Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place
What is your religion?
Aussie Chris:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on April 29, 2006, 07:40:18 am ---Beautiful posts, everyone. Chris, I'm in that group of people who believes everything is a miracle.
--- End quote ---
Me too Barb, and thanks everyone for the nice compliments. I'm totally cool with your sun/nature worship. You know I've always seen spirituality as a higher ideal than religion. Simply put, spirituality is the connection with the divine. Religion is a human creation, and although *should* lead to spirituality, the fact that it is caught up in the human condition (interpreted and dictated) means that it will also always be one step below. When I was a little younger I asked myself "was religion really such a bad thing"? I mean, can I really condemn a philosophy that teaches people (or tries to) to be nice to each other? Of course the answer is no. The problem is with people not with religion, but I worry a lot about the people in the role of priest (or whatever). What is the spiritual qualification for this role? Do they need to be "good people", or do we assume they are because they learn scripture? I tell ya, the only people that I listen to about life/love are the ones that are better at it than I am, which pretty much eliminates anyone who would try to tell me how to live/love.
--- Quote from: TJ on April 29, 2006, 01:15:06 pm ---I know that I made this a little long here. Although I am Pentecostal by experience and my basic doctrinal beliefs are very much like the Assemblies of God's "16 Fundamental Truths," and I grew up attending regular church services and special services, I prefer to say that "I was raised AT home and not in a church." The only people that I have known who were raised in a church were those who actually lived in one while growing up. My Parents were Pentecostal by experience, too. But, they did not demand that their children believe just like them. They taught us to make our own choices and believe according to what we felt the Holy Spirit wanted us to believe.
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Hi TJ, just a quick acknowledgement for your posts, and respect for your beliefs and experience. The one thing that I would add for you to what I've said in my previous posts is that if your faith and doctrine brings you closer to spirit, then it does it for me also. Take care, be happy, and peace.
moremojo:
I have not yet responded to the poll (thinking that "other" probably would suit me best), but in the meantime I would like to share an inspiring passage, quite dear to me, from the Sufi master Ibn al-Arabi, who lived from 1165 to 1240. This passage, which I quote from memory (and whose translator, from the original Arabic, I cannot remember), poetically evokes some of my own spiritual views:
You ask for a profession of faith?
My heart encompasses many forms
The mosque,
The church,
The synagogue,
Even idolater's fane
All shelter within me.
Wherever Love's caravan winds its way--
There lies my path, my religion.
Scott
Aussie Chris:
--- Quote from: moremojo on May 01, 2006, 09:16:58 pm ---You ask for a profession of faith?
My heart encompasses many forms...
--- End quote ---
That's really beautiful Scott, I can really identify with the sentiment.
TJ:
Here is a link to a discussion thread where I was asked to to talk about Jack's Mother who believed in the Pentecost by one of the forum moderators who had first discussed the idea of such a topic with another moderator.
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=1162.0
It is a discussion for and by those who understand and accept the Pentecostal POV as related to their own experiences.
To be Pentecostal is not actually a church denomination, it is a special experience not limited to any one Christian denomination. Besides, during the 1st Century AD, all the churches were Pentecostal ones.
Shuggy:
--- Quote from: TJ on April 29, 2006, 02:14:14 pm ---The Amish also do not believe in higher education. Their children are only educated to the age of what is required by law.
I know about the Amish because we have them in Oklahoma. Mixed among the Amish are people who are Mennonites who have a similar doctrine but, Mennonites are not anti-education. I went to college with Mennoites whom I had known in grade school, too.
--- End quote ---
I have a lovely book about the fundies by a gay man with an Amish background. In the last chapter he goes back to them and finds they are much more tolerant than the Fallwell crowd. It's at home and I'm at my man's place, but I'll post its details tomorrow.
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