Thank you for this thoughtful personal vocal essay. 🙂 My husband was a Jewish man (RIP 2006) -- who was baptized in 1997, because he encountered another Jewish man -- Jesus, called the Christ -- in people he encountered in his journey with Type 1 Diabetes, losing bits and pieces of himself over the last years of his life. He told me after his baptism that he was still a Jew and would always be one -- but encountering the spirit of the carpenter rabbi from Nazareth, as lived out by people in those years, impacted his spiritual journey. I'm sure most of his family, who express or experience or worship differently or not at all, might be put off or offended by his choice to be baptized but it blessed his last years, and blessed those of us who knew him and cared for him. May you be blessed wherever your journey takes you, too.
Happy Chrismukkah, David. You described those "moments" perfectly. I, too, have longed for understanding Faith; to be embraced by it; to make me whole. It is Hope, Kindness, Compassion that wraps a warm blanket around my soul and the souls of all sentient beings. May your faith keep you vibrant in spirit and human-ness. Thank you.
David has given me comfort and understanding over the years in the crazy divided world of politics there are people who see things in a balanced and non tribal way. As a theist myself I am now comforted by his non tribal approach to spirituality. Yes, we all need a place to grow and explore our faith, but the organisation, church, denomination, or whatever label is not the end. The end goal is our relationship with the divine and transcendent and how we manifest that in our lives.
David, I have enjoyed watching and listening to you for years, and I am not surprised at your journey of faith. In this message, you talked about finding fairh, and I think you found what you were looking for.
It’s interesting that so many would want to deny Brooks’ faith experience, prove him wrong, apply their own understanding of Christianity (e.g,, “fundamentalism” upon him, or convince him of another faith tradition. There is grace in being glad for those who have peace in their ongoing discovery of the divine.
I've been curious to hear this story from Brooks. I am an ex-evangelical, in large part due to the church's complete embrace of an authoritarian. I feel like I'm riding the same train but in the opposite direction. I wish I had faith, but in the past decade on this train, we've covered a lot of ground, and I just can't believe the church has any claim to truth or love anymore. 4:16
I’m sorry for what you have experienced. In these times especially, Christian faith has been publicly linked to alignment with a very specific vein of politics. I abhor the Christian Nationalist/Trumpism movement because I feel it has done great damage to the perception of what faith in Jesus is really about. When Jesus was alive on this earth, people wanted him to work through the political system and shake things up, but his life showed that his transformative work was about far more than politics (small thinking). It was about the forgiveness and salvation of the souls of all mankind. He showed a new way to live-one where you could be free no matter who your country’s leaders were. What I see today makes me sad because there are many in the church who have strayed from true faith. I can see why you would leave the church or have doubts. I certainly have my own doubts at times. I used to attend a large mega church and one of the things I hated most was how thinly veiled its political leanings were. Now, I moved states and I go to a much smaller church where the focus is on the kingdom of God, which is unshakable no matter who gets elected. I just wanted to give you a little hope that not ALL churches have been corrupted in this past decade, even though it may feel that way. May God draw you back to himself in a new, true way. I wish you all the best on your faith journey.
As a non-American, it's sad to see what has happened to a large segment of the American Church which has looked to a political saviour rather than Jesus, thus undermining the faith of many. But, those who lost faith because of a church, denomination, or church leader are also looking to the wrong savior! Only Jesus is the Saviour of the world. To know Jesus is everything - beauty, truth & love; for He is the Life! I pray that you will seek Him & come to know & enjoy Him
If the embrace of Trump by churches and people who believe they are Christians surprises you, I suggest you study the Bible in all its fullness, and learn about theology and how it can be applied and misapplied. Much of American evangelicalism was shaped by a bizarre group of English religious exiles, called the Plymouth Brethren, lead by a man named John Nelson Derby. His ideas were so crazy he left England, but in America his work influenced the publication of the first modern study Bible, the Scofield Reference Bible, sent to all churches and seminaries which would accept it. This book took the thought of Derby and codified it into a totally new theological framework, called Dispensationalism - the idea being that God works with different people in different times in different ways, dispensing his grace differently. This Israel and Jewish people are at the centre of a cosmic mystery which is unfolding. All of this mumbo jumbo was over and above the historical dominant framework, now called Covenant theology, that God is clear and consistent in his word to us in the Bible and there are no major mysteries for us to solve, to help God do his thing on earth. I would say that understanding the Bible and how it is used and abused, is pivotal to understanding current trends in political evangelicalism.
Thank you for your thoughtful and caring response. I struggle with my Roman Catholic church but am grateful for the teachings and humble example of our church's earthly shepherd Pope Francis. He too is the target of hatred and vile attacks .
As a former Evangelical who is now an Atheist. I've traveled both roads. Also as someone who has tried other religions to figure out what was "WRONG" with me. I prefer self reflection not someone dictating who and what I am. As someone who has walked on both sides now from In and out it's lifes illusions I recall. I really don't know life at all.
Life is a paradox. We long for freedom, individual expression and identity, searching for it in all the ways that bind us down to the impossibility of realizing it. In so doing, we eschew freedom and prefer the yoke of slavery. Once we understand what is, that is, what is being itself, we understand that all life must naturally follow from it. Being is God, and God is being. All life flows out from his will - in a flawed sense, there are those who brush against the truth by assuming all must be illusion, or fantasy, or simulation. It isn't simulation, but it does subsist upon something greater, and even the unknowing must know this much. Therefore, the right order of life is to be directed toward the greater. In the same sense that the right order of the tree is to grow upwards, life must be directed upwards. To my mind, evangelicalism is a charismatic expression of this truth, but it often lacks the depth of truth that the soul hungers after. To that end, I'd recommend reading Christian scholarly thought, in particularly those of the first millennia and shortly after.
Sure some might say that 2+2 is just 4, that Bigfoot doesn’t exist, or that the Earth orbits the Sun. But how does that explain the warm feeling I got in my heart last year when I saw a squirrel eating an acorn at the part? Surely there is more to this realm of reality that is simply beyond us
Faith is believing without evidence. Faith is the excuse people give when they don't have evidence. Faith is gullibility. So when he says “The joy is not in the satisfaction of the longing, but the joy is in the longing itself. It’s a good feeling to worship generosity itself.”, he's not making an appeal to a higher power but to the best manifestations of the humanity. Humanism is superior to faith. Happy Holidays fellow humans!!!
Best of both worlds and full circle of the promises and prophecies about Messiah in the Old Testament, and fulfillment of those in the New Testament. Check out Messianic Judaism! Blessings, David!!
Some people think that we think ( feel ) with our heart. Others; We think with our guts ( stomach ) and then others give the credit to our soul. Does anyone give our BRAIN any credit?
Wow, a place you can actually respond to Brooks without all the comments being turned off. I actually have very little respect for Brooks. I made the exact opposite journey. Once a socially conscious evangelical inspired by some of the great Christians of the past but realizing it's virtually always a religion that worships authoritarians. Brooks--and I'm sad his life was so empty and painful--is just another sycophant. I'm sad he made this kind of mistake. I'm sure it's helped his bank account. That's one way to salve the soul I guess.
People each have value, therefore God. My holy book has stories that are not literally true, nevertheless its God is literally true. A good person runs a charity, therefore God. How shallow. David doesn't seem to care whether his beliefs are true at all. He'll accept any pablum that comforts him.
David, you must know that “God” is not a person. The definition of God is essentially a non- being. The New Testament did not “invent” the beatitudes. Woven in spirituality that preceded the second century CE. Consider Baruch Spinoza’s concept of God. Einstein allegedly said, “I believe in Spinoza’s God”. Shortcut: God and the Universe are synonymous. P. S. Being a person of religion before the 1800s was never about faith… it was about praxis.
Huh? The world of a traditional Chinese Taoist is full of gods, saints, demons, dragons, nature spirits, etc. Taoists have a complex web of mythology and folklore. They pray, fast, and venerate saints just like traditional Buddhists and Christians do. The idea that eastern religions are just "philosophies" with no metaphysical or "supernatural" beliefs is a Western post-Protestant projection.
Huh? The world of a traditional Chinese Taoist is full of gods, saints, demons, dragons, nature spirits, etc. They have a complex mythology and folklore. They pray, fast, and venerate saints just like traditional Buddhists and Christians do. The idea that eastern religions are just "philosophies" with no metaphysical or "supernatural" beliefs is a Western projection.
Brooks’ argument for belief in a god is so weak it’s hard to even critique it as an argument. It’s more a desire for belief than actual belief because he’s decided belief is preferable to him. That approach is an acceptance of a “pragmatic Christianity “ somewhat like how Richard Dawkins believes in “cultural Christianity” . Sorry but my atheism is not shaken by this story.
There is no argument. Faith is a matter of belief. As for atheism, I don’t see why atheists bother. Why base your worldview and identity on what you don’t believe is true or on what you oppose? Base it only on what you know positively through observation, logic, the scientific method and so on. I can tell you that you are not that empirical and rational. Everyone has a metaphysical perspective even if they do not know it, and if you live in the West, and to some extent really any part of the world, that metaphysic will be largely Christian, and therefore largely Catholic. Merry Christmas!
@@thomasjpuleo8112 I agree. Or to put it more simply as a believer I have to explain why suffering or evil exists, where the atheist has to explain why everything exists. Or as the late Dr schuller once said when asked if he came to the end of his life and found out there was no God would he regret believing ? He said NO. When asked why, he stated because false hope is better than no hope.
I cannot forgive Brooks for his ultra-conservative past, his insistence that "Both sides do it," and his ongoing reliance on religion as his saving grace. He supported Bush, the Iraq War, Trump and all that other crap, and now wants to be remembered as a man of great faith, wisdom and insightful journalism. I wish he would just go away.
Most everything David Brooks says or writes is an excuse for Republicans failure. I use to admire him when I read one of his books years ago. Then, I watched him on PBS and read his columns in the NYT. He is the best 'excuse maker' ever. We quit watching PBS as they lunched right ward. Canceled the NYT because they sanewash t****s nonsense and trashed Harris until what a week before the election? Hopefully, finding 'god' will allow Brooks some self-reflection so he can see he helped bring Ametica to her knees.
@racerx4152 Brooks is part of the problem. He pushed the 'conservative" republican agenda for years. When he realized he was wrong he started making excuses. I also wish he would just retire and keep his opinions to himself. All he has are opinions, and I have my own
@@AZsunflower Fortunately we have progressed to the point that we have UA-cam and similar sites wherein everyone can share their opinions. There seems little cause for those using such sites to wish people kept them to themselves.
The this guy's credibility went down the tubes. I can't handle any magical thinking. No offense, but if you're willing to suspend your logic for that then I really can't trust anything else you say
Over the last 10 years, line upon line and precept upon precept, I have enjoyed watching David evolve into who he now is. His journey is not over.
What a lovely thing to write -- blessings to YOU!
Thank you for this thoughtful personal vocal essay. 🙂 My husband was a Jewish man (RIP 2006) -- who was baptized in 1997, because he encountered another Jewish man -- Jesus, called the Christ -- in people he encountered in his journey with Type 1 Diabetes, losing bits and pieces of himself over the last years of his life. He told me after his baptism that he was still a Jew and would always be one -- but encountering the spirit of the carpenter rabbi from Nazareth, as lived out by people in those years, impacted his spiritual journey. I'm sure most of his family, who express or experience or worship differently or not at all, might be put off or offended by his choice to be baptized but it blessed his last years, and blessed those of us who knew him and cared for him. May you be blessed wherever your journey takes you, too.
Love David Brooks. Such a beautiful mind.
Beautifully stated, David. A perfect message for Christmas Eve.
Happy Chrismukkah, David. You described those "moments" perfectly. I, too, have longed for understanding Faith; to be embraced by it; to make me whole. It is Hope, Kindness, Compassion that wraps a warm blanket around my soul and the souls of all sentient beings. May your faith keep you vibrant in spirit and human-ness. Thank you.
David has given me comfort and understanding over the years in the crazy divided world of politics there are people who see things in a balanced and non tribal way. As a theist myself I am now comforted by his non tribal approach to spirituality. Yes, we all need a place to grow and explore our faith, but the organisation, church, denomination, or whatever label is not the end. The end goal is our relationship with the divine and transcendent and how we manifest that in our lives.
David, I have enjoyed watching and listening to you for years, and I am not surprised at your journey of faith. In this message, you talked about finding fairh, and I think you found what you were looking for.
Thank you, David.
Beautiful. Thank you, David Brooks.
When I listen to people's life stories, sing with residents, and then look out at Lake Michigan, I'm gifted by Spirit.
Chaplain Susan
Beautiful story David. Thank you for sharing.
God continue to bless you on your journey.
The best, most inspiring testimony I’ve ever read and heard.
Thank you David for your ever thoughtful insights.
Thank you David.
How delicious the thought...that many of us have been praying for David to find faith. And God broke through.
It’s interesting that so many would want to deny Brooks’ faith experience, prove him wrong, apply their own understanding of Christianity (e.g,, “fundamentalism” upon him, or convince him of another faith tradition. There is grace in being glad for those who have peace in their ongoing discovery of the divine.
Wow. Said it before. Brooks for president.
I've been curious to hear this story from Brooks. I am an ex-evangelical, in large part due to the church's complete embrace of an authoritarian. I feel like I'm riding the same train but in the opposite direction. I wish I had faith, but in the past decade on this train, we've covered a lot of ground, and I just can't believe the church has any claim to truth or love anymore. 4:16
I’m sorry for what you have experienced. In these times especially, Christian faith has been publicly linked to alignment with a very specific vein of politics. I abhor the Christian Nationalist/Trumpism movement because I feel it has done great damage to the perception of what faith in Jesus is really about.
When Jesus was alive on this earth, people wanted him to work through the political system and shake things up, but his life showed that his transformative work was about far more than politics (small thinking). It was about the forgiveness and salvation of the souls of all mankind. He showed a new way to live-one where you could be free no matter who your country’s leaders were. What I see today makes me sad because there are many in the church who have strayed from true faith. I can see why you would leave the church or have doubts. I certainly have my own doubts at times. I used to attend a large mega church and one of the things I hated most was how thinly veiled its political leanings were. Now, I moved states and I go to a much smaller church where the focus is on the kingdom of God, which is unshakable no matter who gets elected. I just wanted to give you a little hope that not ALL churches have been corrupted in this past decade, even though it may feel that way. May God draw you back to himself in a new, true way. I wish you all the best on your faith journey.
As a non-American, it's sad to see what has happened to a large segment of the American Church which has looked to a political saviour rather than Jesus, thus undermining the faith of many. But, those who lost faith because of a church, denomination, or church leader are also looking to the wrong savior! Only Jesus is the Saviour of the world. To know Jesus is everything - beauty, truth & love; for He is the Life!
I pray that you will seek Him & come to know & enjoy Him
If the embrace of Trump by churches and people who believe they are Christians surprises you, I suggest you study the Bible in all its fullness, and learn about theology and how it can be applied and misapplied.
Much of American evangelicalism was shaped by a bizarre group of English religious exiles, called the Plymouth Brethren, lead by a man named John Nelson Derby. His ideas were so crazy he left England, but in America his work influenced the publication of the first modern study Bible, the Scofield Reference Bible, sent to all churches and seminaries which would accept it. This book took the thought of Derby and codified it into a totally new theological framework, called Dispensationalism - the idea being that God works with different people in different times in different ways, dispensing his grace differently. This Israel and Jewish people are at the centre of a cosmic mystery which is unfolding. All of this mumbo jumbo was over and above the historical dominant framework, now called Covenant theology, that God is clear and consistent in his word to us in the Bible and there are no major mysteries for us to solve, to help God do his thing on earth.
I would say that understanding the Bible and how it is used and abused, is pivotal to understanding current trends in political evangelicalism.
Thank you for your thoughtful and caring response. I struggle with my Roman Catholic church but am grateful for the teachings and humble example of our church's earthly shepherd Pope Francis. He too is the target of hatred and vile attacks .
Watching David on PBS I could almost viscerally feel his spiritual struggle. Lord, I would love to talk to this guy!
David’s Subway experience is similar to Thomas Merton experienced in Louisville Kentucky when he looked around and saw the people as his people.
Love it!!!
As a former Evangelical who is now an Atheist. I've traveled both roads. Also as someone who has tried other religions to figure out what was "WRONG" with me. I prefer self reflection not someone dictating who and what I am. As someone who has walked on both sides now from In and out it's lifes illusions I recall. I really don't know life at all.
As an atheist, the "I" you speak of is an accidental illusory by-product of blind matter.
send in the clowns.
Life is a paradox. We long for freedom, individual expression and identity, searching for it in all the ways that bind us down to the impossibility of realizing it. In so doing, we eschew freedom and prefer the yoke of slavery. Once we understand what is, that is, what is being itself, we understand that all life must naturally follow from it. Being is God, and God is being. All life flows out from his will - in a flawed sense, there are those who brush against the truth by assuming all must be illusion, or fantasy, or simulation. It isn't simulation, but it does subsist upon something greater, and even the unknowing must know this much.
Therefore, the right order of life is to be directed toward the greater. In the same sense that the right order of the tree is to grow upwards, life must be directed upwards.
To my mind, evangelicalism is a charismatic expression of this truth, but it often lacks the depth of truth that the soul hungers after. To that end, I'd recommend reading Christian scholarly thought, in particularly those of the first millennia and shortly after.
@@josephclark1431 that's harder to believe in, than to believe in god.
DB nailed it, again. Apropo for this year’s Xmaskuh. 🙏🏾🕎🎄
Yes! I agree… It is like this!
Sure some might say that 2+2 is just 4, that Bigfoot doesn’t exist, or that the Earth orbits the Sun. But how does that explain the warm feeling I got in my heart last year when I saw a squirrel eating an acorn at the part? Surely there is more to this realm of reality that is simply beyond us
Nice job.
The Spiritual World Is Real
Brooks had a kundalini experience. Eckhart Tolle had a similar experience. Tolle's experience is fully described on Krista Tippets' show On Being.
Your definition of faith seems to me to align with the one in Hebrews 11:1. It’s elaborated on in the rest of the chapter
Faith is believing without evidence. Faith is the excuse people give when they don't have evidence. Faith is gullibility. So when he says “The joy is not in the satisfaction of the longing, but the joy is in the longing itself. It’s a good feeling to worship generosity itself.”, he's not making an appeal to a higher power but to the best manifestations of the humanity. Humanism is superior to faith.
Happy Holidays fellow humans!!!
He’s not the only New Yorker to find god in a flash of light in a subway this week! :-/
Fairh in what?
Best of both worlds and full circle of the promises and prophecies about Messiah in the Old Testament, and fulfillment of those in the New Testament. Check out Messianic Judaism! Blessings, David!!
Some people think that we think ( feel ) with our heart. Others; We think with our guts ( stomach ) and then others give the credit to our soul. Does anyone give our BRAIN any credit?
Read the Urantia Book.
Wow, a place you can actually respond to Brooks without all the comments being turned off. I actually have very little respect for Brooks. I made the exact opposite journey. Once a socially conscious evangelical inspired by some of the great Christians of the past but realizing it's virtually always a religion that worships authoritarians. Brooks--and I'm sad his life was so empty and painful--is just another sycophant. I'm sad he made this kind of mistake. I'm sure it's helped his bank account. That's one way to salve the soul I guess.
People each have value, therefore God. My holy book has stories that are not literally true, nevertheless its God is literally true. A good person runs a charity, therefore God. How shallow.
David doesn't seem to care whether his beliefs are true at all. He'll accept any pablum that comforts him.
Very bad people have souls that have no effect on them?
dreadful timing re the title, given the bbq that just went down in NY! many such cases!
David, you must know that “God” is not a person.
The definition of God is essentially a non- being.
The New Testament did not “invent” the beatitudes. Woven in spirituality that preceded the second century CE.
Consider Baruch Spinoza’s concept of God. Einstein allegedly said, “I believe in Spinoza’s God”.
Shortcut: God and the Universe are synonymous.
P. S. Being a person of religion before the 1800s was never about faith… it was about praxis.
Try taoism. No fairytales, no make believe, just the bit of humility you seem to be missing
Also not rejecting this existence, unlike Buddhism.
Huh? The world of a traditional Chinese Taoist is full of gods, saints, demons, dragons, nature spirits, etc. Taoists have a complex web of mythology and folklore. They pray, fast, and venerate saints just like traditional Buddhists and Christians do. The idea that eastern religions are just "philosophies" with no metaphysical or "supernatural" beliefs is a Western post-Protestant projection.
Huh? The world of a traditional Chinese Taoist is full of gods, saints, demons, dragons, nature spirits, etc. They have a complex mythology and folklore. They pray, fast, and venerate saints just like traditional Buddhists and Christians do. The idea that eastern religions are just "philosophies" with no metaphysical or "supernatural" beliefs is a Western projection.
Still no evidence for any of it. Feeling is not evidence for anything, but just fooling yourself.
I am sick of hearing david brooks. Let’s get some new voices going on NYT.
Brooks’ argument for belief in a god is so weak it’s hard to even critique it as an argument. It’s more a desire for belief than actual belief because he’s decided belief is preferable to him. That approach is an acceptance of a “pragmatic Christianity “ somewhat like how Richard Dawkins believes in “cultural Christianity” .
Sorry but my atheism is not shaken by this story.
There is no argument. Faith is a matter of belief. As for atheism, I don’t see why atheists bother. Why base your worldview and identity on what you don’t believe is true or on what you oppose? Base it only on what you know positively through observation, logic, the scientific method and so on. I can tell you that you are not that empirical and rational. Everyone has a metaphysical perspective even if they do not know it, and if you live in the West, and to some extent really any part of the world, that metaphysic will be largely Christian, and therefore largely Catholic. Merry Christmas!
Congratulations!
It's not an argument and nor is faith or belief redicible to a creed, not a set of propositions. Try peterson and vervaeke.
@@thomasjpuleo8112 I agree. Or to put it more simply as a believer I have to explain why suffering or evil exists, where the atheist has to explain why everything exists. Or as the late Dr schuller once said when asked if he came to the end of his life and found out there was no God would he regret believing ? He said NO. When asked why, he stated because false hope is better than no hope.
I cannot forgive Brooks for his ultra-conservative past, his insistence that "Both sides do it," and his ongoing reliance on religion as his saving grace. He supported Bush, the Iraq War, Trump and all that other crap, and now wants to be remembered as a man of great faith, wisdom and insightful journalism. I wish he would just go away.
Most everything David Brooks says or writes is an excuse for Republicans failure. I use to admire him when I read one of his books years ago. Then, I watched him on PBS and read his columns in the NYT. He is the best 'excuse maker' ever. We quit watching PBS as they lunched right ward. Canceled the NYT because they sanewash t****s nonsense and trashed Harris until what a week before the election? Hopefully, finding 'god' will allow Brooks some self-reflection so he can see he helped bring Ametica to her knees.
I can see that you are brainwashed and very bitter. brooks is not the problem.
@racerx4152 Brooks is part of the problem. He pushed the 'conservative" republican agenda for years. When he realized he was wrong he started making excuses. I also wish he would just retire and keep his opinions to himself. All he has are opinions, and I have my own
Go where? I think it's more appropriate that those who don't want to hear him spend their time watching videos of other people than that he 'go away'.
@@AZsunflower Fortunately we have progressed to the point that we have UA-cam and similar sites wherein everyone can share their opinions. There seems little cause for those using such sites to wish people kept them to themselves.
The this guy's credibility went down the tubes. I can't handle any magical thinking. No offense, but if you're willing to suspend your logic for that then I really can't trust anything else you say