It might be difficult for the reader to understand just what a profoundly sad and disturbing personal process began for me when I realized that I no longer wished to be identified as a Christian. It is an identity that I feel—with no little resentment—has been co-opted by a fundamentalist Right that has finagled its way into the popular perception as what the faith represents. I have carefully and purposefully chosen the words corrupted and perverted to describe what I believe has happened to the teachings of Jesus in the name of “official”, “evangelical”, and “bible-based” Christianity.
So it is then with great joy and excitement that I report a Gestalt! I am a child of the Christ! This designation acknowledges the Judeo-Christian roots of my worldview while at the same time placing me squarely in the reality of the present moment. I need not be ashamed of my childish imperfections so long as I intentionally strive to mature toward the perfection revealed to human consciousness by the Christ in its various forms and incarnations. Yes, I am saying that the cosmic Christ is universal and is therefore knowable in an infinite number of ways.
I am pleasantly struck by how inclusive this understanding is as compared to the exclusivity of the “I am the only way” misinterpretation embraced by literalists. When the Christ is understood as all things that strengthen the connection between the Creator and the created it can then be legitimately thought of as the Way, but not as an exclusive claim to one particular dogma that fails to accommodate the comprehensiveness of universality. I am not alone a child of the Christ but am instead one of many children included in the whole family of God who celebrate our kinship through connectedness.
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