Finding Faith
tag:newsweek.washingtonpost.com,2007:/onfaith/findingfaith//526

• Searching for Soul in the Streets
  Life on the street has left Jim Oldread with more questions about God -- and about the character of his fellow Americans.
• Moving in with the Homeless
  Steven Maki’s church is the city of Boston, its alleyways and sidewalks and doorways and parks, where he finds children of God.
• Meeting Jesus on the Street
  A homeless man named Joseph taught her that among the homeless is where she is likely to learn a deeper, truer meaning of the gospels.
• The Church Without Walls
  The Common cathedral in Boston is an uncommon worshipping community, a place where the homeless eat, pray and share stories with those more fortunate.
• Blessings and Woes of the Poor
  Note: Please upgrade your Flash plug-in to view our enhanced content. var thisObj = "flashobj121407_4v"; var so = new SWFObject("http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/player/wpniplayer_blog.swf", thisObj, "454", "305", "8", "#ffffff"); so.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always"); so.addParam("swfliveconnect", true); so.addVariable("thisObj", thisObj); so.addVariable("vid","121407-4v_title"); so.addVariable("playads", "yes"); so.addVariable("adserv",""); so.addVariable("autoStart", "no"); so.write("flashcontent121407_4v"); DORCHESTER, Mass. -- Wait until four people have been murdered in one bloody spree beneath your daughter’s window, someone has shot into your house a few times, and your home has been burglarized six times before you tell the Rev. Eugene Rivers III you “know” about poverty. Rivers lives in Dorchester, one of the poorer neighborhoods in the Boston area. Roxbury, Mattapan, and some slivers of Jamaica Plain and South Boston make up the others. Rivers, a former Harvard College student, is pastor at Azusa Christian Community, a Pentecostal congregation. Its ministries include the Ella J. Baker House, a non-profit organization that tries to curb youth violence by working through the courts and directly with at-risk young people. There’s a disturbing corollary between violence and poverty, says Rivers, a sometimes embattled, often outspoken community leader who has been a point person between the poor and those in political power. Rivers, 57, has been working with the poor most of his adult life – long enough to know faith grows from a youthful idealism that aims to save the world to a more mature perspective that aims to save as many as possible. He says he knows poverty can only be reduced, not eliminated. People clinging to the margins of life don’t provide any incentive, either as voters, campaign donors or taxpayers, for politicians to help the poor. And liberals have moved on to other more trendy concerns. “Blacks are no longer interesting,” Rivers says. “It’s polar bears and the North Pole and the Earth.”...
• Plotting my Course: NE by NW?
  Just as blogging about faith in America is about as wide open as faith itself, no journey is complete without its sidetracks and shortcuts.
• 3,000 years of tradition
  “In America, it’s really a choice to become a believing Jew. By doing so, you’re really kind of prescribing the way that you’re going to live.”
• Going Forward or Going Fishing
  Rev. Ed Rodman. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- I was curious about former Civil Rights activist and Episcopal priest Rev. Ed Rodman's view of terrorism, and how he thinks our definition of terrorism has changed since he was demonstrating for racial justice in the 1960s. Rodman counseled the Weathermen and terrorist factions of the Black Panthers against using violence to bring about social change. He says terrorism hasn't changed at all. The terrorism of 1960s America -- the bombings, the killings, the beatings -- is the same as today's terrorism. It's the same tactic -- acts of violence aimed directly at hurting people -- since humanity began. He understands that "one person's terrorist is another's patriot."“An advocate and a change agent has a face, is public and transparent, and is willing to take responsibility for their actions,” he said. “A terrorist is anonymous and only takes credit for their acts, not for the consequences of their actions.” He tries to teach his students at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., that public policy and social advocacy happen within a political context. Who gets defined as a terrorist and who gets defined as an advocate can depend on who has power and who wins a battle. "What do you do when the President of the United States on your behalf bombs Iraq or sets up Guantanamo Bay? That's where my class starts...making the case for nonviolent resistance as opposed to violence." The third choice, he says, "is to give up and go fishing. That's what most people do."...
• Faith and "Terrorism 101"
  That understanding of the connection between social justice, activism and one’s religious faith is essentially nonexistent.
• The Challenge of Suffering
  Two days with the sisters have provided plenty to think about. One great challenge with having faith, Eileen says, is suffering. The questions of why we suffer and who is responsible for suffering are some of the biggest we face. In a monotheistic tradition – a religious tradition that believes in one God -- who do believers blame when a child dies? Or when innocent human beings are killed and tortured? When disease or drugs or crippling poverty lay waste to humanity? Eileen believes we do “God’s work” while we’re here, but “not as puppets. We’re not manipulated.” God refuses to withdraw the element of freedom to choose, whatever the consequences of those choices might be, she says. “There’s a part of the mystery in freedom that is the essence of living.”...
• Pouring Their Prayers Into the Universe
  The practice of daily communal prayer also taps into an ancient cycle of praying rounds that bound Christians together before telephones, mass transportation, or the Internet.
• Bob and the Nuns
  I had pictured tiny austere cells with single beds and bare walls. This was a warm, cozy home with a light and airy gourmet kitchen. This is a convent?
• Young Man on a Mission
  What sort of faith does it take for a young man in today's world to take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience?
• All God's Creatures
  Christy McKerney | At Hybid Farm, they use horses to help children see the goodness in themselves and in other beings.
• The Faith of an Atheist
  Note: Please upgrade your Flash plug-in to view our enhanced content. var thisObj = "flashobj110907_14v"; var so = new SWFObject("http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/player/wpniplayer_blog.swf", thisObj, "454", "305", "8", "#ffffff"); so.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always"); so.addParam("swfliveconnect", true); so.addVariable("thisObj", thisObj); so.addVariable("vid","110907-14v_title"); so.addVariable("playads", "yes"); so.addVariable("adserv",""); so.addVariable("autoStart", "no"); so.write("flashcontent110907_14v"); GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. -- Chris Borek will look you straight in the eye and tell you absolutely positively there is no God. It's not that she hasn't thought about it. She has. "I believe that there is no God. I think that this is it. It's all a scientific process. I don't believe we have a soul," said Borek, a 37-year-old nurse. "I think we have our lives to live." In the absence of God, there is still faith, says Borek, who was volunteering at the Guthrie Center here on a recent Friday. "I don't know if it's faith in humanity, or constant striving to have faith in humanity." Borek was raised Catholic and shopped for different churches before finally rejecting all religion. Her move to Great Barrington was in part a quest for a church-like community. She wanted to be near its "benevolent souls," as she calls them. A folk music fan, she loves the musical acts that perform there. But there's also a safe sense of community that nurtures all religious beliefs, including the absence of one. "We don