« Block the Vote | Main | The Reality-Based Community »

October 17, 2004
Easy Certainty
''Faith can cut in so many ways,'' he [Pastor Jim Wallis] said. ''If you're penitent and not triumphal, it can move us to repentance and accountability and help us reach for something higher than ourselves. That can be a powerful thing, a thing that moves us beyond politics as usual, like Martin Luther King did. But when it's designed to certify our righteousness -- that can be a dangerous thing. Then it pushes self-criticism aside. There's no reflection.

''Where people often get lost is on this very point,'' he said after a moment of thought. ''Real faith, you see, leads us to deeper reflection and not -- not ever -- to the thing we as humans so very much want.''

And what is that?

''Easy certainty.''

New York Times Magazine

There's more to say, or at least quote from, this article in today's Times Magazine, but I want to let that passage stand on it's own.

Comments

Previous Comments

Why do you suppose we, and particularly people like Bush, desire this so much? Why do we feel so insecure when we don't have certainty? Self-righteous certainty doesn't have to come in the form of faith. Most of us pursue it throughout our lives one way or another. Is it possible to simply push this need aside? Ignore it? Perhaps truly uproot and get rid of it? For what purpose does it really serve beside reasurring us that we know, when the prospect of not knowing scares us? What?! TELL ME! I MUST KNOW!!!