be a popular way of solving differences; hate app...

Google Image Edward Eismann founded an organization called “Unitas Therapeutic Community,” described in a recent article in America Magazine as “a program in the South Bronx that understands social connectedness as key to mental health.” Eismann, a psychologist, wasn’t satisfied by the lack of success in treating the youth that came to his clinic in the late 1960s, so he began walking the streets of the neighborhood to see how his patients were actually living day-to-day. The neighborhood was mainly Black and Puerto Rican, so the white Eismann stood out. Then, day after day, he began sitting on the clinic’s front stoop, and the word spread that Eismann was a guy who could “help young people with their worries.” Muggings and Gang Battles And they had plenty of worries. “Muggings and gang battles made the streets treacherous,” says the article, and a resident recalls that when he was 14, Eismann’s approach was “a unique idea for young people like me, when around us (people were) sa...