Choosing a religion
Saturday, December 9th, 2006Pamela Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune details the religious conversions of four Minnesotans.
Sussna turned to Buddhism because it gave her a feeling of being connected with nature and her own desires.
Vajrayana Buddhism, with its emphasis on meditation as a means to enlightenment and its “insight into the nature of one’s mind and the impermanence of reality,” answered a deep yearning, she said. “Buddhism addresses things that go beyond the everyday. It reaches down to who we really are and connects us with the goodness, the Buddha nature, inside us.”
Plambeck turned to Judaism to bring his family together.
“Being a Jew by faith — it’s exciting, it’s challenging,” he said. “It’s about growth. Judaism is not so much about answers as questions. We call out to God, we struggle, and we embrace the struggle.”
Lavrenz turned to Islam because it coincided with what she already believed about herself and the world.
Then came 9/11. “People were misrepresenting what Islam was about,” she said. “I’d say, ‘That’s not what Muslims believe in! They believe in charity and modesty.’ I kept hearing myself saying they believed the same things I do. One day it came to me that if that was what I thought, I shouldn’t stand apart from them.”
Scott turned to Catholicism because he found a Catholic parish that made him feel like part of a family.
“It felt like home,” he said. “Father Kevin [McDonough] and the people there were so kind, not pushy.”It’s not so much Catholicism as St. Peter Claver that got me,” Scott said. “I love the services, Father Kevin’s sermons about contemporary things, the mix of Catholic liturgy and hymns with African-American spirituals, the people.”
None of these things are bad, but does anyone turn to a religion for non self-serving reasons anymore? What ever happened to the Hound of Heaven?
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’