There is a church in San Francisco jokingly called, at least in the Gay community, St. Mary Maytag because the steeple looks like the old high-fin agitator in Maytag's first automatics.
I do not remember which channel I was watching, but there was a program about a man who had grown up in a church with a name that contained the words: Church of Christ. No disrespect intended, I just cannot remember the first part of the name. Anyway, this church always preached about sin and hell and being saved, but being saved was not a permanent state of being. Through everyday living, you could do things that put you in danger of going to hell again. This minister, whose name I cannot remember, got to wondering about this and started reading original Biblical texts in Hebrew and Greek and probably Aramaic. He found that there were incorrect translations of words that perverted the meaning of some passages. This man had been a super star of the evangelical world with a huge mega church. He was a favorite of Oral Roberts. He was watching television in his mansion one night and saw video of miserably poor people in Africa. He said he instantly had a message from YOU KNOW WHO asking if he was really doing HIS work. He started delivering sermons telling of how much we are loved instead of how badly we are going to be judged and punished. Long story short, he lost everything: church, mansion and congregation. He was denounced by evangelical leaders, including OR. Then the part of the story I remembered reading a long time ago came up. He was issued an invitation to visit Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco by its Lesbian pastor. She told him that the congregation had many members with various addictions, not all of whom were in recovery or doing very well with recovery. There were also people with AIDS and a large percentage of the congregation was Gay or Lesbian. So he went to talk to her and listened to her philosophy that we are loved by our Creator with unconditional love. He preached at a service. After his sermon, they came to him with a basin and water and washed his feet. The Episcopalian Church is his hometown asked if he would like to use their sanctuary after their Sunday Service was concluded. So he has this growing, I guess Pentacostal (please forgive my ignorance), congregation where the message of love and inclusion replaces the old one of fear, judgement and hell. It is a sad statement about his former faith community that he was exiled and excoriated for delivering the message that we are loved with an unending love. One thing I really liked about the TV program Touched by an Angel was the part in each episode when some miserable person in a bad situation was told, "G-d loves you." I think everyone feels and behaves better when remminded of that.
The teaching I love from my branch of Judaism is that our Creator knows us and knows we are an immortal, celestial spirit in a very earth-bound, mortal, flesh and blood body. We fall short of the ideal; we are not perfect, but forgiveness is ours for the asking with sincere repentance before our Creator and restitution to those wronged by our actions.
I do not remember which channel I was watching, but there was a program about a man who had grown up in a church with a name that contained the words: Church of Christ. No disrespect intended, I just cannot remember the first part of the name. Anyway, this church always preached about sin and hell and being saved, but being saved was not a permanent state of being. Through everyday living, you could do things that put you in danger of going to hell again. This minister, whose name I cannot remember, got to wondering about this and started reading original Biblical texts in Hebrew and Greek and probably Aramaic. He found that there were incorrect translations of words that perverted the meaning of some passages. This man had been a super star of the evangelical world with a huge mega church. He was a favorite of Oral Roberts. He was watching television in his mansion one night and saw video of miserably poor people in Africa. He said he instantly had a message from YOU KNOW WHO asking if he was really doing HIS work. He started delivering sermons telling of how much we are loved instead of how badly we are going to be judged and punished. Long story short, he lost everything: church, mansion and congregation. He was denounced by evangelical leaders, including OR. Then the part of the story I remembered reading a long time ago came up. He was issued an invitation to visit Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco by its Lesbian pastor. She told him that the congregation had many members with various addictions, not all of whom were in recovery or doing very well with recovery. There were also people with AIDS and a large percentage of the congregation was Gay or Lesbian. So he went to talk to her and listened to her philosophy that we are loved by our Creator with unconditional love. He preached at a service. After his sermon, they came to him with a basin and water and washed his feet. The Episcopalian Church is his hometown asked if he would like to use their sanctuary after their Sunday Service was concluded. So he has this growing, I guess Pentacostal (please forgive my ignorance), congregation where the message of love and inclusion replaces the old one of fear, judgement and hell. It is a sad statement about his former faith community that he was exiled and excoriated for delivering the message that we are loved with an unending love. One thing I really liked about the TV program Touched by an Angel was the part in each episode when some miserable person in a bad situation was told, "G-d loves you." I think everyone feels and behaves better when remminded of that.
The teaching I love from my branch of Judaism is that our Creator knows us and knows we are an immortal, celestial spirit in a very earth-bound, mortal, flesh and blood body. We fall short of the ideal; we are not perfect, but forgiveness is ours for the asking with sincere repentance before our Creator and restitution to those wronged by our actions.
