My Catholic-raised nephew who found Christ about 15 years ago (my nephew is now in his 40's) is studying to be a born again preacher. I learned about it at one family gathering some time ago in which he related to me his inexpressible joy and peace at having found Christ. It was, to him, truly as though he had shed his past life and was complete in Christ. Unlike Bush, my nephew was never an alcoholic or substance abuser; he was introduced to Christ through his wife. Listening to him relate the experience of the day he was born again has to be like listening to a drug addict describe his first shot. (I admit all my information regarding drug addiction is from literary sources). Marlena as a recovering born again might help shed some light here; specifically, I have gathered from Nicky's experience that religion does severely taint perception. Nicky has withdrawn into the Christian world. He and his wife home school their kids because they don't want the girls contaminated by non-Christian ideas. He also sold his business to fund his aspirations to be a preacher. He is no longer in the world as he once knew it. The high has worn off for him but Nicky seems content with his calling. Being born again has given Nicky meaning to his life. It gives him a reason to get up every morning. He has gone seemingly from heroin to opium. To his credit, he hasn't tried to convert me. I would be interested in Marlena's take as a former religious person on Nicky's vicarious experience as related above. Am I overstating the case comparing Nicky's conversion to heroin? Andy Amago > [Original Message] > From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Date: 5/20/2005 9:59:29 AM > Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Better to have had faith > > > This is an interesting and rather apropos comparison between love and > faith. Is it better to have loved, defined here as sitting on top of the > world, feeling utterly complete, accepted (at the right hand of God one > might say), inevitably to experience disillusion and sometimes rancor after > the heroin-like high of love wears off? The operative words here are > heroin-like high, a blinding to reality, a desire for only one thing. I > use this phrase fully aware of Marx's use of the expression opiate of the > masses. Another way of putting it, is it better to have experienced mind > bending drugs than never to have experienced them? Given the popularity of > alcohol and the backlash of Prohibition; the grip that religion has on this > country and on the world; the never ending lovers who find consummate joy > in the movies, and on and on, it's obvious that an awful lot of people > prefer illusion to reality. People get their drugs in whatever form then > can get them. > > > Andy Amago > > > > > > [Original Message] > > From: <Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx> > > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > Date: 5/19/2005 11:49:25 PM > > Subject: [lit-ideas] Better to have had faith > > > > This was found somewhere today. I do not recall, exactly, where--but > seemed > > like it was getting close. Not close enough for Paul, but close for > those > > who thought it was better to have had faith and lost it then never to > have had > > it at all. > > > > Or was that something else... > > > > > > Losing your religion > > The experience of losing your faith, or of having lost it, is an > experience > > that in the long run belongs to faith; or at least it can belong to > faith if > > faith is still valuable to you, and it must be or you would not have > written > > me about this. I don't know how the kind of faith required > > of a Christian living in the 20th century can be at all if it is not > > grounded on this experience that you are having right now of unbelief. > "Lord, I > > believe; help my unbelief" is the most natural and most human and most > agonizing > > prayer in the gospels, and I think it is the foundation prayer of faith. > > - Flannery O'Connor > > > > Thinking, still, of "faith", > > Marlena in Missouri > > (still wondering where Eric is--did he go to Star Wars, too, but end up > in > > The Dark Side?) > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html