A: What is your definition of God?
B: If you identify with a particular religion or spiritual path, what is its definition of God and does your definition align with that?
C: If it doesn’t align with the mainstream definition of your chosen religion/ path, what are the differences and how do you reconcile them?
Names changed to protect the guilty:
Cletus Barbuckle whipped an under-aged kidnapped girl.
She pleaded for mercy, her body bloody from past impacts.
I have needs, Cletus says....you are mine.
I have a boyfriend, and I cannot have sex with you.
The beating continues, I am your God.
No, you are not my God, you are a human being....a very cruel human being with a whip.
I have the power, I can hurt you, so I am your God.
The beating stopped, and while crying, the rape began.
But, Cletus was a kind God, because he stopped beating long enough to satisfy his sexual desire.
It sounds like the Stockholm syndrome, in which a kidnapped person identifies with their kidnapper, and actually helps them evade capture and services their every desire. They actually begin to believe that their cruel captors are merciful and beneficent.
Is this also the definition of God? An all-powerful being that chooses not to answer prayers, not save cancer victims, and who took Jesus from the people (the kindest God/person who ever existed). Is this an all-powerful jealous God that flooded the earth (Noah's time), wiped out cities (Sodom), without regard to all of the innocent lives that were lost?
Is this the definition of a God that everyone says is a good and just and kind God?
Is this the God who punished Adam and Eve for tasting the temptation that He (God) put before them?
Is this the God who allowed Jews to be tortured to death in Nazi concentration camps? The same God who allowed the Romans to crucify a huge number of people for little or no crime?
Perhaps the spiritual path ("thou shalt not kill") is a good path, but few choose to go down that "yellow brick road," in the footsteps of Jesus. We know how to be good, but we choose not. For example, "thou shalt not kill" until the 911 attack, then it didn't matter if we had proof of linkage to terrorism, or proof of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), war was declared, 1,000,000 Iraqis killed, and the media intentionally didn't mention a single Iraqi death. The only thing important to the media was how good the powerful nation felt by fighting someone and hoping they were somehow linked to terrorism. The idea was to fight the enemy in their own land.
In the mean time, Religious Right preachers, like Reverend Hagee, advocated praying to Jesus so we would be more effective at killing in war. We listen to highly educated preachers because we believe that their understanding of the scriptures is greater than our own. But, I, for obvious reasons, advocate that we read the scriptures for ourselves and decide what is right and just on our own. We must find God without being misguided by the educated. No one is so blind as he who will not see.
My spiritual path is the same as the path of Jesus. But, the road is very empty....no traffic at all.....no one traveling the same direction that I am.
The difference between my religion and others is that I am a Christian (because I follow the teachings of Christ), and others are not Christian, because, despite proclaiming themselves to be Christian, they don't seem to have a clue about the teachings of Jesus.
I rectify the difference between my faith and theirs is merely an attempt to follow the teachings of Jesus and God, and to think critically.
I believe that it is better to be a good person than to greedily grab a seat in heaven no matter the cost.
