It is a frequent topic of mine because it is frequently on my mind. This morning I find myself thinking about it once again. The topic? God, the practice of religion and the whole philosophy behind it. The existence of God, or a superior power if you are more comfortable with that terminology, is something I wholeheartedly believe. There is order in the universe and that didn't happen by accident. Stands to reason it took intelligence to accomplish the task. And since man can't even figure out the basic building block, energy, it sure wasn't us. I have written about that many times. Man can not create or destroy energy, the only thing we understand about that process is changing that energy from one form to another. But that is about the nature of God.
The practice of religion is another aspect of that and one I often wonder about. I don't think there is a right way or a wrong way to practice faith. The practice of religion depends a great deal on tradition. What were you taught? It is the practice of religion that causes the majority of the friction, not the belief. Recently I hear the argument that if you don't allow others to do whatever they wish, with your full endorsement, you are not being a Christian. The argument being that God commands us to love thy neighbor as thyself. I agree with that. I should love my neighbor as myself and that includes being aware of any shortcomings I may have and taking action to correct them. When we do harm to ourselves are we loving ourselves? If we see our neighbors doing harm to themselves aren't we obligated to help? Does that only apply to the physical? That would seem to be the thinking in some cases. I believe God is concerned with eternity, not today. And that is where the philosophy of religion enters the equation.
The part that bothers me is when others call it hate. Their reasoning is, if I don't allow you to do whatever you wish, I hate you. Now that is a general statement and doesn't apply to every situation. I am talking about the teachings in the Bible. I agree that it can be interpreted in many ways. You can just take the literal or read into each word and phrase. It is my belief that you can't be taught what that book says, you have to learn it. That's where the confusion often comes in. If you only believe the words as they were written, you are believing what another man wrote down as his belief. If you only take the words to mean whatever meaning you assign the result will be similar. You are only believing what one man thinks. The answer has to lie somewhere in between all of that, the answer lies in learning, not being taught. I have found the answer is often in the simplest statements.
The most common argument I hear is that God or Jesus forgives us of our sins. For that reason we shouldn't judge anyone else. God is the judge. Yes, I believe that also. The thing is, pointing out that another is breaking what you perceive to be God's law, is not judging. Disagreeing with others choices, is not hate. In truth, that is loving your neighbor as yourself. To me it was summed up nicely when Jesus said, Go and sin no more. He was saying I forgive you. He also said, don't do that again. The actual verse is John: 8:11 " No one sir," she said. " Then neither do I condemn you ," Jesus declared. " Go now and leave your life of sin. " He was giving her a choice. He didn't condemn her on the spot, rather pointed out that she was sinning and shouldn't continue to do so. That's the lesson I learned from all of that. He didn't say, I forgive you keep doing what you want! I also believe that only the guilty, feel guilt. If you feel guilty when someone points something out, then you already knew it is wrong. " This feeling of guilt is your conscience calling your attention to the higher road, and your heart wishing you had taken it. " ( Richelle Goodrich )
The practice of religion is the practice of discipline. What is discipline? Teaching people to follow the rules, to put it simply. Discipline typically involves using punishment, or the withholding of it, as the motivation to learn, or at a minimum, obey. A disciple is one who learns. Interesting how the two words are related to each other. We think of a disciple as a follower of Christ. Our punishment for failing to obey? Well, it's pretty severe I'd say. But, as we all know forgiveness for our shortcomings will be granted if we are sincere in our efforts to obey. And I believe that God knows our hearts, we can not deceive him. That is the judgement of God, the truth, and he knows it.
Now all this new age thinking about allowing others to do whatever they want without even mentioning their wrongdoing is just a continuation. Since the very beginning, when Adam and Eve were in the garden, man has sought more leeway. In the beginning God commanded " thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden, you must not touch it, or you will die." Now you can take that for whatever you want, Adam and Eve didn't die in the sense that their life ended, but something else died. I'll leave that to the theologians to discuss. The point being they didn't obey the law. Yes Eve was tempted, as we all are, but that isn't an excuse. I'm sure she tried to use it as one though. Adam and Eve then felt guilt, that guilt taking the form of shame.
I could go on and on about all of that. But I didn't set out to write a missive on the practice of religion. I am trying to explain what I think. Now I'm not very good at that but that doesn't stop me from trying. What I am trying to say is I believe what these folks are trying to achieve is a more permissive faith. By using the verses in the Bible that say Love thy neighbor as thyself, and others, they are attempting to justify themselves. In this way they can proclaim how Christian they are, while not actually practicing Christianity. Dare I propose that some " churches " are doing the same thing in order to keep " business. "
I don't believe any of that will work however. I do believe that God knows our hearts. I do believe we will die if we eat of that fruit. Simply making our faith more " permissive " will not gain what we seek. It may indeed make life here on this earth easier. But we must remember that the practice of religion is the practice of discipline. Self discipline is what is required, always was, always will be.
The practice of religion is another aspect of that and one I often wonder about. I don't think there is a right way or a wrong way to practice faith. The practice of religion depends a great deal on tradition. What were you taught? It is the practice of religion that causes the majority of the friction, not the belief. Recently I hear the argument that if you don't allow others to do whatever they wish, with your full endorsement, you are not being a Christian. The argument being that God commands us to love thy neighbor as thyself. I agree with that. I should love my neighbor as myself and that includes being aware of any shortcomings I may have and taking action to correct them. When we do harm to ourselves are we loving ourselves? If we see our neighbors doing harm to themselves aren't we obligated to help? Does that only apply to the physical? That would seem to be the thinking in some cases. I believe God is concerned with eternity, not today. And that is where the philosophy of religion enters the equation.
The part that bothers me is when others call it hate. Their reasoning is, if I don't allow you to do whatever you wish, I hate you. Now that is a general statement and doesn't apply to every situation. I am talking about the teachings in the Bible. I agree that it can be interpreted in many ways. You can just take the literal or read into each word and phrase. It is my belief that you can't be taught what that book says, you have to learn it. That's where the confusion often comes in. If you only believe the words as they were written, you are believing what another man wrote down as his belief. If you only take the words to mean whatever meaning you assign the result will be similar. You are only believing what one man thinks. The answer has to lie somewhere in between all of that, the answer lies in learning, not being taught. I have found the answer is often in the simplest statements.
The most common argument I hear is that God or Jesus forgives us of our sins. For that reason we shouldn't judge anyone else. God is the judge. Yes, I believe that also. The thing is, pointing out that another is breaking what you perceive to be God's law, is not judging. Disagreeing with others choices, is not hate. In truth, that is loving your neighbor as yourself. To me it was summed up nicely when Jesus said, Go and sin no more. He was saying I forgive you. He also said, don't do that again. The actual verse is John: 8:11 " No one sir," she said. " Then neither do I condemn you ," Jesus declared. " Go now and leave your life of sin. " He was giving her a choice. He didn't condemn her on the spot, rather pointed out that she was sinning and shouldn't continue to do so. That's the lesson I learned from all of that. He didn't say, I forgive you keep doing what you want! I also believe that only the guilty, feel guilt. If you feel guilty when someone points something out, then you already knew it is wrong. " This feeling of guilt is your conscience calling your attention to the higher road, and your heart wishing you had taken it. " ( Richelle Goodrich )
The practice of religion is the practice of discipline. What is discipline? Teaching people to follow the rules, to put it simply. Discipline typically involves using punishment, or the withholding of it, as the motivation to learn, or at a minimum, obey. A disciple is one who learns. Interesting how the two words are related to each other. We think of a disciple as a follower of Christ. Our punishment for failing to obey? Well, it's pretty severe I'd say. But, as we all know forgiveness for our shortcomings will be granted if we are sincere in our efforts to obey. And I believe that God knows our hearts, we can not deceive him. That is the judgement of God, the truth, and he knows it.
Now all this new age thinking about allowing others to do whatever they want without even mentioning their wrongdoing is just a continuation. Since the very beginning, when Adam and Eve were in the garden, man has sought more leeway. In the beginning God commanded " thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden, you must not touch it, or you will die." Now you can take that for whatever you want, Adam and Eve didn't die in the sense that their life ended, but something else died. I'll leave that to the theologians to discuss. The point being they didn't obey the law. Yes Eve was tempted, as we all are, but that isn't an excuse. I'm sure she tried to use it as one though. Adam and Eve then felt guilt, that guilt taking the form of shame.
I could go on and on about all of that. But I didn't set out to write a missive on the practice of religion. I am trying to explain what I think. Now I'm not very good at that but that doesn't stop me from trying. What I am trying to say is I believe what these folks are trying to achieve is a more permissive faith. By using the verses in the Bible that say Love thy neighbor as thyself, and others, they are attempting to justify themselves. In this way they can proclaim how Christian they are, while not actually practicing Christianity. Dare I propose that some " churches " are doing the same thing in order to keep " business. "
I don't believe any of that will work however. I do believe that God knows our hearts. I do believe we will die if we eat of that fruit. Simply making our faith more " permissive " will not gain what we seek. It may indeed make life here on this earth easier. But we must remember that the practice of religion is the practice of discipline. Self discipline is what is required, always was, always will be.
No comments:
Post a Comment