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>

I feel much the same as you Jenny. I do feel I am better than intolerant people, but that is all in education and choice. I am not truly better, just intolerant to intolerance LOL>

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I am the same way! Who am I to judge if someone is more/less holy in their own right? Thanks for sharing that (you would be amazed how many poeple do not feel the same way though!)!

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In agreement..who am I to say what God will or will not do? I could read, study, whatever to my hearts content and in the end, what I say will happen has absolutely no effect on what He decides really will happen...I am just an imperfect human trying to do the best can, you know?

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<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

I guess it's because I believe that there are infinite paths to God

<hr></blockquote>

I don't think anyone should ever act or convince themselves that they are somehow holier than anyone else. Many people who claim faith do carry themselves higher than those they deem not of faith. No believer should ever allow pride to work in his/her life as so. AFter all the Bible says that "There is no one righteous, not even one", and "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God".
BUT:
As Christians, our belief is that Christ is the ONLY way to God, and that there is no other way. So, as beleivers in Christ's death, and what his death was for (the cleansing of sins and the reconciliation of humans to God) it makes it impossible for us to think that those who think they can get reconciled to God without CHrist will be reconciled.

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What Candace said... no need for me to repeat it :)

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I've been treated by a few people as untrustworthy because I am not a ________________ . I feel like they think I am very much less holy than they are.

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Oh, I understand that completely.
We just fundamentally disagree...and that's okay. http://www.amitymama.com/images/icons/smile.gif
I wasn't speaking about anyone's attitudes here at all...just reading what some of the Catholic mamas had said about how they were treated or how the world views Catholics got me to thinking.
You totally have a right to your belief and their rightness in your mind, heart, spirit....I was only saying that never in 100-million years would I think any less of you because we disagree....never would I think that I was closer to God than you are, more in touch with God than you are...and I hope that people who feel differently than me, while perhaps thinking I am hopelessly misguided, would extend the same courtesy to me.
'Tis all.


Jennifer
<font color=purple> Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow". -- The Talmud </font color=purple>

There is quite a bit of prejudice against Catholics in my neck of the woods. I never really understood it. It was explained to me, but it just seemed odd. In a way, I could understand the difference of opinion between Christians and Jews, but not Catholics and non-Catholics. This is actually one of the many things that helped guide me towards Buddhism (even though they're not much better, lol.)

Becky
Mom to Geneva!

In Judaism, we definitely have a concept of a "rightious gentile", meaning a good and person who is not of our religion. Gentiles who helped Jews during the Holocaust have been honored as "The Rightious Among the Nations", the fact that they weren't Jews makes their sacrifices even more amazing to me. I am sure that they will be there in whatever afterlife there is for all good people.



Elissa, part-time preschool teacher and all-the-time mom to Ariel (6-20-88) Sammy, (6-22-95) and Benjy (8-14-98)

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I had a good friend in grad school. We spent a lot of time together...sort of dated, sort of not. One of the things that kept it from becoming anything more, for BOTH of us, was religion. He was Southern Baptist. He could not understand how I could "stand it," knowing I "will be going to hell, as in, not saved, not knowing the love of Christ."

& you know, I've been told, by an AW mama, that she could tell a Jew by sight. This ranks as one of those things I never forget, kwim? Partly, too, it falls into this category. People are different spiritually, so they're visibly different, too, to her. It isn't a Semitic look, b/c that includes non-Jews. It falls under that same category of superiority & ignorance, to me. It's all hurtful and sometimes when I read these kinds of comments, it's hard to remember that it's nearly 2002!

Shalom,
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Some dumb guy who tried to talk to me once said, "You'd look like the perfect Jew if you didn't have those blue eyes."
I said, "Yeah, and you'd be really attractive if you weren't such a dumba**."
Now, I still don't know what he meant by that...he was really drunk.
That said, I do have Jewish ancestry..but it's rather distant...my paternal great-grandmother's family were German Jews, but the one son who immigrated (my great, whatever, grandfather, a cabinet/casket maker) left Germany in the 1700's and converted to Christianity upon arriving in the colonies. Rumor has it he wanted a land grant (which he got...right down the road from here) and didn't think he'd have a chance as a Jewish person...he also married a Christian woman.
His surname was Rush.
I guess he wasn't very dedicated to his faith, but, who am I to judge?
Still, I don't know what they idiot in the bar was talking about...and I couldn't figure out if he meant it in a complimentary way or as some sort of backhanded comment...it was really out of line, either way.


Jennifer
<font color=purple> Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow". -- The Talmud </font color=purple>