I believe the Bible is a collection of inspired writings…
some are more inspired than others.
I do not believe the Bible is inerrant. I believe the Holy
Spirit helps one discern what is truth and what is not.
A priest once told me that a good test of whether something
in the Bible is true or inspired is to ask yourself “does this look like Jesus?” Some of the uglier stories in the Old Testament
in particular bear absolutely no resemblance to Jesus’ attitude or teachings. I
feel free to ignore those, as far as advice for how to be a Christian goes.
Jesus said the law was fulfilled in two commandments: love
God and love your neighbor. An awful lot
of things in the Bible don’t fit in with that and in my opinion can be safely
assumed to be the agenda of some human or another.
Jesus was nothing if not a great magician.
In the Old Testament, Jacob does magic to increase his
flocks. He gets his father in law Laban to agree to let Jacob have all the
animals which are spotted and striped; then he strips the bark off of some
branches so the branches have spots and stripes, and places the branches in the
water troughs where the animals will see them when they mate. They produce many
spotted and striped offspring, and Jacob grows very wealthy. (This is not a
case where God tells him to do this, and there is nothing in the surrounding
passages where he is condemned by God for doing so. His father in law is pretty
pissed, but Laban is the villain in the story anyway so nobody cares… lol.)
As far as divination, the disciples cast lots to select a replacement for Judas.
In Acts, Paul gets annoyed because a servant girl with a spirit of divination is following him around, yelling out and calling attention to who he is. He casts the spirit out of her not to save her soul, but because she was getting on his nerves.
I am not Christian because I am “on the fence” or “afraid of
hell” or afraid of leaving my “safe” religion. I was raised in a fundamentalist
church, but as an adult I was comfortably
atheist/agnostic for 15 years. I came back to Christianity because I felt
called. It is in my heart and blood. I
have never gone back to being a fundy because I see and have experienced a lot
of harm from that kind of Christianity. I am a now in the Episcopal church. I
like their high-church Catholic form of worship combined with tolerant, progressive
social beliefs.
I also feel a strong pull towards magical practice. I wanted
to be a witch when I was little, much to the horror of my fundamentalist
parents.
I believe I have been intensely spiritual in more than one
past life. I suspect I have been a Christian monk in one lifetime, and a pagan
witch in another.
My magical practice is hoodoo-based folk magic. I chose
hoodoo because many of its practices are Christian-based. I consider my spellwork to be “prayer with
props.” I write my petitions in the form of prayers, and make extensive use of
Bible verses and Psalms. I pray to Jesus, Mary and a number of saints.
I believe there is one great Spirit underlying everything. I
think each religion has a portion of the truth, and each deity is an aspect of
that Spirit. I know others disagree, and I would not try to convince them otherwise. I respect that they believe differently.
I adore liturgical worship. I love taking communion. I love the “smells and bells”, the responsive
readings, the chanting, the profound sense of reverence. I find church to be a
transcendent experience.
When I go to church, I take what resonates with me and leave
the rest. If there is something in the sermon or readings that inspires me,
that is lovely. If not, it gives me something to bitch about, which is ok. I
need to bitch sometimes.
I have no interest in converting anyone. You do you. J
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. But the Bible says...
A. See paragraphs 1 and 2 above
