Choose Wisely

The Christian Faith, like all religions, is malleable plastic - we can pretty well shape it as we please - anything from Thomas Merton to John Birch, from Joan of Arc to Mother Teresa, from Paula Poundstone to Paula White.

As a Christian, I can master every page of the Bible and know Christian tradition inside and out, but it's still up to me to make my decision as to what I'll believe and how I'll live. It's all there in bits and peaces, but scattered about defying any effort to put it all together into a coherent whole where every piece fits nicely, snug and tidy, relieving me of ever again having to think, heaven forbid.

The puzzle is never done ... just when it's all put together, more pieces appear ... "O crap," we say ... and either ignore the new pieces, throw 'em away, or labor on, creating an ever larger picture of faith, hope and love.

There is no God telling me, or anyone else, the specifics of the deal. To imagine such is to engage in a horrible illusion, and such illusions mostly prove deadly, if not for their violence, then passivity, while others suffer and die.

Things get really whacky when we look at the creation of our own hands and say, "God decreed it," or the equally illusionary phrase, "Well, it's in the Bible."

We like to put it on God, or some "sacred" text so we can "believe" without responsibility, and belief without responsibility is ideology. "The devil made me do it," or "God made me do it," amounts to the same thing: the abandonment of responsibility.

So, go ahead and be a person of faith, but remember the faith you choose is your choice, and not God's decree. God appreciates the effort, but above all, God desires honesty, which is the heart and soul of humility, a virtue some people of faith find utterly abhorrent.

So, go ahead and choose ... and like the old knight said to Indiana Jones, "Choose wisely."

You can choose to hate, you can choose to love ... you can choose arrogance or humility, you can condemn all other traditions and beliefs, or you can see the hand of God in all of it ... you can speak in tongues or be quiet, you can raise your hands and fan the heavens as some rock band wannabes pound away with flashing lights, videos and pics blinding the true believer, or you can worship with organs, incense, high altars and clergy vestments that cost an arm and a leg, you can go to church or stay home and watch CNN, you can claim to believe, or you can shrug your shoulders, you can fret and fuss about folks going to hell, or you can believe in universal salvation, or you can believe than when we die, that's it, job done, poorly or well, but job done, and back to the dirt we go.

God has decreed the "confusion of tongues," so that human responsibility would be preserved, and that we would never form some monolithic tower to the heavens, but spread out upon the face of the earth and learn how to live together - the original mandate of the Garden story, and the one thing humankind has always hated, and has always been willing to trade away for security and blind belief.

And that's the way it is ... maybe. Ha.