Couple urges truce in war between faith and science

c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Last week, in a hotel 700 miles from home, my frustration with unreliable systems boiled over. While trying to access a bank account online, a security check made necessary by cheaters froze my account when I couldn’t remember the precise answer to a question. While trying to send e-mail, […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Last week, in a hotel 700 miles from home, my frustration with unreliable systems boiled over.

While trying to access a bank account online, a security check made necessary by cheaters froze my account when I couldn’t remember the precise answer to a question.


While trying to send e-mail, a filtering system made necessary by spammers blocked my own outgoing message.

While confirming my flight home, I discovered that the airline had canceled my flight without informing me, and I would be lucky to make it home within two days.

While driving to the airport on a slick snow-covered highway, I realized driving isn’t fun any longer. My rented Mustang felt cheap, the road seemed unsafe, and the 15-mile drive felt like wasted time.

When an attitude-challenged security clerk made necessary by terrorists snapped at me, I said to myself, “This is nuts.”

It is nuts. We are in the grip of craziness.

After all this time, computer systems should work better than they do. But even crazier is the snakepit of cheaters, spammers and predators who exploit the Internet and threaten a promising form of commerce, networking and information.

Winter storms happen. But it is crazy that Continental Airlines expends more effort sending me credit card offers than designing a simple e-mail alert system. It is crazy that America’s most basic industry will not produce sturdy, safe automobiles.

I could go on, for craziness is everywhere: political campaigns mired in shallow and deceitful attacks; a banking system that abused investors’ trust and now expects a government bailout; officeholders addicted to secrecy and invasion of privacy; and global fortunes dominated by tribal hatreds, religious extremism, and the rage of hope-denied youth.


Seeing craziness doesn’t make it go away, but not seeing it guarantees continued decay and rage.

At some point, we must look at the world around us _ from products that don’t work to systems that are poorly designed _ and we must ask ourselves: Is this the best we can do?

Then, at the micro level where we live, we must decide whether to make a difference. That, in turn, is where faith matters.

It takes no faith to hate. Anyone who wants to hate can find ample reason for doing so, plus a few justifying Scriptures.

It takes no faith to shrug off societal worries and to retreat into self-pleasure.

It takes no faith to join the chorus shouting down a scapegoat or profiting from someone else’s suffering.

What does take faith is to think that one can make a difference. One can choose sanity, stop the cycle of blaming, scapegoating, shrugging and retreating, and make the world slightly better.


It takes faith to believe that one’s time matters, that refusing to accept the shoddy and lazy is one’s responsibility. It takes faith to believe that rejecting the heavy hand of officialdom is one’s right, and rejecting injustice is one’s duty.

It takes faith to believe that life matters. My life, your life, the life of the unemployed youth being drawn to suicidal rage. It takes faith to believe that free beings can make free choices and shine even a faint light of hope.

Rather than shout at each other, build walls and go along with craziness, faith invites us to do better.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)

KRE END EHRICH600 words

A photo of Tom Ehrich is available via https://religionnews.com.

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!