The Core False Belief of Christians, part 2
The core false belief of Christians and others, continued.
Part 2 in a series of Understanding the Mis-uses of Faith
First Corollary: Other faiths must be condemned.
8/22/06
Those who hold the content of faith, that is the WHAT of belief as the Necessary Door to salvation regard this as the ultimate judgment of whether our faith is true. Then they do something else harmful to the peace and good order of all faith-based community.
When the "true believer" asserts that "Jesus Christ is Lord," then when another does not accept the Lordship with the same words, he is further from the Kingdom. Typically the believer goes this next step. Rather than Jesus being the Lord of his or her own heart, one slips into God's territory to assert that all others must accept the same faith or be condemned by God. The "true believer" is ready to say that Christ must be the Lord for everyone else in the same way or they have failed. Furthermore, since this truth should be as evident to all others as it is to oneself, then all others must be insincere and in conscious "bad faith."
Typical of this elevation of the correct content of right belief is a too easy judgment that all other faiths, and even different followers of Jesus, must be dismissed. We hear preaching of the gospel of Jesus that discounts other faiths as incomplete and wrong. This is not untypical, I propose, but it has the unhappy result of setting us "at war" in mind, heart or behavior against those who believe differently. Such judgments undermine the diverse faith communities in which we live and move.
Whenever we use what we believe to judge others, we are using faith wrongly, not for the conversion of our own hearts, but to judge the sincerity of others' faith. This is the first, unhappy corrollary of making the what-ness or content of our belief, rather than loving behavior or service to be how we assess belief. When we do this, I suggest we have forgotten one single great truth of faith and have made our own faith into an idol. Idols are jealous of other idols. God, this vast mystery we call "God," is not jealous of differences.
The Apostle Paul himself says there is faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these three is love.
Faith is an undeserved gift. We cannot earn it, deserve it, or reason to it. It is a grace given freely. We can only try to deserve it, even to beg for it. It is that which can transform our lives, turn chaos into blessing, make us lovers of the least, lost, last and lame in our village. Faith may be the greatest gift, besides life itself, we can ever receive.
When we use a gift of God, freely received, to judge another's gift, this is not simply a mis-use of God's gift, it is an abomination, a terrible and tragic mis-use of something divine and holy that we could never earn or deserve. But there we go, using it to judge others. We have all done so throughout history.
So Christians and other faiths, have used faith (and their sacred texts) to judge, condemn and murder countless others in God's name for thousands of years. Every sacred book, whether Hebrew, Christian or Muslim contains texts that encourages violence against others. What is crucial for us today, as many believers are warring against one another throughout the world, is to decide whether those words are from the imperfect human writers of those texts, the limited understanding they had at that time of conflict. Scripture can only be understood in the context in which it was written, as well as the intent of the author of that time.
We are challenged today, more than ever before, when our politicians are willing to use beliefs of some against the beliefs of others even in this country, to decide. What is the true nature of this mystery we call God, and what images of God most deeply speak to our heart of hearts? Shall it be that of a Warrior King, a Judge waiting to gather those who believe as we true believers do, and smite the rest? This is the God that belongs to my church and therefore I am entitled to make such judgments. That is, my faith gives me the right and duty to judge others.
Or is the nature of God a Merciful and Compassionate Mother, who would gather as mother hen the chicks under her wings but they would not. (Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34) Does God want us to dwell together in peace and harmony now and deal cooperatively with the mess we find ourselves in, or does God belong only to my church?
Will you choose the Warrior King of the Old Testament and the Book of Revelations or the Wisdom of God revealed in Jesus who calls us to an awakening of our full humanity, with the most central commandment one of service to one another?
Is the rightness or goodness of any path a judgment that belongs to God alone? The future of our civilization may now depend upon the choices we make. "Take care lest the light in you become darkness." Luke 11:35.
Are there religious fascists among us? We shall not convert them by force of arms, power, words or even by scripture, but only by love.
Part 2 in a series of Understanding the Mis-uses of Faith
First Corollary: Other faiths must be condemned.
8/22/06
Those who hold the content of faith, that is the WHAT of belief as the Necessary Door to salvation regard this as the ultimate judgment of whether our faith is true. Then they do something else harmful to the peace and good order of all faith-based community.
When the "true believer" asserts that "Jesus Christ is Lord," then when another does not accept the Lordship with the same words, he is further from the Kingdom. Typically the believer goes this next step. Rather than Jesus being the Lord of his or her own heart, one slips into God's territory to assert that all others must accept the same faith or be condemned by God. The "true believer" is ready to say that Christ must be the Lord for everyone else in the same way or they have failed. Furthermore, since this truth should be as evident to all others as it is to oneself, then all others must be insincere and in conscious "bad faith."
Typical of this elevation of the correct content of right belief is a too easy judgment that all other faiths, and even different followers of Jesus, must be dismissed. We hear preaching of the gospel of Jesus that discounts other faiths as incomplete and wrong. This is not untypical, I propose, but it has the unhappy result of setting us "at war" in mind, heart or behavior against those who believe differently. Such judgments undermine the diverse faith communities in which we live and move.
Whenever we use what we believe to judge others, we are using faith wrongly, not for the conversion of our own hearts, but to judge the sincerity of others' faith. This is the first, unhappy corrollary of making the what-ness or content of our belief, rather than loving behavior or service to be how we assess belief. When we do this, I suggest we have forgotten one single great truth of faith and have made our own faith into an idol. Idols are jealous of other idols. God, this vast mystery we call "God," is not jealous of differences.
The Apostle Paul himself says there is faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these three is love.
Faith is an undeserved gift. We cannot earn it, deserve it, or reason to it. It is a grace given freely. We can only try to deserve it, even to beg for it. It is that which can transform our lives, turn chaos into blessing, make us lovers of the least, lost, last and lame in our village. Faith may be the greatest gift, besides life itself, we can ever receive.
When we use a gift of God, freely received, to judge another's gift, this is not simply a mis-use of God's gift, it is an abomination, a terrible and tragic mis-use of something divine and holy that we could never earn or deserve. But there we go, using it to judge others. We have all done so throughout history.
So Christians and other faiths, have used faith (and their sacred texts) to judge, condemn and murder countless others in God's name for thousands of years. Every sacred book, whether Hebrew, Christian or Muslim contains texts that encourages violence against others. What is crucial for us today, as many believers are warring against one another throughout the world, is to decide whether those words are from the imperfect human writers of those texts, the limited understanding they had at that time of conflict. Scripture can only be understood in the context in which it was written, as well as the intent of the author of that time.
We are challenged today, more than ever before, when our politicians are willing to use beliefs of some against the beliefs of others even in this country, to decide. What is the true nature of this mystery we call God, and what images of God most deeply speak to our heart of hearts? Shall it be that of a Warrior King, a Judge waiting to gather those who believe as we true believers do, and smite the rest? This is the God that belongs to my church and therefore I am entitled to make such judgments. That is, my faith gives me the right and duty to judge others.
Or is the nature of God a Merciful and Compassionate Mother, who would gather as mother hen the chicks under her wings but they would not. (Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34) Does God want us to dwell together in peace and harmony now and deal cooperatively with the mess we find ourselves in, or does God belong only to my church?
Will you choose the Warrior King of the Old Testament and the Book of Revelations or the Wisdom of God revealed in Jesus who calls us to an awakening of our full humanity, with the most central commandment one of service to one another?
Is the rightness or goodness of any path a judgment that belongs to God alone? The future of our civilization may now depend upon the choices we make. "Take care lest the light in you become darkness." Luke 11:35.
Are there religious fascists among us? We shall not convert them by force of arms, power, words or even by scripture, but only by love.
posted by Paschal Baute at 9:29 AM
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