17 Comments
User's avatar
~X~'s avatar

That last line

Expand full comment
rc4797's avatar

Faith in a Supreme Being, and that Jesus is the Christ, the Messaiah, who died, rose from the dead and offers eternal life. And as I say this I am a firm opponent of the this right-wing, "Christian" nationalist bullshit. Too many "people of faith" today are hypocrites who would step over their own mother lying in the street in order to rail at "trans ideology" and "wokeness." Such people disgust me because they are NOT people "of faith."

Expand full comment
Megan Zurawicz's avatar

Only Christians can be people of faith?

Expand full comment
rc4797's avatar

No. You want to introduce other faiths into the discussion go ahead.

Expand full comment
David Dark's avatar

Megan, I don't want to interrupt anything. But...to be clear...I tend to think everyone's a person of faith. Having said that, I would never wish to imply that I'm an authority in someone else's experience. No faith? Got it. Message received.

Expand full comment
Megan Zurawicz's avatar

I get that. I was responding to rc4797's inclusion of Jesus & seeking clarification whether they believed that was a mandatory inclusion in "people of faith."

rc4797: as clarification from me: David knows this, but I'm Jewish. I believe strongly in God, and that God intends us to repair the world - "tikkun olam" - meaning that it is the job of us and God *together* to heal the brokenness of the world; we're not meant to sit back and expect God to do the work. To use a Christian phrase: by their fruits you shall know them.

Expand full comment
David Dark's avatar

You don't think such folks have faith in all the ideas you mentioned in your first sentence?

Expand full comment
rc4797's avatar

No. MT 15:7-8 - Jesus: "You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you. ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.'"

Expand full comment
David Dark's avatar

What do you imagine the people who disgust you have faith in?

Expand full comment
rc4797's avatar

Their own self-righteousness. Adios.

Expand full comment
David Dark's avatar

*nods* I hear that, rc4797. I'm gonna note right quick that Caleb Campbell's new book Disarming Leviathan might be meaningful to you. Here's Caleb on a wine podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5j5wthtRtY

Expand full comment
Nathanael Roy's avatar

I agree there is no faith without referent. I'll try to keep short here because i have tried to write my way toward faith before, but one thing that might be inferred from your short post is that faith qua faith is not in itself virtuous necessarily. Yet as a christian we talk of faith as one of three theological virtues, so there must be some inherent good. Perhaps Pascal's Wager answers this, we are embarked, we must choose some meaning. I prefer DFW's articulation, for some reason it resonates for me.

https://open.substack.com/pub/nathanaelroy/p/the-brilliance-and-tragedy-of-this?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2b0d31

Expand full comment
David Dark's avatar

Thanks for sharing it. I'm rethinking my "we" these days.

Expand full comment
Nathanael Roy's avatar

Thank you as well. Will listen further what you mean by that, whether here or elsewhere.

Expand full comment
Matthew's avatar

Amen🙌

Expand full comment
Susanna Chapman's avatar

go OFF!!!

Expand full comment
David Dark's avatar

Thank you for egging me on!

Expand full comment