If, as David Miller proclaims, "Religion means being gripped by a story," then all of us, every mother's child of us, is religious. Every one of us has our story about who we are, from whence we came, and where we may or may not be headed.
The story by which you are gripped is your religion!
It is foolish to rail against religions, O proud bearers of the scientific flag, when you yourself are religious and filled with zeal for the grip your story has upon you.
It is foolish to say you have the only true religion, O Christ-ian and O Pagan! It is equivalent to saying that the story that grips you is the only true grip. What inbred arrogance!
Religion means being gripped by a story. Just because I am enchanted by a story (and I am) does not mean that you will or should be enchanted by that story. I enjoy the enchantment of my story and as I open to the richness of your story and the stories of others, I see the interweaving of our stories.
So let's stop our belly-aching about other people's stories and our belly-swelling about our own story. We need to get past that. There's work to be done.
Nice post, George. I hear echoes of Melville in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th paragraphs!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Brad. Now that I look at those paragraphs I see you are right. Good Lord, I'm channeling Melville! Yippeee!
ReplyDeleteThe grip reminds me of "The Plague" by Albert Camus. People either have the illness and realize it, or they have the illness but don't realize it. Either way, the dis-ease continues. Camus noted that there is a very small third group -- true healers. For that group, as you noted, there is much work to be done. Y'all keep shining.
ReplyDelete