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I'm just amazed...and a little disturbed....
It never ocurred to me to think of myself as more than another when it comes to religious values and choices.
Like, just because I'm not born again and don't feel it's necessary does NOT mean I would ever, ever, ever look down upon or think myself closer to God than someone who is born again.
Or Catholic...or Jewish...or Wiccan...or Budhist....or Muslim....or agnostic...or atheist...or whatever.
I'm not saying anyone here holds those beliefs, but just reading the Catholic threads of late....it just never occured to me to think of someone of another faith or denomination as somehow less than me...less "holy" than I am...further from God than I am.
I guess it's because I believe that there are infinite paths to God and no path is any better than another - just different. Different because people are different.
I'm still sorting out how I feel about an afterlife, but if I believed definitively in one, nothing I could read or be told would ever, ever make me believe that only people like me would be there. I'd fully expect to be sitting with Christians, Hindus, Jews...whoever...
As for Catholics not being Christians...historically speaking, that's just silly, IMO.
The Catholic Church is really the only definitive Christ-based church to have survived the very tumultuous time after Christ's death.
There were other groups - Gnostics, for example - that existed during the same period, but who, for whatever reason, didn't have the same staying power as the Catholic church....even though Gnosticism has re-emerged as of late.
Perhaps I'm starting a whole ball of crud here that I don't mean to start...but, truthfully, I just don't get it.
I've read all the justifications offered and still, I just don't get it.
I'm not a very exclusionary person...I believe very much in the Unity of all things....so, maybe that's why.
Don't feel you need to explain anything to me...I'm just rambling....typing out loud.
Jennifer
<font color=purple> Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow". -- The Talmud </font color=purple>
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