What Stories Do We Tell? // From Speaking of Faith Observed

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Pádraig Ó Tuama

Last year, while working with a primary school class here in Belfast, a child said:

“Pádraig, let me ask you a question. God loves us right?”

Avoiding the complexity of anthropomorphic projections of human experiences onto God, I answered, from the heart of me, with what I hope.

“Yes,” I said.

“And God made us all didn’t he?” she continued.

I avoided discussions of “made” and “He” and said:

“Yes.”

“Tell me this,” she said, “why did God make Protestants?”

When I asked her why she was asking me this, she said:

“Well, they hate us and they hate Him.”

I had been amused at the start. Now, I was not amused. I wondered what stories were educating this funny, witty, engaging, and lively child.

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