Another week gone by and winter has still not come on hard. Weather in the shoulder seasons has a major impact on life at the farm. There is a hunkering down and a slowing of the days that comes with the day in day out rain and cold of a deep west coast winter.
I have been listening to a Christian radio station for most of this week and am, as a Christian, shaken by the apocalyptic tone of their messaging. For me the heart of the bible is the stories of the life and message of Jesus Christ as remembered and told by the four Gospel writers. That message is, not surprisingly given the Jewish heritage of the authors of old, placed in the context of the scriptures of the Jewish people and is interpreted by writers like Paul and James and Peter. Conservative Christianity seems to have bypassed the message of the four gospels other than as illuminated by the interpreters Paul and John of Patmos. Similarly, the interpretations centered on the old testament rely almost exclusively on the Book of Daniel. The emphasis on reward and punishment, on us and them, on the exclusiveness of the gifts of the spirit, all of these seem most un-Christian to me.
As I believe in God, I also believe in each person being possessed of a soul. I do not know what soul is, as I do not know what God is. I do believe that a life lived shallowly has the effect of turning souls filled with untellable potential into withered, vestigial and, ultimately poisonous remnants. I come to this belief after following a life that has been shallow and careless and without many redeeming qualities. It seems to me that in grasping so firmly on the concepts of judgement and punishment the conservative Christians embrace a very surface interpretation of the message of God as presented in the life of Jesus. But, perhaps I am wrong...I have only been called back to my spiritual journey for a few years and my thoughts are not fully formed.
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