September 20, 2019

















Take care,


22 thoughts on “Being an Open-Minded Believer

  1. I very much appreciated your post, Jack. Sage advice, indeed, and a must-read especially for us older folks who need not to become atrophied in our thinking!
    (By the way, I don’t know why but I am unable to comment on your facebook page.)

  2. Hello, Jack. I entered a reply yesterday, but since I do not see it here, I assume it got lost. I very much want to be an open-minded believer. I doubt I can just decide to be one, convinced of the seven benefits you mention. Don’t you think that we must understand the complexity of the process of becoming open-minded? What do we understand by “faith” and “belief”? Is the openness of questioning in children the default position, and does one learn to be close-minded? Is there a supernatural gift of faith? How does it affect open-mindedness? What is the effect of emotion on open-mindedness? Can a person in a closed-minded culture have a open mind and still belong to the community? Have the cultural forces operative in Roman Catholic diocesan seminaries in general produced open-minded ordained believers? Is closed-mindedness related to or identified with clericalism? Closed-mindedness may be a value in their religious formation. Could it be?

    1. Dear Paula,

      Some responses to your questions:

      Yes of course. That is the story of my life

      “Faith” is our experience of God, the Divine, the Sacred. “Belief” is interpreting that experience, putting it into language, symbol, and ritual.

      I think it depends on parenting and socio-cultural environment. If people grow up in fear or live in fear, they begin to distrust what otters are saying. Minds are closed to voices from the other side….

      Is there a supernatural gift of faith?
      I have a problem with the word “supernatural.” Our experience of God is here and now in the world in which we live.

      Belief can affect open-mindedness when that belief is a narrow interpretation of Faith. Example: only Roman Catholics have the truth. Yes emotion can affect open-mindedness when fear clouds everything.

      Yes but with difficulty. It is better go find a supportive open-minded community.

      It depends. I was never ordained to spent eleven years in very open and progressive seminaries. I was a professor for many years in a very open-minded seminary. Then under Pope John Paiute II and Pope Benedict XVI those seminaries became hothouses for regressive and closed-minded thinking.

      Yes. Clericalism is based on a superior vrs inferior understanding of human identity.

      Many kind regards, Jack

      1. Thanks, Jack. Another question: do you welcome discussion on this blog? I can see that as a gracious former teacher you welcome Q&A, and I appreciate that. I am also looking for people who will think together with some questions about open-mindedness and Church. Are your followers interested in that too? I think the major problem in the U.S. bishops’ culture is that their self-understanding and understanding about truth claims have not made the shift that the Western world made in the 20th century from essentialist thinking to a moderate relativist way of thinking. I don’t have sufficient clarity or language to explain it, so I would like to explore these ideas with others. If the bishops were to make that shift, they could create programming in seminaries and in Catholic schools to develop leaders for the Church at large. We are so polarized now that it is hard to imagine a way forward. Do you know what I am talking about?

      2. I answer questions but it really isn’t a discussion group. I suggest that you set up an internet group for church reform discussions…..a Google Group for example. I would happily join!

      3. Paula

        I am quite interested in the idea of an internet discussion group for people involved in church reform. In fact I would be willing to set it up on condition that both you and I could be moderators….. Jack

    2. Dear Jack,
      Many thanks for your reflections and words of wisdom. Through “Another Voice” I have found the open-minded support I had been looking for for many years!
      Best regards,

      1. Hi, Ines. You were replying to my post? If yes, may I ask you to be more direct? I can imagine all sorts of criticisms and miss the point entirely. Thanks. Paula

  3. Dear Jack,

    I have just read your wonderful and inspiring post. I will keep it and send it to my family. Thanks! Angelica


  4. Dear Jack,
    You have caused me to reflect and re-evaluate many times but never so much as in this latest writing. With so much division in church and politics these days, your words challenge me to really assess what is in my heart as opposed to what is in my head. My thoughts and words speak of conciliation, acceptance, and tolerance. My feelings betray a darker, less merciful side. When I encounter, either through reading or personal engagement, attitudes and mindsets that clash with my own beliefs, I struggle to demonstrate the values that I, perhaps naively, believe I am living.

    Your essay gives me powerful personal benefits to continue to be an accepting, tolerant, and open-minded believer who demonstrates those beliefs especially and particularly to those who know what my positions are on many controversial issues. Fortunately, I have more than a few friends whom I genuinely love and with whom I frequently interact who put a face on “the other side” which makes it hard to be purely ideological.

    Your words are more than a treatise on the benefits of being open-minded. They are a profound challenge to live the faith that brings us closer to the divine. Thank you, once again, for truly being Another Voice!

    Frank Skeltis

  5. What prompted me to write before was the fact that in his reflections, Jack verbalises in clear and eloquent words many of the same questionings and doubts I have had with regards to some of the teachings I received during my Catholic Faith upbringing. For me, it is very reassuring and liberating to know that other people experience the same and that it is OK to keep thinking of oneself as a Catholic, even when in disagreement with the stand of the Church on some issues. However, I am coming to the conclusion that I just want to call myself ” A follower of Christ”. All the divisions inside Christianity and their ensuing animosities and even hostilities are in such opposition to Christ’s message of Love, to his teachings and to the example of his life!
    My main purpose now is to concentrate on deepening my own relationship
    with Christ. .
    Warm regards

  6. Jack, terrific as usual! I especially like the possibility of a group discussion. My focus is more along the personal rather than the scholarly approach — how will it preach, how do I help people who have needs and questions, what will whatever I am thinking help or hinder my circuit rider old guy ministry. My thinking is continually “evolving”, and there seems to be some need on the part of the folks – both in the pews and not in the pews – for different ideas. It seems the biggest impact on me is from my Army experience. Enough said from me here.

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