August 26, 2007 @ 8:26 pm | Category: existential questions, spirituality/religion
Read the cover story in this week’s Time Magazine about Mother Teresa’s crisis of faith. A dark night of the soul that lasted 50 years. The article is based on a new book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday), consisting primarily of correspondence between Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years. According to Time:
“The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever — or, as the book’s compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, “neither in her heart or in the eucharist.”
The story provides plenty of fodder for reflection on the meaning of Christian happiness. The questions are endless. What is Christian joy? How do our feelings feed or hamper our faith? Can doubt ever be a strength? How narrow (and painful) is the door into the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus talked about? For a society use to the gospel of prosperity, where material success and emotional fulfillment are considered signs of grace, these questions are worth wrestling with.
1 Comment
August 19, 2007 @ 8:57 am | Category: theology/church
Here is a recent interview that I did with Steve Brown. Check it out.
1 Comment
August 16, 2007 @ 10:49 am | Category: family/relationships, work
My friend Susan just sent me this story in The New York Times about how little domestic relationships have changed. While women have negotiated a better position in the work place, the responsibilities at home remain virtually unchanged. Due partly to self-inflicted expectations and, partly to ingrained gender habits, women finds themselves overburden with domestic responsibilities, and longing for a good old-fashion wife. While women’s lives have changed in some major ways, men’s lives seem to be what they were in 1950. Underlying all this is a untenable work/home split and employers disregard for the family responsibilities of their workers, male or female.
Add Comment
August 14, 2007 @ 8:43 am | Category: family/relationships, media
This article in this week’s Time magazine suggest that maybe speed-dating, on-line personals, and hook-ups are killing romance. Quick access kills interest. Hollywood is finding itself uninspired by the current mating scene and we are too jaded to believe in romance anymore. Timeless stories of love sound quaint and naive. The thrill may be gone because romance depends on mystery, intrigue and the expectation of a surprise. It’s hard for these to thrive in a full-disclosure, I-am-for-sale world.
Add Comment
August 13, 2007 @ 8:33 am | Category: community, family/relationships
I remember seeing a Gallager skit in which the comedian was extolling the benefit of children as an excuse for not attending a dreaded party. Not having a baby sitter is a handy excuse. The catch in the joke was an anchor in diapers tied around the comedian’s foot. More and more people are getting the message that what was once considered a gift from God is really just a bunch of never ending obligations that merely ties one down. See this story at Broadstreet on Salon.com on how children are no longer seen as necessary to a happy marriage. What’s more interesting than the original post is the comments from the readers. The whole conversation is a startling snap shot on where we are today when it comes to valuing family life.
If you have children you can almost feel like an environmental polluter needing to buy carbon credits. Why would any educated, intelligent person, give up exotic vacations and an exciting career for children who are expensive, and won’t even do what you tell them? There is not even a money back guarantee that they will visit you in old age. On the other hand, are children just another status symbol displaying the parents wealth? Those seeking to live a faith filled life need to think long and hard about what exactly they are doing when bearing and raising children. This also entails not resorting to calling people “selfish” if they don’t have children. That’s a shallow and weak argument. Childlessness, or the more positive term “child-free”, is a relative new choice in human history and we aren’t sure how to respond. There is something much more complex going on whenever people are deciding to have children or not. In trying to ascertain the meaning and repercussions of such a choice, a whole complex of issues are raised about sexuality, gender relationships, work and community. We don’t hear much discussion as it relates to biblical faith because everybody naturally gets defensive. The childless feel judged and the parents feel unappreciated. Or maybe we don’t think that this has anything to do with one’s faith and it’s strictly a matter of personal disposition, or maybe just economics. It makes me wonder what it’s like to be a child today.
2 Comments
August 7, 2007 @ 10:15 pm | Category: art, spirituality/religion
Read this article in the Arion journal by the always provocative cultural critic Camille Paglia. It’s long, but worth it. I think she does a good job of showing the interdependent and mutual relationship of art and religion. In order for art and religion to flourish in a free society, conservatives and liberals will have to rethink how they view both.
1 Comment
