You should take time out of your day to read this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-schiffman/do-all-religions-teach-the-same-truth_b_2217161.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false "Truth is one, the wise call it by many names," Swami Vivekananda

I haven't been here in awhile... honestly, "spirituality" hasn't been on my mind as of late. After graduating and not being immersed in studying religion, my contemplation on it fell to the wayside. My laptop also crashed back in October of last year and while we lived in Springfield we didn't have a computer, just a tablet... and to blog blog I feel like sitting down at a computer is almost necessary for me. Anyway... recently, my little brother has started going to church. I'd be against it because it's much too conservative for my liking, but I think the community aspect of it will be helpful for him. It does worry me, though, because I know how much church can warp a young persons mind. I have admitted before that I am biased because I felt the church I attended as a young person had a very negative affect on me. I don't think my brother deserves that experience, that kind of guilt and shame. Coming to these conclusions about my brother, I realized that these are the things I most dislike about the way we try to enact religion. Guilt. Shame. Fear. It seems very counter productive, and yet it seems to be the modus operandi for most churches/theologies that I have encountered... mainstream/conservative, that is. Honestly, I think it's bullshit. As soon as I type or think those words, however, conversations with the Chaplain at my college come to mind... conversations about "feel good Christianity" and how it is also pointless for people to simply go to church for a pick me up. It seems to me that both conclusions have merit. I don't think the point of life is to live under the cloud of fear, shame, and guilt and I also do not think the point of life is to partake in activities for shallow, hallow reasons. How do you effectively live a life of purpose and meaning? How do you find a community of people where you can get a meaningful church going experience when your theology is way off the wall... when you don't regularly partake in spiritual activities? I am plagued by these questions now... I have, for a long time, considered finding a liberal church where I could go and possibly find what I no longer have since leaving BW and Scope... but the only church that might work in town seems really uninspired (having read the sermons online... just the most uninspired, boring, rote, trite stuff ever) and though they are a Congregational UCC, nothing on their website talks about their philosophy etc. I have felt a tug to go to a UCC church in Brunswick, where I attended preschool, recently, every time I drive past it. I want to check it out, but that's a far drive from here (however, I do usually go out to that area every Sunday to visit with family) Ah... how confusing this always is. Anyways... if you read this, I ask for prayers and Light for the above stuff and for some health issues I have been facing recently. Pax, Rachael

Vocation

So, today I was in an interview for a mindless job in a call center, that I will probably take for the money, it's full time and offers benefits...and I haven't heard back from the church job I applied to a few weeks ago. But anyways, in my interview today I said something along the lines of "Religion, that's what I do." Which was true... being a religion major, leading Scope, and working for InterAct were all incredibly satisfying, fulfilling, meaningful things. Unfortunately, I graduated and the youth fellows program ended and other than my person relationship with Absolute Reality, prayer, and some books I've had very little to do with religion since May. Today, after my interview I started to question everything... did I want to take this job? Do I want to move? To change my whole life? What do I want to do with my life? What is my purpose? And who the hell am I? I can tell you I have answers for a few of those questions, but no idea on some others. Then, on this train of thought I happened upon the notion of vocation: a concept we discussed often in the Merton seminar. Having a vocation, a calling, makes a lot of sense to me. Some people are just better fit for some jobs, on a base level. To toss some process thought in the mix, God offers us the lure, right, and we have the ability to respond fully to that or not so much... me working at a call center is me not fully responding to the lure. It's me ignoring what I'm rather sure is my vocation- religion. So, tomorrow I'm going to call the church I applied to and beg them to consider me... because part of me has to. No I won't make the same amount of money and it probably doesn't offer benefits but sometimes to do what you're meant to do is more important than a paycheck. I've always known that.

For Shame, but I finally have something to say

I was having a conversation recently about Christianity, and what makes one a Christian..

The person I was talking to was shocked when I said I don't think that you have to believe Jesus is Christ in order to be a Christian... and they avidly disagreed with me.

I wasn't surprised by their reaction, most people think about Christianity, or religion in general, as a set to beliefs one has to ascribe to. I get it- that's the traditional view. You have to believe that Jesus is Christ, that Jesus rose from the dead, that Jesus was the son of God, that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus was born of a virgin in a manger in Bethlehem etc. But... as a Process theologian, I don't think that there is any categorical difference between Jesus and the rest of us, Jesus wasn't given any special connection to God- what made Jesus unique was his responsiveness to the lure. As I have said before, it's not that Jesus isn't God, but God is in all of us, we can all be Jesus. We all have the potential, we all have the free will to make the choices that would make us fully responsive to the divine lure to good. Furthermore, Jesus himself said that the two most important commandments are to love God and love others, not to believe that he is Christ.

I really don't think what you 'believe' is important, I think it is what you do with the time you are given in this body, on this earth, for this lifetime that is important. It's not what you believe, it's how you live. I think the message of Jesus that is important, important to me at least, is the message of love... the message of non-violence.. the messages in the Sermon on the Mount (aside from the stuff about adultery/marrying a divorcee- I think this is rubbish)

I sincerely hope that religious life, religious meaning, faith etc does not have to be boiled down, reduced down to accepting a list of things to ascribe to... to me that is blind, and ultimately pointless. Am I truly a Christian person if I say I believe Jesus is Christ but live a life of depravity? I just think it is irresponsible to think that belief is more important than what one actually does... it's why I like Process, we are accountable for what we do- our choices, our actions have direct and important ramifications immediately, and what God can offer us in the next moment and the next...

I'm not saying belief is bad. I'm just saying I don't think it is the apex of what I want my religious life to be. I don't believe that Jesus is Christ, and yet I can still think of myself as a follower of Jesus. I don't call myself a Christian, purposefully- and I've explored some of the reasons why in this blog before, but in conversation with my Process friends and with John, I have realized that it is what is written on my heart that matters, it is what I do for others, it is how I live my life that matters- not what label I choose to slap on the chaos that is my spiritual life.

Belief can be beautiful, but it can also be hallow. It can be empty, fruitless. What I am interested in, what I think of as true Christianity, what Jesus was really going after, was a life lived with heart, a life lived with intentionality, a life filled with compassion

This semester I learned about the concept of anonymous Christians... I was initially told it was Pope John Paul II's idea, which made me happy because I loved him, but I found out that it actually came from Jesuit theologian, Karl Rahner. According to Rahner, a person could explicitly deny Christianity, but in reality "existentially is committed to those values which for the Christian are concretized in God." In other words, someone who loves God and loves others but does not identify as Christian. This also points out that Christianity is not just an amalgamation of beliefs, nor just one belief of Jesus as Christ, but it is a way of living.

I rest my case.

Now I have to work on my paper.

Pax,
Rachael

Peace

My mom's best friend, Joyce, passed away yesterday. She's been battling cancer for years, and in my heart I know she has now found peace.

My mom is very sad. Which makes my heart sad because she is my mommy.

It has been my experience that people often ask "Why did God make this happen?" or "Why did God let this happen?" I would have asked the same question a few years ago. However, buying into process theology... my God doesn't make things happen. Cells have free will. Sometimes those cells mutate, cancer then happens. I don't think that there is some 'dude' sitting up in 'heaven' making a list of people that should be stricken with cancer or death etc. In fact, the God I believe in cannot do those things. And I find it comforting that God is with us through the things we experience, the pains and sorrows.

So, as I try to comfort my mom in the next few days, weeks, months and so on all I can do is show her, and others, alternatives... my little fractured thoughts about how things work.

So, may Joyce rest in peace. May she been more fully in the presence of God, and may she continue to touch the hearts and lives of those of us still walking this earth. I, for one, think she will be reborn into another beautiful person. And the people that know her new form will know her smile, the joy of her laugh, and the beauty of her soul.

Sometimes...

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by this world and the people in it.

It is often tempting to think that people suck and are hopeless, but as far as my experience goes, people keep proving this wrong.

Life is hard. Harder than we would like it to be sometimes, a lot of the time for some of us, but I don't think we should give up.

One of my favorite bands these days, Mumford & Sons*, have a song called "Roll Away Your Stone" Here are a few of my favorite lines from it...

"It seems as if all my bridges have been burned,
You say that’s exactly how this grace thing works
It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart,
But the welcome I receive at the restart"

I like it because I'm not sure what grace is... or if I believe in it. But let's face it, what am I sure I believe in? Hardly nothing. Because, it's all relative... but recent events in my life lead me to wonder about grace and more particularly the grace of human kindness.

All I am trying to say is, people aren't as bad as we sometimes condemn them to be. Life just makes it hard for people to be great all of the time.

Amen.

Who are you?

It kind of reminds me of Dr. Seuss... Who are you? Are you blue? What do you do? How do you know where to go?

Just saying. Pardon my insanity. Sometimes I let on more than I intend.

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged, especially because I have had so much to say! SO many things have fired me up recently... not recording them here just doesn't make much sense. I've been quite busy... which is nothing new, but I actually think I have been doing more than normal. And, I have much to do- even as I type this. I need to be in class in three minutes and write a paper today, one for Friday, and one for Monday (Gandalf). Busy busy busy.

So, yeah... where to begin.

I have heard the advice to write every day no matter what- most recently, I read it in a blog I'm a huge fan of, the Pioneer Woman aka Ree Drummond (http://thepioneerwoman.com). She posted something like "10 Tips for Bloggers" and one of them was to write everyday no matter if you feel like it or not. It was interesting for me to consider this advice for my blog instead of for creative writing, the context in which I had been given this advice before. So, between now and Halloween I hope to blog at least something every day. It doesn't matter to me that this blog has three people, max, reading it- but for me. Haha I love egocentrism.

I think it is worthwhile to recap what I've been going through with religion, but to do it backwards or from the last time I blogged til now... hmm

The last time I blogged I was in Vermont- an interesting trip to say the least. I rather enjoyed the city of Burlington. I could live there. It reminded me of Canada. I love Canada. Nothing religious happened though... really. So, moving on...

I went on a trip out west. Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. It was awesome. I got to tell a few friends about Buddhism- we ran into a Tibetan monk the first day! I had at least one really great conversation about religion which was awesome- it basically showed me, for real, that this is what I do. I talk to people about religion and it was really very rewarding to sense this. To do it in a context other than the department... I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's my ministry or something, but damn near close. I like feeling compelled to do something, to be someone. It's pretty cool.

Three days after getting back, the semester started!