All Together Now; Or, As Many As Possible

LK made a lovely and thought-provoking post about God and people insisting theirs is the "right" religion, i.e. "God loves us all, can't we just get along?" I'm paraphrasing, of course, and my brain is a little fuzzy from lack of sleep, so if I forget things or don't make much sense, please don't hold it against me. ^_^

God loves all of us. It's the one factor that we can all depend on, at any time and in any situation. Even when it seems everything else in our lives has gone to absolute poo, and we think nobody could love us and that nothing will ever go right again, God is there with a shoulder for us to cry on and to reassure us.

God is loving and faithful. Just writing that is so comforting to me. : ) So, in the great "my religion is the true one" debate, to me it would make sense that God would offer us many paths to Him, because He wants as many of us with Him as possible! These paths all have the same basic rules (the Ten Commandments, for lack of a more concise label), with the primary one being, of course, to worship and love the Lord our God.

Take no other God before Me. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with your mind, and with all your strength. That is the true path. Simple.

However all the other doctrines and miscellaneous details and quarrels between Judaism, Christianity and Islam may fall, that is the core our respective religions. It's our common thread. So we're all following that greatest commandment. We're all on the "Straight Path".

Senseless quarreling over who is "right" only causes anger and hurt feelings. Can you really claim to be loving your neighbor as yourself in circumstances like that? It's one thing to have discussions, to make your viewpoints known so that others can enrich their understanding of you/your motivations/your religion. This breeds understanding and support -- which all of you ladies are excellent in providing. It's another thing to stand on your soap box and tell someone they're wrong and going to Hell and here's all the reasons why -- which basically boils down to "You aren't Catholic/Protestant/Muslim/Jewish/etc like me."

Unfortunately, that level of intolerance is how Christians are often viewed, even in (or perhaps I should say, especially in) the U.S. So many sermons are the fire-and-brimstone type. Who wants to be part of a religion that seemingly talks about little else? Where are all the sermons on love, forgiveness, peace?

Let's just keep it simple: Love God. Love your neighbor.