How can one be inter faith?

[Shawn Sunshine]

I am not sure I understand how a few folks have come to have interfaith and religious stances. How does one follow something other than Christianity in addition to being Christian and not then be following another God. How could you come to terms with including more than one religion in your mind and heart?

[Vicky]

A year ago at a special service involving all of the Abrahamic faiths of people affected by the 9/11 disaster an Islamic Imam put it very well.  "We human beings try to place ownership of God in our hands, when it is God who holds ALL of us in his."  The Bishop of my church a Roman Catholic Bishop and the president of the Rabbinical  conference in Los Angeles were up there in complete agreement with him.  Christianity no more owns God than any of us.  There is no conflict with my following of the two spirit beliefs of my ancestors where the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is as much present as Grand Father Sky.  My spirit journeys have a good friend walking with me whom I know in my Christian worship by another name, but whose name other Christians know as Jeshua Bar Yusuf is no more his true name of love than my name was ever <him> and even the female name I now present to the public is not the name I hear in answer to all my spiritual callings.

[Shawn Sunshine]

I just feel that there can be a danger in following other religions, there are ones that are obvious cults that most would agree are cults, and then we all know the devil is very crafty and that he can whisper things to us to get us to believe just about anything. I had a ftm person tell me they were buddhist and christian and yet this was the same person who was touching me in an sexual way during church.

I want to be accepting of other people but i don't want to break the commandment that I shall not have any other God's before the God of Abraham.

[Padma]

I had a ftm person tell me they were buddhist and christian and yet this was the same person who was touching me in an sexual way during church.

That sounds like a very bad experience - but the actions of one person. Please don't let it inform your opinion of what a whole load of other people around the world are doing that isn't that.

[Snowpaw]

i thought buddhism was a way of life, not worship. Inner peace and all. I know there are buddhist christians.

[Padma]

Buddhism is many things, including a way (or ways) of life - some consider it a religion, and it does involve worship, though not in a petitionary way (on the whole) - it depends who you ask . The one thing it doesn't have is a creator god, so I find myself not sure how people reconcile the two - but some people do. It's a lot easier for me to imagine how people can reconcile different theistic faiths, since they all believe in a god.

I've never had the opportunity to talk with anyone who considers themselves a Buddhist Christian (or Jew or Muslim or whatever), so I don't know how it works for them. But this topic isn't about Buddhists specifically (unless it is!)

[Shawn Sunshine]

No its not on any one religion really, I just wanted to learn from folks who are inter faith, on how they feel inside, like how do you apply that to your life without feeling like God is going to judge you, how did they get to a place of inner peace. I think someone here is also Wiccan and Christian, I would like to hear from them especially cause magic has always intrigued me.

[Vicky]

I had a ftm person tell me they were buddhist and christian and yet this was the same person who was touching me in an sexual way during church.

Neither Christianity nor Buddhism directly control a person's physical actions.  We have too many stories of Christians, even ordained priests and ministers at any level who should be at the highest level of understanding sanctity of self which both Christ and Gautama had as the highest points of spiritual worship.  The words of a person, whatever their professed beliefs, are belied by their attempt to invade your sanctity of self.  Denial of God is not worship of the Devil, it is self worship and deciding that you control other people.  Their professed joint faiths both were a lie,  they believe in themselves only, and neither faith or discipline controlled their lives.

I want to be accepting of other people but i don't want to break the commandment that I shall not have any other God's before the God of Abraham.

By all means, do not have any other.  Even in Wiccan, the belief is "If it hurt no one, do as you will" goes forward from Christ's great Commandments.  God as I have come to know God is the same whether portrayed as having a "beard and hair like the whitest wool" from the book of Revelation, or with long flowing dark hair with eagle feathers in it with no beard and a flint like nose above a smiling mouth.  Either will do, both are the same unseen verity only given a face.

[Constance]

I am an agnostic Buddhistic Christo Pagan. I'm a member of a UCC church, I sit zazen with a local Soto Zen Buddhist sangha from time to time, and I practice an eclectic form of Wicca.

How to I come to terms with practicing these 3 paths at once? From my point of view, religion is something invented by people, not handed down by the Divine. I get "fed" in different ways from these different faiths, and I don't really see any conflict.

[Shawn Sunshine]

Except I believe the Holy Bible is indeed inspired by the divine, even though It was written down by men. The 10 commandments and the words of Jesus, I know in my heart to be real and something I have to follow, and yes be born again as well. Deep down humans are capable of Good and Evil and just like set of parents teaching their children, so does God teach us like children.

I don't think people who never knew about Jesus would go to hell though, that seems cruel and I don't think a loving God would do that.

[Padma]

Well, each person believes something at least slightly different from the next one, so we're never able fully to understand someone else's faith. So I guess you just have to accept that others won't believe in the same way you do, or the same things you do. Other people are always outside our own experience, to some extent.

[Constance]

I, too, believe that holy scriptures were written by people who were inspired, or at least believe they were inspired, by G'D (however the word "G'D" is defined). But since they were written by people, I don't consider them to be infallible or static.

For me, the most important parts of the Bible are the Golden Rule and the Great Commandment. I disregard anything else in the Bible that I believe goes against the spirit of those two tenets.

But, that's just me.

[Brooke777]

I, too, believe that holy scriptures were written by people who were inspired, or at least believe they were inspired, by G'D (however the word "G'D" is defined). But since they were written by people, I don't consider them to be infallible or static.

For me, the most important parts of the Bible are the Golden Rule and the Great Commandment. I disregard anything else in the Bible that I believe goes against the spirit of those two tenets.

But, that's just me.

It is not just you. I pretty much do the same thing.

[cindianna_jones]

I am not sure I understand how a few folks have come to have interfaith and religious stances. How does one follow something other than Christianity in addition to being Christian and not then be following another God. How could you come to terms with including more than one religion in your mind and heart?

It is what they have come to believe. I think it's healthy to have divergent views.

[Shawn Sunshine]

well i have tried to experience other views and have been to various places and churches, but i never felt comfortable there, so i wanted to at one time explore more, but i have a fear i could expose myself to evil that way, not saying other faiths is evil in of itself, but i know God and Satan are real beings and not just made up constructs.

[peky]

I am not sure I understand how a few folks have come to have interfaith and religious stances. How does one follow something other than Christianity in addition to being Christian and not then be following another God. How could you come to terms with including more than one religion in your mind and heart?

How many G-d are out there Shawn? Is not the G-d of Abraham the G-d of Jews, Christians and Jews?

[Shawn Sunshine]

well the God of Abraham instructs us not to follow false idols and have other God's before him, that is something I have to follow, so we will just leave it at that.

[ZoeNicole]

Finding what is comfortable for yourself is fine. If you feel you can only have 1 faith and not experience others than that is how you are and you should be ok with that . I find spiritual practices don't interfere with my beliefs and create inner calm. Which on its own might be considered me following other religions, but are just me allowing myself to see the world in a different way and only really serves to help build my own belief system. I am essentially Christian as far as how I believe and how I behave but I have decided on my own that the bible is there as a spiritual guide not as something overly restrictive, the same as any other religion. An all powerful God would realise teachings that apply to western philosophy wouldn't work for eastern and so on. So other religions (minus cults and zealots, yes even christian zealotry) are just different interpretations of God, as seen from the viewpoints of different cultures and people. By experiencing other beliefs and not neccesarily converting to them, I feel I see more of an amazing world that was created for us to explore and be a part of. Just my thoughts as I see things a little differently from everyone else and makes my experiences uniquely mine. Also a last note, I feel I am a spiritual being having a human experience not a human being having a spiritual experience. As a human an eternity of afterlife is something I cannot even fathom, but my spiritual self I'm sure has that covered.

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

There are many people who make have a mixture of two different religions or dogmas.  Many practitioners of Voodoo, also mix in Christianity (mainly Catholic).

Some Pagans incorporate Christianity within their practice. 

One must follow ones heart when it comes to their personal beliefs.

[Shawn Sunshine]

I guess then one has to ask, how do you know if something is a cult, or evil and should not be followed?