Thursday, June 18, 2015

I'm Glad to be a Christian

I'm glad to be a Christian, not that I could really be anything else, since I was born into a Christian family in a culturally Christian world (Wisconsin and Michigan - the Reformed and Presbyterian traditions), educated and trained in the Christian Ministry. Had I been born in a Muslim or Buddhist nation/culture, that's likely what I'd be.

But I am what I am, and I'm grateful for the faith that speaks of love and forgiveness as the great anchors of life and work. Other traditions focus on similar themes, and here's where I find a great deal of correspondence with people of faith everywhere.

In all of this, I find more commonality with people of other faith-traditions than I find with Christians who discriminate against LGBTQ persons, love guns and tolerate racism, and are willing to condemn the poor for the sake of Christian Libertarianism and its dreams of unfettered Capitalism.

I wish life were a little easier for me and mine when it comes to faith and the way we live, but if history tells me anything, life has never been easy, for anyone.

To my spiritual/religious friends, thanks for all your support and vision ... not every Christian agrees with me, naturally, and some take profoundly different paths, but so it goes - glad we're still friends, nonetheless.

I'm still learning and growing, too ... who knows where it will end, though for now, I'm happy to be where I am.