As a younger man Jobs had visited Japan and become a Zen Buddhist. By contrast with Martin Luther King who “just wanted to do God’s will”, he never did. There was no God in Steve Jobs vision of the universe, just the overwhelming mandate to “become yourself” untrammeled by dogma, or other people’s thinking. To Stanford students in 2005 he said: “Your time is limited”¦follow your heart and intuition”¦know what you want to become.” Of course, if this life is all there is, then that will pass about as much muster as any other earth-bound philosophy. “Death doesn’t happen to life,” as a former classmate of mine once said. “Death happens in life.” But all such
att empts to romanticize the hard reality of the grave still cause one to ask: “Is that all there is?”
Is it a normal practice of this particular parish to run articles in their newsletter talking about the failures of people with whom the parish has no relationship? It seems a bit of a harsh judgment. Whether or not Jobs was a Christian (and I don’t think he was), it seems odd to use space in a church newsletter to point that out, and to discuss his flawed spiritual views. I’m not sure I recognize the need to single out Jobs just to make that point.