Re (4): Further comments about Belief and Understanding.

This is exactly what I mean about the difficulty of trying to "love the unlovable"...you may "want" to treat them with respect and understanding, but, since...in reality, you neither respect nor understand them, it is easy to get into trouble. Abstractly, it's easy to love & respect people, but when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of life, it's hard.
My question is...what do you "do" at those times when your heart & mind are "out of sync"? Aside from praying, I mean, which is, of course, absolutely necessary. Do we "pretend" to think and feel the way we "should" rather than the way we "really are"? Is that healthy? Besides, it's so close to hypocrisy and insincerity....we may be in danger of believing our own bullshit, which may REALLY harm others.
It's a legitimate question. One, I might add, that is asked with complete sincerity.
Of course I know the problem is in ME. That was my point. I was using myself as an example of someone who believed...on some level...that there was a splinter in someone's eye (Eric...as a representative of Christian apologists), when, in reality, there was a plank in my own. I was just doing a stream-of-consciousness thing trying to figure out why I was being subtly judgmental. I may have sounded like I was an obnoxious bigot, but that's because I was thinking aloud trying to figure out WHY I'm an obnoxious bigot. Introspection isn't very pretty.

I suspect you didn't get my point because you became a little defensive when you thought I was attacking Eric and the process of Christian Apologetics in some way (Which is completely false. I'm one of Eric's biggest fans!) I'm sure you have grown very fond of him, so you therefore almost "instinctively" sought to protect him. This made you angry. (Hmmmm...I must have seemed pretty "unlovable") You responded quickly, without thinking carefully because you're heart and mind were "out of sync") You didn't ask yourself...am I interpreting Sara's comments correctly? Could she mean something else? Instead, you jumped to conclusions and made statements that I perceive as inaccurate and unjust.

Did it occur to you that my quest to "love the unlovable" might be a source of anguish to me? No...you just prattled on about "respect and dignity." OF COURSE I WANT TO TREAT THEM WITH REASPECT AND DIGNITY!!! That's the problem!
When I wondered whether I should "ask when I really didn't believe I'd receive"...you started talking about Mercedes & nonsense like that, as if I'm a shallow nincompoop.
My comment about "making a decision for Christ" really offended you for some reason. What I meant was...making a leap of faith and deciding to "believe" in Christ, as opposed to Krishna or Buddha. (Incidentally, Buddha never claimed to be God...people turned him into one out of need. And Hinduism is quite complex, but they too can have a personal relationship with God. But, hey, I have no desire to get into a "my religion is better than yours" dispute.) What annoys me is that you ASSUME that, because I don't believe in Christ, I don't believe in God. That's totally wrong and it annoys me. In fact, you seem quite "unlovable" at this moment!

There's that plank in my eye again. The problem is in me. As far as I'm concerned, the problem is always in me. That's where I seek the truth.

Sometimes I grow very tired of being a human being in the twenty-first century. It is so exhausting. It would nice to be a tree for awhile. Maybe I'll become a Buddhist?

Karen...I'm joking!!!

• Re(5): Further comments about Belief and Understanding. - By karen September 13, 2005 at 12:21:58 PM
  • Re(6): Further comments about Belief and Understanding. - By Sara September 13, 2005 at 01:10:21 PM