Actually I have also thought about the “dark” side of God.
This might be an interesting topic for next time! We also have to remember that the bible writers, Gospel or otherwise, are saying what THEY believe about God, perhaps whether it is ACTUALLY true or not. So if everything about God is mediated through imperfect means, such as people, and their impressions, opinions, etc., how can we know WHAT God is ACTUALLY like? Who’s opinion or interpretation of God is the RIGHT one?
Somehow we actually do know. But I keep coming back to the idea that the healthier we are (in mind, body, spirit, emotions, heart) the more healthy a perspective of life and God we’ll have. And perhaps we’ll be better able to “weed” out the screwed up interpretations and twisted opinions that are out there – perhaps even the ones in the bible. Are there screwed up and unhealthy interpretations of God in the bible? I think there are.
Anyway, shoot something out to the group, or post something on the blog… who knows, someone might bite, and we’ll start a good conversation going.
C-
-----Original Message-----From: David W. Dudich [mailto:dwdudich@comcast.net]Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 9:37 PMTo: Chad KlineSubject: Thoughts About Tuesdays Meeting
Chad
One of the topics you had suggested Tuesday was along the lines of what part of our faith troubles us.
Here is some thoughts that trouble me.
Usually you reinforce how much God loves us. But what about "the dark side of the Force"? What does God expect/demand from us in return? For example, when Peter was a fisherman, presumably he was supporting his family. But Jesus told him to drop everything and come follow Him. What if God spoke to you and said "Chad, drop everything and come with me?" And if you said "But what about Christine, and Elizabeth and Elijah? If I leave them, how will they cope?" Jesus said about the man who said "Wait - I must bury my father" "Let the dead bury the dead" What if he said "Chad, they will just have to get along by themselves as best they can. Come with me." Does Jesus expect/demand our complete love "with your whole heart, and your whole mind, and your whole body" to the exclusion of all/any others?
Is it the love of money that is the root of all evil, or the love of anything we consider to be ours - our possessions, our skills and talents, our friends and family? Was the rich man condemned to hell merely because he considered some things to be his? I think the Buddhists believe that the desire for some sort of permanance, whether it be in material things or relationships, is the root cause of all suffering.
Is this the same sort of thing that God expects of us?
Elsewhere in one of the Gospels, does Jesus not state that you must hate your family in order to love God enough? It's as though God demands our exclusive love. If we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, then are all to be loved equally, with no additional love for anyone special - wife, children, parents? Must we become as hermits, or some monks, and renounce the world, all of our possessions, and all our love for cherished ones, in order to demonstrate to God that we reciprocate his love?
Should we address these concerns/issues at a future Tuesday meeting?
Dave
2 comments:
Don't laugh, but I was re-reading a book today by Stephen King and I actually just finished reading a passage about this exact point. "You'll find that God often chooses to speak through the dying and the insane. It seems to me.....a healthy person might be apt to filter the divine message, to alter it with his or her own personality." The Stand
And since I'm going to assume that most of the Gospels are written by mostly sane people, I'm going to also assume that they may have "colored" their passages to fit themselves. Maybe we need to glean the overall message that is being sent and go from there.
You also asked whether it is the love of money or also possessions, etc. that is the root of all evil. Maybe it's not just the love of these things, but the fact that we love these things TOO much and make our lives revolve around them so much that we can't concentrate on more important things. The rich man only works on getting more money and then thinks that it is HIS savvy that got him there in the 1st place. I guess it is human to put all our attention on that which we love the most--and maybe that should be God and then the rest will follow.
The Dark Side of God... when I talk about this people tend to get nervous, so I've stopped bringing it up much.
Is there a Dark side to God?
There is the biblical stuff - parts where God tells the Israelites to destroy the village, every man, woman, and child, and even every living thing.
Yeah, but that's the Old Testament, you know, a wrathful, vengeful God (they don't know their bible very well).
Okay - but it's still there, and if we say the bible is the "word of God" then you have to take that seriously. What part of the God we believe in would tell the people to kill every living thing in a village or town?
Again, my take on this is - you have to remember that people wrote the bible, and people interpreted the Spirit. And God was (and still is) in relationship with sometimes flawed, sometimes healthy, sometimes screwed up, sometimes depressed, sometimes happy, sometimes angry people. And some of those people wrote the stories down.
ABout God actually "Calling" me to leave my family... I can't say I've actually "heard" God'd voice. The way God seems to commmunicate to me seems to be through promptings in the soul/heart. I'll feel "pulled" towards something. Perhaps on rare occasion it might come across as a "pull away" from something.
Could God call me away from my family to go "on the Road" for God? I supposed it's possible. but then again I suppose I also have the right to refuse to go.
MY overall "image" of God tends to be something like
-The One That Is the Most Healthy-
I mean, my ideal of what God might be, of what Jesus the human was, is the fullest espression of HEALTH in Mind/Body/Spirit/Emotions, etc. And of course the healthier WE are, the more we tend to see this side of God.
Could God call me away from my family? I suppose, but then I'd have to ask... Is this really God if God is desiring to break up a family I assumed God wanted to be together in the first place.
Usually when we hear of people that have done something really radical, like leaving their families, and say God told them to, we tend to see as mentally unbalanced primarilly becase we do not expect God to pull a switcheroo like that.
And yet... in some cultures (Native American perhaps) some of the people they consider most connected to God would in our culture be considered "crazy". They hear voices? They see things? Angels? I see... hmmm. Nurse, up the dosage!
Jesus does mention in the Gospel about "hating your mother and father" for the sake of God.
the Greek there is Miseow... "hate". What do we make of that? But what kind of society would we be if we "hated" our families for the sake of the Gospel?
Can't we learn about God's love for, and our mission to, the rest of the world THROUGH our families? A case can be made!
So perhaps we're learning that the bible is best read as an "over all". Meaning perhaps the bible is best understood in terms of looking at the "trees", because there is a danger of misinterpreting if we look at some of the individual trees.
Pr. C-
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