A Personal Examination and Expression of Faith

I drew many meaningful insights from a book recommended to me one of my closest friends many ago titled Why Religion? A Personal Story by Elaine Pagels. How to go on? Pagels writes after a searing personal tragedy. She recalls Viktor Frankl's writing that when our lives or the world in which we find ourselves living turn out different from what we expect or would ever want, we have to do “what life expects of us”; "We need to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead think of ourselves as those who are being questioned by life—daily and hourly…Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems, and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” Pagels writes: "I was startled to realize that somehow I still wanted to believe that we live in a morally ordered universe, in which someone, or something—God or nature?—would keep track of what’s fair. Was this a relic of Western cultural tradition that moralizes history, like those old Bible stories I’d heard, that suggest that doing good ensures well-being and doing wrong brings disaster?" So, I ask myself, personally, do we live in a "morally ordered universe.” I believe the answer is "yes.” To be sure, I recognize that my response is an expression of faith. At almost the same time I was reading Why Religion? I came upon a compelling statement bearing on the role of belief and faith in William James' Essays in Pragmatism. James writes. "Belief, as measured by action, not only does but must outstrip scientific evidence. In such questions as God, immortality, absolute morality and free will, (one) can always doubt his creed but his intimate persuasion is that the odds in its favor are strong enough to warrant him acting all along on the assumption of its truth". We may in the end find we are wrong, I reflect, but I have found it better to act on the belief it is true than a belief it is not. This is how I have long felt about my faith in a Supreme Power, in there being an ultimate good.” William James uses a common sense example to illustrate his point. A rock climber finds himself in a life-threatening predicament: he has to make a leap to another distant ledge to have a chance of surviving. It is a longer leap than he has ever before attempted. He has no evidence he can do it. He is faced with a choice. On the one hand, he can be so consumed by doubt, debating and delaying his decision whether to jump, to the point he loses the strength to do it successfully when he does try. Alternatively, he can decide to act on the belief, with the "faith" that he can do it. Needless to say, he is far more likely to survive pursing the latter choice. Just so it was faith that led me to push to open up Eastern Europe aggressively with P&G in the early 1990s. So it was with faith that we set out raise 100+ million dollars to build the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. So it is with faith that I pray to God for the wisdom to know the right thing to do and the courage and determination to do it. I do so uncertain if God actually hears my prayer, but I know that reaching out to God helps me act in line with my best instincts. As James writes: "There are cases where faith creates its own verification.” I have discovered that again and again. Pagels goes on to shine a bright light on our commonality as people. She recognizes our common passage on the journey of life. Here is what she writes: In the Gospel of Thomas, the “good news” is not only about Jesus; it’s also about every one of us. For while we ordinarily identify ourselves by specifying how we differ, in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, background, family name, the call to recognize that we are “children of God” requires us to acknowledge how we are the same—members, so to speak, of the same family. These sayings suggest what later becomes a primary theme of Jewish mystical tradition: that the “image of God,” divine light given in creation, is hidden deep within each one of us, linking our fragile, limited selves to their divine source. Although we’re often unaware of that spiritual potential, the Thomas sayings urge us to keep on seeking until we find it: “Within a person of light, there is light. If illuminated, it lights up the whole world; if not, everything is dark.” Emerging from a time of unbearable grief, (Pagels had just lost her husband after earlier losing her son), "such sayings helped dispel isolation and turn me from despair, suggesting that every one of us is woven into the mysterious fabric of the universe, and into connection with each other, with all being, and with God." Believing this is a matter of faith. Many would argue we are all independent individuals with particular characteristics of race and ethnicity developed over a long period of evolution—and not interconnected as "children of God" nor members of the same family in a true familial sense. I, of course, cannot offer irrefutable evidence that we are all are indeed members of the same family. But I believe it. And I am sure that belief, or faith if you'd prefer it, has led me to act differently than I otherwise would. It leads me to try my best to put myself in the other person's shoes, to try to listen to others carefully, knowing I have a lot to learn and that it is the greatest demonstration of respect I can convey to another person. And it leads me to truly believe and act on the truth, "Everyone Counts.” Once again quoting William James: "There are cases where faith creates its own verification.” The Gospel of Thomas, then, is all about relationships—how, when we come to know ourselves, simultaneously we come to know God. Implicit in this relationship is the paradox of gnosis—not intellectual knowledge, but knowledge of the heart. What first we must come to know is that we cannot fully know God since that Source far transcends our understanding. But what we can know is that we’re intimately connected with that divine Source, since “in him we live and move and have our being.”

"A Race to the Bottom". Trump Is Tearing Up the Fabric of Trust Among Our Allies and Friends

An Editorial in "The Guardian" (see link below) calls for Europe to acquire a"dose of patriotism" to combat the threat of populist powers. I agree 100%. The ability to achieve what the author is calling for, of course, was severely weakened by Britain’s leaving the EU. In fact, Britain must be part of creating the vision, leadership, and governance of a united Europe, committed to common economic and diplomatic norms. The question that cries out from his article is, who is the leader that can muster the confidence, vision, and energy to make what the editorial argues for happen This is even more important in the world of "power makes right" which Trump has elevated and endorsed through his actions, including on tariffs He is using tariffs as a sledgehammer to brutally require other nations, in this case, particularly Canada and Mexico, a few weeks ago, Columbia, to make concessions to him. He promises to turn next to Europe. He is decimating the trust among allies. It may bring him a short term, political win, but it is terrible policy for the long-term. It will give license to other countries with power to use that power to sledgehammer other countries into doing what they want. I think of China. If it has some raw material that the United States needs, and no one else can provide, it can sledgehammer the US. A small country could do this too, if it has an exclusive access for essential raw material. Trump’s talking about taking over the Panama Canal, acquiring Greenland, even making Canada a 51st state based on national security gives license to China to say it needs Taiwan for national security reasons. Putin can use it to justify the attack on Ukraine in order to avoid it becoming part of NATO. A rules based world is imperfect and it’s messy but history shows that in the long run, it is much better than one that simply relies on "power makes right". This is the attitude that leadsto war. Also, you don’t negotiate by bullying your best friends. They will turn against you in ways that will be hard to measure in the short term, but they will show up long-term. Our network of allies has long been a unique strategic advantage. The Trump administration is tearing it to ribbons as I write this. And iit not only the decimation of trust on the foreign policy front. Trust is being further eroded in our national institutions by Trump's appointment of unqualified people to lead them. ein https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/04/threatened-by-populist-superpowers-europe-too-needs-a-dose-of-patriotism?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A Former Russian Foreign Policy Advisor Articulates the Reasons for My Revulsion to Trump's Lack of Character

The principal foreign policy advisor to Russia's late President, Mikhail Gorbachev, Anatoly Chernyaev, articulates the reasons for my revulsion to Trump's lack of character. In reading William Taubman's superb biography of Mikhail Gorbachevsome seven years ago he writes of Chernyaev: ***** Chernyaev’s family was particularly cultivated; he received music lessons, learned French and German from private teachers and fell in love with Gogol and Shakespeare in school. He studied history at Moscow University in the late ‘30s, fought heroically in World War II (part of the time on skis in an Alpine battalion), then got a Candidate’s Degree (roughly equivalent to an American PhD), writing his dissertation on the topic, “Britain’s Role During the First Years After World War I.” Unlike so many of his generation, he never worshipped Stalin. It wasn’t the repressions, he said, “about which we didn’t know much and which we thought might have been mistakes or even justified” or “the terrible losses early in World War II” or “in a revulsion against policies like the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact.” For Chernyaev, it was the sense that “a crude, ignorant, completely alien force” was ruling over a culture that cherished Tolstoy and Chekhov and admired foreign writers like Shakespeare and Anatole France.” So it is for me, as I wrote seven years ago at the outset of Trump's first term as President: My revulsion against Trump rests on his lack of values and his disrespect for other people, his lack of kindness, empathy and his disregard for the truth. He stands in opposition to the very values which, using his own term, have made America great. These are the qualities of this man which have repelled me from the start. We should not stop calling them out, but nor can we afford to wallow in them with a sense of superiority. Worse yet, we cannot fall into the trap of believing that our denunciation of Trump’s behaviors is sufficient to carry out our responsibility. We must also act proactively and positively in our own world, in our own way to live those values we hold dear and improve the lives of those whom we can touch.

Lincoln's Character Expressed In His Own Words So Utterly Opposed to Trump's Cruel Divisiveness

Of all the things that Lincoln said, none mean more to me than these:    “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”  (Cooper Union address, February 27, 1860) … and this, from his Second Inaugural:  “With malice toward none; with charity for all.”

The "Flame of Passion"--A Poem I Wrote 25 Years Ago--Never More Timely

THE FLAME OF PASSION The flame of passion….. Never to lose it ourselves. Always to give it life in others. That inner spark, that inner drive, that mixture of faith and hope and confidence, that leads us to search and to risk, to discover and to achieve, to undertake what is most personal and sublime, and yet often most uncertain, too. Oh, how this is the way we learn and grow, and experience the joy of accomplishment beyond the norm. That flame of passion can be very vulnerable, even in the strong. Especially in one’s early years, subject to discouragement and scorn. But just as much it is in our power to give it life in those we know. How well I recall those who did that for me. Those who opened the door far and wide and set me free to pursue what I most believed. They fueled my flame of passion, of purpose, of confidence more than they will ever know. They made me a different person than I otherwise would have been. The flame of passion…. Never to lose it ourselves. Always to give it life in others.

A Plea for Unity

Bishop Budde’s sermon was an incredibly powerful and courageous call for moral leadership. Her focus on dignity, honesty, and humility as the foundations for unity is a timeless and profound message, especially in times of division. These values are critical for bridging divides and fostering a sense of shared humanity. It was inspiring how she used her platform at the National Cathedral to address President Trump, advocating for mercy and justice for the people who are frightened by what lies ahead. Contemptuously, he rebuked and dismissed her plea. Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

An Assault on Social Justice, Dignity and Truth

I have decided to post a message I sent to my family at about 2 AM this morning. Dear Family, I woke up a bit after midnight still trying to stomach and fathom President Trump‘s inaugural address. I dictated this quickly at 1:10 and I had ChatGPT clean it up. Let me just say this. As I ponder the uncertain future and what I can have confidence in and take great heart in it comes back to you and your children. I’m not sure what they’ll do, but I do know this. They are good people. They believe in social justice, dignity, and the pursuit of truth. And no matter what happens, no matter how long mom and I live, I know they like their parents will do their level best to do what they believe is right and make a positive contribution to the people whose lives they touch. I’m not sure you can imagine how good that makes me feel. Love, dad An assault on social justice, decency, and truth. Moments after President Trump finished his dystopian inaugural address, I wrote to my son: “So sad, so depressing, so dangerous.” Where are the leaders to respond? At the age of 86, statistics suggest I will not live to see another president inaugurated to office. It would be easy for me to dissect all the cruel and dangerous parts of Trump’s address. Perhaps none are more significant than the license he has given to land-seizing, land-coveting autocrats to take territory based on their perceived natural right, rather than adhering to the rule of law. Equally alarming are his steps to eradicate reasonable actions aimed at achieving social equity and dignity for all people. As his first repeated assault on truth. There are already numerous commentators analyzing and exposing the horrific and divisive elements of his speech. My question remains: where are the leaders to respond to this? Who will step up, reach the American public, and present a unifying vision for our future—one that supports the rule of law and human dignity? Where is the person who will acknowledge the mistakes we’ve made in failing to recognize the fears people face—fear of too many immigrants, fear of an overheating economy that leads to inflation, and concerns about value-based programs aimed at equity that have gone too far in implementation? Former and current Democratic leaders sat in the Rotunda yesterday, no doubt filled with a combination of disgust and dismay. President Biden, I’m sure, was biting his lip. I cannot imagine the feelings Vice President Kamala Harris must have had. My own reaction was summed up in the message I sent to my son. I am confident that eventually, a leader will emerge—someone who will express a unifying, humane, constructive, and forward-looking agenda with a set of values that we can all rally behind. Please, God, let it happen sooner rather than later.