I received this well thought out response and would like to continue this conversation without it getting hostile. I could first start it off by saying the following. What else should I say?
xxxx;
Thank you for your well thought out response and for taking the time to answer me.
--
John,
I am the religious educator here at xxxx for children and youth. Rev. xxxx has been answering these questions for nearly 20 years and is the expert on these matters, so, I will leave the heavy questions to him. However, I felt moved this morning to email you a response.
There are many stories of the historical Buddha, who I often draw inspiration from, who when asked by his followers if God existed, he simply refused to answer. I don’t think he was being avoidant. I believe he was asking his followers to discover for themselves what truth was. Some of them accepted God and many didn’t.
What was more important for him was that each person develop a sense of compassion for their fellow sentient beings, he didn’t feel he needed to change peoples religion, just teach compassion. Many of them practiced different religious practices while practicing the Buddha’s teachings. Of course this was 700 years before the historical Jesus, so, I’m not sure what he would say about Jesus.
I work with Unitarian Universalist’s for the same reason, the questions that we work with are less about God or Jesus, and we are not so concerned about the beliefs of other people who come to our churches. We are often silent on the matters that you have asked in your email. I find that the questions that come up in UU congregations are more about how can we be kind to our neighbors and loving to all who enter the doors of our church.
There is a song that was in my spirit this morning, the kids love it and it is a bit of a riddle but I think it speaks to what I am very poorly trying to articulate here. Here are the words:
“It’s a blessing you were born,
and it matters what you do.
What we know about God,
is a piece of the truth.
Let the beauty we love,
be what we do.
And we won’t have to do it alone.”
I hope that helps.
xxxx;
Thank you for your well thought out response and for taking the time to answer me.
--
John,
I am the religious educator here at xxxx for children and youth. Rev. xxxx has been answering these questions for nearly 20 years and is the expert on these matters, so, I will leave the heavy questions to him. However, I felt moved this morning to email you a response.
There are many stories of the historical Buddha, who I often draw inspiration from, who when asked by his followers if God existed, he simply refused to answer. I don’t think he was being avoidant. I believe he was asking his followers to discover for themselves what truth was. Some of them accepted God and many didn’t.
What was more important for him was that each person develop a sense of compassion for their fellow sentient beings, he didn’t feel he needed to change peoples religion, just teach compassion. Many of them practiced different religious practices while practicing the Buddha’s teachings. Of course this was 700 years before the historical Jesus, so, I’m not sure what he would say about Jesus.
I work with Unitarian Universalist’s for the same reason, the questions that we work with are less about God or Jesus, and we are not so concerned about the beliefs of other people who come to our churches. We are often silent on the matters that you have asked in your email. I find that the questions that come up in UU congregations are more about how can we be kind to our neighbors and loving to all who enter the doors of our church.
There is a song that was in my spirit this morning, the kids love it and it is a bit of a riddle but I think it speaks to what I am very poorly trying to articulate here. Here are the words:
“It’s a blessing you were born,
and it matters what you do.
What we know about God,
is a piece of the truth.
Let the beauty we love,
be what we do.
And we won’t have to do it alone.”
I hope that helps.
