The Retreat

The retreat was great. We had a new imam at the mosque, a Lebanese man. His answers were pat and unconvincing. Asked about terrorism, he said "People would not do such things if they were not poor and lived in a just society." He saw me looking doubtfully at him, I think, because I was about to ask 1) whether that meant it was okay, and 2) how do you explain multi-millionaire terrorists like Bin Laden then? He immediately cut off the entire discussion. Whatever.

In the morning we went to the Hindu temple, except I couldn't go because I had to take my car home because the back window got busted out overnight. Jerk took my gloves and sunglasses. That's all. Anyway, I took the car to the shop and they fixed it that day. So I left that car there, borrowed another one, and met the group at the Hindu tempple, but they were done.

Next was the Buddhist temple. A beautiful building on the north side of Chicago. The leader was very honest about buddhism, basically saying, if you're looking for God, don't look here. He also encouraged the kids to become good Christians. He's a very nice man. I have always liked the buddhists we visit.

Next was the B'hai Temple in Evanston, ot maybe Winnetka. Anyway, we had an actual Iranian B'hai talk to us. Went through persecution and knew people who were killed for their faith. Nonetheless, I find B'haism supremely boring and derivative. The kids were impressed, though. Every class is different. The last two classes thought B'haism was a scam. These guys liked it.

As usual, when we talked about it later, the kids said the trip was fascinating, but only made them that much more sure about being Christians.

I love this trip for just that reason.

Day 19.