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Carin Marie's avatar

It's so interesting to read this piece as an outsider. I grew up in South Africa and immigrated to Canada when I was 9, so my experience of the US has always been as a place that's either "on the opposite side of the earth" or "right next door."

I don't feel like it's my place to say whether you guys need a new shared mythology, but I think you could make a very strong argument for it, as you do here.

Like you, I was raised in Christianity (Anglican), then went through a Dawkins/Hitchens phase, then started to shift back to my roots a little bit, at least in the sense of seeing value in a formal system and a shared story. I think life, while beautiful, can be so utterly terrifying that it really does help to have a way of making sense of everything. A shared narrative can help us put our lives back together after tragedy, and give us strength to move forward. Not to mention the immense value of traditions that compel us to celebrate and practice gratitude at the same times of year, year after year.

Thank you for writing and sharing this piece! It gave me a lot to think about.

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Steven Tate's avatar

Another thought-provoking piece, Pat. Super interesting perspectives. Growing up as an altar boy in church, I too began to be disillusioned with the Christian belief system by the time I was about 20. As I get older, I began to realize the one central thesis to Christ's teachings, and that is kindness to your fellow human, regardless of who they are. Practicing kindness daily to anyone (regardless of their background, pronouns or truly anything), is to me and some others the central thesis of Christ. It truly does not have to be more complicated than that. If you call yourself a Christian, and you are not kind to those around you, despite all of your differences, than that truly is not Christ-like. Period.

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