COFFEE BREAK 151

+ updated at 12:44pm EST, Wednesday, March 3, 2010

+ Thanks to Presbyterian Voices for Justice (the brand new name of the merged Witherspoon Society and Voices of Sophia), I discovered that USA Today offers "Where have all the Protestants gone?" by Oliver Thomas.

Excerpt 1: "'By valuing the individual quest for faith,' says the Rev. John Lindner in the fall issue of the Yale divinity journal Reflections, 'Protestant practice has resulted in a drift toward the self-authentication of truth, suspicion of ecclesiastical authority and an outbreak of freelance spirituality, launching generations of seekers.' Read steeple dropouts. This has helped fuel the increase in New Age movements as well as in the number of Americans who refer to themselves as 'spiritual but not religious.' Denominational labels and loyalty mean little to such people."

Excerpt 2: "Religion professor and Presbyterian elder Peggy Cowan sees something else — something that could help churches connect with a generation of seekers who might consider portions of the Apostle's Creed on par with Harry Potter. 'Theological exploration,' she calls it. With Jesus as their tutor, successful churches in post-modern America must be willing to affirm that all theology is provisional in light of the mystery of God."

+ Shuck and Jive offers "For the Busybodies, Fusspots, Tattletales and Scolds in Our Lives" featuring wisdom from that adorable ancient Sufi clown, Hafiz. Here's the wisdom:

Stop Being So Religious

What
Do sad people have in
Common?

It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past

And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.

What is the beginning of
Happiness?

It is to stop being
So religious

Like

That.

-- The Gift: Poems By Hafiz The Great Sufi Master, p. 119