I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, mainly because I don't think anyone reading would care but this summer I'm doing some engineering research. One of my co-researchers is from China and we have fun discussing many things different about our cultures. Another one of my researching buddies is an aggressive christian. Aggressive in that if you don't even believe the same flavor of Christianity, he will humbly show you how you are clearly in the wrong. Poor chinese researcher didn't have a chance. He drew her into a conversation about a god she didn't believe in and asked her what she believed in. Let me just say, telling someone like him something like "I'm not sure yet" is infinitely better than "We are a part of a multiverse that science has proven...well, will prove. We don't need God to exist to explain why we exist." She chose the latter and he had a question or two for her.
Later this week, I was picking her up at where she ate lunch. Since I couldn't park there, I illegally (I hope this doesn't count as evidence...) parked at an episcopal church. As I pointed out that I parked illegally she noticed where I parked and so we ended up talking about episcopals and other christians and which I was. Honestly, I'm not sure I can count as a whole christian because I find myself finding Jesus...well I guess I just can't find where he fits in my theology. I like to think God is too big to be contained within a religion. This is what I answered with: "I was raised (in) and I suppose I follow the Catholic Church. But I like to think that if there is a god, He's much bigger than any religion we could make and so in a way, we are all wrong." She agreed and said she figured as much herself so she might as well be atheist until she finds God...as if He could be figured out, the scientists of this world have looked at too many puzzles and heard too many natural laws, and so we start to think that God must adhere to the laws and He too must be a puzzle. We are all fools regardless of if He is or isn't.
So then we talked of why she would be atheist if she acknowledges there may be something worth being spiritual over while also asking why I would be Catholic full well believing the dogma is incomplete. We seemed to believe very similar things and yet here we were on the opposite sides of the theological spectrum. At one point, we mentioned our environment and how being spiritual doesn't cost me anything while it would cost her a lot in China.
Eventually we turned our talk to why Christianity may be incomplete and where something needed to be added (for you see we too are saints, we are priests, we are the pastors of our own church and so we strove to figure out what was to be preached should anyone come to our pulpit) and we mused on individuality. I pointed out how huge individuality is in Christianity and in fact how that is probably how Christianity gained power. From the Jewish "people" God suddenly changes His care to the individuals. Before He would only have relationships with the leaders of a group, now He wants to have an intimate relationship with each of the sheep in His flock...Such a change no doubt helped Christianity flourish. But that's why I love the Catholic Church over the other Christian denominations. It understands that we are all together. We are together the "Body of Christ," individually we are nothing but pieces of a body. Now that may seem like a downer for some but it's so sensible compared to the alternative I think.
We are all a community. We are one together but separate? Well, man is a social creature and as such it seems even technology is in accord with becoming one body as we all slowly merge our pictures, thoughts, bank accounts, lives online. We are slowly becoming more of a hive mind where leaders are no longer distinguished men but merely the mascots of ideologies that must clash. It does tickle the pride to think that I alone am enough. Enough for what? I don't know but I do know that we were not built to be loners. Tribes, gangs, from these governments led by men, from these governments led by the populace (for better or for worse), we have slowly been merging ourselves and rarely has anyone looked back. Just think, where now could a man go to be free from all forms of government? Where does anarchy reside in this day in age? And remember, anarchy also comes with laws, it's just that individuals instead of groups make them. Is that so horrifying? Hitler led a nation to commit atrocities, what if his law only affected one man, himself? Wouldn't that have been so much better? No, the individual is dying.
So with that in mind. Please let us stop assuming we know what God likes. I'm tired of the red team's fans thinking Red team scores= God's Will while the blue team, much more enlightened, regards the true truth to be Blue Team scores= God's Will. Sometimes I can't help but think God cares nothing for our pathetic squabbles, our different clans, our differences. We are one people, white or black or red or yellow. I'd imagine God cares nothing for such trivial differences as race, nationality, gender, or even hair color.
Well except for the gingers...God's gotta love them, otherwise the rest of us would have wiped them out by now.
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