|
A long-time friend took
me gently aside.
He suggested that perhaps
after 22 years of these pages it was time to begin telling folks what I
do believe, instead of what I don’t. |
| Others have not been so
gentle with the same suggestion. |
I can hear some faint cheers
and even some loud “Amen’s!” My ears burn.
Hopefully no one will think
that I haven’t heard some of the objections to my “negative,” “critical,”
or “angry” pages. I’ve stirred maybe a half-dozen to ask off the list.
Goodness knows I’m not wanting to impose painful thoughts on anyone. |
An interesting fact is that
my strongest critics are inside the church, my allies, outside.
Even during my 25 years
inside the church, I had positive response from people who found my back
sided approach to matters of belief to be liberating. My lack of “answers”
allowed them to seek their own answers. I’ve always thought that a religion
that asked questions was better than one that provided answers. One guy
told me once, “You make me mad! You make me think!” What more can you ask? |
Anyway, I pulled out a stack
of my back pages. I have a pile going back to 1978.
I can’t argue with the facts—I’ve
said some outlandish and unconventional things. And interesting. I almost
didn’t get back to writing this page because I got hooked. I must say—humbly
of course—I liked what I wrote. Most of the time. When you write what comes
to mind on a Friday morning, you don’t always agree with yourself the next
day. |
| I liked seeing that I didn’t
sound “religious” or “preachy.” It’s hard to get that from a preacher. |
| It also seemed to me that
I dropped lots of clues about what I believed. In fact, I occasionally
made some downright blunt declarations. Read my lips! |
| Another thing that jumped
out at me was that I deal with ideas. I think ideas matter. It matters
how we think. I play with ideas that make me think. Maybe they stir ideas
in others once in a while as well. Maybe my questions cause one to believe
their own thoughts more deeply. That’s OK with me. I have no stake in whether
people agree with me or not. What I sometimes hear is that my questions
help in getting freed from some notion that blocks expansion of mind and
spirit. |
Does it matter to anyone
what I do or don’t believe about God, Jesus, the Bible or other religious
matters? Interesting, maybe, but not helpful in achieving your own personal
belief.
Borrowing is not the best
way to gain ownership. |
| Over the years I have been
in dialogue over numerous questions I have raised, in earlier years via
correspondence, in later years by e-mail. Many books have been mentioned
as potentially helpful on the journey. |
| What has been most interesting
and fun for me is to have a running dialogue with people through the years.
Most of the books I read have been suggested by blue sheet readers. I have
been happy when readers did not tell me what to think, but have helped
me to think. A name that comes to mind at the moment (among many) is Grace
Ford, who died recently in Spokane. She was my “science advisor,” and led
me to books about the cosmos she thought I could understand. She never
told me what she believed, but she showed me that she shared the journey
of wondering and seeking and trusting in a life system that is so grand
that we cannot expect to know or understand its magnificence, much less
explain it. |
| My ancient friend Hayden
used to teach that trust is far more important than belief
or faith. He said that people who live by trust
are in union with one another, while people who insist on faith
and belief divide over their differences. If people are put
off by what I don’t say about my beliefs, think what they might
feel if I told what I do believe!
-
Art Morgan, February 2000
|