Face up to our humanity

what I would add is that our institutionalised churches face a greater challenge, as this society in the North America. Our society functions and operates with 'greed' as the underlying operating principle. Unchecked Capitalism, with unchecked self interest and greed, that is a combination for disaster. Consumerism has crept into churches for sometimes now, and they cannot shake this off, for the fear of the lesser income (see the Faith Blog on the last taboo). When Jesus mentions economic activities, he rebukes more often than he affirms, Perhaps he also has grown uncomfortable about the future he sees in the churches. That is why the irony of it all, is that at the end, itis not about profession of faith (quite a heresy here!), but about what you do with it, not about eternally secured salvation but exactly what you have done with your faith. Maybe Calvin is dead wrong about this. It is about feeding the poor, the hungry, and the homeless. Maybe we got this all wrong. It is not about trying to achieve a personalistic salvation only, at the cost of society or others, but to disregard one's own theology, critically reflect on the fact that our own deity is insufficient to meet our daily needs, unable to stop the perpetrators and abusers, and we have to affirm our humanity by taking things into our own hands.......as it was said by the Internationale of the socialists, there are never deities that save us, we must save ourselves.