Opinions

A historian said that Romans made their emperors gods, which showed not how much they thought of emperors, but how little they thought of gods!

After carefully looking through the Old Testament, an acquaintance quoted a passage which said that the wise goes to the right and the fool goes to the left......... therefore "the right" is godly. Therefore modern conservative political opinions are holy. And what the wisdom from 1000 BC had to do with political choice in 2010 AD was never clarified.

Like the Romans, my acquaintance did not reveal so much the wisdom of Scripture, but how little he thought of Scripture to bend it to suit the political preference of the moment.

It occurs to me that we are to bend TO Scripture, rather than bending Scripture to suit the moment. Think so?

About this, I'll always BCurious!

There have been good days when I've taken time to stand a moment at the chapel entrance in Methodist Hospital Houston. I'd read words from a poem written by Dr. Hyla S. Watters, a Methodist missionary and Chief Surgeon of Wuhu Hospital on the Yanhtze River during the WWII era.

The Hospital Speaks

I stand by the side of a current

That's deeper by far than the sea

And storm beaten craft of every draught

Come in to be healed by me

But some have more grief than pain

God help me make whole both body and soul

Before they go out again

Dr. Hyla S. Watters

We pray and build hospitals; that's always made a great deal of sense to me as a good theology about being the people of God.

Bronze Baby Plus

It was a hot day, and the shade looked very welcoming as I walked out the door at Lowe's. The shade was provided by one of those yard loungers, for sale, but occupied at the moment by a grandfatherly type holding a sort-of bronze colored infant.

At least I thought it was an infant. Tucked into his arm, maybe two feet total height, as he leaned down to kiss its little head. Sweet, I thought. Then, as I got exactly even with him, it was apparent that there was no baby at all.

A miniature Buddha. Nothing wrong with that. Object of devotion for millions. But the kiss on the very top of a bronze head in the summer heat outside Lowe's was just unique. It wasn't clear whether he had just bought the little fellow or brought him along on the shopping trip.

We live in a multilayer religious world. Many recognitions all around us. Lots to see. From the Sikh, to the Hindu, to the converts moving from one to another, to the claims of various Protestant groups and Mormons, to the YMCA camp at Estes Park, with a large group of Buddhist monks playing tennis for the first time.

Discovering the zest for life among Buddhists, the powerful commitments of the Sikhs, to the sheer numbers of other groups, we need an openness to discover how God is at work in other cultures and other religions.

Ask the question: could it be possible for 1 billion Chinese to be on their journey through life without God deeply wanting to be in touch? And already there? And wondering when we'll discover that and find our way in behind Him?