We were leaving for a family vacation the next day, and I hurriedly grabbed a beach book for the trip. Characteristically, I gravitated toward the non-fiction section and found the most interesting summer thriller I could find – Losing My Religion by LA Times writer, William Lobdell.
It’s quite a fascinating read (really!), in which Lobdell describes his journey from a typical atheist West Coast journalist to born-again Christian, and back. It’s not your typical Friday-night church testimony. The back cover lists accolades from voices as diverse as Richard Dawkins and the editor of Christianity Today. His story is equally varied in experience, but always amazingly honest.
Lobdell’s journey to faith is not an atypical one, with a friend bringing him to a men’s retreat in the mountains of Southern California in the midst of a quarterlife crisis, as he faced the foes of depression, a broken marriage, and a dead-end career.
The love, generosity, and compassion of the godly men and women he met encouraged him to seek the Truth in the Bible, and he found it. He ate it, digested it, and breathed it. Or so he thought.
The early 2000s and the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandals fell squarely into his lap as religion columnist for the Times, and Lobdell delved into his role as an investigative journalist, hoping to find redemption, even in this seemingly horrible story.
But the more Lobdell looked at the sinfulness of man, the more seeds of doubt began to take root in his faith. Over a long and arduous ten-year period, Lobdell finally realized that was immune to his beliefs, to deadened by the sinfulness he had seen in the Church to remain a Christian.
Lobdell’s story is as incisive as it is truthful. It is a wake-up call to all those who profess to be people of faith. We are, as often cited, both Christ’s best and worst advertisers. But I think Lobdell does make an important mistake.
When he came to faith, Lobdell saw the brokenness around him. When he changed his vision and averted his gaze upwards, to God, his entire perspective changed. Over time, however, he began to look around him again. It is not wrong to do so, but he forgot to do so while keeping one focused on God. The sinfulness of man – and of myself – is enough to make atheists of us all. I have seen so more sin in me in my actions in the past week than I could care to admit and still proclaim to be a follower of Christ.
But herein lies the beauty of the Gospel. We are not judged by our performance or graded by our works. No, as the fundamental truth, which I fundamentally forget (and deep down, sometimes just cannot accept), is that we are not judged, but that God’s love and mercy have triumphed over judgment. And so, Mr. Lobdell and the rest of us need not despair. Though the walk may be difficult and our partners may fail us, God never will.
2 comments:
I can't understand that whole, judging Mozart as a composer by how someone plays his music. It just doesn't make sense to me. This is especially true if someone, like the character of your post supposedly understands the sinfulness of mankind.
Everything we touch turns to crap, including religion, but how exactly is that the fault of Jesus? It makes me think that this character didn't have a relationship with Jesus. Instead he had some beliefs about Jesus or about God but when those beliefs turned out to be false then God and Jesus were chucked along with the beliefs.
very likely..thanks for your views. how did you find my blog?
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