News comes from Time Magazine about Mother Teresa’s private correspondence where she doubed even the existence of God.
Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.
- Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979
This is a point of view that, frankly, does not surprise me. I doubt the existence of God. I would expect other people, even people in ministry to question or doubt at least occasionally. And yet as institutions, Churches often take a hard-line tack and proclaim that even things as mundane as the common cavendish banana are lock-solid proof of the existence of God.
I hope this book opens the conversation of faith and doubt into something more nuanced and descriptive of the subtleties of the internal spiritual life of human beings.
Says the Rev. James Martin:
“Everything she’s experiencing,” he says, “is what average believers experience in their spiritual lives writ large. I have known scores of people who have felt abandoned by God and had doubts about God’s existence. And this book expresses that in such a stunning way but shows her full of complete trust at the same time.” He takes a breath. “Who would have thought that the person who was considered the most faithful woman in the world struggled like that with her faith?” he asks. “And who would have thought that the one thought to be the most ardent of believers could be a saint to the skeptics?” Martin has long used Teresa as an example to parishioners of self-emptying love. Now, he says, he will use her extraordinary faith in the face of overwhelming silence to illustrate how doubt is a natural part of everyone’s life, be it an average believer’s or a world-famous saint’s.Posted in A Cacophony of Posts | 21 Comments »
In his book, I’m OK, You’re not, John Shore makes a fairly pointed observation to Christians about the message we’re really sending.
The Great Commission in a nutshell says, “Go into all the world and make disciples” (convert non-believers into Christians), and The Great Commandment says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But what happens when you put them together? John shore says:
So, as far as I can tell, the two Big Messages of our Lord, taken together, amount to, “Love everyone, Christian or not - but if they’re not Christian, do what you can to change that.”
In other words, love non-Christians - but desire that they change.
Um.If someone said to you, “I love you - but I want you to change the very essence of who you are,” would you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, or…not exactly?
Read the rest of this news item »
People often complain about the “public faces” of atheism. We have our Dawkins and our Hitchens and our Harris…
Not exactly three friendly faces. The more I think about it, the more I want a “soccer mom” atheist. Someone closer to the atheists I know to be a public face… my wife’s an atheist, my friends who are atheists are warm, funny and down-to-earth people… not pundits, not authors of diatribes against religion and its adherants. Just wonderful people living wonderful lives. That’s why I’m grateful for Julia Sweeney.
Julia Sweeney will be on CBS Sunday Morning this week, and I think that’s great. Here’s a wonderful excerpt from her show, Letting Go of God, which she is currently in the process of making into a concert film:
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts | 11 Comments »