After reading some doaist stories, I started to chuckle about the over-the-top fanstasical details and characters. I thought, "How can I take this serious!? What a bunch of supertition and hookem."
In my mormon upbringing, we take our stories very seriously. Not only do we hear the details and morals of the stories, we hear how the people really existed and it happened exactly it is printed. This has been difficult for me lately.
Then it hit me: what did I learn form the story. It doesn't the quirky characters, the writer's personal/cultural bias, the history, etc. are not the purpose of the story. Imagine if we couldn't discuss the parrable of the 3 vinigar tasters, because we couldn't agree on the historical facts. Crazy, right?
So I guess I'll need to read the Chronicle of the Tao and such again and ask search not for what happened but what is the writer trying to teach me and accept the power of just stories.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Friday, December 13, 2013
Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith
I have been really affected and grateful for these thoughts. My favorite:
“In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements. The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”
~Pope Francis, taking aim at ideologically obsessed Christians, October 2013
This I can do! This i strive for. In this, I can have hope.
The whole list:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/12/11/pope-francis-quotes/
“In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements. The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”
~Pope Francis, taking aim at ideologically obsessed Christians, October 2013
This I can do! This i strive for. In this, I can have hope.
The whole list:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/12/11/pope-francis-quotes/
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