David Brooks: I Found Faith in a Crowded Subway Car

[@margaretblank9351]

Thank you for this thoughtful personal vocal essay. 🙂 My husband was a Jewish man (RIP 2006) -- who was baptized in 1997, because he encountered another Jewish man -- Jesus, called the Christ -- in people he encountered in his journey with Type 1 Diabetes, losing bits and pieces of himself over the last years of his life. He told me after his baptism that he was still a Jew and would always be one -- but encountering the spirit of the carpenter rabbi from Nazareth, as lived out by people in those years, impacted his spiritual journey. I'm sure most of his family, who express or experience or worship differently or not at all, might be put off or offended by his choice to be baptized but it blessed his last years, and blessed those of us who knew him and cared for him. May you be blessed wherever your journey takes you, too.

[@rjsimpkins2911]

Over the last 10 years, line upon line and precept upon precept, I have enjoyed watching David evolve into who he now is. His journey is not over.

[@stevendavis1940]

David, I have enjoyed watching and listening to you for years, and I am not surprised at your journey of faith. In this message, you talked about finding fairh, and I think you found what you were looking for.

[@Martin-qm2lg]

The best, most inspiring testimony I’ve ever read and heard.

[@mikebegala8627]

Beautifully stated, David. A perfect message for Christmas Eve.

[@paulrichard3614]

Beautiful story David. Thank you for sharing.

[@brianlooksaround6125]

Thank you, David.

[@Skybuilt]

I've been curious to hear this story from Brooks. I am an ex-evangelical, in large part due to the church's complete embrace of an authoritarian. I feel like I'm riding the same train but in the opposite direction. I wish I had faith, but in the past decade on this train, we've covered a lot of ground, and I just can't believe the church has any claim to truth or love anymore. 4:16

[@gretchenknurr580]

I’m sorry for what you have experienced. In these times especially, Christian faith has been publicly linked to alignment with a very specific vein of politics. I abhor the Christian Nationalist/Trumpism movement because I feel it has done great damage to the perception of what faith in Jesus is really about. When Jesus was alive on this earth, people wanted him to work through the political system and shake things up, but his life showed that his transformative work was about far more than politics (small thinking). It was about the forgiveness and salvation of the souls of all mankind. He showed a new way to live-one where you could be free no matter who your country’s leaders were. What I see today makes me sad because there are many in the church who have strayed from true faith. I can see why you would leave the church or have doubts. I certainly have my own doubts at times. I used to attend a large mega church and one of the things I hated most was how thinly veiled its political leanings were. Now, I moved states and I go to a much smaller church where the focus is on the kingdom of God, which is unshakable no matter who gets elected. I just wanted to give you a little hope that not ALL churches have been corrupted in this past decade, even though it may feel that way. May God draw you back to himself in a new, true way. I wish you all the best on your faith journey.

[@euj.c]

As a non-American, it's sad to see what has happened to a large segment of the American Church which has looked to a political saviour rather than Jesus, thus undermining the faith of many. But, those who lost faith because of a church, denomination, or church leader are also looking to the wrong savior! Only Jesus is the Saviour of the world. To know Jesus is everything - beauty, truth & love; for He is the Life! I pray that you will seek Him & come to know & enjoy Him

[@longshank59]

As a former Evangelical who is now an Atheist. I've traveled both roads. Also as someone who has tried other religions to figure out what was "WRONG" with me. I prefer self reflection not someone dictating who and what I am. As someone who has walked on both sides now from In and out it's lifes illusions I recall. I really don't know life at all.

[@josephclark1431]

As an atheist, the "I" you speak of is an accidental illusory by-product of blind matter.

[@kolst8406]

send in the clowns.

[@SC-vd4ry]

Life is a paradox. We long for freedom, individual expression and identity, searching for it in all the ways that bind us down to the impossibility of realizing it. In so doing, we eschew freedom and prefer the yoke of slavery. Once we understand what is, that is, what is being itself, we understand that all life must naturally follow from it. Being is God, and God is being. All life flows out from his will - in a flawed sense, there are those who brush against the truth by assuming all must be illusion, or fantasy, or simulation. It isn't simulation, but it does subsist upon something greater, and even the unknowing must know this much. Therefore, the right order of life is to be directed toward the greater. In the same sense that the right order of the tree is to grow upwards, life must be directed upwards. To my mind, evangelicalism is a charismatic expression of this truth, but it often lacks the depth of truth that the soul hungers after. To that end, I'd recommend reading Christian scholarly thought, in particularly those of the first millennia and shortly after.

[@racerx4152]

@@josephclark1431 that's harder to believe in, than to believe in god.

[@Steve-eb8jc]

Sure some might say that 2+2 is just 4, that Bigfoot doesn’t exist, or that the Earth orbits the Sun. But how does that explain the warm feeling I got in my heart last year when I saw a squirrel eating an acorn at the part? Surely there is more to this realm of reality that is simply beyond us

[@jonmeador8637]

Brooks had a kundalini experience. Eckhart Tolle had a similar experience. Tolle's experience is fully described on Krista Tippets' show On Being.

[@richardline2697]

Love it!!!

[@HbagMbag]

Nice job.

[@jackjmaheriii]

He’s not the only New Yorker to find god in a flash of light in a subway this week! :-/

[@r8chlletters]

I am sick of hearing david brooks. Let’s get some new voices going on NYT.

[@mattvaldez2438]

dreadful timing re the title, given the bbq that just went down in NY! many such cases!

[@BrettCoryell]

People each have value, therefore God. My holy book has stories that are not literally true, nevertheless its God is literally true. A good person runs a charity, therefore God. How shallow. David doesn't seem to care whether his beliefs are true at all. He'll accept any pablum that comforts him.

[@done211]

Try taoism. No fairytales, no make believe, just the bit of humility you seem to be missing

[@Pinkdam]

Also not rejecting this existence, unlike Buddhism.

[@travisa2455]

Huh? The world of a traditional Chinese Taoist is full of gods, saints, demons, dragons, nature spirits, etc. Taoists have a complex web of mythology and folklore. They pray, fast, and venerate saints just like traditional Buddhists and Christians do. The idea that eastern religions are just "philosophies" with no metaphysical or "supernatural" beliefs is a Western post-Protestant projection.

[@travisa2455]

Huh? The world of a traditional Chinese Taoist is full of gods, saints, demons, dragons, nature spirits, etc. They have a complex mythology and folklore. They pray, fast, and venerate saints just like traditional Buddhists and Christians do. The idea that eastern religions are just "philosophies" with no metaphysical or "supernatural" beliefs is a Western projection.

[@williamstraub3844]

I cannot forgive Brooks for his ultra-conservative past, his insistence that "Both sides do it," and his ongoing reliance on religion as his saving grace. He supported Bush, the Iraq War, Trump and all that other crap, and now wants to be remembered as a man of great faith, wisdom and insightful journalism. I wish he would just go away.

[@AZsunflower]

Most everything David Brooks says or writes is an excuse for Republicans failure. I use to admire him when I read one of his books years ago. Then, I watched him on PBS and read his columns in the NYT. He is the best 'excuse maker' ever. We quit watching PBS as they lunched right ward. Canceled the NYT because they sanewash t****s nonsense and trashed Harris until what a week before the election? Hopefully, finding 'god' will allow Brooks some self-reflection so he can see he helped bring Ametica to her knees.

[@racerx4152]

I can see that you are brainwashed and very bitter. brooks is not the problem.

[@AZsunflower]

@racerx4152 Brooks is part of the problem. He pushed the 'conservative" republican agenda for years. When he realized he was wrong he started making excuses. I also wish he would just retire and keep his opinions to himself. All he has are opinions, and I have my own

[@Pinkdam]

Go where? I think it's more appropriate that those who don't want to hear him spend their time watching videos of other people than that he 'go away'.

[@Pinkdam]

@@AZsunflower Fortunately we have progressed to the point that we have KZbin and similar sites wherein everyone can share their opinions. There seems little cause for those using such sites to wish people kept them to themselves.

[@bonsaitomato8290]

Brooks’ argument for belief in a god is so weak it’s hard to even critique it as an argument. It’s more a desire for belief than actual belief because he’s decided belief is preferable to him. That approach is an acceptance of a “pragmatic Christianity “ somewhat like how Richard Dawkins believes in “cultural Christianity” . Sorry but my atheism is not shaken by this story.

[@thomasjpuleo8112]

There is no argument. Faith is a matter of belief. As for atheism, I don’t see why atheists bother. Why base your worldview and identity on what you don’t believe is true or on what you oppose? Base it only on what you know positively through observation, logic, the scientific method and so on. I can tell you that you are not that empirical and rational. Everyone has a metaphysical perspective even if they do not know it, and if you live in the West, and to some extent really any part of the world, that metaphysic will be largely Christian, and therefore largely Catholic. Merry Christmas!

[@texasflood1295]

Congratulations!

[@eqapo]

It's not an argument and nor is faith or belief redicible to a creed, not a set of propositions. Try peterson and vervaeke.

[@DouglasLett-z7w]

​@@thomasjpuleo8112 I agree. Or to put it more simply as a believer I have to explain why suffering or evil exists, where the atheist has to explain why everything exists. Or as the late Dr schuller once said when asked if he came to the end of his life and found out there was no God would he regret believing ? He said NO. When asked why, he stated because false hope is better than no hope.

[@enokoner]

The this guy's credibility went down the tubes. I can't handle any magical thinking. No offense, but if you're willing to suspend your logic for that and go with your instincts then I really can't trust anything else you say