2008-01-13

The communion of saints...

Last spring, when I was still sucking on the MySpace teat, I was contacted by an old classmate of mine from college. After we'd exchanged a few friendly messages, she cut to the chase: "I see on your profile that you're agnostic. Well, I am very sorry that I will not be seeing you in heaven."

Rather than sputter in outrage before "deleting" her from my list of "friends," I simply replied that I was glad to hear that she was happy, and that I wished her well. Because, really, what good would it have done for me to wax indignant over someone's beliefs? In her economy, she is saved and I am damned. It is, after all, her inalienable right to believe this.

Today I went to a christening for my cousin's infant son, Corbin. I watched as my cousin, his wife, and the two people selected to stand as godparents promised to guide Corbin along his spiritual path, to help him in matters of faith, to lead by example. We gathered in the church, around the baptismal font, and later over plates of ziti and wilted Caesar salad at the Elk's Lodge. The communion of saints and the forgiveness of sins. They had Corbin baptized because they have faith that this is the right thing to do.

I work with a wonderful playwright, Sinan Unel, who said not long ago that faith is simply the ability to admit that you don't know, but believe just the same. He also said that the true problems arise when people get to believing that theirs is the ONLY path. When humility and tolerance take a backseat to arrogance. You believe this, or you don't believe that, and you're damned/weak/easily hoodwinked.

I know two amazing, beautiful women. I would throw myself in front of a bus for either one of them. One is a devout Christian, and one is a diehard atheist. I count both of them as being among the strongest human beings I know, precisely because they know themselves, know what they believe, and act accordingly, and always with compassion. There's room for all of us on this slowly-turning ball of rock.

I get crap sometimes for being in a "12 Step" program, from people who perhaps believe that I'm too "smart" to have faith that I'm being taken care of, if not by the God they've rejected, then at least by something bigger than myself.

My experience is that I leave these church basements feeling safer in my own skin than when I walked in. 3 years ago my friend David walked into one of these church basements after a 31-year-run as a hardcore junkie. He had about 6 teeth left in his head, the clothes on his back, and not much else. But he stuck around. Two weeks ago he went out and bought himself a new washing machine for his new place. Is that God? I don't know. I'm okay with this. I am finally okay with saying "I don't know," without having to add and neither do you.

lisamcc at 6:12 p.m.

4 comments so far
Spooney
2008-01-14 16:31:43
"I see on your profile that you're agnostic. Well, I am very sorry that I will not be seeing you in heaven." You should have wrote back "You're right...you won't see me in heaven, cuz I'll be in hell with all the fun people" then deleted her saggy Jeebus lovin ass.
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LisaMcC
2008-01-14 16:43:48
Eh. If I'd listed myself as "Catholic," she would have said the same thing. Because the only thing worse than a non-believer -- to some -- is a pope-hugging, statue-worshipping, transubstantiation-believing Catholic.

Live and let live, man. Life's too short.
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vikkitikkitavi
2008-01-14 17:50:16
Thanks for the link, baby! And you know what? I'm fine with people who are religious and tolerant of other's beliefs, because no matter what people believe, if they are tolerant of others, it means that some part of their brain accepts the possibility of another way, and also at least partly rejects all that dogma that excludes the non-believers. It's the rigid people who blindly obey and parrot whichever religious authority regularly fills their heads with bile that I can't stand, mostly because it tells me that they can't possibly be smart or discerning about other aspects of life, either, one of the most important of which is that most people in authority are full of shit.
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LisaMcC
2008-01-14 19:16:55
That's the thing -- I am not down with exclusion at all. I can't get my head around that.

In my heaven, you, me and Lynette will eat cookie dough and laugh at all the stupid people.
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