So, I got an email. Asked if I was against religion, or something. Fact is, with all the posts I make about the subject, I can see someone thinking that. There was the "Mormon Racist Doctrine" thread, and the Nation of Islam" thread. There's the promised and yet to materialize"Hindu Caste System" thread, and the quite rancorous "Roots of Christianity/Judaism and Scarifice" thread. A quick perusal of other threads, started by other people, reveals that I'm not the only one, or, at least, that the subject can tend to go toward religion in a variety of other subjects, like abortion, or gun conrtol, or even martial arts. Let me say now, that while I recognize that the subjects I've posted on may just rattle some people's cages a little too much, I don't do it for titillation-or to point any fingers at any one faith.
Some of you here probably remember Kimpatsu/Tony Kehoe. I was his downright nemesis on the subject over on e-Budo, for the longest time. Fact is ,I’m not against religion .I’m all in favor of it, right down to the Latin root of the word, relegare: to regulate. Religion can provide an excellent way for a person to provide order for their life. I do have a lifelong fascination with the subject, though, and don’t post about it lightly, or just to rile people up. I want everyone to look a little deeper at what they-and other people-are doing, and why.
In the end, I suppose that I just wish people could personalize their religion. It would be nice if they could live their religious principles in their own lives, and leave others alone. I generally keep my religious principles to myself-I keep my beliefs and practices to myself, and don’t impose them upon anyone. In fact, I usually discourage people’s interest in participating in them, until it’s pretty clear that they’re sincere.
It would be nice if other people could live their religious principles in their own lives, and leave other people’s lives alone. If abortion is against your religion, don’t have one. If being gay is against your religion, be heterosexual(or change religions-I think that one is probably a little easier :lol: ) I have a question, though: Why should the rest of us be expected to abide by others religious beliefs? When certain U.S. citizens try to impose their religious will upon the greater populace legislatively, how is that any different than the stated goal of radical Islam, except for the methods used?
Shall I give you all an example of someone’s religious intrusion into my life, as well as my own irreverent response? One day at the plaza in Santa Fe, I was approached by a young woman from a fundamentalist Christian cult, headquartered in the area.. This young woman thrust a pamphlet into my hand and asked if I knew Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
I still had some time to kill before my friend was due for lunch, so I asked her What do you mean by that?. She gave me a lovely canned response, where 2,000 years of Christian theology and tradition were condensed down into a two-minute spiel. I asked her where she got that information, and she told me that it was from the Bible. I asked her how we could be sure that the Bible is relevant for today. She was appalled, and told me that the Bible is the eternal, unchanging Word of God. She further stated that the Bible is as true today as when God wrote it (sic).
I asked, "All of it?" She enthusiastically replied, "Yes!"
I said, "Well, then, I need to ask you a personal question".
"Sure", she replied. I said, "O. K., here goes; are you having your period right now?" (As a side note, I'm cursed a sense of smell that rivals Hannibal Lecter’s, if not some dogs. She was.)
She gasped, rightly shocked and taken aback. She didn’t know what to say. I told her that the reason I had to ask is because in the Book of Leviticus, it states that when a woman begins her period, she is unclean; anything or anyone she touches also becomes unclean. According to the Bible, when a woman is having her period, she must put herself apart from the rest of the community, so that no one or no possessions become polluted by her uncleanliness. I told her that since her hand had brushed against mine, I had to know if she had made me unclean, and if I needed to go and purify myself according to the eternal and unchanging Word of God. Because, after all, it is as true and relevant today as when God wrote it. The poor young woman just stared at me.
I said to her, "Look, I know you’re searching for God, longing for communion with the Creator. You are a worthy person, a spark of God in a human body. You’re not unclean, or sinful, or in need of redemption by the shed blood of anyone. You are a bright, shining expression of God, Who, after all, is love. There is no room in your life for anyone or anything which fails to support who you are as a woman of spiritual power and as a servant of the Light."
She stared one more minute, and asked, "Who are you?" I told her, with as much compassion as I could muster, "I’m someone who’s seen where you are, in regards to religion all my life,. I’ve been beaten on, and seen others beaten down, using the Bible and religion as weapons." I then told her, "I predict you’ll enjoy God more if you focus more on God, and leave religion alone". I reminded her (and myself) that we don’t need holy books, or ministers, or meetings, or anything outside ourselves, to know God. God lives in our hearts. It is part of our birthright, simply because we are here. Our relationship with God is totally independent of anyone else or anything else. No one can take that away from us. Only we can surrender our power and authority.
Citing the Book of Leviticus, talk show hostess Dr. Laura (world class nit!) condemned homosexuality. An open letter to her on the Internet asks her advice on the following:
"Dr. Laura, my uncle blasphemes. Is it necessary to get the whole town together to stone him (Lev. 24:10-16), or could we just burn him to death as a private family affair?" and
"Dr. Laura, my male friends trim the hair around their temples, even though Lev. 19:27 forbids it. How should they die?" and
"Dr. Laura, my neighbor works on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 states that he must be put to death. Am I obligated to kill him myself, or should this be a neighborhood improvement project?" and finally,
"Dr. Laura, I am selling my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She is 18 and just started college. Is her new master morally obligated to pay for her education?"
Enough said? The book was written by men, and for men-thousands of years ago. It's not the unchanging word of God-it's a guideline that has to change with the times, just as every other Holy Book has to, because we've changed. In spite of the somewhat barbaric laws that they live under, Saudis have as much in common with Arabs of 700 years ago as today's Christians do with a medieval serf. We can't live under all of the same rules, nor should we expect anyone else to.
"Well," some of you might ask, if you haven't fallen asleep yet, "which rules do we follow? We can't just pick and choose, can we? That would be anarchy."
On the other hand,Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality, and a host of other things-and it's fairly likely that Paul didn't either.
Jesus does say this in the bible, though, and I think it's more important than John 3:16:
Others have put forth this Golden Rule, the true, unchanging word of God, in many different ways:
As for the non-Jewish world, I think that most of "Christianity" has done a fairly poor job of this.
According to Robert Barclay in his Apology for the Quakers, the Bible is "only a declaration of the fountain and not the fountain itself." This is a powerful and uplifting statement. This view allows for the possibility of learning from other people and being able to grow without having to defeat differences between your own views and those held by others. We all have pieces of the fountain and will do well to share and learn. In the teachings of Jesus Christ we find an extremely clear declaration of this fountain which is best expressed in the word love.
It can quite easily be argued that the notion of love represented in the scriptures is the only verifiable universal truth that we know of. Yet with all the arguing and violence surrounding such notions as the devil, hell and predestination and issues such as national, racial, sexual and gender supremacy ,the "simple" message of Jesus to "love your neighbor as yourself", seems to be thrown to the side as secondary.
When Jesus says "let those who have ears hear", it is clear throughout history that the Church, many religious leaders and other Christian organizations do not have ears that "hear" and have either twisted or outright ignored the essential message of Jesus Christ. Same could be said for Islam, when you get right down to it, though there are those who will argue otherwise.
Fact is, I think we’d all be better off if people could live by the 11th Commandment: Mind your own business
Some of you here probably remember Kimpatsu/Tony Kehoe. I was his downright nemesis on the subject over on e-Budo, for the longest time. Fact is ,I’m not against religion .I’m all in favor of it, right down to the Latin root of the word, relegare: to regulate. Religion can provide an excellent way for a person to provide order for their life. I do have a lifelong fascination with the subject, though, and don’t post about it lightly, or just to rile people up. I want everyone to look a little deeper at what they-and other people-are doing, and why.
In the end, I suppose that I just wish people could personalize their religion. It would be nice if they could live their religious principles in their own lives, and leave others alone. I generally keep my religious principles to myself-I keep my beliefs and practices to myself, and don’t impose them upon anyone. In fact, I usually discourage people’s interest in participating in them, until it’s pretty clear that they’re sincere.
It would be nice if other people could live their religious principles in their own lives, and leave other people’s lives alone. If abortion is against your religion, don’t have one. If being gay is against your religion, be heterosexual(or change religions-I think that one is probably a little easier :lol: ) I have a question, though: Why should the rest of us be expected to abide by others religious beliefs? When certain U.S. citizens try to impose their religious will upon the greater populace legislatively, how is that any different than the stated goal of radical Islam, except for the methods used?
Shall I give you all an example of someone’s religious intrusion into my life, as well as my own irreverent response? One day at the plaza in Santa Fe, I was approached by a young woman from a fundamentalist Christian cult, headquartered in the area.. This young woman thrust a pamphlet into my hand and asked if I knew Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
I still had some time to kill before my friend was due for lunch, so I asked her What do you mean by that?. She gave me a lovely canned response, where 2,000 years of Christian theology and tradition were condensed down into a two-minute spiel. I asked her where she got that information, and she told me that it was from the Bible. I asked her how we could be sure that the Bible is relevant for today. She was appalled, and told me that the Bible is the eternal, unchanging Word of God. She further stated that the Bible is as true today as when God wrote it (sic).
I asked, "All of it?" She enthusiastically replied, "Yes!"
I said, "Well, then, I need to ask you a personal question".
"Sure", she replied. I said, "O. K., here goes; are you having your period right now?" (As a side note, I'm cursed a sense of smell that rivals Hannibal Lecter’s, if not some dogs. She was.)
She gasped, rightly shocked and taken aback. She didn’t know what to say. I told her that the reason I had to ask is because in the Book of Leviticus, it states that when a woman begins her period, she is unclean; anything or anyone she touches also becomes unclean. According to the Bible, when a woman is having her period, she must put herself apart from the rest of the community, so that no one or no possessions become polluted by her uncleanliness. I told her that since her hand had brushed against mine, I had to know if she had made me unclean, and if I needed to go and purify myself according to the eternal and unchanging Word of God. Because, after all, it is as true and relevant today as when God wrote it. The poor young woman just stared at me.
I said to her, "Look, I know you’re searching for God, longing for communion with the Creator. You are a worthy person, a spark of God in a human body. You’re not unclean, or sinful, or in need of redemption by the shed blood of anyone. You are a bright, shining expression of God, Who, after all, is love. There is no room in your life for anyone or anything which fails to support who you are as a woman of spiritual power and as a servant of the Light."
She stared one more minute, and asked, "Who are you?" I told her, with as much compassion as I could muster, "I’m someone who’s seen where you are, in regards to religion all my life,. I’ve been beaten on, and seen others beaten down, using the Bible and religion as weapons." I then told her, "I predict you’ll enjoy God more if you focus more on God, and leave religion alone". I reminded her (and myself) that we don’t need holy books, or ministers, or meetings, or anything outside ourselves, to know God. God lives in our hearts. It is part of our birthright, simply because we are here. Our relationship with God is totally independent of anyone else or anything else. No one can take that away from us. Only we can surrender our power and authority.
Citing the Book of Leviticus, talk show hostess Dr. Laura (world class nit!) condemned homosexuality. An open letter to her on the Internet asks her advice on the following:
"Dr. Laura, my uncle blasphemes. Is it necessary to get the whole town together to stone him (Lev. 24:10-16), or could we just burn him to death as a private family affair?" and
"Dr. Laura, my male friends trim the hair around their temples, even though Lev. 19:27 forbids it. How should they die?" and
"Dr. Laura, my neighbor works on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 states that he must be put to death. Am I obligated to kill him myself, or should this be a neighborhood improvement project?" and finally,
"Dr. Laura, I am selling my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She is 18 and just started college. Is her new master morally obligated to pay for her education?"
Enough said? The book was written by men, and for men-thousands of years ago. It's not the unchanging word of God-it's a guideline that has to change with the times, just as every other Holy Book has to, because we've changed. In spite of the somewhat barbaric laws that they live under, Saudis have as much in common with Arabs of 700 years ago as today's Christians do with a medieval serf. We can't live under all of the same rules, nor should we expect anyone else to.
"Well," some of you might ask, if you haven't fallen asleep yet, "which rules do we follow? We can't just pick and choose, can we? That would be anarchy."
On the other hand,Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality, and a host of other things-and it's fairly likely that Paul didn't either.
Jesus does say this in the bible, though, and I think it's more important than John 3:16:
Others have put forth this Golden Rule, the true, unchanging word of God, in many different ways:
As for the non-Jewish world, I think that most of "Christianity" has done a fairly poor job of this.
According to Robert Barclay in his Apology for the Quakers, the Bible is "only a declaration of the fountain and not the fountain itself." This is a powerful and uplifting statement. This view allows for the possibility of learning from other people and being able to grow without having to defeat differences between your own views and those held by others. We all have pieces of the fountain and will do well to share and learn. In the teachings of Jesus Christ we find an extremely clear declaration of this fountain which is best expressed in the word love.
It can quite easily be argued that the notion of love represented in the scriptures is the only verifiable universal truth that we know of. Yet with all the arguing and violence surrounding such notions as the devil, hell and predestination and issues such as national, racial, sexual and gender supremacy ,the "simple" message of Jesus to "love your neighbor as yourself", seems to be thrown to the side as secondary.
When Jesus says "let those who have ears hear", it is clear throughout history that the Church, many religious leaders and other Christian organizations do not have ears that "hear" and have either twisted or outright ignored the essential message of Jesus Christ. Same could be said for Islam, when you get right down to it, though there are those who will argue otherwise.
Fact is, I think we’d all be better off if people could live by the 11th Commandment: Mind your own business
