Well there's me thinking its time for me to refresh my links with Friends and out of the blue comes an invite to join an eight session Hearts and Mind workshop. This is a Woodbrooke activity for British Friends to discuss the basis of their beliefs and faith and is a welcome way of engaging me.
Ever since China I have been mulling over why engage with a minor strand of religious thinking which is part of only one major branch of world faith. My wife is a Amma devotee, believes in Angels and so mixes Hinduism with a Christian New Age Paganism. She is part of the pick and mix traditions opened up since the sixties.
I keep coming back to the fact I was born in the west and my cultural identity is wrapped up in Protestant Christianity. I reject the notion of Christianity being the only path but remain sceptical of rejecting 5000 years of Judaic-Christian practices as my cultural bedrock. Hence a Quakerism rooted in Christianity but on a journey to speak to our condition, draws me back timeand time again.
2 comments:
Interesting perspective, I do not expound to know all of the world's religions, however, to my limited knowledge Christ is the only one who claims to unite GOD back with man! My fear for those being to broad minded is that we may steer others away from a true relationship with God thru Christ along a hopeless journey to make themselves god-like. As a Quaker, it is not my position to rebuke a fellow seeker, but, more to share the beauty that I have with a relationship with the living Christ! My focus will stay on Christ, and his message. I think that ultimately we all can find comfort with Christ, as I hope your wife will along with the rest of the world. From all I have experienced and learned I have never had to be ashamed of Jesus as my Savior, or as my example.
Pick and mix? Sounds fine to me. Take the best from where ever, then live up to the combined ideals, all of which may make you a better person...
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