and now for something completely different

[sereneorange]

stolen from popfiend who yoinked from someone else. Christianity I can get behind.

There are two Christianities in our midst. One worships a punitive father and seeks obedience at all costs. It is patriarchal, demonizes woman, the earth, science, gays, lesbians, and deep thought. It builds on fear and it supports empire-builders. Its theology includes a punitive father in the sky and teaches original sin. The other Christianity recognizes the original blessing that all beings derive from. We recognize awe, not sin, not guilt, as the starting point of true religion. We recognize a divinity who is source of all things and is as much mother as father, as much female as male. We honor creation and diversity. When God created everything, He pronounced it all good.

We are here to make love to life. Yes, we are here to make love to life. Delight in creation and take your dreams into our politics and institutions. We live in the midst of a suicidal economy, motivated by love of money. We have reached a dead end. What we need to turn it around are hearts in love with life. How do we do it? We first must move from domination to partnership, and we begin by educating our young in awe and wonder, not how to take tests. Awe leads to reverence, which leads to gratitude, which will reinvent our species. This is the task of our generation: to regain awe. The three Rs need to be balanced by the ten Cs: contemplation, creativity, chaos, compassion, courage, critical consciousness, community, celebration, ceremony, and character.

--Matthew Fox

Comments

[muthafucknfalco.livejournal.com]

the existance of god is a way to impose government and power structures

i mean just look at it

you can't question god and when you question authority here you get punished with jail or somthing like that it's all about control

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

I am not christian, but much prefer this point of view to anything spewed by that douch, Pat Buchanan, or his ilk

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, there are a lot of Christians out there like this - I would say the majority of us are. The problem is, the other kind proselytizes as part of their religion, and most of us don't. Our spirituality is a person thing and it governs how we live our lives.

We pray in the closet rather in the street, as the bible tells us to. We don't judge our fellow man for the same reason. Because we are living our religion instead of beating other people over the heads with our bibles, no one notices us. We are the invisible majority in Christianity.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

could you have a little talk with the others please? They are really starting to piss me off.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

They won't talk to us, because they say we aren't "real" Christians. Ironically, behind their backs many of us say the same about them. We really ought to say this to their faces, but we try to be tolerant of other beliefs, and we try not to come across as self righteous. :P

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

must be frustrating

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

It is.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

You have no idea.

The most frustrating part is being mistaken for them when you say you are a Christian. Just like the average Muslim is not a terrorist, the average Christian is not a Right Wing Zealot. But since Muslim Jihadists and Christian Fundamentalists are the ones making the noise and grabbing the headlines, the public makes assumptions about the rest of us.

What can you do, though? Except speak up when someone asks.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

I have a very good very liberal very christian (several times a week, sings in the choir, goes to all the functions, fixes plates of food for pastor) friend, and I try to always keep her in mind before I start going off on the group as a whole.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

We all thank you.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

lol.. well that and I am trying to practice right thought, right speech...etc. But I fail.

[omegaxl.livejournal.com]

I'm with neanahe A lot of real fundamentalist Christians don't even recognize Catholics as being Christian at all. I've had arguments in the past with them...and really, to them it's their way or no way so I don't even bother wasting my breath. I do work with a lady that was brought up Baptist that became Catholic & she said that for once, she's getting something out of church services. She said that it feels right and she's happy she did it.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

I was Catholic growing up. That is where all my questioning and doubting began. Not sure if it was the religion, or the age I was at.