As for Belief.net, my mother is an avid reader who is constantly forwarding some such drivel from there. I find the “light cream” of sites like Belief.net difficult to swallow. But I do agree that people are hungry for spiritual food and seek it out. We need to be better prepared to feed them.

Yeah, I’m not comfortable with a lot of things in the piece.

But found the stats on folks going on line looking for spiritual growth actually a good sign… and something that shouldn’t be dismissed.

Something that is dismissed is the notion that maybe we aren’t going to all become wondrous glowing saints… but preserve the Church’s faith for those that will. Maybe that’s a small ambition and worthy in its own right. Maybe it is enough. At least I think it worked for so many of the Children of Israel before the Nativity! – maybe it can work for us, too.

But the rest of the article was a bit creepy. I suppose some people have to go through various belief things before they ultimately get to Christianity (and if they are diligent…perhaps they’ll find Orthodox Christianity). But my sense of BeliefNet (from reading the article…I don’t go there) is that it lacks substance and, as a result of its religious diversity, is more like trying to grab hold of jello. I guess it feels good but you really can’t eat it that way.

Then there was that whole boomers are getting old, facing death and finding religion thing. I suppose there is some truth to that. But I still hate boomer generalizations…because they are painful…and I am a boomer…

Now about those beards…did you grow one? We have a couple of young converts in our parish who latched on to the beard thing. For me it seems a bit obvious…but probably no more obvious than my boomer accoutrements which I did not abandon when I became Orthodox. I mean if we are going to have to stand through all those services…I need my Birkenstocks!!!