Are there many paths to God?

That's the popular concept of those philosophies that are not exclusivist. There are religions that claim exclusivity, and those who claim no such thing. The latter usually emphasize the truths that are largely common among religions, and ignore their differences. The former focus on the differences between religions and show why their particular religious belief is superior to the others. If they can't demonstrate superiority in terms of how their adherents live, they will appeal to the superiority (usually read as recency) of the revelation which launched their religious movement. As examples, Judaism had spinoff movements claiming more recent (and therefore superior) revelation; they were Christianity and Islam. (this doesn't even consider the differences between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism.) Christianity had spinoff movements also claiming the same thing, namely Protestantism, Mormonism, Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses. Islam had similar spinoff movements, such as Sunni vs Shia, and last of all Ba'hai.


Even among the exclusivists, there are branches contending that they alone hold the truth about God.


So, the question remains: do all paths lead to God?


To me it makes much more sense to say that each path to God is unique, not because we strive to find our own way to God, but because God travels down many different paths to reach us. We are all unique individuals, one person's story about "finding God" is different from everyone else's story. Christianity claims (in Rom 3:10-12, which quotes from Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccl. 7:20) "there is no one who seeks God; no, not one." It claims instead that God pursues us as if we were lost sheep from the flock in God's care. God takes the initiative to offer salvation to us, we do not take the initiative to pursue God.


So, do all paths lead to God? No. I can't follow someone else's path to God. God blazes the trail uniquely to get to me where I am. God creates as many paths as are needed to save those whom God is calling. Yes, there are many paths to God, but only one for me to follow... the one God created exclusively for my use.

The Limits of Patriotism

This weekend is an odd mixture of the 15th anniversary of 9/11 and the start of "football season". This memory popped up on Facebook today:

“The cheapest form of pride however is national pride. For it betrays in the one thus afflicted the lack of individual qualities of which he could be proud, while he would not otherwise reach for what he shares with so many millions. He who possesses significant personal merits will rather recognise the defects of his own nation, as he has them constantly before his eyes, most clearly. But that poor beggar who has nothing in the world of which he can be proud, latches onto the last means of being proud, the nation to which he belongs. Thus he recovers, and is now in gratitude ready to defend with hands and feet all its errors and follies.”

----- Arthur Schopenhauer

and it made me think of mixing the two concepts. The recent controversy over sports figures kneeling in protest during the National Anthem, and the counter-protests seen at pro football stadiums today during the opening ceremonies reinforced the linkage of sports and patriotism.

Of the Schopenhauer quote, you could say the same for the kind of "sports patriotism" known as team spirit. Usually, whether in war or sport, it's those who sit and watch who are the most hardened in their convictions of their side's superiority; those actually contending in the battle have a more keen awareness of their side's weaknesses, whether in strategy or skills. I've loved this song for years, but it sure sums up the idea of "my school (or country), right or wrong." Another very popular song is like it, not in style but in sentiment.

I would prefer instead that we sing a song that emphasizes what we've been given as a country and admits our need for humility and guidance, "America The Beautiful", to wit in verses 2 & 3:

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,

Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat 

Across the wilderness! 

America! America! 

God mend thine every flaw, 

Confirm thy soul in self-control, 

Thy liberty in law! 

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife, 

Who more than self their country loved 

And mercy more than life! 

America! America! 

May God thy gold refine, 

Till all success be nobleness, 

And every gain divine!

What we need now is a viable third party

The present presidential election situation is as bizarre as any in memory.  The candidates put forth by the two major political parties are both an extraordinary disappointment, and as jointly reviled as any pair of leading candidates in American history.  If there was ever a time when a third party was called for, it's this year.

So, I went on Saturday to a rally for Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, which is on the ballot in all 50 states, but not yet in the upcoming presidential debates. Could be that flawed polling methods are responsible, could be that limited campaign funding is at fault; whatever the reason, based on what I heard in Des Moines on Saturday, having Johnson/Weld in the debates would turn the entire hyper-partisan hyperbolic dialogue completely on its head.  

My bumper sticker went on yesterday and the yard sign is going up Tuesday (as soon as it arrives).  This political nonsense has got to change, and I think the two major party candidates we are stuck with are making it clear that a vote for a third party is no longer a "wasted" vote; the only wasted vote this year is a vote for someone you don't believe in.