Ive said this before, but here it goes again. I grew up in a very ecumenical home. We were taken to and encouraged to go to many churches of different denominations, beginning with Baptist Sunday school, to Kingdom Hall (Jehovahs Witnesses), Orthodox Christian (Antiochian, Greek, Russian), Catholic (Holy Roman and Maronite), and more. Mom and dad went to Presbyterian and even Muslim schools. Dad used to say that the Jews he knew growing up were Syrian -- thats how they identified themselves -- they just happened to adhere to a different set of specific beliefs, but not really any different at its core. Paternal grandfather was a patron of the Orthodox Church in his village; maternal grandfather was arguably the first Jehovahs Witness in the Middle East. When the family would get together, whether for a picnic, wedding, funeral, or just a visit, it was easy to see the diversity at play in our little clan. Because of my parents - and also because of the rest of my relatives and friends - we didnt see differences, only similarities: a desire to know and to share light, to see the goodness of the Creator in others, to know that revelation is not the same as epiphany, but an ever unfolding of more profound truth, and that our spiritual journeys are personal and cant be dictated by base, fundamentalist dogma, read to mean only one thing. Parables were just that, the means to teach something beyond the immediate point of the story or its specific words. As the master told his disciples, when asked why he didnt relate the meaning more directly, what if I were to offer you fruit, but chewed it first?. Would you unfriend me simply because I dont read the meaning(s) of scripture the same as you? Could you not love me simply for who I am? Would you deprive us both of the chance to share and gain something greater and more profound than either of us can find on our own?
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 18:51:01 +0000
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