Sunday, September 10, 2006

Faith

I went to church today, which I hadn't been to in a while. I'm not counting our trip to the Episcopal one with friends, since that was more anthropological than spiritual to me. This was the local UU church. I sang "Morning Has Broken" in the shower this morning, got dressed and headed off to the service. Unfortunately they changed from their summer schedule, so instead of a service at 10 there was one at 9:15 and another at 11. I got there at 9:45. I could have turned around and gone home, but I didn't. I'm trying to defeat my defeatist attitude. I ran some errands and came back and enjoyed the service. One note of irony was that we sang "Morning Has Broken," the song from my shower, and first wedding. I suppose it was on my brain this morning after reading that Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens is releasing his first pop album in 28 years this year. Go Cat! I was at the Bangor International Airport when he was detained because he was on the no fly list. Personally, I can't imagine the author of such caustic hits like "Moon Shadow" is a terrorist.

I felt at home at the church today. I don't blame my parents, but the church of my youth doesn't hold a lot of meaning to me. Unlike my father, my faith has not sustained me through difficult times. I think the process of questioning has helped, though.

2 comments:

Paul Saxton said...

While Cat Stevens isn't a terrorist, he's certainly a man of highly dubious views. Such as his insistence, at the time, that calling for the death of Salman Rushdie was the right thing to do. Or that he supports strict, segregated faith schools. Or that... well, he's a pretty staunch Islamist who believes, for instance, that women should be subjugated, that homosexuality should be outlawed... you know, the usual liberal-hating stuff. Not a pleasant man.

Hyperher said...

Paul, I had no idea. I remember that he was to speak at a Brent library after 9/11 on tolerance, and I had heard rumblings of him fundraising for a terrorist group, but I never really took it seriously. I don;t believe much the media says, or the US government. Thanks for enlightening me.