"Nonetheless, I'm prepared to ask if one of the most damaging weaknesses of modern Christianity and of some of Judaism doesn't arise as a direct result of our passionate need to believe both in our individual freedom and our innate worth -- our deep rooted conviction that we deserve and have amply earned the particular close attention of God. That resulting weakness is most visible in the insistence by centuries of clergy and generations of hungry souls that God, the Maker and Keeper of billions of galaxies of stars and planets seething in the violence, is literally our personal father as well -- and a father, we're told, who is even more attentive and caring than the best of earthly fathers." ~ from Letter to a Man on Fire
I'm struck by the word "deserve" but the most intriguing part is the role of clergy as we seem to insist on belief in a construct of God that may not answer the pending questions of the human soul. For me personally, I would prefer a thoughtful, honest conversation about the questions of life than the assumed, albeit articulate, orthodox answer.
For me, God is in the questions not the answers. As long as we have all the answers, there is no mystery. And where is God but in mystery. Tertullian said, "Credo quia absurdum est," or "I believe because it is absurd."
