Article June 2, 1997 Issue

On the fringes of faith

Hugh Hewitt

Searching for God in America

[A]mong believers and non-believers alike there is a huge number of the spiritually restless. Aware of the pressing nature of the ... question Is there God? the restless hover around what others have named the gates of faith. Some are just outside the gates, others just inside. But the whole issue of crossing to-and-fro leads to extraordinary curiosity. These are the hungriest of all. And their dilemma is intense in modern America.

The edge effect of crowds has always fascinated me. Any speech, any public performance that draws a crowd also draws an edge of folks drawn toward but not into the tumult. One minute these individuals are all for diving in, and the next minute they are retreating.

There are quite simple explanations for hesitating at the edge of any crowd. Fear of the unknown, the uncomfortable newness of novelty, and basic shyness are all ingredients. When Jesus preached [h]is Sermon on the Mount, I can only imagine that [h]e could see on the far fringes of the masses a few people neither coming nor going and certainly not in a hurry to sit or draw closer.

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