Gratuitous Religious Posting

Tonight is the regular meeting of my Disciples of Christ in Community (or "D.O.C.C.") group so, as is my wont, I've been noodling in a general way some of the discussion themes I want to get going.

I mentioned a few days ago that Episcopal Faith is built on three pillars, scripture, tradition and reason. I also noted that I sometimes think the more progressive brand of Palies overemphasize the reason bit in order to promote an agenda that has more to do with socio-political biases than actual faith.

But I also think too much emphasis on reason sometimes has another detrimental effect. The relationship between God and Man is one of love. Think about this and then think about other loving relationships you've been in where either you or the other person has had, for whatever reason, a compulsion to overanalyze everything, to think too much, to become so obsessed with pursuing the how and why of the relationship that you forget to actually have the relationship. Lordy knows I've been mixed up in some situations like that in the past. Bringing the idea forward again, I also see people falling into the same kind of trap in terms of their faith.

I'm not for a minute suggesting that reason should be abandoned as a pillar of faith or as a tool for better spiritual understanding. Rather, I'm suggesting that at a certain point one has to be prepared to accept that one is not going to find answers to such how and why questions, but instead must rely on trust and just let the relationship be.

Or, to borrow from Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shut Up and Kiss Me.

(Pardon my on-line musing about this. I find that writing these things out - even hastily - helps me focus on them a bit better. Feel free to ignore. As the Pastor of one of the local Evangelical churchs likes to say in his radio ads, "Not a sermon, just a thought.")

UPDATE: Pardon my slight dig, since changed, at the Evangelicals. In these matters, self-mockery is fine but mockery of other faiths really isn't on.