God Talk and October Baseball

When was the last time you had a conversation about religion or spirituality?  When was the last time you discussed theology with someone else?  I don't mean in church--though that is important as well.  I mean at work, or home, or school

?  A week ago Sunday an op-ed piece by Jonathan Merritt in the New York Times caught my eye.  "We Need to Talk About God," read the headline.

As part of his research work for the op-ed piece (and other writings as well) Merritt had the Barna Group conduct a poll focused on religion and public life.  The results are a bit unsettling. At least if you're a preacher like me!  He writes:  "More than one-fifth of respondents admit they have not had a spiritual conversation at all in the past year.  Six in 10 say they had a spiritual conversation only on rare occasions.  A paltry 7 percent of Americans say they talk about spiritual matters regularly."  (New York Times, 10-14-18, Review Section)  He goes on to note that regular church goers weren't much better;  just 13 percent reported having regular spiritual conversations!

Merritt cites a number of reasons why this is happening including the fact that so much religious language has been used in ways that exclude and demean others.  We don't like such abuse of spiritual and theological language, so we avoid it altogether.  But, Merritt wisely warns, that is a very dangerous position to take.  "When people stop [using religious language]," he writes, "because they don't like what these words have come to mean and the way they've been used, those who are causing the problem get to hog the microphone." (Ibid)


We mainline, mainstream, Protestants tend to be rather private about religion.  We don't want to step on anyone's toes.  We don't want to push our beliefs on someone else.  But that doesn't mean we can't, or shouldn't talk about such matters.  After all, if you are willing to talk about the World Series, doesn't make sense to talk about far more important matters.  Not that the Series is unimportant, I am a lifelong Red Sox fan after all.  But in the end, there are more significant things in life.  Things worth discussing!