Most of the really good doctors I have known over the years have been people of faith, some Catholic, some Protestant, some Jewish, some Muslim and others Hindu or Buddhist. I think it helped them develop empathy.
I’m glad your experiences were primarily positive. Thank you for sharing; I also enjoy the old hymns, and was sad when our church did away completely with hymnals.
Any kid facing the prospect of a difficult test knows the value of prayer, but individual prayer, not mandatory or communal. As far as any links, they abound.
I am and always have been Jewish, and my upbringing in synagogues was a crucial part of my formation. But a significant portion of whatever wisdom I possess was a gift from my next-door neighbor—a small-town Presbyterian minister. He’s long gone, but I recently read that he, our rabbi, and a Episcopal priest around the corner were the only members of the local (white) clergy association who reached out to and welcomed a black minister who had just moved to town. (The newcomer became one of the town’s leading lights for many decades.)
Thanks for your comments, astute as usual. No, you didn't mention mandatory anything, but there are lots of your fellow christians who are actively working towards mandatory prayer in schools...as long as the prayers are to the G-d they want them to be directed to. Sometimes, prayer can be abstract, as in not to any particular g-d, or a different g-d than many of us believe (don't want to offend any wiccans out there).
I'd be interested in any links you run across advocating that. Feel free to forward if you run across them! Mind you, that's different from offering students the opportunity to have prayer or meditation time, which seems reasonable to me. In a time of exploding mental health problems in kids, something that offers them comfort and an anchor could be a great thing if done with a light touch.
PPS- Ed, reflect that what you do every shift at work, ESPECIALLY , in the ED, IS quintessentially ‘gods work’ and I reckon about as close as anyone is going to get on this earth to ‘grace.” You have a community of selfless healers that impacts the world in a more positive, non judgmental , essential and yes Christian way than ANY organized religion. Dayenu……I suspect that given the choice , Jesus would prefer to see you working that lonely Saturday night shift than having your but in the pew Sunday morning right? …..
Ps- There might be no greater force reshaping the country in ways we don’t fully understand than the rise of the “nones,” the term for people who do not belong to a particular religious faith.
Most nones, as Post Opinions columnist Perry Bacon Jr. points out in a searching and personal essay about his own quest for belonging after leaving his church, are former Christians. They’re not all young — while 40 percent of adults between 18 and 29 are nones, so are around 20 percent of people older than 65. They’re not all Democrats, either — about 15 percent of Trump voters in 2020 were nones, as were a third of Biden voters, Perry notes.
“In their new book ‘The Great Dechurching,’ Jim Davis, Michael Graham and Ryan Burge estimate that about 40 million Americans used to attend church but don’t now,” Perry writes. “I could not have imagined when I was a kid or even a decade ago that I would be in this group.”
But he is. And so are many of us. Perry’s essay — ”I left the church. And now I long for ‘a church of the nones’” — traces his own story, a reckoning that began with the election of Trump and the embrace, by many Christians, ”of a man so obviously misaligned with the teachings of Jesus,” as Perry puts it, and ended with the birth of Perry’s daughter.
While he doesn’t miss the theological aspects of church, he does miss the community. And he wonders if he and his fellow nones might rebuild it.
“Many Americans, including me, were once part of churches that were essential parts of our lives,” he writes. “It’s strange to me that America, particularly its left-leaning cohort, is abandoning this institution, as opposed to reinventing to align with our 2023 values.”
how to fit an ancient institution and practice into modern science and a contemporary family that wants to uphold the virtues of equality and tolerance.
None or something, we all could do worse this weekend than spending an hour reading and reflecting on what he has to say.
The problem Ed is too many Christians aren’t able to draw the line between their beliefs and others, or others lack thereof. Seems to me Jesus, if we stipulate he was a historical figure, and has come down to us even remotely ‘revealed’ accurately from scrolls thousands of years old with huge gaps /disparities/incongruities that many (most) archeologists struggle with regrading authenticity. Faith is a gift, pure and simple. Is is based on belief and yes it is confusing for agnostics and atheists to treat seriously intellectually documents virtually any of the Old Testament that (Noah’s arc, and the garden of Eden, anyone?) and the same comfort you feel from social ‘belonging’ can be very intimidating. Most towns I know, with apologies to Oliver, not ‘north of richmond’ , will indeed, accept people of different faiths than evangelical Christianity, but NOT agnosticism or atheism.in other words I don’t care what church you attend on Sunday, but you have to go to some place to worship ‘god’s right ?? this is unsurprising; any lack of faith , especially among educated highly ethical socially aware and empathic people, fundamentally calls into question their own faith. As for the cloistered, if not,preposterous, suggestion by one poster that good Medicine is somehow associated, let alone correlated , with attending church on Sunday, I can only say they need to get out of their bubble more on Sunday and make some rounds at secular institutions. On the heels of your welcome piece on ‘unchristian Christians’ this is a complimentary companion piece, but you are really talking about culture, not religion here. We all need to make that distinction when we talk about organized religion in America.
And, as a supplement to your lucid comments above, some Christians go to church on Saturday (eg. 7th Day Adventists), and, some observances are on Saturday (Jewish) or Friday (some Jewish and some Moslem).
Not all of us could “use a little more church”; for some, it may be a little more synagogue, mosque, ashram, etc. One reminder-while the majority of Americans may be Christian, or christian, there is a separation of church and state, which is why we don’t have mandatory prayer in public schools (yet).
Michael, of course you're correct. Church for me, synagogue for another, mosque or temple still another. While I am Christian I believe that the communal nature of worship is very important, whatever one's faith tradition. And by the way, I do get the church and state thing; in no way was I suggesting mandatory anything in this piece. As for mandatory prayer? A bit of a stretch. I know a lot of Christians, some very right leaning, and I have never heard anyone recommend forced prayer or worship.
Most of the really good doctors I have known over the years have been people of faith, some Catholic, some Protestant, some Jewish, some Muslim and others Hindu or Buddhist. I think it helped them develop empathy.
Beautifully written. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Hear, hear!
I’m glad your experiences were primarily positive. Thank you for sharing; I also enjoy the old hymns, and was sad when our church did away completely with hymnals.
So true and wish I had been more vocal with my sons about the importance of Church and believing in God.
Any kid facing the prospect of a difficult test knows the value of prayer, but individual prayer, not mandatory or communal. As far as any links, they abound.
Beautiful!
I am and always have been Jewish, and my upbringing in synagogues was a crucial part of my formation. But a significant portion of whatever wisdom I possess was a gift from my next-door neighbor—a small-town Presbyterian minister. He’s long gone, but I recently read that he, our rabbi, and a Episcopal priest around the corner were the only members of the local (white) clergy association who reached out to and welcomed a black minister who had just moved to town. (The newcomer became one of the town’s leading lights for many decades.)
Thank you for those words of Godly Wisdom.
Thanks for your comments, astute as usual. No, you didn't mention mandatory anything, but there are lots of your fellow christians who are actively working towards mandatory prayer in schools...as long as the prayers are to the G-d they want them to be directed to. Sometimes, prayer can be abstract, as in not to any particular g-d, or a different g-d than many of us believe (don't want to offend any wiccans out there).
I'd be interested in any links you run across advocating that. Feel free to forward if you run across them! Mind you, that's different from offering students the opportunity to have prayer or meditation time, which seems reasonable to me. In a time of exploding mental health problems in kids, something that offers them comfort and an anchor could be a great thing if done with a light touch.
PPS- Ed, reflect that what you do every shift at work, ESPECIALLY , in the ED, IS quintessentially ‘gods work’ and I reckon about as close as anyone is going to get on this earth to ‘grace.” You have a community of selfless healers that impacts the world in a more positive, non judgmental , essential and yes Christian way than ANY organized religion. Dayenu……I suspect that given the choice , Jesus would prefer to see you working that lonely Saturday night shift than having your but in the pew Sunday morning right? …..
Ps- There might be no greater force reshaping the country in ways we don’t fully understand than the rise of the “nones,” the term for people who do not belong to a particular religious faith.
Most nones, as Post Opinions columnist Perry Bacon Jr. points out in a searching and personal essay about his own quest for belonging after leaving his church, are former Christians. They’re not all young — while 40 percent of adults between 18 and 29 are nones, so are around 20 percent of people older than 65. They’re not all Democrats, either — about 15 percent of Trump voters in 2020 were nones, as were a third of Biden voters, Perry notes.
“In their new book ‘The Great Dechurching,’ Jim Davis, Michael Graham and Ryan Burge estimate that about 40 million Americans used to attend church but don’t now,” Perry writes. “I could not have imagined when I was a kid or even a decade ago that I would be in this group.”
But he is. And so are many of us. Perry’s essay — ”I left the church. And now I long for ‘a church of the nones’” — traces his own story, a reckoning that began with the election of Trump and the embrace, by many Christians, ”of a man so obviously misaligned with the teachings of Jesus,” as Perry puts it, and ended with the birth of Perry’s daughter.
While he doesn’t miss the theological aspects of church, he does miss the community. And he wonders if he and his fellow nones might rebuild it.
“Many Americans, including me, were once part of churches that were essential parts of our lives,” he writes. “It’s strange to me that America, particularly its left-leaning cohort, is abandoning this institution, as opposed to reinventing to align with our 2023 values.”
how to fit an ancient institution and practice into modern science and a contemporary family that wants to uphold the virtues of equality and tolerance.
None or something, we all could do worse this weekend than spending an hour reading and reflecting on what he has to say.
The problem Ed is too many Christians aren’t able to draw the line between their beliefs and others, or others lack thereof. Seems to me Jesus, if we stipulate he was a historical figure, and has come down to us even remotely ‘revealed’ accurately from scrolls thousands of years old with huge gaps /disparities/incongruities that many (most) archeologists struggle with regrading authenticity. Faith is a gift, pure and simple. Is is based on belief and yes it is confusing for agnostics and atheists to treat seriously intellectually documents virtually any of the Old Testament that (Noah’s arc, and the garden of Eden, anyone?) and the same comfort you feel from social ‘belonging’ can be very intimidating. Most towns I know, with apologies to Oliver, not ‘north of richmond’ , will indeed, accept people of different faiths than evangelical Christianity, but NOT agnosticism or atheism.in other words I don’t care what church you attend on Sunday, but you have to go to some place to worship ‘god’s right ?? this is unsurprising; any lack of faith , especially among educated highly ethical socially aware and empathic people, fundamentally calls into question their own faith. As for the cloistered, if not,preposterous, suggestion by one poster that good Medicine is somehow associated, let alone correlated , with attending church on Sunday, I can only say they need to get out of their bubble more on Sunday and make some rounds at secular institutions. On the heels of your welcome piece on ‘unchristian Christians’ this is a complimentary companion piece, but you are really talking about culture, not religion here. We all need to make that distinction when we talk about organized religion in America.
And, as a supplement to your lucid comments above, some Christians go to church on Saturday (eg. 7th Day Adventists), and, some observances are on Saturday (Jewish) or Friday (some Jewish and some Moslem).
Not all of us could “use a little more church”; for some, it may be a little more synagogue, mosque, ashram, etc. One reminder-while the majority of Americans may be Christian, or christian, there is a separation of church and state, which is why we don’t have mandatory prayer in public schools (yet).
Michael, of course you're correct. Church for me, synagogue for another, mosque or temple still another. While I am Christian I believe that the communal nature of worship is very important, whatever one's faith tradition. And by the way, I do get the church and state thing; in no way was I suggesting mandatory anything in this piece. As for mandatory prayer? A bit of a stretch. I know a lot of Christians, some very right leaning, and I have never heard anyone recommend forced prayer or worship.