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Today, religion has lost its grip on the spiritual life of the world. 'A minister glared down at Sam and roared, 'And are you, my son, a soldier in the army of the Lord?' Surprised at being singled out, Sam replied anxiously, 'Y-yes sir, I am.' 'Then why,' pressed the minister, 'do we see you here only at Christmas?' Thinking quickly, Sam replied, 'Would you believe, sir, I'm in the secret service?'' In this age, many of the faithful have gone from active service to secret service (2:21) Today, religion has been turned into a talk show. 'Adlai Stevenson told the story of a backsliding man who was so inspired by an eloquent preacher that he leaped out of his seat and yelled, 'Lord God, take me and use me-- in an advisory capacity.'' The talking and avoiding must be changed into doing: (2:22) The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds; he whose words exceed his deeds, know verily his death is better than his life.22 Baha'u'llah (2:23) 'A rabbi and a soap maker went for a walk together. The soap maker said, 'What good is religion? Look at all the trouble and misery of the world, after thousands of years of teaching about goodness and truth and peace. If religion is good and true, why should this be?' The rabbi said nothing. They continued walking until he noticed a child playing in the gutter. Then the rabbi said, 'Look at that child. You make soap and say that it makes people clean, but see the dirt on that youngster. Of what good is soap? With all the soap in the world, over all these years, that child is still filthy. I wonder how effective soap is, after all!' The soap maker protested. 'But, Rabbi, soap cannot do any good unless it is used!' 'Exactly,' replied the Rabbi. 'Exactly!''
(2:24)
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