Hello Andrew, Thank you for the time and effort you have put into your response. I appreciate the extent you have gone to in considering my post and formulating your response.
"Andrew Swenson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Firstly I think that the discussion we started showed very quickly ... >that at the heart of the discussion's >causing the most grief within the UCA is a clash of belief systems'. Absolutely. Furthermore, I think a key part of the clash is in how we approach the bible. >Walter Martin talks at the start of his book about how 2 very different >belief systems can seemingly reach agreement while not actually reaching >agreement due to each systems' use of common words which have very different >meanings in each system. I think this is exactly what is happening at present in the UCA. We have a series of statements about the bible in the Basis of Union and we all seem to agree on these statements. However, the words mean very different things to each of us. This becomes apparent when we start to talk about issues like sexuality. Our different understandings of the bible lead to radically different views on sexuality. However, because we *appear* to agree on the statements in the BOU about the bible, we do not address the real source of our differences and get stuck in a debate without end. >In Unveiling Islam the author's showed me that while I had always considered >as a strong possibility that Allah & Yahweh are the same God, the >characteristic's of each as described in the central books of each faith >revealed very different god's. I strongly believe there is only one God and thus all religions honestly seeking to know more about God are describing the same God in their respective holy writings. Of course, each search for God is fallible and incomplete, so I expect to find differences as each writer struggles to articulate something ultimately mysterious and beyond understanding. My own description of God would be different from a literal biblical description. It would also probably be different from everyone on this list to a greater or lesser extent. I think this means we just have different perspectives. We each assign different attributes to God based on our experiences, including some we may ultimately discard as either incorrect or limited at a later date. > How do we define the central terms of our belief systems? > > It's my understanding that the early church did so by using creed's etc, > and I believe that the Basis of Union document defines the core terms > of the Uniting Church as understood by the founders of the church. > > But how many members of the church have read and accepted or rejected > these definitions? Creeds and statements of faith are very useful in bringing people together, articulating what holds them together, and enabling them to work together for a common goal. However, they become dangerous when they do not allow for change as new experiences of God occur which suggest limitations (or even inaccuracies) in our original statements of faith. >My belief system is that there is an ultimate being which is God, but that >like a group of pygmie's encoutering an elephant in the jungle at night, >each of us has a limited experience of God, we make assumptions as to the >reality of who/what God is, and in part we are right, but because of our >limited experience's our view is also filled with inaccuracies. By seeking >to share with others we can begin to get a clearer picture of God, but this >only works if we are all talking about the same elephant. It doesn't work >if I am talking about an 'elephant' and you are talking about a 'lion' ... Given that we are all working in the dark, with no way of distinguishing which of us (if any of us) has an elephant in our grasp and which of us has a lion, how do we know if we are talking about different animals or different aspects of the same animal? We are all talking about a profoundly real experience we each have had of God. It has motivated us to gather together, to worship together, to care for each other, and, largely, to work together for change in the world. I think we must at least start from the assumption we are talking about the same God, no matter how different our perspectives seem to be. Thanks again for your thoughtful response. I look forward to continuing the conversation. Jonathan __________________________________________________________________ Switch to Netscape Internet Service. As low as $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register Netscape. Just the Net You Need. New! Netscape Toolbar for Internet Explorer Search from anywhere on the Web and block those annoying pop-ups. Download now at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/search/install.jsp ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
