Ch. 7 The GOD-Centric Challenge
Theme Song: Us & Them – Pink Floyd
“They must first judge themselves that presume to censure others: And such will not be apt to overshoot the Mark. We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive or gain by Love and Information. And yet we could hurt no Man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men did once see we Love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains.” ~ William Penn, Fruits of Solitude
The Challenge of “Others”
What is the most significant challenge to a GOD-centric orientation? Our unloving, ungood, and unfair tendency to see people of a different race, social class, political ideology, nationality, sexual orientation, or religion as “other” and to believe that “others” are inferior to our privileged group. It is common for our religions to support these biases with God, conveniently, being on our side as God condemns the same others that we do. How could we be expected to supersede the qualities we ascribe to God? If you believe that God is good to you and yours but not good to everyone, how can you hold yourself to a higher standard? Believing in an unfair God keeps us huddled up with our tribe perhaps clutching a supposedly revealed truth that cannot be questioned and is not subject to reason. Of course, such a revelation would be inherently unfair because it could not be equally available to all people in all times and all locations. If we continue to believe in an unfair God that plays favorites, we will likely remain stuck in our pattern of tribal warfare no matter how otherwise sophisticated we become. Is that what a loving, good, and fair God would want?
The Underlying Challenge
We are scared. We are scared that life is a zero sum game where if someone else wins, we lose, so we do not want to share. We do not want to share our power, our resources, or God's love but we are underestimating God. God is not starting a fraternity where you must know the secret handshake to get in and if you were born into a group where no one knows the handshake or where they teach a different handshake, tough. God's love is BIG, big enough to embrace all of us as we realize God by living out God's love. We are scared of the unknown. Instead of seeing the other as an opportunity, we experience the other as a threat. We are frightened because encountering the other could shake up our world. We might be forced to ask questions we had never thought to ask or never wanted to ask. We might be forced to face a fact that does slay us. We might have to go through pain and uncertainty as we find our way to a better informed truth, a more accurate understanding of God, which allows us to better love God. Sadly, we are lazy and self-protective and we do not want to go to the trouble. It is so much easier to just believe that we are special, that God loves us best, and that we have the one and only inerrant holy book to prove it, and, that with that one revelation in hand, we never have to think again.
My “Other” Challenge
You may be asking yourself: “Who is my other?” Do I look down on any group of people for being different than me? Am I scared of dealing with a group of people outside of my comfort zone? I have asked myself those questions. I don't think I am kidding myself when I report that I genuinely believe that everyone regardless of race, social class, political ideology, nationality, sexual orientation, or religion is equally loved by God and equally invited by God to live out God's will in the world. My “other” are those people who attribute bad qualities to God or who justify their bad behavior with claims that it is God's will. Members of this group of “other” people are a part of my life nearly every day. I want to shout at my computer screen or television set: “No, it is not God's will that you demean or hate or kill! Do not disparage God that way!” I swim in a sea of people who sincerely believe that every non-Christian is going to burn in hell for eternity. Do these people ever stop and ask themselves what they are suggesting to be true about God? Their blaspheming God as vain, mean-spirited, and unfair infuriates me! On the other hand, in my too-fleeting moments of loving kindness, I recognize that many of these “other” people sincerely love God and are acting on aspects of their religious tradition. Even so, I think we are all answerable for what we choose to believe about God.
If you are no longer a child, you are responsible. If you were taught that God was about hate or violence or picking favorites, your choosing to continue to believe such things is on you, not your parents, not your religion, not your culture. You are answerable to God for what you choose to believe about God. Do you wish to stand before God claiming that God is unloving, immoral, or unfair? Do you wish to stand before God claiming that God created all people but then picked a favorite bunch to whom God shared a special divine revelation not equally accessible to others? Do you wish to stand before God claiming that God wants your blind allegiance, that God cannot withstand your use of reason? Do you wish to stand before God claiming that God is unseemly concerned with being acknowledged and praised? To be GOD-centric means that your love of a good and fair God exceeds your love of religious doctrine and that you support doctrine only when doctrine supports your good, fair, and loving God. I invite everyone, including my “others,” to be GOD-centric by centering themselves in a good and fair God of love.
GOD-centric and the “Other”
A GOD-centric person believes that God is good and fair which means that God is equally good to everyone. If you believe in a good and fair God, then you should hold yourself to the good and fair standard and love the other and work for justice for the other. A GOD-centric person's faith is about living out God's love and ongoing transformation towards God so the other is loved for their own sake as well as an opportunity to better understand God. A GOD-centric person understands that transformation only comes when we are shaken up, our boundaries expanded, our hearts and minds exercised. Encountering the other presents us with the possibility of better living out God's love and growing towards God. So, what is the GOD-centric person to do when encountering an other who chooses to be selfish, immoral, and unfair or who devotes themselves to a vision of God that is unloving, immoral, or unfair? The GOD-centric person should live as an embodied example of God's love by demonstrating a good and fair living of life allowing their actions and quality of being to invite the other person to participate in the celebration of a loving, good, and fair God. Everyone, including “others,” is invited to be GOD-centric.
