Despite attending forty 3-day Jesuit retreats and regularly going to church with my spouse, I remain adamantly somewhere between an Atheist and an Agnostic. See my blog “75% Atheist and 25% Agnostic.” One of the concerns I share with a few friends is organized religions apparent lack of concern for many social issues. I have attended Catholic, Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches in the past few years, and I have yet to hear a pastor or priest in the pulpit denounce climate change, sexism, racism or White Supremacy in the USA. I have thought about this lack of social assertiveness by too many pastors. Even if many of the congregations in these mainstream churches are conservative if not right wing, do not their church leaders have a responsibility to address social problems? I have two theories why they do not.
My first theory is that they do not venture to oppose these social ills because they would lose bunches of their church members if not their actual ministerial jobs. It has happened before that church leaders have been kicked out by their congregations for preaching politics too strongly. On the positive side here, many church leaders would argue that they do address social issues. They give to the poor and needy with food banks and outreach efforts to help destitute families. Unfortunately, this is like throwing water on a burning house. You are dealing with the symptoms and not the causes.
My second theory why church leaders do not vocalize more contempt for egregious social problems is this. Perhaps they see their job as converting the inner spirituality of their congregation. Thus, leaders focus on helping members become better people and lead better lives. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see.” By focusing on inner spirituality, they can convert the soul of their church members and perhaps help them to become the person that loves according to the Commandment of Jesus. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
I can see some positive sides to a church ideology that addressee inner spirituality, but I think it has serious drawbacks. You can focus too much on what I will call the “inner spirituality” of church members. The reasoning behind the emphasis on inner spirituality can be faulty. The theory is that if each member becomes a better Christian, they will be better neighbors towards others. If they feed the hungry and cloth the poor, they will be ridding the world of the evils that Jesus preached against. Unfortunately, these propositions are not evidenced by historical fact. For hundreds of years many Christians supported slavery and sexism by doing little or nothing to condemn or speak out against it. Furthermore, many Christians were major protagonists of racism and sexism. If their ministers spoke out against it, it obviously made little difference. Being a card carrying member of a Christian church never seems to correlate with ending war, sexism, racism, homophobia or even poverty. I think without an equal emphasis on “Outer Spirituality” Christianity is a worthless religion.
This issue which I call “Inner Spirituality versus Outer Spirituality” brings up a major conundrum in Christian thinking which has been the subject of many a lecture and paper. This dilemma is whether a Christian can be saved by faith alone or are good works also necessary. The apostle James says:
“So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, ‘Some people have faith; others have good deeds.’ But I say, How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds?” — James 2:17-26 NLT
The viewpoint promoted by James has been dissected many times by the followers of Paul who argue almost the opposite. Paul wrote the following:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” — Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV
Most mainstream Protestants as well as evangelicals cling to the opinion of Paul. I have a deep skepticism over this acceptance of Paul’s opinion for two reasons. First, it is very self-serving. It is a lot easier to say “I believe in Jesus” than to walk in Jesus’s shoes or to commit to action that saves others rather than just faith. Secondly, Paul was never as close to Jesus’s teachings as James was. Why should Paul have more credibility than James who was one of the 12 apostles living with Jesus during his ministry? Again, I see Christians taking the easy way out. Jesus said:
“Not every one that saith unto me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” — Matthew 7:21-23 KJV
If you have ever been to an Evangelical church meeting, you will hear the name of Jesus dripping so often from the lips of parishioners that you might think they are all going straight to heaven after they leave church. The practices or works of many of these “devout” Christians is enough to make anyone divorce themselves from any association with Christianity. During President Obama’s term in office, the head pastor of the Westboro Baptist church repeatedly called for God to strike Obama dead. Finally, he was condemned and ostracized by many other Baptist preachers. Nevertheless, Baptists have never been known for condemning racism or sexism from the pulpit. I think the argument over faith versus works is a false dichotomy and strictly speaking no one can be a Christian unless they practice both. Whether or not this will get them to heaven is an open question since I do not believe heaven or hell exists.
This brings me back to the concepts of inner and outer spirituality. Much like the faith versus works argument it is a false dichotomy. However, I prefer to think in secular terms. In secular terms, spirituality does not mean practicing Christianity or any other religion. I don’t need faith to be saved. I need both an inner and outer spirituality.
There are many definitions of spirituality. What does it mean to be a spiritual person? Some people lean towards accepting a higher being or creator. Some lean towards accepting a more conventional religious perspective. Many on-line definitions list several factors necessary to be a spiritual person. My own definition is much simpler. I think being a spiritual person involves two elements. The first is seeking meaning in one’s life. The second is seeking purpose. Meaning is inner spirituality. Purpose is outer spirituality. Meaning and purpose must go beyond what is simply good for oneself and must embrace what is good for humanity and the universe. Thus, a truly spiritual person is one who finds and balances inner and outer spirituality.
My understanding of the great prophets like Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Guru Nanak, and Baha’u’llah are that they all preached a concern for humanity and the universe that went well beyond what was simply good for the individual. Some quotes illustrate what I am talking about:
Buddha: “If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.”
Moses was a lawgiver who gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.”
Jesus: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Mohammed: “The best among you is the one who doesn’t harm others with his tongue and hands.”
Guru Namak: “He who regards all men as equals is religious.”
Baha’u’llah: “Do not be content with showing friendship in words alone, let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross your path.”
I think you can see from the above quotes that each of these great prophets embraced the idea of a goodness that extended beyond the self to all of humanity. There are many other great prophets as well as great philosophers. What has made them all great is a burning desire to help the world become a better place than they found it.
We all have a choice. We can take care of ourselves and acquire as much money, fame, and power as we can. Or we can let go of stockpiling material things and help the world be a healthier place. A place where everyone can live in peace and harmony with nature and its other species. In some ways it is a matter of choosing life or death. The present path is destroying us. The Club of Rome report called “Limits to Growth” was ridiculed when it was published in 1972. Over fifty years later and no one is laughing at the climate catastrophes that materialism and over consumption have brought upon the earth. We were warned fifty years ago to start dealing with the problem now. Is it too late? Perhaps, but we lose nothing by trying. We will surely lose our souls if we do not try.
I suppose in one sense, “life is not fair” means that life is indeed following a bell-shaped curve and some of us are on the undesirable end. In other words, some of us are too short, too fat, too unappealing, or any number of other less-desirable traits that we find on the extremes of the bell-shaped curve. Last night I was watching a 3-year-old do stunts on a sized down motorcycle. I could not do these stunts if my life depended on it. This young boy was a natural on the motorcycle. He took to it like a fish to water. We have all seen and perhaps envied some of the more fortunate on our bell-shaped curve who can do things we only dream about doing. For those of us on the wrong end of the bell-shaped curve, life will never seem fair.
I understand why so many people want to believe in heaven and hell. It would be much easier to go on living peacefully if I could really believe that there was someplace better to go to than this earth I now reside on. Too many bad days now seem to intrude on my equanimity. You and I and everyone else that resides on this 3rd rock from the sun are abused and tormented every day with disease, starvation, accidents, environmental devastations, and pandemics. I could handle all of these things but for one thing. It is called “mans’ inhumanity to man.” The stupid cruel things we do to each other over and over again. The wars, murders, and injustices that we inflict on other human beings. And it is not just the average person that inflicts these cruelties, it is the “best” people in the land. In fact, it would seem that the inhumanities done by those with the most money, most intelligence and those we call our leaders are the worst of all the brutalities and savagery that we see in the news each day.
Faith is number five of my seven essential virtues for leading a happy and successful life. Every Friday I start my day with the following prayer:
I decided that I must first understand what Faith really means. To do this, it is helpful to deconstruct how we think about Faith and how we use the word. I thought about how we use both Trust and Faith in common language. For instance we use trust in English as follows:
I think you can readily see that there is a certain degree of overlap between the two concepts. However, Faith generally seems to convey a more sectarian or theological concept of belief whereas Trust is generally used in more secular terms. Thus, we don’t “trust” God but we have Faith in her. Faith seems to be a term that is not contingent upon any kind of physical or logical proof. We might not trust a person with our money without proof that they are “bonded” or trustworthy, but we would not expect such displays of material evidence when it comes to having Faith in God. So what is the relevance to this in our lives? What good is Faith if we can substitute trust for faith and have more security in the long run?
The answer seems to be (IMHO) that sometimes we can trust without evidence but generally we are better off trusting with some element of surety that can mitigate the risk of our trust being unfounded or mistaken. Whereas, there is little or no evidence that can prove your need or desire to have Faith. You must have Faith like a parent has love for a child. It is unconditional. You have Faith simply because you want to believe. You have Faith because you accept something without conditions. You need no proof or evidence to support your Faith. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Should you have Faith without proof? What would a life without Faith be like? Would we be safer or happier with less Faith?
Fortunately, the 3.4 percent of respondents have been more than enough to help me keep my Faith. (Should I really need such sustenance if I have Faith?) Yes, I have Faith that my writing is making a difference to the world but alas, I have no proof for the empiricists, the materialists or the skeptics. I have to ask you as well as myself to believe that I am. It is Faith that keeps me motivated. Without Faith, life would appear to be a futile waste of time. Faith helps us to carry on when everything and everyone is saying to quit. The woman in the life raft, the athlete with a severe injury, the parents with a disabled child, the poor fighting hunger, the righteous fighting injustice are all sustained by the power of Faith.
Faith can believe everything
Samson was the strongest most well-built man on the block. He had muscles chiseled in stone. His muscles had muscles. He stood 6 feet 4 inches tall and did not have an ounce of fat on him. Samson worked out seven days a week, twice each day at the Philistine Gym on Gibeon Street. He worked out before he went to work each morning and after work for two hours each evening.
wanting something more because you can’t have it. Delilah had only one other person she admired, herself. Much like Sampson, she could not pass by a mirror without staring at her reflection and thinking “how beautiful I am.”
Delilah grew more and more desperate in her attempts to get Samson to notice her. Finally, she hit on the idea to simply approach Samson and remark on his wonderful hair. So, one day while he was practicing his dead lifts, she sauntered by and casually remarked on how beautiful his hair was. She proceeded to compliment him on his marvelous muscle definition. She followed up these compliments with the suggestion that they go back to her place after working out and she would cook him a nice microwave dinner and brush his hair. This idea delighted Samson and after working out, they both went to Delilah’s house.
Delilah waited until the night before the World Weightlifting championship. At around midnight, she used the key that Samson hid near his door to let herself into Samson’s apartment. Moving as stealthily as a cat, she entered Samson’s bedroom. Samson was a sound sleeper and he had no inclination of what awaited him. Delilah took the surgical scalpel that she had borrowed from a medical admirer and in one quick slash, she lopped off Samson’s braid. Samson was totally unaware and did not move a muscle. Delilah slipped back out the way she had come and placed Samson’s key back where he hid it.
As the little boy grew up, he became an even more devout believer in God. Everywhere he went, he saw the hand of God. In the clouds, in nature, in the weather, in the oceans, in good times and in bad times he believed that God was present. The little boy thought how hard God must have to work to try to keep life sustained. Each night he would pray to God that when he grew up, he would be able to help ease God’s work somewhat and do his share to help make the world a better place.
Aging Capriciously 