One of my atheist parents’ greatest gifts to me when it comes to religion was that they passed on a strong, clear position that all religions are created equal. They all have plusses and minuses and they all fill similar personal and social needs. (That doesn’t mean they think cults should get tax exempt status.)
So, I don’t believe there’s any real difference to God between partaking of silent worship at a Quaker meeting house, privately reciting memorized passages from the Koran, or volunteering in my community. Certain religious practices resonate more with me, and I’m discovering certain baseline activities and beliefs that I want as a part of my communal religious life, but once those are met I feel no conflict between melding different religious observances. I’m totally cool with fasting to the best of my ability during Ramadan, going to church on Sundays, and finding time to read the Gospels when I can. I literally just don’t see a difference.
I believe that God judges me based on a number of beliefs and practices, some of which are not tied to any particular religion, some of which I do pretty well, and some of which I need to improve on:
- My level of honest effort to observe a few key religious activities such as prayer, giving of my wealth to those in need, and fasting. Those are all pillars of Islamic belief but you find them in many other religions as well. Until recently I was also steadfast in my conversion declaration: There is no God but God and Muhammad is his messenger. I’ve recently decided to open myself up to the possibility of Christianity, to make room in my philosophy of the world for the Trinity. To be honest, that conversion declaration, it’s called the Shahadah, is so deeply ingrained that I’m finding it very difficult to warm up to the theology of Christianity.
- To seek out others where I can worship God in community. I feel like God understands that I don’t fit in at most American mosques. I feel it’s a failure on my part, but it’s also a fact, and finding a different community to worship in is better than trying to practice religion alone.
- To be of service as part of an organized system of assistance to those who are less fortunate. I’ve always had at least one and often more volunteer gigs going at a time. Right now I narrate books for the blind and I’m looking for more opportunities to be helpful in my community.
Other observations are important but they don’t really “rank” like those above. Not eating pork is more about exercising self discipline to please God than doing something that might actually secure my place in the afterlife.
When I initially started looking for a church I had a number of other things that were really important to me, but I’m winnowing those down. A common belief about God is still key. And, worship. That’s moved up the list. Sharing the experience with others of worshipping God is satisfying in ways that few other activities are in the totatality of my life.
Openness and friendliness in the congregation are still important, environmentalism less so. However, I’m going to upgrade environmentalism to stewardship to show it a little more respect even if I’m not really feeling it personally.
A common belief about science hasn’t really come up.
Social justice was big at UU and it’s big at the Red Cedar Friends, too. I’m more bent on service. I was disappointed not to find more outlets for service with the Friends. Social justice doesn’t really resonate with me at this point in my life. especially when that social justice is being carried out in a very non-diverse environment. More on that conflict in another post.
Feminism is still vital, as is being open and affirming about LBGTQ issues, but as we saw at UCC, I’m a traditional feminist, not a modern-day one, and I’m not much inclined to budge on those beliefs. They’re not quite as firmly set as my Shahadah, but it’s a close call.
And service, surprisingly, has a hold on my heart. It’s always been important to me but in the last couple of years a desire to couple my religious life with a life of service has become key.
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