|
|
Article: In the end, religion is about the future.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- March 15, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Byline: Bill Tammeus
The start of the Lenten season had never struck me quite this way before. When my pastor dipped his finger into a bowl of ashes and made the dark sign of the cross on my forehead on Ash Wednesday, he said old, familiar words: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
It was the word "shall" that jackhammered my heart. "Shall" is about the future, I thought, and a core thrust of religion _ almost any religion _ has to do with hope, with promise, with the future. This is true even of strange religious groups such as "Heaven's Gate," whose members killed themselves in 1997 hoping to follow a comet through the heavens. ...