Stumbling blocks can litter faith journey

This is one of those reflections that was nearly victimized by “writer’s block.” An irony here is that I want us to think about “stumbling blocks.”

The faithful skeptic in me gets so tired of reading about, and listening to, examples of religious zealots of many faith traditions who believe their way to spiritual truth is the Only Way. We see this most tragically played out in the wars we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But religious fanaticism does not reside only in a relatively small number of radicalized Muslims.

Around Christmas, I received an article from a reader. It was a distorted diatribe that lumped all Muslims together because of the actions of what the article called “male Muslim extremists.”

Unfortunately, this reader seems to have bought into the fear-mongering lock, stock and barrel. He strikes me as an intelligent man, but something in his background and in his own narrow Christian belief system has blinded him to the broader, positive truths of Islam. He forgets where Christianity and Islam beliefs intersect.

Is it true that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”? If it is, those good intentions may be like the stumbling blocks we read about in the Bible.

Actually, the Old Testament stumbling blocks are God’s doing. God decided to put a “stumbling block” before nations because of their “iniquities.”

We may quickly think “sin” when iniquity is mentioned. But it is more specific than that. Iniquities were more communal injustice, unequal treatment of people, and not so much personal, private “sins.”

In the New Testament, those stumbling blocks were more personal. St. Paul spoke of them exclusively as actions of Christians who caused a new Christian to be confused or fall away from their newly acquired faith.

But even here, private “sins” weren’t the focus. Rather, actions that compromised another person’s faith journey were labeled stumbling blocks.

Jesus didn’t use that phrase at all. The closest I can get is when he tells the logs and specks parable (Luke 6:39-42). He challenged “you hypocrite” to take the log out of your own eye so you can take the speck out of a neighbor’s eye.

Quick judgment, prejudice (pre-judgment), lack of understanding, lack of sensitivity to other people’s struggles. Where do we stop with listing the foolish, stupid things we do in the name of our God, of Jesus, of Allah, of Yahweh? All of us are guilty of the log-and-speck dilemma.

Are stumbling blocks connected to the log-and-speck challenge of Jesus? I think so. Has anyone wanted to make his/her religious experience your obligation? Let me count the ways!

Have you ever wanted to make your religious experience someone else’s obligation? Harder to answer, isn’t it.

But if you are passionate about your faith, it has no doubt happened. The good intention becomes a log to someone else’s speck, or a stumbling block that person likely scurries around and runs away.

The stumbling block can create spiritual fear or unrealistic doubt. (As a faithful skeptic I believe in realistic doubt.)

Or that stumbling block turns someone away from a potentially healthy relationship with God and, at the least, your church.

One phrase of the Prayer of St. Francis asks, “Oh Master, grant that I may never seek to be understood as to understand.” His whole prayer focuses on removing stumbling blocks from other people’s paths. In those acts, our stumbling blocks are removed also.

St. Francis also said: “Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.”

Taken internally, the Good News removes blocks and logs.