Myths to Live By

The year was 1986 and it was the Thursday a week before Thanksgiving when we learned that our second adoption attempt of the year had failed.  The young woman decided to keep her baby girl.  We were devastated.  It took five years to get pregnant with our first son.  The second one was Trisome 18 and lived five days.  We didn't know if we could get pregnant again.  Dorothy's folks drove over the next day from Memphis to Knoxville to console us.  That was nice.  We had a good time with them.  I was sad for a number of reasons.  One of the others is that I was looking for something else.  And I found it at the mall bookstore.  A book that propelled me in a mental and spiritual direction I was looking for but did not know existed.

Myths to Live By by Joseph Campbell

A week later we found out Dorothy was pregnant again!  Happy Ending.

More about Myths to Live By later.

To Be Like Jesus

The “adepts” in all religions are always forgiving, compassionate, and radically inclusive. They do not create enemies, and they move beyond the boundaries of their own “starter group” while still honoring them and making use of them. Jesus the Jew criticizes his own religion the most, yet never leaves it!

Richard Rohr "Falling Upward"

Jesus' Unconditional Love Wins

Several months ago I downloaded to my Kindle  Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr and only in the last few weeks have given attention to it.  It is great.  I'm clipping about every other paragraph because it has a pithy way of saying something of great meaning to me.  Here is one:

Jesus touched and healed anybody who desired it and asked for it, and there were no other prerequisites for his healings. Check it out yourself. Why would Jesus' love be so unconditional while he was in this world, and suddenly become totally conditional after death? Is it the same Jesus? Or does Jesus change his policy after his resurrection?

 

How to live as a Christian without having to believe the unbelievable

How to live as a Christian without having to believe the unbelievable

Should Christianity be about Believing the Unbelievable or Doing the Unbelievable?

Should Christianity be about Believing the Unbelievable or Doing the Unbelievable?

This is pertinent to my post of April 22.  Are we duty bound to believe the unbelievable?   Should we?  

Southerners

We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die. —W. H. AUDEN