Flawed Glass

It is said that knowledge is power. I have long felt that humanity is a species of control freaks. In my observation, most human problems reflect some kind of struggle for power and control. If there is “original sin,” it may be the obsession over control. In the Genesis account, Adam and Eve were tempted to eat the fruit of the tree of (wait for it) the knowledge of good and evil. “If I know the difference, then I can be in control of my destiny!” (which would make me “like God,” according to the tempter ~ Genesis 3:5). Ancient cultures believed that to know the name of a person or a phenomenon was to have power over him/her/it. When Jesus confronted the possessed man in Gerasa (Mark 5), he asked the man—or more to the point, he asked the spirit that possessed the man, “What is your name?” If a physician knows the name of a disease or condition, she has the ability (power) to treat it. There is a modicum of control over the malady. All of the above is why precise termino...

               Jim Palmer opens Chapter 11 of Inner Anarchy with this: “There are 41,000 different Christian denominations around the world, and close to 450,000 international missionaries mobilized abroad. The Roman Catholic Church is considered to be the largest financial power on earth. “Evangelical Christianity isn’t doing too shabby either. A top Christian televangelist lives in a $10 million house, another one drives a $350,000 Bentley, and several of them make more than $1 million a year. One megachurch meets in a sports stadium, draws close to 50,000 people for a worship service, and has an annual budget that exceeds $70 million. “Speaking of budgets, 82 percent of the average church budget is used to cover the expense of buildings and salaries. Considering the number of people, buildings, and dollars, Christendom is quite an impressive empire on planet Earth. “But for what? “What has this shiny, lucrative Christian empire actua...

             It is said that life is what happens while you’re making other plans. Very often, life is found in the interruptions that seem overwhelming: your son takes his own life, leaving behind a financial trainwreck for his unprepared children, his aging parents, and his siblings to sort out. All the survivors already had full plates and plans, but creditors have valid claims and there’s probate: legal fees and court costs cut into whatever assets may or may not exceed the indebtedness. So, plans get put on hold, vacation time is repurposed, and life is found in the interruptions. Grief, itself a different kind of interruption, will just have to wait. And then “church” happens. People gather round with words, shared tears, hugs, food, prayers, and time, willingly setting their own plans aside and living with you in the interruptions. They even open their wallets to offer contingency funds. But life doesn’t stop. It’s not put on hold. Life co...