Justin Schroeder's Views On The Theme Of Trust In Religion

Last Sunday, November 5, I went to see a sermon with my sister at First Universalist Church of Minneapolis. The theme of the service was parenting and raising our children, however Reverend Justin Schroeder’s sermon, though it had many elements of children and navigating the world, was primarily on the concept of trust and human connection. He asked some very important and intriguing questions at the beginning of his sermon; What is it that we trust? What are the sources we trust? What are the sources of our faith we can rely on? He started by talking about our country and what it looks like now, how divided and skeptical it is. He stated “The very nature of truth and trust and what's trustworthy is being contested in our society today. What

We so often get caught up in our differences and proving one another wrong that we ignore or similarities and common ground. We have come to accept that being different means being wrong as opposed to making us individuals and complex people. This reminded me a lot of the chapters we recently read in Faitheist where the author talks about his own aversion or disconnect from religious people, which lead him to only focus on or see the negative aspects of these religions. It was only through open mindedness and listening to different points of view and religions that he was able to connect, understand and even come closer to finding his own path in life. It is so important for us to take the time to learn from people who have different views than our own, instead of separating ourselves and labeling everyone else as wrong. I remember in the beginning of the semester we discussed how questioning your faith, learning about other faiths and their difference can help you to strengthen your own understanding and how you choose to navigate your

I like to think Augsburg is somewhat of an reassuring escape from the terrifying nature of the country round us. For the most part my findings weren’t all that surprising, a lot of us are so invested in our own world and our phones that we have troubles noticing the people around us. However, there were some key moments in my research that I was able to see these kind acts effects. For instance, I am the type of person who normally will hold the doors for people behind me, but like most people my door opening policy has a 50ft limit. I decided to lengthen that limit during my research, I noticed a student coming up behind me about 100ft or so and decided to keep holding the door anyways, at first he looked rather surprised but he was mostly thankful. As I was leaving he turned around the thank me again and I saw him notice another student coming from the distance with a hand full of groceries and instead of moving on his merry way he stayed and held the door open. Of course it’s likely that he would have done this regardless, but I think the time it took him to slow down and really notice the world around him helped him recognize that the other student may need