We now send our books, our music and even our memories into a cloud. We may or may not believe in God but we do once again believe in meaningful consciousness residing outside of ourselves.

Fewer than 5 percent of Danes attend church. In godless Denmark, the national government funds a high quality education for all children, rich and poor alike, while in God-fearing America, education is funded through local property taxes, so neighborhood and income dictate a child’s educational opportunities. Add in race and ethnicity factors to create a perfectly stratified school system segregated by educational opportunity.

If we wait for correct ideas to save us – theological or otherwise – we’ll never be saved, even from ourselves.

Perhaps Mom and Dad were right. In an infinite universe, everything must have happened at least once, someplace, sometime. So maybe there is a God who forgives, who loves, who knows. I hope so. Anything is possible in a world where a daughter forgives her father, for ignorance, for anger, for failure, and places her daughter in his arms.

What’s the point of quoting the Bible to people who don’t believe it’s true” Dad would say.

Faith is certainly not theology to me. Church is just one of the places I look for answers to the only real question I have: Why do we long for meaning? For.

America still sees itself as essential and as destiny’s instrument. And each splinter group within our culture – left, right, conservative, liberal, religious, secular – sees itself as morally, even “theologically,” superior to its rivals. It is not just about politics. It is about being better than one’s evil opponent. We don’t just disagree, we demonize the “other.” And we don’t compromise.

Christianity should have taken up the cause of the poor; better yet, it should have identified with the poor. Instead, during almost the entire course of history, the Church has served as a prop of the powerful and has been on the side of exploiters and states.

Our best hope is not found in correct theology, the Bible or any other book, but in the love we express through action rather than words. Our best hope is that love predates creation and thus that the Creator sees us as ever young. Our hope is that when we look at God through the eyes of the loving Christ we will see who God really is. Our ultimate hope is that God will be looking back at us as we’d like to be seen.

Since science is fashionable today, it allows its fraternity to propose cloddish monstrosities as a solution to man’s problems in many fields. Fashion rules and, anyway, who but the experts can even dare to speak up?