He considered moving to a Zen monastery before shifting his sights to Silicon Valley, where he became a brash businessman.
He preached about the dangers of desire but urged consumers to covet every new iPhone incarnation.
“He was an enlightened being who was cruel,” says a former girlfriend. “That’s a strange combination.”
Now, we can add another irony to the legacy of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs: Since his death on Oct. 5, the famously private man’s spiritual side has become an open book.
[blockquote]At age 13, Jobs asked the Lutheran pastor of his parents’ church if God knew about starving children. “Yes, God knows everything,” the pastor replied. Jobs never returned to church, refusing to worship a God who allowed such suffering.[/blockquote]
What a shame that Steve’s Lutheran education ended here. If he had heard about God’s grace, maybe he could have come to terms with why a loving God allows suffering. This seems like an apocryphal tale of how we can miss with spiritual formation and discipleship of youth, and how important it is to carefully nurture the spiritual life of youth.
I am not a gambling man, but if I were, I would bet that the pastor said more than that. ‘Yes, God knows everything’ doesn’t sound like the sum total of a conversation. But it sounds like a summary of what, in later life, an adult who had moved in another direction thought he had heard when he was 13. It’s still very sad.
I’m not understanding this huge, incessant fascination with Jobs and his personal/spiritual life since his death. Are people really looking for spiritual and profound life lessons from this man? The media can’t seem to get enough.
No. 2: I completely agree–and a more sophisticated reporter would have noted that fact.
So much for private religion. This is a sad story.