Another lingering reflection (rumination), from a recent Randoms...:
What If...Christianity is much less about what you believe as it is about what you do?
When you really think about it, we believe all kinds of things, don’t we? And, half of them might even be true.... How many times, over the course of your life, have you discovered that what you believed about something was simply wrong. Wherever or however you got the idea, it just wasn't true. Happens a lot, if we're honest.
And, this is not a confined phenomenon, like only to science or experience. It works the same with things like politics and religion. Even, dare I say it, with our beliefs about God.
But, why should that be such a problem — that our understanding of things related to God would be, at the very least, incomplete at any given moment, if not simply wrong? Wouldn't it be a good thing for our understanding to grow?
How do we come to our beliefs, say, about God anyway? We might think, "...from the Bible." OK. But, it is interesting that most people don’t actually read very much of the Bible. More often, they get their beliefs from someone (or some system) who tells them what the Bible says or means. Throughout human history, sacred texts have been used to substantiate belief. And, we know that many times those beliefs really had very little to do with what the Bible says after all. Those beliefs were much more deeply embedded in the social dynamics and politics of the day (and the Bible was simply used to fortify those beliefs). Any even cursory review of history can provide example after example of this dynamic.
And, now, it seems that much of what is fueling our social economies is outrage (particularly about beliefs). In fact, it has gone so far in this direction that it really doesn't matter as much what you do, it just matters what you believe. Who's belief is right; who's is wrong. ...and, now we outrage about it (and worse, we sell outrage about it). Does it really seem healthy when outrage is a premise for belief?
But, this has very little to do anymore with anything Christian. Christianity is really about following Jesus, who seemed to be far more interested in how people were treated than about what they believed: Love God by loving others — then they will know what they need to know about belief. Believe in what I believe about the love of God and how that translates to others, particularly the disenfranchised — these are the things Jesus said…and did. And, when Jesus was critical of something, it was over what was being done — especially, how the believers were treating the unbelievers.
So, why does it seem like Christians are doing most of the yelling these days (especially, about what should be believed)?
The problem is that believing, in and of itself, is not enough. What really matters is how believing informs the actions you take (or don't take) — in other words…what you do.
It has been said that actions speak louder than words. Because without them, beliefs are mostly just ideas (which, if only half are true...means what?).
