Morning Rev: Just a bit of my tuppence here, but I don�t feel it�s fair to suggest that religion causes judgement, intolerance and conflict for everyone. I would never disagree with you that there is a large element who become feverishly drunk in the dogma that is slung at them. But this can also apply to science, feminism, politics, bigotry and anything else in excess.
For me, and perhaps I�m of a sadly small group, my faith has not only encouraged, but demanded an almost unquenchable thirst for learning, interaction and life-experience. And it causes me, constantly to reach past the comfort of dogma and challenge what I hear and what I read.
I would also have to tie this to those experiences that have had such profound impact upon my life. I have experienced the greatest highs and I�ve been in the deepest most guttural lows of humanity. And for myself, as I only have the right to speak for myself, it has been those experiences that I pursued, in faith, that have been the most fulfilling in my life.
My most common personal mantra is �I am not a judge.� My second one, which was said to me when I was about 8 years old was �get out there and live every moment of your life, because if you don�t, you�ll have nothing to talk about in the locker room when you�re older.� That message has stuck with me like cement.
I recall saying at my thirtieth birthday that if I died tomorrow, I would have accomplished more, experienced more, and seen more, than any eighty year old I knew.
Having lived within many cultures and geopolitical mind-sets, I believe that political dogma can have the same effect as religious dogma. But to me, the bottom line is the broad will of the individual. I would have used the word �spirit� but that would prompt a change in direction for the thread.
Fr Bill