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The husband quoted from memory a passage in the Gospel of John, where many followers abandon Jesus because his teachings don’t make sense to them. Jesus says sadly to his disciples, “You do not want to leave, too, do you?” and Peter responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”
This quote from the article was particularly moving to me. I think it expresses what many members experience with their doubts. The article describes a lot of Christians having the emphasis of their experience within a conversation with god. God is a benevolent being who is with you through life’s difficult and painful moments. This god is never questioned on an intellectual level because that would remove the sense of support. Maybe if god was powerless to intervene, but only had the power to love, this would remove some of the resentment that turns up when you think about an all powerful god not intervening in senseless suffering.
In my religious upbringing this type of god as my friend would never fly because this is not the god generally described in the Bible. You have to execute a rather vigorous censor to create this from the Bible. And I think my main critique of Christianity is the Bible, because I don’t see how anyone could create something good out of that book.
I think I have an internal therapist that I call my higher self. It seems to be a part of me and the mystery of who I am. This part of me shows up when I am able to let go of my fear. It is a wise and intuitive self that gives me insight and guidance to make it through life. It doesn’t fix life and I have no expectations for it to do so.
What is interesting to me about the article is how she writes about the therapeutic benefits of belief and prayer. I would agree with her. Never once though does she validate or invalidate the object of belief and prayer: God. Really interesting article @starfielder. I remember you mentioning her book “When God Talks Back”… and how she studied some people who had been in the Vineyard, etc… fascinating.
My experience of Tanya Luhrmann is that if she acknowledges God it would be career suicide at Stanford. This being said, the conversations she has and discussions are very interesting. She’s been on NPR a couple of times and I like her interactions.
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