Wild Bill
- ISBN-10
- 1448954061
- ISBN-13
- 9781448954063
- Category
- Fiction
- Pages
- 132
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2010-03
- Publisher
- America Star Books
- Author
- Leonard Phelps
Description
A rabbi is counseling a boy who is Protestant and a girl who is Jewish. She is bright, attractive, and enthusiastic toward religious studies and coming to worship services. She can't understand why her parents are troubled by their relationship. His parents are Protestant, but what kind? They don't know. He is not a regular church-goer. On the other hand, her parents only attend church on High Holy Days. The girl is the only one who was ever religious in her family. Her position is, if it doesn't bother her, why should religious preference be important to her parents? As a solution she seeks advice from the rabbi. The rabbi said, "It's not that I believe Jews are better than other people or different from other people. I regret to see two bright young people like yourselves start out life with the notion that religion will never play any role in your home because the two of you don't share a common religion. There are so many things that religion could add to a family that you two are ruling out from the beginning." The boy speaks for the first time in the interview. "No offense, Rabbi, but that attitude is exactly what turns a lot of young people off toward religion. You care more about the institutions, the labels, and the brand names of whatever religion you practice--more than you care about our feelings. We believe we can be honest, ethical people without having to go to a particular church building every week." The rabbi responds that it is not a fair accusation. "I do care about institutions because I believe people need institutions, not just because I am employed in one. I don't believe you can practice religion in general any more than you can speak the language in general. You have to speak language and follow a specific, coherent religion. I do care about people more than institutions. Religion today you may not need, but further down the road, you may need religious convictions." I tried to explain to them that the issue was not what they believed about God, sin, salvation, or even morality. The issue was in which religious language and through which religious community would they express their language and community in common. In my opinion as a writer, religion is first and foremost a way of seeing. It can't change the facts about the world we live in, but it can change the way we see those facts, and that can often make a real difference. Religion has to mean more to us than a commitment to ethical behavior, to loving your neighbors. Religion should teach our eyes how to see the world. Something wonderful and liberating happens to people who see life through religious faith. I can tell you when you have learned to see the world in a certain way as a believer, you realize being in the world doesn't necessarily mean being of the world. We can invite God to lift the stain of guilt from out souls, because he demands honesty from us, not perfection. He and he alone has the power to give us a transfusion of moral strength. Only God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2019-02-05
- 448 pages
- Ebook
- St. Martin's Press
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