Insights Outside The Walls

This concept that God would choose a specific people over and above all others has always seemed unfair, if not antithetical to the very nature of how God would act.  It seems to me a primitive understanding of the nature of God, which has set up this “my God against your God” mentality throughout history until this present day.  We need not look far to see the violence that such a tribal notion of God has created in the world.  I read this in Jeremiah today:  “At that time they will call Jerusalem the Lord’s throne; there all nations will be gathered together to honor the name of the Lord at Jerusalem, and they will walk no longer in their hardhearted wickedness.”  Jeremiah 3: 17. I felt sad at the reality of Jerusalem today, a crossroads of  major religions, yet far from being a place of peace.  My God, not yours.

In light of such a reality, I am so grateful for the “new” spirituality that is emerging more and more.  It lives outside the confines of any one religion or any one concept of “God.”  The unprecedented globalization that we experience today is bringing to consciousness the tribal nature of a “my God against your God” mentality.  Go to any bookstore and look at the spirituality section and you will see there a large selection of spiritual books, not based in any one religion.  Look at 12 Step programs which are hotbeds of personal growth where people of all religions (or no religion) come together.  One concept of God is not thrust on anyone.  Everyone chooses their own concept of a “Higher Power.”  And it works!  People don’t get caught up in a “my God against your God” mentality, or fights over whose belief system is correct.  They get caught up in growing as human beings and doing good for themselves and others!  Period!  And isn’t that what being “Godly” is all about?

I believe the Christ knew this and tried to break through this tribal mentality of God.    And he got in trouble for it!  For in his day, just as in our own day, there were upstanding religious people who felt very threatened at the thought that their particular “God” or belief system wasn’t the best and the one to which all should aspire.

Instead of fighting over belief systems or worrying about whether or not mine is the best, can we look at what is common among them and what makes us grow in love and self giving toward others?