God and the Details

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

It’s all about takin’ a chance on peace.

B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,

Cells, genes, atoms, microbes, waves, quarks. These and more you considered and made and monitor. They all command your attention. Like the hairs of our heads, you have accounted for them. You attend to the details, as well as being in them.
Amen

C. Un-quoting Jesus:

“A shekel saved is a shekel earned. The woman should have kept it.”

[Judas or Matthew might have said it, but Jesus did not say this when she put her coin in the temple offering box.]

D. Blog: On Pilgrimage

So, the pope visited Jerusalem. One of the sites he visited I had never heard of before. Supposedly, it’s the spot where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial. What??? Gimme a break! Like anybody really knows such a thing. Just another place where some enterprising entrepreneur decided he could make some money from visiting and gullible pilgrims. It inspires me – with similar ideas. How about: “This is the spot from which Washington threw a dollar across the Potomac River.” Or perhaps, “Here’s where the cherry tree grew that young Washington chopped down because it blocked the view from his bedroom window.” P.T. Barnum sure had it right. Even when the sucker is a pope? Or is said pope encouraging suckerhood as saintliness?