Re "No. I responded to an earlier question from you about my religious leanings a week or so ago; did you miss it?":
So you did. Sorry. Re "You could say I'm sympathetic to religions generally; I've read a good bit of theology because it interests me, but that's about it.": Sounds like me. Except I went to a Moravian school originally founded in 1753 as a utopian community. Re "Robin Carlsen converted while he was still adventuring . . . he rejected Catholicism as well.": His jumping from MMY to Ayatollahs to Popes suggest someone in search of an authority figure, no? Re "He didn't become a priest. Not sure where you got that.": It was a rumour - I'm sure I saw it mentioned on FFL long, long ago. ---In fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com, <authfriend@...> wrote: Seraphita wrote: > Should I assume that you are Roman Catholic? Or at least a fellow traveller? No. I responded to an earlier question from you about my religious leanings a week or so ago; did you miss it? My family heritage is Christian (Presbyterian), but I didn't have a religious upbringing and am not a believer. You could say I'm sympathetic to religions generally; I've read a good bit of theology because it interests me, but that's about it. > I understand Robin Carlsen became a Catholic convert - indeed a Catholic > priest (?) after his > adventures on the new-age circuit. He converted while he was still adventuring, actually. (Not sure I'd call those adventures "New Age," unless you want to put TM in that category.) He convinced many of his followers to convert as well; a number of them are still devout Catholics. At the time, he thought Catholicism could be reconciled with TM. The group collapsed in chaos not long after that, and he went into seclusion for 25 years to sort himself out. He decided shortly after he began this recovery process that TM and Catholicism weren't compatible after all and rejected TM. A few years after that he decided the Church was no longer what it had been and had lost its divine authority with regard to salvation. At that point he rejected Catholicism as well. (Ann, I think I have the chronology straight here; if not, corrections are welcome.) He didn't become a priest. Not sure where you got that. > Are you one of his former acolytes? Nope. I encountered him for the first time here on FFL, summer of 2011. Seraphita wrote: (snip) > Isn't the vulgar notion of Christianity held by most believers radically > dualist? (Which > isn't surprising as western Christianity flows from Augustine.) Your > standard Christian > believes God is good and Satan is evil and History will end with a stand-up > fight > between the angels of light and the demons with the good angels destined to > prevail. Christianity is dualistic, yes, but what you describe above really isn't what the "standard Christian" believes (at least not in the U.S.). It's various fundamentalist-type denominations and sects that are preoccupied with the End Times and Armageddon and the Rapture and so on. Standard or "mainline" Christians don't necessarily disbelieve in the prophecies of Revelation, but they don't tend to take them literally, and they don't focus on them.
