On the other hand though, perhaps this crisis will lead people to question what their particular beliefs are about. Devout Catholics for example approach Communion with extreme reverence and being denied it is a serious issue to them. How does that make one lick of sense? Is G-d limited in space and time? Is G-d incapable of rendering the same blessing to you without little white wafers and fermented grape juice? Is the Priest your sole connection to the divine, and you are cut off unless he pushes white wafers and grape juice into you?
And how is it that we NEED to be in some sort of community to legitimize our relationship to G-d? Sure, in Christianity the special nature of meeting G-d in groups is explicitly mentioned. "Wherever two or more are gathered." And building the bonds of community is a good thing, if they are built right.
So let me ask you: who was with Elijah when he was running from Jezebel's minions and despaired of life? No one but G-d. Who was with the prisoner of faith when he sat and stank and cried in a prison, whether in the old Soviet Union or North Korea or any of the other places? No one but G-d. Who was with Moses when he walked onto the mountain that was said to be death to any other but the one He had chosen? No one but G-d. He walked alone with G-d.
So whatever it is that you feel you must do in churches and synagogues and mosques, clearly that's not actually necessary, is it? It may be desirable, lots of things are desirable. But I am talking about what you need.
Cultural Christianity has a big obsession with "formation" and leaders, and I suppose the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree so probably that was a feature of early Christianity too. In many cases though, this cult of leaders and this squelching of independent thought about G-d in favor of doctrine has been poison. Sure, you have to crawl before you can walk, you can't go around saying that the prophet Ezekiel wore bell bottoms and drank Boone's Farm and have any credibility. Problem is, there is no walking, and sometimes not much good crawling either. Church leaders, like any other kind of leader, have been prone to corruption and deceit. They have very often become wolves not shepherds. No man is my Shepherd.
You don't need church (or synagogue or mosque) to have a relationship with G-d.
What you actually need, is to seek Him truly. Honestly. Completely bare.
I don't have a church. I cannot have a church. As far as Christianity goes, I can't agree to the Nicene Creed so that counts me out. Believing that a man was ever G-d is idolatry. As far as synagogue goes, I cannot take the word of a rabbi as being equivalent to the word of G-d, and they have their own problems with abuse of authority (though honestly not as bad as the Christians.)
I embrace my identity as a non-Jewish lover of YHWH. That is no slight on that people, who I believe were indeed set apart to G-d's service. I'm just not one of them. Mosque, I don't believe Muhammad was a prophet. So I doubt I would be welcome there.
I don't have the luxury of a community; not that I don't want one, just that I don't have one. My walk with G-d is a walk with G-d alone.
This I believe:
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- G-d is ONE. He needed no partners to speak Being into being. He has no parts. He was never a man.
- He is not defined by any human limitations, images or even text. His name: I AM. There is relationship, but relationship is not definition. For example, I can love and be friends with a person and even in some sense know them, but I will never define their true existence. It would be deeply wrong for me to try.
- The Ten Commandments is the word of G-d for humans. It and the Torah defines US (or our proper condition,) not G-d.
- No rabbi, no priest, no pastor, no Imam, can say that his opinions on the Tanakh have equivalent weight to the Tanakh itself. Everyone must pore into the Tanakh for themselves with sincerity and understand it for themselves. If you fail to understand, it is your failing and you are responsible for it. No one can take that responsibility away from you. Why should G-d send more prophets when we haven't done what He has already told us to do! I know that not everyone has the same intellectual capacity, but the Law at heart is simple. If people spent as much time trying to understand it as they do other things in their lives, it would present no problem.
- The persistent temptation in human religion is the temptation towards idolatry. Idolatry is fundamentally placing G-d beneath humans by defining Him in a human context. The goal, or A main goal, of a proper relationship with G-d is a mystical communion with Him which is not definable, not limited by a human framework. Human imagery connected to G-d is not divine but idolatry. Jesus on a cross is idolatry, fancy churches and synagogues and mosques are idolatry. You understand nothing about the Tanakh (for Christians the Old Testament) if you do not understand THAT.
- G-d has given us Laws which are akin to laws of nature, or more accurately laws of living beings. Just as a good gardener controls the conditions in his garden to make his plants healthier and more productive, G-d has given us his laws so as to make the people of G-d prosper. He has very definite ideas on the subject, it's not a potluck where you can pick whatever you like and leave the rest. It is not accepted on human terms, we accept it as G-d's terms.
- Even the Tanakh is only an instrument. It must be read with sincerity towards G-d and with the inner guidance of G-d's spirit or what it says will be interpreted corruptly.
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You find me a group that believes THAT, and maybe I have a fellowship. Until then, I walk with G-d alone.
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