General Discussion

Joseph Campbell found that the world religious myths all express truth about a mystery that cannot be put into words. I have studied just enough Judaism to know how profound the truths it holds is, and I feel certain that is true of the other world religions. But I happened happened to stumble into a Christian church, one that was the opposite of my preconceptions. I was befriended, accepted, included, not pressured in any way whatsoever. They trusted my intelligence and, though no one said so, the work of the Holy Spirit. These days I hold both a fairly literal and non-literal understanding of Christianity. That may seem paradoxical to you, but there is truth that has been enormously rewarding to me.

There's plenty of genuine evidence for the person of Jesus. The Case for Christ is a good resource. A journalist who was an atheist did everything he could to discredit that evidence. It's quite a good story.

I was in my mid-thirties, dealing with sadness that I was unsuccessful in my chosen career as a teacher, trying to figure out what I should be doing instead to help support our family and to be of use in the world. I was ready to repel any attempt to convert me, but none ever came. So eventually I relaxed and started exploring. I had conversations, studied, pitched in, went on a cursillo (a short course on Christianity for the heart and mind that combines fun, worship, prayer), learned practices that helped me grow. The truths and accepting self-forgiveness has transformed me from the once introverted person who carried a lot of guilt for not being perfect, letting people down, doing selfish, inconsiderate, lazy things now and then. Once I gained a sense of purpose for my life, the shyness was no longer an impediment, and I worked to be Christ's hands and feet to the best of my (limited) ability.

The adventure of taking that leap of faith has enriched my life. I've been inspired to step up and out and do things no one would have ever thought I could do, especially me. No background in many of the things involved (fundraising, nonprofits, business, radio). That could have tempted me to think I deserved the whale's share of the credit (even though I knew I lacked so much background knowledge and experience). I had to do a lot of work to make sure that didn't happen, including making sure to avoid founder's syndrome and stepping back repeatedly, not telling people of the role I played. Pride would have been a toxin, for the venture and for me. Besides, I didn't have the background skills or experience to do more than get it started. My main role is done other than to keep the vision so that it serves the community and never gets derailed from that. Plus holding the institutional knowledge. I got the joy of that adventure and seeing God do something big that I got to help with.

BTW, there's more consistency in the Bible than I'd been aware of and God has a clear passion for justice and for uplifting the poor, healing the sick, and so forth. The right wing evangelicals have so very much wrong. But there are clearly very difficult to understand parts that are not good. I don't claim to understand those, although between translating from ancient languages and the limited paradigms of the writers, I doubt they understood correctly.