Steve Jobs Religion

In a Sunday, New York Times piece, Eric Weiner talks about the number of people in America that increasingly called the “nones”… people that say they have no religious affiliation.

There were two quotes that stuck out in the article.

Precious few of our religious leaders laugh. They shout. God is not an exclamation point, though. He is, at his best, a semicolon, connecting people, and generating what Aldous Huxley called “human grace.” Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost sight of this.

I think that’s correct.  Too many of our public religious leaders, in their quest for converts, lose the ability to connect with those they are trying to reach.  Instead, they play to their base and, in the end, build a wall with those they are hoping to ultimately connect with.

Weiner’s solution:

We need a Steve Jobs of religion. Someone (or ones) who can invent not a new religion but, rather, a new way of being religious. Like Mr. Jobs’s creations, this new way would be straightforward and unencumbered and absolutely intuitive. Most important, it would be highly interactive. I imagine a religious space that celebrates doubt, encourages experimentation and allows one to utter the word God without embarrassment. A religious operating system for the Nones among us. And for all of us.

Thoughts?

If you could name one person to be the “Steve Jobs of Christianity”, who would it be?

You can read more here.