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I don't know if this is the right flava of post for this forum, but it's on my mind, so I'll put it out there. It's about spirtuality and pluralism and salvation.<br><br>
I've been fond of Christianity for as long as I can remember because of the concept of grace. I'm sure my articulation of it is clumsy; I'm not a theologian. But, basically, it goes like this: you get salvation without earning it. We carry burdens by being human, by collecting the crap that comes from slogging around on this earth. When it comes down to it, we're not so hot at carrying them. They get too heavy. But it doesn't matter. If we just decide -- or answer the call -- to let them go ... they're taken up for us. Salvation. Freedom from the burdens.<br><br>
I know it's controversial to some. For one thing, it depends on the idea that humankind is inherently flawed, shackled by original sin. But if we set aside the "sin" talk for a second, the idea translates. The basic tenet of Buddhism is that suffering is the essence of earthly existence, that resisting it is ultimately futile, and that freedom from suffering comes from accepting that we can't overcome it. Letting go. Not girding up to carry burdens, but just letting them go. So one with other faiths ... there's a kernal of grace at the heart of most.<br><br>
I'm listening, again, to "Graceland" by Paul Simon. The narrator's busted up ... he's divorced, tumbling in turmoil; his traveling companions are ghosts and empty sockets; he says "losing love is like a window in your heart/everybody sees you're blown apart/everybody sees the wind blow." That's the stuff that happens to us, even good folks: loss and turmoil and shame, abandonment and unfulfillment. Ghosts and empty sockets.<br><br>
But he has reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland.<br><br>
All of us.<br><br>
What I wonder is this: as religion teaches it, the process of receiving grace is contingent on a partcular brand of cultural action. You accept Jesus Christ as the source of salvation, the lifter of burdens, the benevolence that frees you. Then (putting it crudely) you get the pass to heaven. Or you accept whatever prophet or deity is mandated. Choose the wrong one, and you're hosed, even though the process of recognizing the futility of trying to haul all this junk around and the commitment to letting it go looks and feels the same in dang near every human soul.<br><br>
By that blueprint, there's no reason to believe we all will be received in graceland. Some culture has got the right God and the right path. Everyone else is out.<br><br>
Can that be right? I'm not asking because I endorse some sort of namby-pamby relativism thing, where all belief is just as good as another. I'm saying: can folks receive that deeply meaningful gift of grace, that lifting of the burdens, that salvation ... without signing the right forms? And might the receipt of grace mean salvation now, on this planet ... that one's steps here are lighter, that freedom takes form now and here, not hereafter (maybe it does there too, but who knows?).<br><br>
I've asked the question in the other place, but I'll give my answer here, just because it's on my mind and in my bones right now: I'm with Paul. I have reason to believe we all can be received.<br><br>
Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks for listening.
I've been fond of Christianity for as long as I can remember because of the concept of grace. I'm sure my articulation of it is clumsy; I'm not a theologian. But, basically, it goes like this: you get salvation without earning it. We carry burdens by being human, by collecting the crap that comes from slogging around on this earth. When it comes down to it, we're not so hot at carrying them. They get too heavy. But it doesn't matter. If we just decide -- or answer the call -- to let them go ... they're taken up for us. Salvation. Freedom from the burdens.<br><br>
I know it's controversial to some. For one thing, it depends on the idea that humankind is inherently flawed, shackled by original sin. But if we set aside the "sin" talk for a second, the idea translates. The basic tenet of Buddhism is that suffering is the essence of earthly existence, that resisting it is ultimately futile, and that freedom from suffering comes from accepting that we can't overcome it. Letting go. Not girding up to carry burdens, but just letting them go. So one with other faiths ... there's a kernal of grace at the heart of most.<br><br>
I'm listening, again, to "Graceland" by Paul Simon. The narrator's busted up ... he's divorced, tumbling in turmoil; his traveling companions are ghosts and empty sockets; he says "losing love is like a window in your heart/everybody sees you're blown apart/everybody sees the wind blow." That's the stuff that happens to us, even good folks: loss and turmoil and shame, abandonment and unfulfillment. Ghosts and empty sockets.<br><br>
But he has reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland.<br><br>
All of us.<br><br>
What I wonder is this: as religion teaches it, the process of receiving grace is contingent on a partcular brand of cultural action. You accept Jesus Christ as the source of salvation, the lifter of burdens, the benevolence that frees you. Then (putting it crudely) you get the pass to heaven. Or you accept whatever prophet or deity is mandated. Choose the wrong one, and you're hosed, even though the process of recognizing the futility of trying to haul all this junk around and the commitment to letting it go looks and feels the same in dang near every human soul.<br><br>
By that blueprint, there's no reason to believe we all will be received in graceland. Some culture has got the right God and the right path. Everyone else is out.<br><br>
Can that be right? I'm not asking because I endorse some sort of namby-pamby relativism thing, where all belief is just as good as another. I'm saying: can folks receive that deeply meaningful gift of grace, that lifting of the burdens, that salvation ... without signing the right forms? And might the receipt of grace mean salvation now, on this planet ... that one's steps here are lighter, that freedom takes form now and here, not hereafter (maybe it does there too, but who knows?).<br><br>
I've asked the question in the other place, but I'll give my answer here, just because it's on my mind and in my bones right now: I'm with Paul. I have reason to believe we all can be received.<br><br>
Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks for listening.
