Sin, Sorry, Salvation?

We all do bad things. We all 'sin'. What we define as 'sin' may change from person to person, but most of us would happily agree that we all do it. Of course, the obvious question is, what do we do about it?

I can't fault the Christian idea of repentance. It's not exactly a pure Christian idea as such, but we'll run with the Christian interpretation of it for now. The first step towards 'recovery' from a sin is to recognise its sinfulness, then feel remorse. The problem for me is what happens next. The number of times I've heard the absolution in church and not really felt as if anything's really happened to the bad things I've done is almost innumerable. I'm sure being forgiven by a deity is a wonderfully comforting thing for people, but I don't feel as if I need it. Once I've taken time to reflect on and repent of my sins, I feel that, along with the forgiveness of the person I've transgressed, is plenty enough for me.

I'm also not happy with the idea of 'remission' of sin - I don't want my sins to go away; I want them to stand over me as a reminder so that I might think twice about committing the same sin again.

I know that this isn't the way in which the vast majority of Christians understand the idea of forgiveness and remission of sins by God, but it's the interpretation I've taken away from my Christian upbringing: Sin, Confess on Sunday, no more sin, clean slate, rinse and repeat. It's made me feel almost guilty of the fact that I'm confessing at all - I should apologise by not doing it again, not by saying "sorry, I've sinned again, how about another pardon?"

To finish on a slightly lighter note, another prayer that (even though the second line is slightly hollow when I say it) I admire the sentiment of:

The Choristers' prayer:
"Bless, O Lord, us Thy servants who minister in Thy temple.
Grant that what we sing with our lips we may believe in our hearts,
and what we believe in our hearts we may show forth in our lives.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

FiF

Dear God, from me...

Language. It's a fascinating subject, especially the fact that our language that we think in constrains and limits what we are capable of thinking. I'm no expert on any of the myriad subjects that I've just skimmed upon, but I love the idea nonetheless.

I'm sure my Islam lecturer will agree with me when I say that I think that prayer and poetry have a lot in common. Having been brought up by anglican collects and specific prayers, I love the way that one can, with a little time and effort, add a beauty of eloquence to a prayer that can (in my opinion) make it that much more uplifting.

Whilst I obviously (see previous posts) see limits as to the direct effectiveness of prayers, I think they're a fantastic way of getting ones thoughts in order. What do I want from life? Where is it going wrong? What's gone right? Prayers are not simple. If they were, I would simply pray for the health and wellbeing of everyone ever, amen. It can be a deeply profound personal and social tool for spiritual consolidation and development, and of course a source of hope and comfort for those who do believe in the classical idea of prayer.

To finish, an example that I've listened to innumerable times at the end of a service, but still find a fantastic piece of eloquence and verbal skill:

God grant to the living, grace
to the departed, peace
to the Church, the Queen, the Commonwealth and all Humankind,
unity, peace and concord.
And may the blessing of God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
be with us and remain with us always,
Amen.

FiF

Continuing the theme...

Whilst thinking about that which I don't like within Christianity (and spirituality in general), I have got myself into a bit of a quandry. I really do try to be as accepting and inclusive as possible, but I find quite a few beliefs and practices pretty objectionable in terms of what I view as spiritually beneficial.

However, I think I'm just not distinguishing between what I am comfortable with in terms of my own spirituality, and what I am comfortable with other people doing as part of their spirituality. The second group is far larger than the first, and basically includes most things that are legal/socially acceptable practices. We're all entitled to our beliefs, and entitled to bring ourselves closer to God in any (legal/socially acceptable) way that we see fit.

That brings me neatly round to one of my pet annoyances: The belief in a 'right way' that absolutely must be done by everyone, because that's the way that God wants it. I know this is stepping dangerously close to the whole "If there's one thing I can't stand, it's intolerance!" thing, but therein lieth the problem of such arguments. To quote another well-used phrase, I generally ascribe to the "I may not like what you're saying/doing, but I will fight tirelessly to uphold your right to say/do it" mentality; it's just the forcing it on others bit that irks me somewhat.

That seems to be enough for a bitesize chunk of my mind, more again soon.

FiF

Back!

Well, I'm back, and despite the complete lack of anyone even finding this blog, I shall continue in earnest!

This week I've been mostly mulling over the idea that I'm pretty certain of what I don't like about this Christianity lark, but seem to clam up when I try and work out what I do like about it. Any time I try and sort this out, I usually get mired down in circular arguments about truth, faith and whether or not we're even supposed to like religion in the first place. Then I usually remember that the main reason I still go to church is that I enjoy it, and the whole merry cycle starts again.

Even more unfortunately, one of the few things I do fervently believe about religion is that it should be a personal experience, with each person taking away from it whatever spiritual enlightenment that they want. Of course, this again descends into what spiritual enlightenment I want to take away...need I say more?

I can't find much help in any creeds, as these usually make most references to the Western view of God (see my first post). Where, then, can I find inspiration for basing my actual set of beliefs?

To start, I may as well use the ideas of what I don't like to work some sort of process-by-elimination:

First of all, the bible is not the unadulterated word of God. I'm sorry to those of a more fundamentalist nature, and you're perfectly welcome to your beliefs, but having done a year of bible study as part of my RS course, it becomes more and more obvious that 'History' just didn't work in its contemporary form 2,000 years ago.

Here's where we can get to what I do believe: The bible is, in places and with the proper care, a fantastic and fascinating read. A book doesn't have to be the direct word of God to be useful for our spiritual lives, and I've found a great deal of comfort in reading the Bible before.

I'll leave it at that for now, hopefully will be back tomorrow with whatever I've been musing about since then. I welcome any of your comments (feel free to flame me out of existance if you so wish), and look forward to seeing you again soon.

FiF

Here goes...

Well, here the experiment begins. Just to fill you in on a few details: I'm a Religious and Theological Studies Student in my first year, who is slowly waking up to the fact that there's a very big world out there in terms of Religion, and nobody's ever going to get all the answers, if any at all.

Since I've always been fairly opinionated, if fairly liberal, with my views, this has been a bit of a shock to the system. As a result, I'm embarking on a bit of a quest to clear my head and try and work out what on earth one is to do about such things. I have absolutely no idea what the vast majority of my musings will be about, but I should imagine most of them will be to do with Christianity and faith, with plenty of smatterings about Religion in general.

So, to start off:
I'm a Christian. I know this, as I've been one all my life. I go to church (Anglican) regularly, sing in the choir and know more or less what kind of liturgy fits in with what I'm comfortable with. All in all, I consider myself a pretty gosh-darned regular Christian person.

Problem is, my underlying theological beliefs are anything but solid. Whilst bringing me up as a regular practising Christian, my parents have always allowed me to make up my own mind with regards to belief and religion etc. I can't really say I've ever (since early childhood) believed in the classic western view of 'God', instead choosing to find solace in the comfort and spiritual aid that people often find in religious practice. I've often remarked to family/friends that I'm probably the most un-christian 'Christian' around!

And here we have the dilemma. I've never really had a problem with going to Church - singing hymns, reciting creeds etc. whilst believing myself very little of what I'm saying. However, my foray into the world of scholarly religion has prompted me into taking a look at whether my cheerful agnostic ignorance can really be compatible with my love of going to Church.

Having given you the basic run-down of my situation, I think I'll leave it at that for now (I'll spare you the life story, though I'm sure most of it will come out in future posts). In a wonderful display of my judgement for timing, I'm going to be away for the next few days, but that should give me plenty of time to mull over what to talk about here. I welcome any comments/views/rants, and appreciate your taking the time to read this blog.

Until next time,

FiF