Interwoven with Religion

The Painted Veil

I recently finished (with my Book Club) the book The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham. We all liked the book and are looking forward to going to the see the movie later in the month.

One of the parts that caught my attention was something that the main character Kitty observed. Kitty was helping out at the orphanage and had a relationship with the Mother Superior. Kitty noticed:


“It would have been impossible to become intimate with the Mother Superior; she had that something impersonal about her which Kitty had felt with the other nuns…but with her it was a barrier that was almost impalpable. It gave you quite a curious sensation, chilling but awe-inspiring, that she could walk on the same earth as you, attend to mundane affairs, and yet live so obviously upon a plane that you could not reach.

Though her conversation was interwoven with her religion, Kitty felt that this was natural to her and that no effort was made to influence the heretic. It seemed strange to her that the Mother Superior, with her deep sense of charity, should be content to leave Kitty in a condition of what seemed to her sinful ignorance.”

On January 26th during the closing of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Benedict XVI challenged all Christians to be courageous in proclaiming the word of God and said that what the world “awaits above all” is the united testimony of Christians.He says,

“Whoever undertakes to listen to the word of God can and must then speak out and transmit it to others, to those who have never heard it, or to those who have forgotten it and buried it under the ‘thorns’ of the cares and illusions of the world.”



“We Christians must ask ourselves,” the Pope added, “whether we have not become too silent. Whether we do not lack the courage to speak out and bear witness. … Our world has need of such witness, it awaits above all the joint testimony of Christians.”

Personally, I rather like the silent approach. Many of my friends and family are Christians. I appreciate it that we can be together without them witnessing to me. I don’t mind when they, like the Mother Superior, have their religion woven into their conversation, because I know that is who they are and that is what they believe. I don’t feel like they are trying to get to me by talking about how God works in their life. If that was their motive, and/or if they witnessed to me constantly (tried to convince me that there way was the only way) then I doubt we could be friends for long. Not because I disrespect them for believing enough to want me to be a believer too, but because if it was constant then our relationship would then be focused on our differences and not our commonalities.

I do wonder sometimes though, like Kitty, why they should be content to leave me in a condition of her “sinful ignorance.” Is my current friendship with them more important than my eternal salvation? Or do they just hate witnessing like I did when I was a Christian. I always hoped that “they” would know me by my fruits, by the way I acted (Matthew 7:16). I hated the thought of trying to convince others of believing in Jesus, even though I truly believed it.

If any of my Christian friends or family read this, please don’t think I want you to witness to me. That’s not what I am saying here. I much prefer it the other way. But if you ever wanted to have a two-way conversation about why we each happened to believe the way we do, I would do it.

Like Stephen Shapiro said, “The critical thinker would ask, “Why?” “Why do you believe that to be true?” Try this with friends, colleagues and family. You will find it opens up a whole new level of conversation. This is where true learning and dialogue take place.


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