Although I have not yet read any details concerning the program, I applaud its goals. Agnosticism characterizes the vast majority of Americans today, perhaps particularly those of my generation (I’m on the upper end of Generation X) on down. I have found it helpful to look at TEC and other mainline denominations, including how they view themselves and what they consider evangelism to be, in this light. (In contrast, despite the attention given to Richard Dawkins and others, atheism still has little impact these days, although we could be in the very early stages of a resurgence.) Two other major trends that I’ve noticed this decade among non-Christian friends and coworkers are increasing beliefs in fate and karma.

Something that rarely gets mentioned when this type of dicussion gets going is the healings in the Gospels.  They involve men, women, Jew, Gentile, children adults.  The one thing they all have in common is that they are all dead now.  The healings we may receive are all temporary and have to be seen that way.  It’s old news.  It’s also not exactly comforting to a recently bereaved person, but it’s amazing how death seems to surprise us.

That’s only in our society today, though. Our ancestors in the faith didn’t try to hide death.  They even set up a day of the year to celebrate those gone before: All Soul’s Day, which is still on our calendar as November 2. In Mexico this day is called “Dia de la Muerta” the day of the dead, and often families will take picnics to the cemetary and have a meal near the grave of departed loved ones.

I don’t usually listen to this program, but last nights Sound and Spirit had a program on ‘ghosts’ for the many feasts around the world that celebrate the dead.  You can listen to it at the link above.  It’s not all Christian, but it does bring about an indictment on our society for the way we try to push death out of our consiousness.

In His Peace
Jim E. <><