A Fresh Perspective

Lillian Daniel has written a very good book titled, When “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is Not Enough: Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even the Church.  In it she observes how important the community/church is for our spiritual development. She concedes that the church has done a lot of foolish things in its day. She writes:   “Now, let me acknowledge that on all sides of the Christian spectrum, there is much I do not want to be stuck with, from Koran-burning, pistol-packing pastors to the more ordinary preacher who was trying desperately to be inspiring and shouted out, ‘Let us launch out into the depth of the sea, standing upon the rock that is Jesus!’    Really?    No wonder many good people get like the pop singer Prince—they want a new name for what they do, like the artist formerly known as Christian.” The church has indeed done some embarrassing things, things that many of us do not want to be associated with. But the church has done...

In the familiar Christmas story in Luke’s Gospel, the angels announce to the shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14, AV) In a world of constant rivalry and competition, where the win-at-any-cost attitude is the common mode of operation, can there be any lasting peace? Is peace possible in a world of harbored grudges and continuous striving, fighting, and killing? Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche’ communities, where those with mental disabilities live with their assistants in community, wrote about being in Rwanda shortly after the genocide. A young woman came up to him and told him that seventy-five members of her family had been assassinated. I can’t imagine or don’t want to imagine what that would be like. I’m not sure I could ever recover from something like that. She said, “I have so much anger and hate within me and I don’t know what to do with it. Everybody is talking about reconciliation, but nobody has ...