Fear, Unconditional Love, Are You Sure?
I sat in church with my best friend today, because in order to get a ride to work on Sunday, I have to go to church with them. I’ve tried in vain to make other arrangements and a cab to work is $20 each way, so that’s not an option.
I keep hearing how the Christian version of God has “compassion for those who fear Him.” My question is, why should we feel the need to FEAR God? Deity should be there to love us UNCONDITIONALLY. We should NEVER feel the need to FEAR Deity!
That any form of Deity should feel the need to punish someone with eternal consequences for not believing or following their rules, that any form of Deity should put that much fear into their believers hearts, is unthinkable. That is NOT unconditional love. Eternal punishment for being the way Deity created us - with our own free will, with minds that continually question and analyze, with hearts that go their own seperate ways and are not like anyone else’s hearts - if we do not use that free will to choose what Deity wants us to choose, as long as we do not question Deity’s existence, motives, etc, as long as our hearts all lead us to the same path in the end, does not seem like an unconditional love to me.
They spoke of rules set forth by religions today in Sunday School. About how you won’t get to know God and Christ by following those rules alone. That you have to have a “relationship” with God and Christ. Yet there we sat, in a church, that has rules and regulations of how their members should act and what they should and should not do in order to be considered good Christians. Yes you need to have a relationship with Deity, but you do NOT need rules to govern your conduct. Those will follow dependent upon your path.
Plus, I find it awfully interesting that the Christian’s version of Deity actually tells his followers in the Bible to love Him, to show their love for Him, etc. He commands his people to love Him and show their love for Him. Wow. Pretty sad if you are a Deity and feel the need to command your people to show their love for you. That’s another thing that should follow alone without saying.
Now I don’t mean this to be blasphemous in any way. But these are some of the reasons that I cannot follow a path of Christianity. I cannot live with the idea that I must do this, this, and this or else there’s something wrong with the way I interact with Deity. There’s something wrong with my spirituality and my soul. No, there isn’t. My way of interacting with Deity and my relationship with Deity may differ greatly from how you do so, and you may be Wiccan as well. It’s all in how YOUR path goes, not how someone tells you it should.
Never will I fear my Goddess for I know that no matter what I do, she will NOT cut me off from her. She will spread her loving arms and welcome me back to her, for she knows that I did what was right for ME when it was right for me. And if I’ve lessons left to learn, she will return me to another life to learn those lessons and welcome me back to her yet again and again, until it is time for me to remain with her forever. I will never be completely cut off from her. I need not fear any sort of retribution if it takes me more than one go-around to learn all I need to learn. And that to me, is the greatest gift Deity could have given me, besides life. The unconditional love that says no matter what I do, what mistakes I make, I am always welcome even if I turn away for a while. I could die while turned from Her and She will not abandon me. She will always love me and care for me and She will make sure I come back and learn the lessons necessary. No matter what.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Hi, I stumbled across your post by accident. I’m not here to argue, but I thought I might at least try to alleviate your confustion about the whole “fear of God” thing.
That expression isn’t intended to mean that you should fear God like you might fear spiders or fear death. It’s more of a respectful fear. It’s the realization that you are essentially powerless compared to God. God can take your life at any time. God can take your material wealth at any time. God can show you that, no matter how smart you think you are, you’re not very smart at all. God has total power over you, but God will not simply abandon you and “cast you into a pit of burning fahr” or whatever.
That is a path you choose. God loves you and will never impose it on you.
By fearing God and loving God, you bring yourself closer to God. God doesn’t demand to be loved out of insecurity; God demands to be loved for your good. God never cuts you off. It’s by saying “I’m as great as God” or “I don’t love God” that you cut YOURSELF off.
You can always choose not to come back or learn necessary lessons. You could wake up tomorrow and choose to spend the rest of your life taking actions that are very detrimental to your deity. I’m sure that it’s not likely, but it’s your choice to make. When you say that “she will spread her loving arms and welcome me back to her,” that’s nothing more than the story of the prodigal son. The idea that God rejoices when a “lost sheep returns to the flock” is a 2,000-year old Christian concept that you’re borrowing.
I’m sorry that you have to endure this in order to get a lift to work, but maybe it’s God’s way of calling you back to the flock. Give it a chance, and you might find that it’s not so offensive as you think.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Excellent post, and that pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject as well.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
[...] seems that with this post I struck a nerve in at least one person. Now frankly, I am not into debating religion with anyone, [...]
April 20th, 2008 at 6:05 am
[...] Fear, Unconditional Love, Are You Sure? at Got-Wicca? takes at look at some thoughts I have had when sitting through a Christian church service [...]
April 20th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Kyle why should god tell us to fear that he could take anything away from us and why would he ever do that if he loved us?why would he put anyone into “hell” if he loves everyone unconditionally?unconditional means no matter what and if he’ll throw me into hell for not following or not believing thats not unconditional.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I was a mormon for many years. Now a die hard Wiccan. And this story has always stuck with me:
In france there is a statue of christ, during WW2 the village was bombded and the statue had to be put back together, peice by piece the statue was put back together, but alas, the artist redoing the statue couldn’t find the hands. So when the statue was unveiled there was a plaque that read “I have no hands but yours”
If you didn’t get the point to that story I’ll tell you, any deity no matter if its Christ, or Brigid or Hecate, are not living beings, as in they’ve already learned and excelled in their lives so they no longer have to do work on this earth, however WE do. We do their will through our hands, through spell work, prayer, meditation etc. The Goddess and God has given us the power when we need it, and that power will grow as we grow, but in all honesty its us that have to do the work, learn from the work etc.
I love this post and I’m really glad that you wrote it. The last paragraph moved me deeply. Thank you.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I was raised Christian, had a brief foray into Wicca, and now I’m a diet Christian. At least that’s the term I came up with.
As I was brought up in Sunday school, I learned that to fear God was to respect him. Not so much in the way that Kyle said, but more in the way you’d respect a good friend. Sure, your friend could pull out a gun and shoot you, but you don’t generally think about that, cause you’re friends.
Also, I’m afraid many of the problems you stated with Christianity are problems with any large religion. Rules are put in place to control to masses, and to organize everything, to make the religion “flow” better. I’m not a fan of it, mostly because it’s full of fallacies brought on by human intervention. I personally don’t go to church but I consider myself “diet” Christian because “Christian” in today’s world means so much more than what it originally was: A relationship with God thanks to the work of prophets working in his name. Oh and Jesus too. I’m not sure how I feel about the whole died-and-rose-again thing. Whether it actually happened or if it’s some kind of metaphor. Good story, though.
I guess the whole point of this is that most of the problems you found with your experience were the fault of people tainting a pretty good belief system over a couple millennia. I don’t see the core of Christianity (which is a relationship with the Divine) as too different from what I saw in Wicca (correct me if I’m wrong). And there’s tons more I could say on that subject (I have a “all religions were once one” belief), but I shall leave that to my own (non-existent) blog.
As to why I’m commenting on this post you made a few months ago, I would just like to say the StumbleUpon is one of the greatest inventions ever.
Have a good day. and Thanks for the article.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:07 am
I agree totally, and am co-founder of a religious order which teaches exactly that. You might want to check out the document, “The Basics: Spirituality Without Dogma” (my writing) on the Our Philosophy page of http://pathwayssanctuary.org . Many, many hugs.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Well said.
June 12th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
You don’t need religion, they need you. Please never let them close your mind, it’s like being dead.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Let me specify beforehand, I am an agnostic if not an atheist. I was born Hindu and have grown up listening to this argument that how other religion inculcate the fear of God. As a Hindu, you are not forced to worship any particular deity or any particular form of god. In fact, even if you are an atheist, you still remain a Hindu, considering Hinduism is more of a philosophy rather than a set of instruction like following some n number of commandments or something similar. I would never adhere to any superpower. I am by myself, and if the superpower intends to punish me, I am not going to beg for mercy. Fear of God shows how limited humans are when they try to perceive the existence of God and attribute false human behavior.
I am glad that you chose to reason in stead behaving like a sheep.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Kyle - the idea of the Goddess accepting us with open arms despite our choices, our life paths, or our transgressions, is not something “borrowed” from Christian doctrine. To assume that Christianity is the root of all modern faith is arrogant, and incorrect. Pagan and polytheistic religions existed long before Christianity, and protection/patronage from deities and spirits has always been a theme. Indeed, Christianity would appear to have borrowed this patronage theme from earlier religions, as it has borrowed a great deal from the pre-existing pagan theologies in Europe. Icons such as the Christmas tree, yule log, wreaths, mistletoe and holly, and a plethora of other iconically “Christmas-y” items were originally used by pagans, and later adopted by Christians an attempt to make the religion more palatable to the pagans they were forcing it upon.
Just saying….
June 14th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Thank you for this article. It articulates very well the feelings I had growing up (in a church family) and those that I had while studying Theology. I am a Wiccan now and thank the Goddess for being in my life (for longer than I thought).
Blessed Be!
June 16th, 2008 at 10:24 am
RE: Kyle (Post #1)
The God described by Kyle is the quintessential “God as Father” figure in which God is invested with nothing but mere idealized human traits: God gives, God takes away, God is jealous and demands respect at all times. God has “power” over you, etc. Think back to the Godfather movies - this is the description of the mafia boss. It’s about the most fearsome entity (being) that people of small imagination could come up with.
If you bone up just superficially on the quantum universe, even you would then invent a much more imaginative God - that could be the Creator of such a thing - not simply a Corleone Family figure.
Jesus did not teach that sort of nonsense at all. His teaching would lead you to the real God within you. This new fangled organization they came up with called “Christianity” has not one thing to do with what Jesus taught. It is a simple political control organization using the most limited (and typically Western) thinking you can come up with. Look deeper to find the real God.