Not so long ago I wrote a posting called “He’s One Of Mine” and in it, I played with the idea that God is the same God of all religions. I received the following reprimand soon after the posting:

“Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father, except through Me.’ So… the god of Buddha (or Mohammed, or Confucious (sic), or any other religion) is NOT the same as the GOD of JESUS. They are completely different, and all religions do NOT lead to God. The only way to get to heaven is through a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ who died for our sins. HE IS THE ONLY WAY. ~God Bless ! — Beth Lightle”

Posted by Beth on Tuesday, April 07, 2009 – 7:27 PM

First of all, Beth Lightle, thanks for taking the time to write in. A little controversy is always good for the soul. It keeps us alive and thinking. Though I doubt that you think your thoughts are controversial judging by the number of caps in your missive. You’ve made it clear here that you’re absolutely sure of yourself.

I too am a huge fan and follower of this man Jesus. I’ve spent my life studying the Bible and especially his words and teachings, and have used these teachings to better my life, to heal and be healed. I do not in any way discount his statement, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father, except through Me.” I only slightly interpret the words in a different light than you do. When he says, “…except by me.” I take that to mean, ‘by my teachings, or by the truths that I teach.”

I like to think that truth is truth the world over. I don’t believe for a second that we Christians have the corner on truth and that everybody else completely misses the mark. We Christians have too often missed the mark ourselves with our exclusivity, our wars and our greed.

I’ve also spent my life studying the teachings of Buddha, of Confucius, of Lao-tzu,  Mohammed, Moses, Billy Graham, Baba Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Mary Baker Eddy, Wayne Dyer, and Werner Erhardt, to name but a few, and have found the same truths in all their writings.Often language differs, but the same truths get repeated over and over.

I’m not here to disagree with you. We’re all entitled to our own beliefs. Let’s just make sure that we keep taking those beliefs out daily and  reconsidering them, that we’re digging deeper and not just accepting dogma. If we, as a people, don’t keep thinking for ourselves and challenging the belief systems around us, then we won’t grow.

Jesus, himself, spent a lifetime challenging the systems around him – so much so that they killed him for it.  But the Christ in him lived on to continue to challenge the world’s thinking and it continues to do that today.

Some of us are handed a belief system in childhood and then spend the rest of our lives studying it and defending it. Some of us are converts, discovering a new belief system and then moving our logic into that system. Some of us live and add on to our own concepts every day and take from each system what works for us.

If you study the lives of all the masters, you find one thing in common with all of them. They all broke away in some way from their previous belief system and struck out on their own. They were all revolutionaries.

I’ve discovered for myself that the only thing I really know is that I am. All the rest is speculation.  And so I ask you, as you are asking me, how do you know that what you say is true? Because you were taught that or because you discovered it in the depths of your soul in a deeply personal moment of revolution and revelation?

I’m not saying you’re all wrong. I’m not saying I’m all right, but we do clearly differ in our thinking.  That’s not so bad, as long as we keep searching for the truth in our lives and don’t accept the dogma of others without first thinking deeply about it and then making it our own.

My concept of God has changed over and over again throughout my life. I hope to have a new one tomorrow. I just about grasp one concept, but then I’m on to the next. I’ve learned not to throw the old ones out, however. Instead the new concepts are add-ons or adjustments to the old and tried.  I prefer this way of thinking to formal religion.

You might say I prefer spirituality over religion. If that rattles your cage, so be it. That’s who I am.  I’m still searching and sure of very little. But I’m open – open and eager to learn and reconsider the infinite.

So let’s agree to disagree and step lightly on each other as we do. I respect your commitment. I hope the same from you.

To read the 2nd part of this discussion, go here: Response to Beth Lightle – Part 2

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