Monday, February 6, 2012

Does it pass the button test?


Would I have worn this button to the Chamber's monthly "Get Moving Middleton" breakfast meeting?

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Community Columnist, 2/4/2012.

Excerpt: We need to get kids reading at an early age. We must not tell them that one book holds all the answers because this is a recipe for the creation of mindless followers. They must read a variety of books. Children must be encouraged to read books that look at the world from a variety of perspectives, books that ask more questions than they answer and books that encourage them to think about the world they inhabit. 

I am not sure why this is so very difficult for people to understand. Another church, another minister, priest, rabbi or other religious leader is not needed. Who decided that the person standing up in front of them on a Sunday or Saturday has the answers? That person doesn't know any more about what happens after we die than some homeless person on the street.

Coincidentally, on my "Letters from Mom" blog earlier today, I transcribed a letter my mother wrote in February 2000.  She concludes with a quotation from Rabbi Harold Kushner's Who Needs God?

What is the difference between a person who relies only on himself & a person who has learned to turn to God for help? It's not that one will do bad things while the other will do good things. The self reliant atheist may be a fine upstanding person. The only difference is the atheist is like a bush growing in the desert. If he has only himself to rely on when he exhausts his internal resources, he runs the risk of running dry & withering. But the man & woman who turn to God is like a tree planted by a stream. What they share with the world is replenished from a source beyond themselves, so they never run dry.

Mom's final thought:  I like that & that's why we go to church to receive that special faith & strength.

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