Thanks Jenn. It's a touchy topic that I know snags a lot of people on both sides. Now, out of raw curiosity, I am going to go to my local Borders and seek out "Trees in the Pavement".

Very well said, Jeff! Wow! I love it.

I do think that there is room in certain quarters of the faith-- even a necessity-- for creeds and doctrine, so long as those things are, at their heart, fed by that child-like faith you described. Doctrine may be the skeleton that frames the organism of the church, but simple faith is its heart and center.

"...at the core of a child-like faith sits a conviction that can't be fully expressed in words but which raises it's fierce head in the face of un-Godlike acts." WOO! That's so good and true. Preach it.

I've been hearing this argument (that religion is the cause of great evil in the world) a lot lately. I know it is very popular. But it is not true.

What is being called religion is actually extremism. The Muslim religion is not responsible for political extremists who wear that religion like a mask. Nor is the Christian religion responsible for the bigoted extremism of the Ku Klux Klan, despite their claims. The best of Christians and Muslims reject the extremists, and call them what they are.

Extremism exists in absolutely every human institution. To judge religion (any religion) as bad because of its minority extremists is truly like abandoning a solid house because it has mice in the walls.

Of course, there is lesser evil in the church, as you rightly point out. Not all errors of extremism result in bombings and hate. But again, any human institution is full of these imperfections because (gasp) it is full of humans. We can no more abandon religion because of the flaws of its members than we can abandon family, nationality, politics, or any other conceivable fraternity.

And in the interests of real fairness, I wonder, if one were to balance the good that religion (ANY religion) has done against the bad, how the scales might surprise us? It is a human tendency (and I am just as guilty of it as the next) to rest on a sense of superiority by passing lofty judgments on previously respected institutions.

Sorry if that sounded confrontational. I do mean it with respect. This is just one of those premises that I cannot accept without challenging.

Tony! I am SO glad you commented.

Intellectualism is wildly overrated. Jesus himself said that we should aim to have faith like little children. This is something that is very hard to do for an overly analytical person. In fact, I really believe that intelligence (unbalanced by the other facets of who we are, what C. S. Lewis called the "chest", as opposed to the "head") can be a serious stumbling block to one's faith.

For those who can simply cling to the reality of Jesus and his love, untainted by the lawyer-like cross-examination of intellectual analysis (my wife, for one), I envy them.

I believe we humans do have a divine instinct for what is innately right (the Bible is pretty clear on this) but we can easily spoil that if we lean too heavily on intellectual reasoning. Unfortunately, child-like faith is extremely difficult for some of us. The task before us is to work, everyday, to balance intellect with instinct, fact with faith, and revelation with relationship.

Thanks for sharing, Tony. Truly, being able to approach the gospel simply and trustfully is a VERY good thing.

George mixed up "accept" and "except", and "effect" and "affect". Duh.