September 10th
Dear Brother Jacob,
Bible camp was fun, I guess. I had some very inspiring walks alone in the woods. I found a beautiful little place in the trees where I could go to pray.
But something was wrong. They always have a time to ask questions after a lesson or story, but I think I was asking questions that made them uncomfortable. I figured out that they only wanted you to ask questions like: What did Jesus do after he healed the leper? I was asking questions like: Did Jesus use scientific knowledge or a miracle from Heaven to heal the leper? I figured it out after a few days, and started keeping the real questions to myself.
What happens at Lyceum if someone believes something different than everyone else, or different than the Bible? And I was wondering which Bible you use. One girl at the camp said she had read something in the Gospel of Thomas. There’s no such gospel in my Bible. They quit calling on her at sharing time, and then her parents picked her up the next day, even though camp wasn’t quite half over. I asked my dad about it when I got home, but he said there was no such thing.
I found a book on phenomenology at the library, like you suggested.
Interesting! I knew science had trouble handling religious ideas, and religion doesn’t do science very well either. It’s nice to know something tries
to get at the truth, no matter where it leads. Thanks for the tip! I didn’t check it out — I’m just going to read it when I’m at the library. You understand, I hope.
I’d love to learn more about how you select members. I bet it’s tricky. I know that measuring intelligence is hard enough. Measuring emotional maturity and ethical development must be really hard! How many people ask to be members, and how many do you accept? I’ve seen my dad talk to people who were interested in joining our church, and he would ask them questions like where they work, and do they have any relatives in the church, and do they have a normal family life, and do they accept the Bible as the word of God. And I know he looks closely at how they dress. Did you really turn down a ten million dollar donation once?
Even though I have school, and church activities three times a week, sometimes I feel really lonely. Sometimes I wonder if there are any other young people out there who think like me, who wonder if we really know as much about things as we think we do. I know that probably sounds weird, but every time I see someone act like they know everything, it makes me feel really sad.
Sincerely,
Shawn Mitchell
Dear Sarah,
Yes, I’d love to see a picture of your garden! I wanted to grow strawberries once, but my dad said the gardener wouldn’t like it. He entertains people in the back yard a lot, and wants it to look perfect. I remember reading that everyone at Lyceum has a garden. That sounds like fun!
I’m glad you liked the maple sugar candies I sent you from Vermont.
There were so many different shapes and colors, it was hard to decide!
I have mostly easy classes this year, ‘cause I already took all the hard classes last year and the year before, and they wouldn’t let me take them again. I’m going to try to get all good grades. Are you in the third grade this year? Sometimes I help with the Sunday School classes at church — but somehow I can’t picture you in with the third graders.
Do you celebrate Halloween? My dad says it’s pagan, and I could never go trick-or-treating when I was little. But he let me hand out cards with Bible verses on them when kids came to the door.
Your friend,
Shawn