Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Must Recovery Religion Always Be Morose? David Hayward

David Hayward's columns appear in CWR magazine throughout 2015. The following is from the current edition. Follow the link at the bottom to continue.

Jesus, in the famous poem “Footprints in the Sand”, says, “The times when you have seen only one set of footprints is when I carried you.”
Carl Jung said, “Walk your path or be dragged.” This version seems more accurate for my life.
Actually, that’s not what this is about. This is about the question, “Does recovering from religion always have to be so morose?” Yesterday, a friend commented on my cartoon and blog post that he misses the funnier cartoons I used to post and that I seem to be focusing more and more on the privileges and abuses of power. He’s not the only one. Others have mentioned the same concern. This cartoon is in their honor to hopefully show that I haven’t lost my sense of humor.
It is true. I have focused more on the privileges and abuses of power because I think it is the core consideration about communities, including religious or spiritual ones. It is serious business. And, to be honest, when I do cartoon and write about this, I know I’m helping a lot of people embrace their experiences, trust their guts, find their voices, muster their courage, and liberate their lives.
But it doesn’t and can’t stop there. I also want to help people find their happiness.