On Christianity and Islam

A long time ago, I thought there was no way I could ever be a Christ follower, because most of the "Christians" I had encountered  talked about fire and brimstone and if you're not one of us you're going to hell type crap that I still don't believe. When I finally decided I kinda wanted to know what it was all about, I knew that in order to not be the hypocrite I always took "them" for, I'd have to open my mind, read the Bible myself and make up my own mind about what it said. I had to come at it from a place of study and  contemplation and logic. I've never had a revelatory experience like some people who are very close to me, in fact, I envy them for theirs, but I know God exists because I know people who have experienced miracles. And I've had prayers answered, no matter how small, as well. Now, let me preface the next part with the comment that I don't plan on becoming a Muslim any time soon. However, I am an anthropologist. Regardless of whether it is or ever will be my profession as such, it is who I am through and through. I want to know people and why they are who they are and what makes them tick. A very large part of that, for many people, is religion, beliefs, and convictions. I will not again judge a religion based on the outlandish actions of a minority of its followers or a few verses of its text taken out of context because my faith has suffered that same treatment and it makes me sad and angry that, not only do those people not understand the bigger picture, which as those who believe in the New Testament of the Bible and Christ know, is a love story--a story of redemption and forgiveness and hope. They don't want to see it and refuse to see it because it doesn't suit their preconceived notion of an angry, jealous, vindictive god, the god of the old testament, the god of the ancient Hebrews, not of the world, as he came to be through Christ.

I know very little about Islam, but I have met a few Muslims. I have heard their frustration as they defend their faith, as Christians sometimes have to defend theirs, against misrepresentation based on the actions of a relative few. Unfortunately, those few are really, really loud, and do really, really shitty things, and have a tendency to get a lot of attention from the news media who only seem to focus on whoever yells the loudest or causes the most harm (or pays the most?). Zealotry is gross, by several definitions, yet we continue to celebrate it and glorify it. After all, it gets good ratings. Dr. Agustín Fuentes at Notre Dame has a pretty good take on this, saying in effect, at a lecture he gave at IPFW, that it gets our adrenaline pumping when someone points and yells "Look! There's a fight!" It's a lot more effective than, "Look! They're playing nicely together!" even though that happens WAAAAAY more frequently.

So, while I'm not planning on converting to Islam any time soon, I do want to learn about it and read the Quran for myself to find out what it says, just like I did with the Bible. Because, while I could choose to read those blurbs that some of my facebook friends have posted about the violence inherent in the religion as evidenced by lines of their scriptures taken out of context, I could also remind those who post those outtakes that there are plenty of calls to violence in our own book, and people still today who act on them... but that's not the whole story. It's not the real story. And it's certainly not the part of the story we want anyone to focus on as Christians or Christ followers who are just trying to live our peaceful, normal lives.

What it all boils down to is this: If you believe in God--that is, a creator god--and are part of a monotheistic religion, then you necessarily believe that God created the world. The whole world. And that he/she/it/they created ALL the people in the world (and for our purposes, the details and timeline are unimportant). According to the Bible, God created us in His/Her/Its/Their image and likeness, and that ultimately, He/She/It/They has/have it all under control. All this diversity? All these different skin tones and languages and cultures and beliefs? Do you really believe that's by accident? I don't. I believe that we're all parts of that divine creation and that divine existence. I believe that all of us, every person on the planet, is a reflection of God and part of the puzzle. And as a Christ follower, I believe that we are called--in fact commanded--to love each other, not to judge each other, regardless of our/their transgressions. We were given an example and told God is Love. So LOVE!!

A house divided

I was thinking today about the Law of Attraction and the state of the world today. It occurred to me that it works on that kind of grand scale as well. Whether it’s the war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on terror, what we focus on is what we draw to ourselves. If we want to win these “wars”, rather than throwing good money after bad in “fighting” these abstracts, these constructs, we must change the focus from the problems to the solutions. This seems to be the biggest problem in politics as well. Everything is us vs. them. Instead of proposing solutions, we point fingers at each other and scream about the problems and their failures and their broken promises and their scandals. If the grass seems greener on the other side of the fence, start watering your own. We are so focused on the other, no matter whom the other is, that we fail to see the beams in our own eyes. Racism is a genuine issue and you know what? Black people can be just as racist as white people. Sometimes more so. So can Hispanics and Asians and Middle Easterners and everyone else in the world. Everything has become so polarized and and so politicized that we can’t even carry on a conversation anymore in a civilized manner on topics of science, the environment, diseases… We don’t even realize that, regardless of who is “we” and who is “they”, “we” are saying the same damn thing “they” are, just about different subjects. A house divided cannot stand. We have to start listening to each other as people, not opponents, and seeing each other as all "us", as neighbors and humans, not as others. 

Rule number two: Remember where you come from

One of my favorite authors is Neale Donald Walsch. He wrote Conversations With God, which was transformative to me in my search for the meaning of life and the nature of The Divine, which really took shape in my early twenties.

One of the premises of the book series is that God is everything, and creation in all its various forms and incarnations throughout time and space is god's (his/her/its/their/our) way of seeing the different parts of that whole. When we die we go back to the source; back to God. As such the reason for each person's existence in this particular time and space is to reflect to each other and to see in each other the aspects of the whole that we ourselves are not. This is summed up quite nicely in the children's parable Walsch also wrote called The Little Soul and the Sun. A little soul chooses to come out of God's presence--the light--to have a particular experience. The soul chooses to be born so that it can experience 'being forgiving' but realizes that in order to experience being forgiving it will need someone to forgive. So another soul steps up and volunteers to do something that will require forgiveness. In exchange the little soul must help that soul to remember who it really is, namely 'the light', so that they can return to the source.

I love the analogy. I love the idea that we are always part of God but we are currently being human. Humans being. Like the name of the blog.

So, rule number two: Remember where you come from. Be human, but remember that you are part of the light. Remember that you have a job to do - not just for you, but for the other souls who came to share and support you in your journey and in whose journeys you came to offer support. Love each other and enjoy the experience.

Big rocks and love tanks

Once upon a time I was a regular at the Thursday morning Bible study at what I still consider my home church in spite of the fact that I haven’t been there in a few years. One particular Bible study lesson was about filling up your cup so that it can run over, because, of course, it's pretty hard for a cup to run over if it isn't full to begin with. The bucket or love tank analogy works equally well and since loving yourself was the point of the conversation that inspired this post, we'll go with love tank from here on out. The point of the lesson was that no one else can fill your cup/love tank for you, you have to do it by tapping into the source of love - I'm just going to call it Love because God is Love and that's how I roll, but it's Jesus for some, God/dess, Buddha, Allah, The Universe, Nature, peace, joy, FSM or IPU, I don't really care what you call it, the point is, a full love tank doesn't come from other people (and certainly not from just one other person - how exhausting would that job be!), it comes from a quiet place of meditation inside you where you tap into the source. What I told my friend was that other people can sure as heck dent up your love tank and some can even poke holes in it. Fortunately others can help you hammer out the dents or patch the holes, but no one person can fill it for you; only Love can fill your love tank. So, of course, if you're familiar with the 'big rocks' analogy (and if you're not, check that out before you go any farther or the rest of this may not make sense - you've been warned) you're supposed to put the big rocks in first and in that illustration, God (which I'm calling Love) is one of the big rocks. I don't think that God/Love is one of the rocks at all; I think it's the water. So here is how that changes EVERYTHING about the illustration: If you put the water in first -- which is to say, if your love tank is full -- then every big rock you add - family, friends, home, job, school - the things that are MOST important in your life, whatever they are for you - makes some of that water overflow onto everything around it. Then adding the gravel makes more of that water splash out. Then adding the sand makes more of that water splash out. The key is staying tapped into the source. But do you see what happens then? Everything starts from a place of love and you always have enough love to share, because you're always tapped into the Source of love and every single thing you do starts with a full tank that splashes Love onto everything else around you! And here’s the other cool part: even if this hasn’t been the way you’ve operated thus far, the water still soaks into everything and fills up all the empty space as soon as you pour it in, so really, you can fill your love tank any time and still get the same effect! So first things first: Do you know how to tap into the source - whatever you call it? Do you stay tapped in - meaning do you know to pay attention to your love tank and take time out to fill up when needed? Do you know what your big rocks are and how everything else measures up? Thank you to everyone who helps to fill my tank every day. I Love you! *splishy splashy*

Where am I coming from?

There are some things you as a reader may want to know about me and where I'm coming from when reading this particular blog.

I could talk about faith and God and spirituality and the origins of life, the universe and everything pretty much endlessly. It has always been one of my favorite things to do. I've also written extensively, though nowhere near exhaustively on my own peculiar brand of faith. I'll post much of that here eventually, as that is one of the reasons for this blog. For now, the overview:

1. I do not call myself a Christian. I believe in the God of the Bible and in Jesus, and in redemption, and suchlike, but I do not call myself a Christian. I rather consider myself a Christ follower.

2. I also find resonance and solace in many of the teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Gandhi, MLK Jr., the Dalai Lama, Wayne Dyer, Mike Dooley, Neale Donald Walsh et al.

3. I don't believe in heaven and hell as such according to Christian teachings, so I don't respond to threats of one or promises of the other according to the way most Christians believe.

4. In addition to the above, I hold a very pagan set of beliefs and spiritual 'practices' without 'practicing' any particular form of religion.

5. I take a rather pantheistic, panentheisitic, universalist, deisitic (minus the 'rejection of revelation' bit) view of God, and use the pronoun him/her/it/them/us frequently when referring thereto.

Happy trees

Once upon a time, I had a beautiful chiflera plant. It's one of my favorite houseplants and I had one for about a year.  During that year I was single; it was just Kady and me living in a little apartment off of East State with our little plant. I've never been very good with plants - I joke that I have a black thumb - if you've seen our lovely jungle-in-the-dining-room, that's all Paul.  Regardless, I did have that one plant that thrived under my care.  Because I loved it.  And then I met Paul and my attention was elsewhere and my little plant withered and died. Sad for the plant, but fortunately it gave its life for a good cause. Twelve years later and more in love than ever, I’d say my attention was well spent.

We all know plants reproduce in different ways, but for many if not most, the process is some sort of dispersal of seeds.  Sometimes the seeds are dropped next to the plant, sometimes they are carried off by animals who get them caught in their coats, sometimes they are blown a fair distance by the wind and sometimes they are eaten by birds and dropped miles away. Regardless of how they travel, those seeds, under the right conditions, will produce new plants just like the ones from which they came.

Now here's the good part:  Emotions are like seeds! If you keep them in the light, pay attention to them and feed them and water them, they will grow and flourish and bear fruit and scatter seeds and produce new plants near and far depending on how the seeds are scattered, just like real plants.

This means, if your little seed (or your big seed!) is anger, guilt, resentment..., if you keep it in the light and feed it and water it and pay attention to it, it will flourish into a great big ugly tree of resentment that bears fruit that looks tasty, but will make you sick if you keep eating it, and others will see and eat and crap out seeds here and there, near and far, and it just keeps on keeping on, just like mother earth in all her beauty and wisdom intended for seeds to do.

However, if your little seed (no matter how small and insignificant it may seem) is happiness, hope, joy, faith, love..., if you keep THAT little seed in the light and feed it and water it and pay attention to it, it will flourish into a great big beautiful tree with flowers and yummy fruit and all sorts of happy critters that like to feed there and rest under its shade and play and climb in its branches and carry its seeds off in whatever manner they do to spread more of those happy trees all over the world. 

So, which seed will you pay attention to and keep in the light and cultivate?  Which one will you let wither and die?  Remember: It is ALWAYS your choice.

Rule number 1 - Believe in something bigger than you

Regardless of whether you call it God, Christ, Allah, El, Krishna, the Universe, the all, fate, Karma, FSM, IPU or Bob, and even (perhaps especially) if you don't believe in a deific entity, find something to put your faith in. Find and focus on the greater good of something. Seek out a cause you can believe in and to which you can donate your time or talent or treasure. Take the focus off yourself, because that is the purpose and saving grace of just about every religion... whether they know it or not.