Meditation 1308
by: John Tyrrell
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Writing in Fargo’s Inforum, Roxanne B Salonen, a Christian speaker and columnist asked the question “Can those without God be grateful guests?“
It’s a question I’d never thought to ask. But reading her column, I discovered that by Salonen’s standards, we non-believers were incapable of being properly grateful. She wrote:
As a grateful guest, I concluded that those without God would by default be capable only of being an ungrateful guest, or at best, one half-hearted in appreciation.
In her opinion:
Humility and gratitude are the first steps toward seeing God.
So I guess that the fact we don’t see her god proves to her that we don’t show gratitude. But on the other hand, I cannot see any sign of humility in this thoroughly arrogant view she expresses about her faith. Perhaps Salonen does not see her god as well as she thinks she does.
Another Christian, Carly Fiorina, spoke to Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference during her failed run at becoming the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. According the the Christian Post, Fiorina claimed people of faith are better leaders because “faith gives us humility,” and “faith gives us “empathy,” and “optimism.”
As I did for Salonen, I’d suggest that this statement by Fiorina shows a distinct lack of humility.
I’d also say that both Fiorina and Salonen lack empathy. Through their statements, they seem incapable of understanding that those that don’t share their religious beliefs can nevertheless experience the full range of human emotions.
They both seem to think their Christian faith makes them somehow better that we non-believers. By denying us a full range of human feelings and emotions, they are on the path to denying our membership in humanity. And yet, I would suggest that their comments indicate both Fiorina and Salonen are deficient in the very qualities they pretend we lack. And it is their interpretation of their version of Christianity that has taken those qualities away from them.
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