[April 1999 journal entry]
‘Religion’ does not press or expect the adherent to be radically (i.e., to the root) vulnerable to harsh/tragic human experiences, to be authentically and indiscriminately ‘with the world face to face’. The result is somewhat analogous to what I found when I began working as a project coordinator and evaluator for a University of Miami School of Medicine intervention project for cocaine-abusing women who were delivering cocaine-exposed babies – i.e., the case managers could do a checklist of tasks/assignments without being vulnerable to the women’s plight, without going to the dangerous section of Miami where the women lived in order to be face to face with the realities faced by the women and their children.
‘Religion’ does not press or expect the adherent to be radically (i.e., to the root) vulnerable to harsh/tragic human experiences, to be authentically and indiscriminately ‘with the world face to face’. The result is somewhat analogous to what I found when I began working as a project coordinator and evaluator for a University of Miami School of Medicine intervention project for cocaine-abusing women who were delivering cocaine-exposed babies – i.e., the case managers could do a checklist of tasks/assignments without being vulnerable to the women’s plight, without going to the dangerous section of Miami where the women lived in order to be face to face with the realities faced by the women and their children.
