readably A nice little meditation in the Guardian about a phenomenon we’ve all observed: that people who are comfortable, rational, and thoughtful find themselves somehow above religion – sometimes proudly above it, sometimes wistfully – whereas people who are poor and suffering find religion central to their lives.
cleanly Takeesha and the other homeless addicts are brutalized by a system driven by a predatory economic rationalism (a term used recently by J. M. Coetzee in his essay: On Nelson Mandela). They are viewed by the public and seen by almost everyone else as losers. Just “junkie prostitutes” who live in abandoned buildings.
They have their faith because what they believe in doesn’t judge them. Who am I to tell them that what they believe is irrational? Who am I to tell them the one thing that gives them hope and allows them to find some beauty in an awful world is inconsistent? I cannot tell them that there is nothing beyond this physical life. It would be cruel and pointless.
In these last three years, out from behind my computers, I have been reminded that life is not rational and that everyone makes mistakes. Or, in Biblical terms, we are all sinners.
We are all sinners. On the streets the addicts, with their daily battles and proximity to death, have come to understand this viscerally. Many successful people don’t. Their sense of entitlement and emotional distance has numbed their understanding of our fallibility.
I remember one priest saying, “I hope at some point you experience a time in your life when you literally can’t make it through the day without God.” It’s a strange curse/blessing.
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