On the hard sell

Christ in the Mountains wrote on voting, the afterlife, and the comparative importance of matters affecting the living. Do go read it here.

In a conversation I had recently, I was struck by how religious fervor is so often given over to nearly everything but religion. In this particular discussion, my interlocutor was greatly concerned about people who had no health insurance, because of a frequent interaction with such people, some of whom are genuinely suffering seriously with life-threatening illnesses. My position in the discussion was that health care, while important, is of relatively lower importance compared to questions of eternal significance. What I didn't know was that that statement would reveal that I "live in la-la land." Something real has to be done, I was told, and I got the strong impression that that meant it had to be some kind political action...

...And, since we are on the subject of "la-la land," and also because I have always appreciated wit, I couldn't help but finish up this little reflection by yet another quote from Lewis's beautiful "Hope" chapter in Mere Christianity: "There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of 'Heaven' ridiculous by saying they do not want 'to spend eternity playing harps'. The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them."