My values are basically Christian but I will never be confined by a church or by over zealous constraints. I have always preferred to step away from that. I am more open relaxed and loose while still holding firm to values that are more traditional. I was not raised in a church and have always seen the danger found in narrow minded absolutism. I have a basic distrust, of organized religion. There is room for skepticism, common sense and moderation while at the same time choosing to stand up for traditional values and choosing to have faith. Christianity cannot be contained by a single denomination no one has cornered the market in making sense of the writings of ancient peoples and cultures or in correctly interpreting what they were intending to say. Translation is as problematic as trying to figure out what they meant to say in a time, a place, and a culture that is as remote from our time, place and culture as the moon. There is more to understanding the bible than merely reading what is at best only an approximate modern English translation and assuming we understand it as most all people do. I am not saying we cannot gain some general understanding on a lot of it but... ancient people exaggerated and relied on the fantastic and the miraculous to make a point. They built their culture up so it sounded important compared to that of their neighbors. They did this for strategic reasons, glorifying even a mud hole existence compared to ours. They plagiarized from other verbal and written traditions. They did not use any research techniques, they had none. They did not have modern science and with little education or understanding tried to make sense of their world. They relied on older myths, verbal traditions and writings, and used conjecture - by guess and by God with little data and little in the way of factual information. They used poetry and allegory at times and in light of having no information what so ever why not? There is drama too,emotion is at play - just another way to emphasize and to make a point, because there were no tape recordings or videos. And they also had a point of view - bias. There is room for skepticism, common sense and moderation while having respect for scripture and choosing to have faith that they were being led by their faith when writing their account. Faith that they were inspired by God or led by the Spirit. But it is difficult to be absolute when faced with that reality. Of course this applies to ALL religions. I have read the Bible all the way through a couple times, the New Testament 3-4 times, I know whats in there, it is in my head to think about have never needed more. Christianity should be in your core and direct how you live as a set of core values little need for more than that. That way danger lies....going overboard with little real certainty to be absolute on anything other than generally anyway. Beware. There is so much room for abuse by the television preachers with bad hair and dimples Untrained missionaries with terribly naive ethnocentric and ignorant ideas trying to impose an american cultural religious way on other innocent and backward third world cultures can also be abusive. Some arrogant paternalistic ignorant prigs travel to the third world and attempt to impose their values and culture on them, sounds like a recipe for the worst abuses out of the 19th century. Religion can also be a racket after all it does take money to pay fat preachers to drive around in their Mercedes even if they are used beat up antiques. Grrr! Not saying its wrong to try to send some medicine and aid and to discuss our faith but if done in the wrong way it can be quite abusive and wrong. Its also wrong to view the culture of the third world as inferior they are as able to play naive ignorant Americans to their faces as much as those same Americans are playing them. More food and money to the local war lords.
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 14:12:56 +0000