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From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Professor Wagstaff)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Childlike Faith
Message-ID: <576@pyuxd.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 18:57:25 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxd.576
Posted: Thu Feb 21 18:57:25 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Feb-85 01:37:03 EST
References: <27200005@uok.UUCP>
Organization: Huxley College
Lines: 40

> To accuse one who believes in Jesus Christ of being immature and childlike
> in his thinking is the highest of compliments, as (if the accusation is true)
> the one who is being accused is reassured of his trust in the Lord.  In fact,
> it takes childlike faith to beieve the things taught by Jesus Christ.  It is
> the very maturity of your argument that is your downfall.  Nevertheless, it is
> better to be "cold" (anti-Christ) or "hot" (Christian) than to be "lukewarm"
> (i.e. hypocritical, pharisaical ).
>     Thank for your unintentional compliment, Mr. Rosen.
>                   Tom Huguenard   ctvax!uokvax!uok!tjhuguen 
     
If you truly believe what you've said, you wouldn't at all mind letting your
own children run your household, make your decisions, be the "parents" in
your home.  I doubt that you would actually do so.  Is the child's faith in
the child molester's offer of candy what you are seeking?  To be childlike
in one's wonder of the universe is something none of us should lose.  But life
teaches us that the faith that the child has in the universe, that all
things are taken care of and turn out all right, is as erroneous as the child's
belief in fairies and monsters.  And gods.  Life is not what the child might
perceive it to be.  It is a beautiful rhetorical device, to compare faith in
god to the faith of a child in the universe, because we may have fond memories
of the innocence of childhood, and wish for those wishes to come true.  But
experience shows us that the faith of the child is not a given, by any means.
As the child who has faith in parents who are incompetent or malevolent in
parenting.  As the child who has faith in the support of the thin ice he/she
walks upon on the pond.

I'm not painting a pretty picture.  I'm saying that something that some might
like to believe to be a great and true thing, the faith of an innocent child,
is not what it is wished to be.  My claims are borne out by the evidence.  Life
and the set of pretty pictures one might claim as "the way it is" don't always
intersect.  No matter how hard you may close your eyes and wish it to be so.

It wasn't intended as a "compliment".  It still isn't.

"Faith is the quality that enables you to eat blackberry jam on a picnic
 without looking to see whether the seeds move.  Think first.  Be unique."
			[thanks to Jon Stumpf, rochester!jss]
-- 
"Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body?  I dunno."
				Rich Rosen 	ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr