Volume 4, Issue 7, May 1996

Article Summary:

THE POLITICS OF GOD

The word "politics" is generally reserved among us for the management of government - federal, provincial, and municipal. Politicians are those who are actively engaged in politics, especially party politics, professionally or otherwise. Politics, and those who practice politics, are generally held in ill repute by many. Yet it is to our politicians we place the responsibility to care for the good of our society. More . . .

OPTING FOR OPTIMISM

We are living at a time of great pessimism in our society. These are not cheerful times but unsettled and uncertain. There is a great deal of distrust and disloyalty among us. More . . .

THE MIRACLE OF SHARING

One of the miracles of life is when people are able to share with one another. Material possessions have great significance in our world. There are so many things we feel we have to have. More . . .

FEAR

Fear is the darkroom in which all of your negatives are developed. More . . .

TO OUR EYES THE BLIND MAN

1. One can run away from life, or at least one can try to. Read the Book of Jonah. Let's not run away from life.
2. One can run along with life. To take it as it is - no questions, no thoughts, no dreams.
3. One can try to run life - both your own and the lives of others. Myself and what is mine is what matters.
4. One can acknowledge a power higher and greater than their own, and in love and commitment choose to follow the leading of that power. More . . .

DANCE, DANCE, WHEREVER YOU MAY BE

The Christian life has two important ingredients: a story aspect, which is personal, and a signal aspect, which pinpoints and clarifies what I experience as a person. We need both stories and signals, personal and formal religion, the spontaneous and the organized. What has happened is that, as in leukemia, the balance between these two elements has been disturbed. More . . .

A PRAYER

A Prayer: O God, who lives in us, let me answer the knock at my heart's door that the divine may flood my being with courage to live life as it ought to be lived, in response to the challenge of the moment. Help me to dance with you, Lord, wherever you may be. Amen. More . . .

PROPHETS

Christopher Morley one time said about prophets that they "were twice stoned - first in anger; then, after their death, with a handsome slab in the graveyard." When a prophet is safely dead and out of the way, how easy it is to pay them honour. But I think that the prophet much preferred the stoning than the honour after his death. More . . .

DON'T ROCK THE BOAT

The Old testament prophet, Elijah was called a "troubler of Israel" by the king. Modern Christians who have developed the fine art of not rocking the boat ought not to forget that the prophets neither took prescribed sedatives and that Jesus said, "I have come not to send peace, but a sword." More . . .

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.