Peacebang wrote a groovy post about what UU Chrsitians do. Here are some questions about why they do what they do, though the questions could be for any group really with a little adaptation.
Do you find the Christian story better than other sacred stories? Is it the first among equals? Is it no better than others but just the one that works for you? How does the Christian story change and transform you?
I was talking with a friend yesterday about sacred stories, and we remembered a time when the liberal (especially liberationist) Christian story was life saving for us, but now we have to tell that story in past tense. I’m curious how folks tell that story in the present tense.
A comment I found on streetprophets.com
“let’s speak about what we believe and not waste our time criticizing others! Excellent suggestion.”
So, as a UU :), the Jesus I know had a radical message for his time. He spoke about 3 essential ideas:
1. We are all one with the eternal All, and there isn’t anything we need to do to prove that. It simply is.
2. We have the potential to make the kingdom of God real on Earth if we treat the ordinary as sacred. Of course, we can’t achieve perfection, but we can strive to live with that vision and achieve it to the extent we can.
3. We are never separate from the divine reality of Creation or from each other. Ultimately there is no “other.” We are all one.
Hi Chance, I will give your questions a shot.
Do you find the Christian story better than other sacred stories? Is it the first among equals? Is it no better than others but just the one that works for you?
I certainly would not say that I think the Christian story is “better” than other Sacred stories, and I would not be comfortable “ranking” which are best and worse. In my life I have studied and looked at a lot of religious thought. Anything from the Tao Te Ching to the Satanic Bible, I sense truth in a lot of religious expression. For me the Christian story, or more specifically the message of Jesus as I understand it, is my heritage and the basis for which I approach the world. It is what makes the most sense for me when I need it most. Even taking my liberal approach to this story (ie view it from the time it was written and who it was written by) I gain so much from the story today. It is simply “who I am” and Jesus is example is simply “who I want to be”.
PS > I love the new page it; it looks great.
Do you find the Christian story better than other sacred stories? Is it the first among equals? Is it no better than others but just the one that works for you? How does the Christian story change and transform you?
I don’t find any other the sacred stories better or worse than the others. They all have value. I feel like they are all different perspectives of the same vision. For me it works better than most for a couple of reasons. First, because I grew up in a Christian culture, it is the one I gravitate toward first. (While other I think other religions have value, they don’t resonate with me personally and to practice them feels contrived.) Second, after reading the entire bible word for word, I cannot find fault with what Jesus is said to have had as his message. I’m not sure that all that is attributed to him was actually spoken by him, but many of the main points speak to me in a life-altering way. I think it is important to distinguish between the teachings of Jesus and what many Christians have become. To name two examples, Jesus would not have judged others and he would not have turned others away. That is something that was created later by the “Church”.
My life was changed in a profound way when I realized that I had spent most of my life condemning Christianity because of what human beings had made it rather than paying attention to what Jesus really taught. When I decided to listen to Jesus and not “the Church” my life took on new meaning. God the creator intends us to find unity in each other and to “love our neighbors as ourselves”. Nothing else matters beyond that.