Sorry for the late post-been having car issues this week and had to get those sorted out.
Ok, this is a fairly big one, so let's dive right in.
There are many groups, organizations, denominations, and people who believe they alone hold the corner on "the truth," as in, what the Bible "really" teaches about a particular subject. The problem with this mentality is that with the Bible being a book for all people (and contradicting itself, it would seem, at least in my study), how can people really know they have the truth? There's an element of faith that steps in here, but when you look at the world today, you see how an extreme adherence to the viewpoint that one holds the truth in their heart can justify atrocious acts.
There's a great line in "Kingdom of Heaven" where a knight who is also a priest comments "I put no stock in religion. By the word 'religion,' I've seen the lunacy of men of every denomination be called 'the will of God.' I've seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves; and goodness. What God desires is here and here (pointing to the head and the heart) and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man...or not."
If you look at the atrocities that have been committed in the name of religion, it's easy to see a pattern of evil that flies in under the pretenses of doing what's right. Terrorism as we have come to know it is extremism in the Islamic faith. The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the persecution of the Christians, the iron fist of the Vatican, even the crucifixion of Christ himself-these are all examples of evils that came in under the guise of religion and truth.
So, why do we go around thinking that we're better or superior to someone else because their ideology is different than ours? What if WE are the ones who are wrong? I'm not saying that Christianity is wrong, but why do we find it such a threat to accept other people's viewpoints? So what if they disagree? We know that a life lived in the grace, love and mercy of the Trinity will have much more joy than that of a life outside that community, but that doesn't mean we have to ram it down people's throats.
Instead, why not let others SEE that fellowship and community lived out in your life? The sooner we let go of this idea that we can project the image of a perfect life and admit to the world that we have faults and are broken people, that's the moment when we become real and relatable..and people will want to know our story.
What do you think?
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2 comments:
Hey Timmeh!
This post really got to me on a personal level.
My parents came from totally different religious backgrounds: one was (and still is) Roman Catholic and the other a Protestant who hopped from one Protestant denomination to another throughout their lifespan. They had quite a few religious debates I remember growing up but they always agreed on the same core beliefs: the centrality of God, the authority of the Bible, and the divinity of Christ.
However, when I entered college, I developed many cognitive-dissonance issues with my religion. Note, I say 'religion' and not 'faith'. I considered changing religions to match what I felt I needed spiritually but because this was such a difficult thing for me to do on many levels, I talked to my mother about it. She said some very profound words to me that I will never forget: "You can be a Catholic but a murderer, you can be a pagan but love your neighbor. Religion cannot save you, your faith will save you." What she said totally destroyed years of fear about following the 'right' religion or worrying about approaching God 'incorrectly'. She also said religion was a guide, not an absolute. To quote the pope character from The DaVinci Code: Religion is imperfect because man is imperfect.
Only God is perfect, absolute. I agree that we need to focus on this fact rather than continue religious 'gang wars' within Christianity and amongst other global religions.
Oh I totally forgot to mention. I've been studying other global faiths for my own education because it's really helped me to understand and put into perspective how the Divine inspires people.
When you chose your title 'Truth: is it real' I immediately thought of my Hindu brothers and sisters. Why Hindus? Well they also speak of the 'truth' but not because they claim a capital on it but because they say that the One, Supreme, and Ultimate God is Truth. Their approach to God and why there are so many diverse beliefs is because God can't be placed in a box and because humanity searches for God, differing ideas manifest different methods of approaching God. Hence the advent of religion. In fact, they have a saying for it: “Ekam sat viprah bahuda vadanti,” meaning “Truth is one, the wise describe it in different ways.” What many people don't know is that like Christianity, Hinduism has many different sects and branches, but they all agree on basic principles and tend to have much respect for one another because they deeply and truly feel that because each individual is different, their approach to God must also be different. "Different" does not equal "wrong" to them. It just means that because your friend is on a different 'path' doesn't mean he's not going to reach the same goal.
The same can be said of other religions I was studying of the pagan/neopagan variety. There was some discussion on how worship ritual of God should be approached. However, within all of the authoritative texts I read, the overall resounding opinion was that it didn't matter *how* the ritual was performed, because God would understand what you were attempting to do: create a sacred space and time for worship and cultivate a relationship. I know that's a different example but often we get so caught up in 'doing it right' or 'why aren't *they* doing it *this* way' that we lose sight of the goal: creating an understanding among one another and with God.
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