I'm more about meeting people where they are at in the space in-between us, rather than bringing them to where I am. For who am I to believe my belief system as better or greater than another, claiming the Spiritual Homes that I find refuge in are more suited than the ones that are currently held by others?
By the fruits, all these homes shall be made known - and in that I know many people simply would not fare well in the constructs of my own belief system. Some apples are just too hard to swallow, even if it is your paradise, it could be another version of hell to someone else.
So as Christian, I am not good at the, "Hello, I am Zed this is my belief system and if you don't believe you will burn in hell."
Because, the way it's presented isn't Christian at all - it's actually quite the opposite.
Furthermore, I believe people do this because somehow in the afterlife they believe they will get some glory beyond glories for all the people they told they were going to hell making up stories to suite their condemnation, for whatever faith they feel a need to export onto the masses.
It doesn't work for me and it's not working for Christianity as a whole.
The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing.
So we need to change the dialogue.
Rather than the brimstone, fire and bullsh!t dialogue, I am good at this dialogue, "Hello, hell I know you all to well. I see you in the faces of those that walk this earth. If at birth they were told what they worth than maybe it would be heaven on earth. May I be the change, the chance, to make it so and even begin with the prayer of St. Francis."
"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life."
-Prayer of Saint Francis
(St. Francis Prayer begins @ 3:40)
If someones life is hell on earth, how do they hope to find hope in a distant heaven?
"If you know what life is worth, You will look for yours on earth: And now you see the light, You stand up for your rights." - Bob MarleyMany of my teachings and understandings of the constructs of my spirituality originate in the Latter-day Saint belief system with an emphasis on the Ladder because I have found some of the greatest teachings in other places.
I was born into the faith, and like many others born into a faith retained much of the roots, moral teachings no matter how far or different courses I went - they just took different forms.
Now coming back into it on my own terms the importance of finding a spiritual home, a place to belong has become paramount in not only my life, but valuing the lives of others around me.
Because the only way, the absolute only way, we will be able to make it in this world is if we start to see value in the beliefs of those around us helping them find their own spiritual home; which may or may not be our own spiritual home.
Here is my own attempt to bridge that divide living in a community that struggles to find reach for other faiths beyond the LDS faith:
It's not an all encompassing solution by any stretch of the mind, but an attempt at least to emphasize an Article of Faith that is often lost in the lives of many of the LDS Faith.
I hope you all find your spiritual homes - whatever faith that might be.
Satnam, Namaste.
zs.
Zed Sonder swears sometimes. Christians forgive him.
