You are absolutely correct except for one thing. We were discussing the ten commandments. AlAyeti asked, "What harm do the Ten Commandments actually do?" which to my mind is a question that can only be asked by someone who is faithful or someone who has not very familiar with them. The first and second commandments, in my view are the foundation of Judeo-Christian religious intolerance and properly belong to those who would impose their particular religion on the rest of us by placing their commandments on public monuments. Can a Hindu or Atheist feel that unbiased fair justice will be meted out in a court where the very walls have inscribed in them the assertion that their belief in god, gods or no god, is to be condemned?
McC, I see your point.
But the problem is the negatives and evils people decide to MANIFEST toward others. As an African American, I've had to learn to IGNORE and counter a bunch of ignorant and hateful stuff.
I don't just "believe" that the way of LOVE is superior to religion, I KNOW it is. I've tried and implemeted BOTH for many years. There are massive differences between
knowing the right thing,
intending to do the right thing and actually
doing the right thing.
I may have (as Christians say) sin in my life, but i don't kid myself about what I DO for people. And actually, I thank God/Jesus for the opportunities to do anything right.
How do I measure what is "right"?
Well, it's not always easy or black/white. All I know as a Christian (or one who is saved by God's
grace), I DO realize that NO ONE has to PROVE their worthiness to ME. I just think it's good to LOVE people, then let my faith in God make sense of the rest. They DON'T have to believe what I do, and I don't necessarily believe I can cause them to believe; I simply "believe" that it is good to share the essence of Jesus with them...through the kind of LOVE I believe I've been shown by Jesus and other human beings.
I've seen SO MANY people try to PUSH and COMPEL others to accept their very literal and rigid interpretation of the Bible. There is a lot of wackiness, sadness and facade related to that. I cannot count the number of people who are miserable and lost sitting in the pews of various churches; sitting there empty, wishing someone would REALLY LOVE THEM. Not that Jesus cannot do that, but that so many put that relgious "qualifier" before anything else, that a lot of opportunities to pursue the TRUTH in REAL LOVE are lost (or deferred).
I'm certainly no theologian, and no, I'm not a particularly HOLY person. I'm just someone who has suffered and tried very hard to BE a "Christian". I have learned there are more important things inside of the "struggles", than I could ever really explain. Even so, I know LOVE is a significant key to making sense of the WHOLE CRAZY MESS this reality sometimes represents.
I have some unconventional ways of saying things, because I try to peel the veneer OFF of my heart when I talk to people. (That is likely a by-product of being gay and in the closet for nearly 35 years.) I want people to know I'm HUMAN, that I am just like them in likely more ways than they think. I may not be perfectly sure about myself, but I am very sure about what LOVE can do. Sometimes I "wish" I didn't know, because I could just
PUNCH some people, and be done with them.
But I've seen LOVE touch even the heart of adversaries, and bend them in ways I could not have ever imagined period. I've seen miracle after miracle, related to showing and spreading love freely (despite my own flaws and those of others).
Though I can't explain it, I can only share what I've seen and invite others to witness it with me. And I'm NOT going to just say I "believe" something because I "should", I'll likely never be able to live that way. Beyond that, I believe it is God's providence to make a difference, within any given person.
-Mel-