Battle lines between the major and minor religions around the world are heating up because we are seeing more people, more denominations (30,000 Christain denominations alone), and less space than ever before. As the earth gets smaller and more crowded, religious people will be forced to become SEEKERS and not POSSESSORS of the TRUTH or else we will kill ourselves off sooner than we know.
Religion, church, and or faith is not so much about BELIEVING in right things as it is about having the faith that God is all about re-making us in His image. We were originally made in His image. We are an original blessing and not bound by some thousands of year old physical handicap called original sin. Environmental, cultural, and psychological sins- yes!
Christians mock Hindus for not killing cattle because of their belief in reincarnation while we can"t understand how they (especially if we"re Catholic) don"t get our practice of eating the body and drinking the blood of Jesus. How silly of them! Both the East an the West have some of the truth.
What we need to do is take a step back, take on the mind of the Christ, and then re-engage all of humanity with love and tolerance. No one has all the truth. No one! Both Jesus and Buddha expressed truth.
Ghandi put it this way, "It is unwise to be sure of one"s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err." Or as Jeremy Young put it, "Certitude is the greatest divider of people, especially when it comes to religious beliefs."
There"s a story that I remember (from whom I don"t remember) that says something like this. God gave to one of His angels the TRUTH in the form of a sphere and told the angel to take it to earth. On the way down, the angel stumbled (see, not even angels are perfect), and the sphere broke into many pieces. Various people around the globe picked up one of the pieces and proclaimed that they had the truth.
It"s true- they have a PIECE of the TRUTH- both the Oriental & the Occidental!
Are you open to SEEKING other truths or will you go on pretending that you area POSSESSOR of ALL the TRUTH?