counterpunch

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jun 27, 2006

Karen Hall has a spirited reflection on dogma-free religious life and its discontents.

One of my Jesuit friends says, "You know that you have created God in your own image when He hates all the same people you do." That may well be true. But you also know that you have created God in your own image when He has tossed out all the rules that you don't like.

As a check against this kind of self-deception, George MacDonald proposes a simple but searching test: "Ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because He said, Do it, or once abstained because He said, Do not do it."