The obligatory Easter Blog!

Sweet cherubs:

Because of my group membership in the popular social network LinkedIn, I have been in a dialogue with a minister. Yes, this is me, Margaret, the agnostic, in a dialogue with a minister.

He posed a question to the Learning, Education and Training Professionals group on LinkedIn. The question is as follows: Do you know of an objection to Christianity?

Well, as you might imagine, there were several posts indignantly questioning the relevancy of such a question posted in this particular group. But I decided to reply to him privately. I should tell you that he was actually seeking a way to communicate across many other religions and answer questions and talk about Christianity. Well, I thought that was a noble effort, so I replied. I suggested to him that one cannot debate faith, for the very reason that faith is based on an acceptance that cannot be proved or beaten into another person. Faith just is, you either have it, or you don't. What I did suggest to him is that what I call "churchianity" has caused much ill in the world. (More about that later.) Across a few e-mails, I suggested to him that if one were to have a discussion, one must discuss the similarities across all three Abrahamic religions. It's basically the same story, with different names, in slightly different locations, over approximately 3,000 years.

I also suggested to him that if one were to step back one step further to include the eastern religions, there are still points of similarity. "Everybody be loving and helpful to others; everybody help those less fortunate than yourselves." Goodness gracious, what's wrong with that? It's quite difficult to argue with that, don't you agree?

Back to the evil and disparaging "churchianity". Herein lies the problem. Churches were founded by men (and sometimes women, but mostly men). Once you have a "church" you have a problem. You have a problem because then, somebody starts pointing to a book and saying "it says here in this book that this and such and stuff is true and if you don't believe that, then you are wrong, and not just wrong, you can't be a part of our community".

Well, that is where organized religion and I part company. I explained to the good minister that God and I have a good relationship. I explained that she smiles at me every morning when I look in the mirror (I expect that statement may have given him some pause). But I also explained that once you say "it says here in this book" that I believe one is automatially wrong. The discussion of right and wrong must be avoided. There is no right and there is no wrong. There just is dogma and stories and the stuff of humans. It's humans that made religion. God had nothing to do with it.

Finally, I suggested to our friend the minister, that in order to break out of the evils of "churchianity" he consider respect. Okay the Christians believe this, the Jews believe this, the Muslims believe this and the Buddhists, believe this. So what? Everybody's beliefs are okay, and everybody's non-beliefs are okay. You can't convince anybody, but you can share ideas. You can share ideas as long as you do not feel the need to "convince" anybody. Faith and convincing are an anathma to one another. My ex-mother in law is a devout Christian. I learned to get along with her when I stopped beating her with my intellectual approach. As I have said before, faith cannot be proved nor can it be repudiated. When we would talk, I simply smile and say, "your faith must be a great comfort to you". I was not patronizing her, but I was trying to say in a sense, "I"m okay and you're okay". I won't get on the band wagon, but neither will I imply that you're on the wrong band wagon. I just, simply, have no idea.

To me, it's okay not to know. Sometimes, I think, we were not meant to actually "know". Jeepers creepers, there's a lot of quotation marks in this post!

Thanks as always for listening dearest cherubs.

Blessed Be and Happy Easter, Passover, ummm not sure what the Muslims and Buddhists do this time of year.

Margaret