Dear Eugene

Dear Eugene, I am still high on the news that yesterday Trudeau named David Adams Richards to Senate . Here I would like to share with you the spectacular opening paragraphs of David Adams Richards's " God Is. ". He is speaking in a language that I am still trying to learn.  I will let him speak for himself.  And for me. Enjoy! Yours, Alex ********************* Excerpt from the Hardcover edition of "God Is." Copyright © 2009 by David Adams Richards  Publisher: Anchor Canada A woman who recently started to read my books has asked me if I am a Christian. Strange how hard a question this is. If I say that I am not, the entire social fabric of my upbringing, of my parents’ and grandparents’ teachings and instructions, and the world and church in which I came to manhood, would make me a liar. But if I say I am a Christian, and a practicing Catholic, it very well might elicit a preconceived notion of what that means, which in itself is giving int...

Dear Eugene, "Is it me?  Please be honest and tell me, because I really cannot identify it!"  For the longest time that's how I've been pleading to my wife. I just couldn't figure out what it is about churches that suffocated me, time and again nipped my already-small flame in its bud.  I wanted to get along with people, move along the production line of God's Kingdom business, ride along the high tide of spirituality to reach high heaven.  But all I got was a bad case of sinusitis that lasted all seasons. "Could it be because it's a Chinese church?"  I didn't expect my wife to give me deep insight and sure enough she didn't. Later I came to realize, Yes, it might have something to do with culture, but, really, it goes much deeper and pervasive than that.  I am not a stranger to my culture's patriarchal, ham-fisted ways, but just because manhandling is carried out by another culture with more outward democracy, debonair finess...

Dear Eugene, We all worship something, don't we?  (With atheists being worshipers with the greatest faith--or, shall I say, the greatest suspension of disbelief.  But that's a topic for another day.) Social media like Facebook is really a shrine, a temple replete with our small concerns presented to our even smaller gods, cacophony of summoning chant to convoke a closer look at our own selves, a self-appointed, polished aspect of it, to rouse admiration maybe, sympathy maybe, pity and jealousy of equal parts perhaps and often, approval for sure, honesty and intimacy close to never, (incense) smoke gets in your eyes. Those who worship pleasure and comfort would document their pilgrimage to travel destination and eatery, often with pornographic close-up of things and people to attest their devotion.  Those who worship sex would post selfies taken with various objects of desire, inanimate items personified, people dehumanized.   You really want to be HERE!!  ...

Dear Eugene, Last week my son told me when he was at his short-term mission trip, he wrote a rap song with friends to tell about the Gospel, in which there was a line "You gotta know your religion," and a friend corrected him by saying Christianity is not a religion but a faith. My son protested, "How can Christianity not be a religion?  We all know it is one of the big religions." I said to him, "You might be right if you are a sociologist trying to find ways to categorize things, which is often an elusive and thankless task to begin with.  But your friend was onto something, that Christianity really is not a religion, if your definition of religion is a systematized way to access God or The Higher Power or whatever you call it, for whatever purpose you might have in mind." Then I continued, "What's more.  The Christian God hates religion--Oh, more than anything !  You've been reading your Bible; I am sure you can't miss that....

Dear Eugene, Lately I've been reflecting a lot on what makes a good shepherd--or even more importantly, what makes a true shepherd of God's people. Growing up in a family full of pastors, I am not a stranger to fighting within the church, sometimes full-blown civil war, both as witness and participant, so much so that at times I even accepted disunity in the body of Christ as part of God's modus operandi to carry out his will.  The world has done a better job discipling us than the other way around. N. T. Wright called the disunity in Western church the biggest scandal with which we have all colluded.  I call it the biggest ever anti-Gospel, anti-Jesus conspiracy. When everything goes well, we can all afford to be nice.  It is at time of crisis and conflict that we show our true colors: self-preservation, finger-pointing, outright denial, lies.  "Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies," I read this line just now.  (...

Dear Eugene, How is your summer? Mine is shaping up to be probably the most stressful summer of my life.  I haven't been writing to you too much lately, only because there really is too much I want to write to you about. I hear that you too had been entwined in controversy lately , about an "issue" that I know one day you will need to speak about one way or another. Over these past many years since knowing you, I had the scenarios played out in my head, trying to "see" how you would answer when one day you are put on the spot. The reality actually played out the way I imagined it.  You don't believe me?  Just ask my wife.  I verbalized my imagination more than a few times to her over the years.  I told her already your answer will not be the kind that people want, the kind that they could tweet and use your "position" to support their own prejudice.  I told her your answer will be the bleeding heart of a pastor. And yes, a bleeding he...