Religous thinkery

[mari4212]

I've been getting reminded of religion a lot today. This morning I saw that the beliefnet meme has returned to my flist. (The one where you take the quiz and it lists the twenty religions your beliefs correspond to most, in descending order of relevance.)

I retook the test myself, but I'm not going to post the results. They were pretty much the same as they have been in the past, with Liberal/Mainline Protestant as the closest match. (For those of you who might not know already, I'm Episcopalian, which is a mainline Protestant denomination, and my parish is well known for being rather liberal.)

That's just a bit of setup. The major instance that got me thinking about my beliefs today was my mother referencing one of my favorite New Testament passages: Matthew 25:31-46. (For those who don't immediately have a Christian bible at hand, that's the passage where Jesus talks about the actions that will lead to going to heaven versus facing punishment, aka, the sheep and the goats story.)

It's one of my favorite passages because it's at the heart of what Christian ethics should be. "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." (Mt 25:35-36)

Very simple ethical standards, focused on taking care of the weak and disadvantaged around us. These are practical examples of the command to love the neighbor, which is what Christians are supposed to be doing. There's nothing in there about passing a doctrinal litmus test, or being able to explain the difference between transubstantiation and consubstantiation, or about what we do with who in the bedroom. (Jesus did not spend much time talking about sex. He spent a lot more time talking about this whole being responsible and taking care of each other thing.)

This is what I believe. That we have a moral obligation to take care of those in need, and that we should be focusing our energy more on that kind of help (and on ending the systems that create the need in the first place), than on our urge to judge others.

Comments

[iridescentnight.livejournal.com]

I agree with you dear. I love reading your posts. I feel like I get an education every time, which I love!