Monday, November 10, 2008

I'm not struggling

Last week, I was in the car with a friend of mine, and we began talking about religion (probably because I mentioned that I was taking Buddhism...) Anyway, he asked if I had ever gone through a spiritual crisis.

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I replied that I hadn't but that I had changed (grown?) a lot spiritually (although, I suppose that some people would say that I have moved backwards). When I first came to college, I proudly called myself a Christian. Don't get me wrong, I was completely tolerant of other religions and accepted their validity, but I knew that in order to have eternal life, I would have to accept Christ.

I grew up Methodist, and my entire family is extremely open-minded and accepting of other religions as well. Both of these things have helped me along my spiritual journey. Now, I don't know what I consider myself. I still agree with the teachings of Jesus, but a core part of Christianity is the exclusivity of it. In order to reach Heaven or to be pardoned by God, one must accept Jesus as the Son of God. Not everyone is comfortable with that, and I cannot believe that eternal damnation is in store for all of the people of other religions/spiritual leanings.

Ghandi believed that everyone is going towards the same goal--climbing the same mountain so to speak. How we get to the top (Truth?) just dependent on our cultures and beliefs. There's no right or wrong way to approach it as long as you try.

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