pardon the cryptic digression, but this more philosophical “thinking out loud” happens from time to time when i go to the deeper recesses of self…when i’m forced to grapple with stuff i can’t talk about (do to the present lack of material freedom necessary to pay for psycho-analysis, lol). so forgive me, friends, if anything herein seems apostate…i ain’t tryin to offend, i’m just speaking…uhm…more humanly right now.
…reason: it’s cloudy today (literally and figuratively) and the forecast is austere, at best, and unremarkable for tomorrow. so in order for CVT not to succumb to the dolor of the days, i need to “encourage myself,” you know, engage in the god-self talk necessary for us sober-minded religious folk to maintain fidelities…
in fact, one can see why we christians esteem doctrines of personalism in our god-talk; it’s crucial to our spiritual sustenance. in other words, i just need to know that during the “night-times” there is a god sympathetic to my feelings too; yeah, i need a god who can “feel” me in my mess…
…it’s why, i suppose, king thought deeply of our god’s personality at boston (btw, today we acknowledge 40 years since his “crucifixion” in Memphis), and later became convinced that god, indeed, was with him in the struggle for racial and class justice. however god has been construed more broadly, and quite tenably, by many, i think. ghandi said once, for instance, that “god is truth; and the truth is god.” and here is where i “sow” today…but lemme not take you too far there, some ain’t ready for that yet, so lemme come back home…
now for us, Truth was embodied, according to the cardinal message, and so our eternal task, believing that jesus is the “way” (or the paragon of how one should think and act in this world) is to discover, hypothesize and expound on how Truth would look like and “be” in our historical space. and this proves to be a formidable task, given the precedence of text abuse in sacred interpretation hitherto… but the christian cannon reduced simply says, “love the lord, thy god, with all your heart soul and strength” and “love thy neighbor as you love yourself.” against these things, what law can win over? what sect, then, can claim a monopoly on little t = truth? so in our hermenuetics, we should seek to interpret with this love orientation and live out the love we feel that was so exemplified by our “savior.” of that person–the one living and loving this way– we will say she is “the truth,” to use our vernacular.
this broadens the discussion, though, and perhaps makes us not so repellent to those who only experience the predominant model of christianity, narrow and dogmatic, which is often promulgated in US popular media…it enables us, again, to speak of god in more palatable terms, too, to those of other religious faiths. instead of using the esoteric language of the church, we broaden the spirit of Truth’s reach for those who ain’t been raised in our paradigm…
…so whether it’s first principals in kantian philosophy, “karma, baby” on the best man (remember terence howard’s character in the movie), the enlightenment of the buddha, or the voodoo of the haitian, there’s a basis for conversation and conversion. and by conversion, of course, i mean a mutual recognition of truths, little “t”; for it’s these recognitions that ultimately lead to the altered consciousness which we christians call “salvation.”
now i do have a crude theology on the religions, but more important here are the essential religious truths that need to be passed on for your thinking and levity:
1. muslims do not recognize jews as god’s chosen people.
2. jews do not recognize jesus as the messiah.
3. protestants do not recognize the pope as the leader of the christian world.
4. baptists do not recognize each other at hooters.
important note: being good baptists, you know, a dear friend of mine, odis, and me decided that we would ”research” claim #4 (with spousal permission, of course). and yes it’s ostensibly true, we baptists folk often are forgetful of each other in certain secular spaces, lol…
something useful resulted, too, from our research for the brothas: if you should happen to a hooters one day, know that they have the damndest wings, which goes quite well with heineken…(uhm…we heard).
me, CVT
