On Jul 27, 2007, at 4:28 PM, jon louis mann wrote:
Amen, Brother!
I am very nearly one of those Christians.
The Bible may very well be a human product that tells us what certain
groups of very, very opinionated people thought about God, but I
believe it tells us only a little about what God may think.
If, in fact, God exists and is sentient in any fashion that we would
recognize.
Dave
sounds to me, brother, that you are a CINO (christian in name only).
the bible as metaphor argument smacks to me as lacking commitment,
perhaps, or straddling on the fence? dave, you seem less metaphorical?
perhaps a metaphysical christian, or just a plain mystic?
Probably. I have a hard time getting a handle on what people mean when
they call themselves or others mystics...
As for the CINO label, I am reasonably certain that no small number of
today's American Christians would concur with that assessment. I am a
member of a Methodist congregation in California, led by two pastors
educated at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, which is about
as far to the liberal end of the spectrum as you can get and still
call yourself a Christian.
I think that Jesus was a man uniquely connected with the divine
(to pick a phrase that wildly liberal teachers like Spong and Borg
use to avoid all the freight that comes with God), who so radiated
that connection that none who came in contact with him could fail to
notice it and be moved by it. Some of them, trying to explain the
ineffable numinous experience of being with him, inevitably used
metaphors that others took literally. Perhaps even It's as if he
wasn't even born the way normal men are, he's so different.
Anyway, I call myself a Christian because I haven't invested the time
to come up with a better label, but as Christianity walks one way and
I walk another, the time for coming up with a better label may be
upon me soon.
Dave Christic Mystian Land
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