11/6 Flashback: (Why I went to)

From November 6, 2004, “Seminary”

“So you’re, like, a priest or a preacher or something?” people ask.

No, I tell them. I went to seminary to study theology, the queen of the sciences. But I’m not ordained. I don’t believe I was called to the ministry or that God would inflict someone like me on a congregation.

“So why go to seminary, then?”

Answer No. 1: I say that I went to seminary because I wanted to make a lot of money. This is usually followed by some Rick and Renault banter:

“I came to Casablanca for the waters.”

“But Casablanca is a desert.”

“I was misinformed.”

Answer No. 2: I went to seminary because I heard Tangie Taylor sing “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”

If I could explain that in more detail, I would, but I’m still not sure I can. You kind of had to be there.

Answer No. 3: I explain that I wanted to study theology because there were certain things I wanted to learn or know or think about.

“Like what?”

Well, like the problem of evil. You know, why is there suffering? If God is all good and all powerful then why is the world so full of injustice and misery?

“Wow. That’s a good question. So did you learn the answer in seminary?”

Um. I don’t know, I say, it’s complicated. It’s got something to do with free will, I think, and with the difference between coercion and love. Then I try to change the subject.

“Wait,” they say. “You don’t really know, do you? You spent four years in school to learn the answer to one Big Question and you graduated no closer to knowing the answer than you were when you started.”

They’re right, of course. That’s true. But sometimes “That’s a good question” is the best answer you’re going to get. And what did I expect, really? Think about it — in the ancient play, Job poses this same question directly to God and God doesn’t give him a straight answer. Instead, God just goes on about how much he loves ostriches. They’re not very bright and they’re lousy parents, God says, but boy can they run fast and I love to watch them run!

And anyway, I did learn a few other things in seminary, including that part of the reason there’s so much misery and injustice in the world is that we treat each other awfully and that we shouldn’t do that.

Some of the big answers are complicated. Some of them aren’t.