Another Middle-Aged Radical Crawls Back

Enter Stage Right ^ | August 18, 2003 | Steve Martinovich

[danielmryan]

Searching for faith

By Steven Martinovich
web posted August 18, 2003

Stalking the Divine: Contemplating Faith with the Poor Clares is the latest in that dreary genre of books that sees self-absorbed Baby Boomers suffer a mid-life crisis and feel the need to write about it. After decades of turning their backs on the things that their Eisenhower-era parents held dear, many have begun to turn back to those old institutions in a frantic attempt to achieve some inner fulfillment. For the generation that believes they discovered sex, it's not surprising they also suffer the delusion that they're the first to suffer a crisis of faith in their autumn years.

Kristin Ohlson manages to transcend the typical examples of the genre with a touching story of her search for faith. A self-described former "radical communist atheist" who spent part of the 1960s agitating on behalf of a Maoist group, Ohlson began life as a Catholic who one day dreamed of being a nun. She gradually drifted away from the church, however, and it wasn't until a lonely Christmas morning in 1998 that she felt the need to attend mass again. In one of those events that will have Christians smiling, Ohlson picks at random Cleveland's St. Paul Shrine to attend.

[danielmryan]

Make way for the schadenfreude. A lot of what the group that the media describes as "boomers" is motivated by guilty consciences, and if this trend continues, that's what we'll see - them acting out resentments and ending questions.

I can say from experience, though, that any chance of people such as Ms. Ohlson passing some pain from the Roman Catholic Church is slight - Catholics that have Prodigal Sonned tend to be welcomed back in quietly as long as they stay pentinent themselves. The what-could-be-called "Silent Conspiracy of the Vatican" is, in large part, a 'conspiracy' to make sure that people that would otherwise bring new noise and trouble to the community stay silent.

Such, I would argue, brings real relief to others' ears.

[egarvue]

I have long said that as the baby boomers finally grow old and start to stare at their approching mortality, this country might experience another "Great Awakening", similar to the mass religious revivals that swept the country in the 17- and 1800's. Death has a way of focusing peoples minds...

[Jhensy]

Good for Republicans, too (demographically speaking),as the baby boomer 'bulge' , the largest segment of the population, gets older and more conservative as time goes on.

[BartMan1]

Another example of the self disgust that is destined to be the reward for each liberal with the awareness to see the result when all he has ardently wished for during his misguided life comes to pass, and he is left with a cold, spiritless world of despond....

[aardvark1]

"So why do I now find this devotion admirable rather than stupid? I guess I'm tired of a world with so little faith. I'm tired of marriages that fall apart because people won't persevere through the dry, dull, miserable periods; I'm tired of people who have given up on making the world better; I'm tired of people who cynically deconstruct everything for their own amusement -- and I've been all these people. These nuns fell in love with God, married him after a long, careful courtship, and have stuck with him year after year."

The faith the Bible speaks of brings us to the point where we realize that we are sinners in the sight God and realize that he is the only hope, so we cast ourselves on Him, begging His mercy and love. This person sounds like she's just looking for therapeutic relief--a formula to make her life better.