Originally Posted by daswig

This saddens me more than anything else I've seen recently. This is the most spiritually bankrupt and elitist argument I think that I've EVER seen, in ANY forum. You seem to think that religion and faith is dependent only on job description (ie if you're not a priest, your religious views are immaterial), and that because somebody sweeps floors, they can't be a spiritually valuable person to talk to or get to know or emulate in some spiritual manner.

Religion is more than sitting in a church every Sunday bored out of your mind. And I've met some people who swept floors for a living that had more spiritual fiber and actual moral authority than certain Cardinals that I've met.

When I was in elementary school, I went to a religious school. The janitor there was a "lay-preacher", and, to me, the epitome of what a good person should be. Periodically, I'd hear about my former teachers dying, but when Sam died, it saddened me far more than when the people with better credentials died, because Sam didn't just "talk the talk", he "walked the walk".

If you think people can't be valuable as a spiritual or life mentor because of their job description or the size of their paycheck, I pity you.