Roger Morrison wrote:GIMR wrote:Hey Roger, I like Spong. I just started reading some of his stuff. I find it refreshingly amazing that a bishop can take such an honest look at his faith. This is the type of honest belief I've been looking for within my own walk. I cannot insist that Christianity is THE ONLY WAY (and boy have the effigies been hauled out at that one!), it's just MY WAY, my choice.
I wonder what is so frightening about admitting that what you see is merely your perception?
GIMR, good question. Could it be insecurity? Lack of confidence? Fear of the dark? The last not meant to be facetious. Rather 'dark' brings a tendency that compels folks to pull their blinds down, lock their doors and cover their heads until sun-up...
Suppositions; but en mass we're not adventurous, exploratory, creative, inventive nor thinkers... Generally speaking, we are conditioned to BELIEVE. Extremely so in LDSism where the "iron rod" rules. Just hang-on-tight, follow the leaders, and don't ask critical questions...
Threaten/challenge our beliefs, or the system that substantiates our beliefs, can do anything and everything to us, from cause embarrassement to make us kill; defensively AND offensively!
Such a pityful state of humanity, IMSCO, displays our faith-based Christianism to be diametrically opposed to the ways-and-means of Jesusism. Hence we flounder in an ineffectual philosophy scrambling to justify its existance by appealing to human weakness and fears while debilitating too many with guilt and self-doubt. In the case of LDSism they offer the one-and-only fix-all IF YOU Believe and OBEY. That too is frightening...
Yikes! They are threatening my beliefs!!!! How embarrassing :-) Warm regards, Roger
LOL. I have thought about this a lot, and I think that science, and all that it has brought into our lives has really been an affront on Christianity. That's why there's such a huge war against it, that's why there are folks in Christianity who are saying that global warming is a hoax. Why worry, Jesus will be here soon! Where in space is God? Can we still see God as being "up there" (up there is down on the other side of the planet, are they wrong, or are we?). Are cancer patients really being punished for sin? I mean, WTH, are we still stuck in such prosaic beliefs?
What about those folks down the street who pray to Allah? Should we be friends with them? How about those Buddhists?
I cannot for the life of me find where Jesus taught to hate and be suspicious of other people. Yet, we see this in fundamentalist Christianity. And since the Bible is supposed to be the WORD of God, it's ok to quote Paul, or Deuteronomy to make your point, and say Jesus said it. When asked to quote Jesus, you get a workout (the runaround).
I think that for many people, the role of religion is to provide spiritual safety in numbers. Since none of us are dead, and we don't know what comes next, it's reassuring to see people doing what you're doing, even if what you're doing is cruel and spiritually disenfranchises another. Instead of looking to see if your beliefs are indeed ethical, many turn to fantasies of the rewards they'll get in heaven to blot out the ring of their hypocrisy.
en mass we're not adventurous, exploratory, creative, inventive nor thinkers... Generally speaking, we are conditioned to BELIEVE.
The very first class I took in school this year said just that. We are conditioned to believe...even claims of not believing are in themselves a belief.
Extremely so in LDSism where the "iron rod" rules. Just hang-on-tight, follow the leaders, and don't ask critical questions...
And don't let your life pose a critical question to them, either. I have a friend who is LDS, and it seems that the only way I can see him these days is at an Family Home Evening. I go for the food, nothing else really "feeds" me there. Talks on the importance of tithing and missionary work just don't do it for me anymore, there are people out there starving in more ways than one, and this is all that can be discussed?
Well, the last dinner I was at, people recognized me from the old ward. To save the atmosphere (*gasp* apostate in our midst), I told a half-truth. I said that the reason why I was no longer LDS was because I was studying to become a pastor. The call has come, but I haven't answered yet, due to questions I pose about the content of my own character in such a vocation (I lack many things, patience being number one). Well, my friend who just loves to judge and analyze the world (who also cowers when I chew him out about it, but keeps doing it) has now held me to that. Since I'm studying to be a pastor, I need to do and behave as he sees fit according to his stringent LDS beliefs.
Perhaps I should have let the cat out of the bag and said the real reason(s) why I left the church. But that caused a three-ring-circus the last time.