Joan Chittister

What a remarkable woman she is. You will be hard pressed to find a sharper, more honest mind. She embodies great hope for us all. I can't even say I'm sorry she is religious (she is a Benedictine nun), because she and people like her may help religious people find their way out of the blindness that too commonly afflicts them. It would be good to not feel I have to stand against religion because of the damage it does. It would be wonderful to feel it doesn't threaten our survival as a species. Unfortunately that isn't so yet. It would be very cool if people like Joan Chittister could help make it so.

My only qualm is that she talked eloquently about how people of all spiritual persuasions can find common ground for tolerance and build upon a basic goodness in spiritualism, but as is so common in religious people she ignored the fact that they are surrounded by atheists and agnostics who are good and tolerant people without spiritualism. Sad that even one so brilliant as she ignores that.

One of the incredible insights she explained in the program was the second commandment, not to take the name of god in vain. I'd always felt this was a rather irrelevant commandment, but as she put it, it is central to making religion more tolerant and just. By making, for instance, homophobic pronouncements against gay people then religious people are taking their god's name in vain. They are assuming to speak for their god -- an incredibly arrogant thing to do.

She is filled with such illuminations. A very smart woman indeed.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/spiritofthings/default.htm