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ABOUT MY FAITH
POSTED:
Jun 10.09
I am frequently asked about my faith. At the end of my marriage to Ted Turner I became a Christian. For several years prior, I had begun to feel I was being lead. I felt a presence, a reverence humming within me. It was and is difficult to articulate.
Today I think I know what was happening: I was becoming embodied, whole. I had spent 60 years dis-embodied, trying to be perfect so I could be loved. You can’t be whole if you’re trying to be perfect. Now, as I entered my sixth decade and with much work, I could feel myself becoming whole and I knew: This is what God is. I was stunned when I read in William Bridges’s The Way of Transition, that in Matthew 5:48 when Jesus tells his disciples, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” it was a mistranslation of the Greek adjective teleios which actually means “whole, fully formed, fully developed.” Jesus wasn’t telling his disciples to be perfect like God, he was telling them to be whole, like God.
This is what the third step of Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Step Program means. It says we need to give ourselves over to our higher power, become whole (which addicts aren’t) by welcoming the Holy Spirit into our innermost selves.
I began looking for a container to house this fledgling feeling of reverence. Having grown up an atheist I had almost no experience of church and had never read the Bible but I had dear friends in my home-state of Georgia who found comfort and inspiration in their church community and they offered to open this world to me and “bring me to Christ.” Perhaps this would be the container I was seeking.
Unfortunately, my very private, tentative step into religion became a loud public misconception. A small- minded person, knowing about my quest, did an interview on a national website without my permission and said that, because of him, I had become a Born Again Christian. I had no intention of going public about my spiritual journey and in no way wanted to be tagged with the fundamentalism that Born-Again Christianity has come to be associated with. I found myself having to defend my action before I was entirely sure what it meant. I did feel reborn, I couldn’t deny that, but it had nothing to do with the perceived doctrines of fundamentalist Christianity.
Over the months, I went to Bible study every week, had it interpreted for me by biblical literalists, did my homework faithfully but, as time went on, I felt myself losing the very thing that had called me from within: Spirit. The literalness with which I was expected to read and interpret the Bible seemed to simplify and flatten out what I wanted to experience as metaphor. Christianity was beginning to feel shrunken, freeze-dried. Words like ‘Thou Shalt,’ ‘Salvation,” ‘Lord,’ and ‘Repentance,’ drowned out one of my favorite Sufi poems by Hafiz:
Every
Child
Has known God,
Not the God of names,
Nor the God of don’ts,
Nor the God who never does
Anything weird,
But the God who knows only four words
And keeps repeating them, saying:
“Come dance with Me.”
Come
Dance.
As I diligently slogged away in my weekly bible class, doing the homework and studying the charts, I began to notice that the dance was gone. Try to render it literal, concrete, and it dies. I had started my journey with a powerful sense of the divine presence, but the linear approach seemed too rigid to contain this and I began to get scared: What had I gotten myself into?
I had met some inspiring, extraordinary Christians, but there were others that came at me, fingers pointing in my face, demanding to know my position on this or that and if I could not say certain key words like “died for our sins,” it meant I wasn’t a Christian.
I winced when God was spoken of as a man. God is beyond gender, beyond being, and although gendering God as “Him” may not seem consequential to many, I think it belies the nonbeingness of the Divine. Seeing God as “Him” only serves to reinforce the belief that since God is man, then man is God-like and women are less-than.
Riffat Hassan, a Pakistan-born professor of religious studies and humanities at the University of Louisville says that in Islamic, Jewish and Christian traditions there are three basic (and unwarranted) assumptions upon which the ideas of male superiority over women are founded: “first, that God’s primary creation is man, not woman, since woman is believed to have been created from man’s rib and is, therefore, derivative (As Carol Gilligan has said, “If you make a woman out of a man, you are bound to get into trouble); second, that woman was the primary agent of ‘Man’s Fall,’ and hence all ‘daughters of Eve’ are to be regarded with hatred, suspicion and contempt; and third, that woman was created not only from man but for man, which makes her existence merely instrumental.” From what I can see, none of this was Jesus’ idea. He did not see women as less-than after-thoughts. In fact, his friendships with women were revolutionary for that time. The more I study the teachings of Jesus, the more convinced I become that a foundational aspect of his teaching is the equality of women and men in God’s eyes, deserving of equal treatment. Look at the many women who followed him, sustained him. Look at the women who were shunned by all others but who Jesus touched and kissed and loved. Christian women preached and performed the Eucharist. It was to women that the arisen Christ appeared. After his death, when many Christians fled into the desert to set up Christian communities women outnumbered men 2 to 1.
I find particularly moving and plausible his special relationship with Mary, the apostle that is revealed in the Gospel of Mary. Jesus was love, not just love for some and not for others but…love…for all.
I think two thousand years ago, Jesus’ teachings, including and perhaps especially his respect for women, were so radical and so threatening to the Priesthood (Patriarchy) that they had to try to claim and cage and redefine him as “God in our [read male] image.” The formal church that grew up in the centuries following his death had to diminish the revolutionary content of his teachings in order to create a unified Christian church.
In my studies, I learned that 325 years after Jesus was crucified at the Council of Nicea, a gathering of Christian leaders, all men, decided by a show of hands and amidst bitter theological differences, what would be included as Biblical cannon and what was to be left out and decreed that Jesus was not only the Son of God but God himself.
In no way do I want to offend more traditional Christians, but if the content of the Bible was determined by a group of men (not all of whom agreed), then surely those seeking to know Jesus should not be demonized for looking outside the canons to what others (including women) had to say about Him.
I stopped my Bible study classes but was unwilling to renounce faith. I wanted to see if somewhere there wasn’t a perception of Jesus that reflected my intuition of him. This brought me to Elaine Pagels’s books on the Gnostics, along with various theologians’ and religious scholars’ interpretations of the Bible and the books of the early Christians, all of whom believed that experiencing the divine was more important than mere belief in the divine. I needed to move back into the reverence of metaphor, the language of the soul. That is where I know my faith wants to reside.
From time to time, there have been the awakened ones, conduits of perception, who, by fully embodying Spirit, have shown us the way—Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, Allah, and others. Their messages have invariably been bare-bone-simple, remarkably similar and often embedded in metaphor, stories, and poems—all forms of art. Why? Because the non-linear, non-cerebral forms that are Art speak on a different frequency, they by-pass thinking, penetrate our defenses and jolt us open to consciousness.
For a while, I became a student at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta, the largest training center for African American ministers in the country. As a college drop-out who still has anxiety-ridden dreams of leaving a job unfinished, I relished being back in school and overwhelmed with homework: Biblical Exegesis, Feminist Interpretation, Systematic Theology. I was one of the few white students and, despite that, managed to come and go in anonymity—until Monster-In-Law came out and stirred up some excitement—the little old white lady in the back row is the one who kicked Jennifer Lopez’s ass!!
Over time, and, I feel, because I stepped outside of established religion, I was able to rekindle the spiritual experience that I’d been seeking. Some will say that because of all this I am not a true Christian. So be it. I feel like a Christian, I believe in the teachings of Jesus and try to practice them in my life. I have found Christians all over this country who feel as I do. They may not have been ‘saved’ yet they hum with divine spirit.
My faith is a work in progress (as am I) but I will plant my flag on the belief that God lives within each of us as Spirit (or soul). I like what Reverend Forrest Church says: “God is not God’s name. God is our name for that which is greater than all and yet present in all.” I believe that Christ was the personal incarnation of the divine wisdom in everything, including every form of spiritual expression.
Lots of folks go to church every Sunday and spend the rest of their time avoiding dealing with the question of consciousness. They try to pass time with pastimes, possessions, prestige. They think about God and talk about their religious beliefs but avoid experiencing Spirit. Thinking and experiencing aren’t the same. One happens in the head. The other is a flash, a rush of intuition that seems to permeate our entire being. That is what Jesus meant when he said that God is within us. That is what I am seeking, and I have found that since I have come to feel God within me, I experience less fear—of anything, including death. Sharon Salzberg, in her book “Faith,” explains it this way: “As our faith deepens, the ‘container’ in which fear arises gets bigger. Like a teaspoon of salt placed in a pond full of fresh water rather than in a narrow glass, if our measure of fear is arising in an open, vast space of heart, we will not shut down around it.”
Another result of my faith is that I have become a deeper, more embodied feminist. Helen LaKelly Hunt is right when she says in her book “Faith & Feminism,” that feminism is about fighting for the core beliefs and values of Christianity. “Religion and feminism are different expressions of the same impulse toward making life more just and whole.”
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The VCCA Fellows Visit the Holiness Baptist Church, Amherst, Virginia
by Barbara Crooker
We are the only light faces in a sea of mahogany,
tobacco, almond, and this is not the only way
we are different. We’ve come in late, the choir
already singing, swaying to the music, moving
in the spirit. When I was down, Lord, when
I was down, Jesus lifted me. And, for a few minutes,
we are raised up, out of our own skepticism
and doubts, rising on the swell of their voices.
The singers sit, and we pass the peace, wrapped
in thick arms, ample bosoms, and I start to think
maybe God is a woman of color, and that She loves
us, in spite of our pale selves, so far away
from who we should really be. Parishioners
give testimonials, a deacon speaks of his sister,
who’s “gone home,” and I realize he doesn’t mean
back to Georgia, but that she’s passed over. I float
on this sweet certainty, of a return not to the bland
confection of wispy clouds and angels in nightshirts,
but to childhood’s kitchen, a dew-drenched June
morning, roses tumbling by the back porch.
The preacher mounts the lectern, tells us he’s been
up since four working at his other job, the one
that pays the bills, and he delivers a sermon
that lightens the heart, unencumbered by dogma
and theology. For the benediction, we all join hands,
visitors and strangers enfolded in the whole,
like raisins in sweet batter. We step through the door
into the stunning sunshine, and our hearts
lift out of our chests, tiny birds flying off to light
in the redbuds, to sing and sing and sing.
“The VCCA Fellows Visit the Holiness Baptist Church, Amherst, Virginia” by Barbara Crooker, from Line Dance. © Word Press, 2008. Reprinted with permission.
I found this quotation that for me sums up the differences between religion and spirituality:
“Religion if for those afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who have already been there.”
I wish you all the best on your spiritual quest. You are truly profound.
Jane, I get a sense that you have experienced something very profound, but now is a time of interpreting what it was that you experienced. The most important thing to remember is the context of your spiritual experience. I understand it was in the context of the historical Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish man who is called the Christ (the anointed one) by those who have been ‘born again’. May I suggest to you that Jesus is the flag (YHWH Nissi, meaning the Lord our Banner, one of the hebrew names for the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob) . Jane do not allow others to interpret your experience. The term ‘fundamentalist Christianity’ is used as a smear by those who would reinterpret the Christian faith. Fundamentalists are merely those who read the words of the Bible and accept them as written. Jane I have read a number of the ‘apocryhal’ writings that were rejected from inclusion in the Christian Bible, they in fact smell different. Jesus does not make sense unless one understands his Jewish roots. The writings of Moses and the prophets tell the story of a family which became a nation. The God who interacted with the family and the nation is the God who invites all of humanity to interact with him. Jesus is given to us as the door of access. Religion on the face of the earth is a newcomer on the scene compared to the story of the self disclosure of the God (hebrew,YHWH or I AM that I AM) who spoke to Abraham and told him to leave his family, his city and his country. Jane, I think as we experience God, this same call is for us also. We must leave the former ‘world-view’ and follow Jesus and love the people around us. He is the Good Shepherd who willl lead us to his home. Last thought, the church is God’s plan to bring Jews and gentiles (everyone else) together into one body which is called the church which is Bride of Christ. That’s as feminine a picture as we can possibly have. Regards, ahti (Jane you are still the best looking senior I’ve seen in my life)
Have you read “The Shack”? I highly recommend it.
Hi Jane, I admire your honest and courageous feelings. Thanks for talking about what you have been through. More people need to find out it is a matter of the heart. Gentleness and kindness to our fellow man is the hallmark of a Christian life. I feel that if good manners are left behind ….. there is always something missing. After all, God and man must commune on their own. In a recent dream, footsteps were left behind for me to see….I am trying to walk in them daily.
I am so proud of Ms. Fonda! I have always felt that she carries a wisdom that is empowering and inspirational for all generations. I hope she continues to play a role in keeping the public aware of issues that need addressing in our society. She is a rare treasure indeed. I hope that one day she gets the respect she deserves!
Just came by to wish you the best in your search for the truth. I’m praying that in your quiet time God reveals Himself to you in a real way.
You have always had a special place in my heart since I was a child growing up watching your movies. My favorite movie of all time is Cat Ballou. I’ve wached it so many times I can probably say the lines word for word
Seriously though I do care for your spirituality and your search for the truth.
I heard this line once; Religion is man’s way of reaching God – Jesus was God’s way of reaching man.
The way I see it is we don’t know everything there is to know about God and His word but the Holy Spirit teaches us the inner most secrets of God and He reveals that to us when we look to Him for the answers. All we have to do is ask God to give us the wisdom from above and He will. It takes time but we have to wait on Him. I know waiting is a hard thing to do, I know because I’m an impatient person. In fact I think we all are, but really I think you should ask Him. I like the fact that He’s just a wisper away and when I’m in trouble I can just say His name and He’s there and I can rest my head on His lap and be comforted like a little child.
You are so welcome to write me any time and be my friend and remember I’ll be praying for you.
As Jesus says. Keep The Word simple. As that of a child. Faith is just that. Faith. Becoming a believer is knowing that you have asked Jesus into your heart and for Him to guide you and with this comes instant knowledge that is very simple but is built upon. The very foundation for the walk you will make in your Christian life. Believing every word God has written and not just what you want to believe and discarding the rest. Kate
I tripped over this entry today and want to thank you for the beautiful job that you have done of articulating your faith experience. Echoes much of my own.
This is why I’ve always been against organized religions. Instead of just truly praising the way they claim they are, they point and ridicule. All the major religions do so. I love God and I wish to praise him in my own way without going on like a drone/robot the way the rest of them do and then completely lose sight as to why I’m doing what I’m doing. I feel all the religions have such good parts about them and if combined together there could be such a wonderful religion but what truly matters is remembering why you are doing the things you do and not making it some strict doctrine/law. Thank you for putting this up and reminding me why I was drawn to read your insight.
Jane you are one of my favorite actresses ( I loved you in Georgia Rule and of course On Golden Pond) but after reading about your faith, I love your heart as a fellow sister in the Lord and transplanted Georgia whoo also became whole in GA.
Jane I became familiar with your work with GCAP while I worked as Dr. Betty Siegel’s writer and web designer. I also met Johnetta McSwain and want to help her publish her book, but I love that you narrated her story. I love what you do for women. If that is not a GOD thing I dont know what is.
Thank you for sharing your faith and your favorite poem. It reminded me of these thought I had one summer on the banks of Blue Ridge Lake in North Georgia- I felt God whispering them to me as I was going through a tough time with “religious people” and all the hypocrisy.
The Dance
Dear One,
Listen. Listen to the music.
Do you hear the rhythm and the rhyme of our Dance?
The melody – I chose it just for you. It is OUR SONG. No one else shares this song with Me. They have their own song if they choose to listen.
Our dance began the day you met me and it will continue through eternity. Close your eyes and listen. Ignore those around you. There is no one here but you and I.
People will always be watching and waiting for you to miss a step – I don’t care if you miss a step or dance off the beat.
Come…step up on my feet and I will teach you the steps. I am your Daddy, I will let you stand on my feet until you can dance on your own.
I know the Dance is hard to learn -it is hard to let yourself go and dance freely with all your might. So stay on my feet as long as you need and let me carry you as you learn. I will dance for both of us. I choose the steps, the pace and the tempo. I keep time with My eternal purpose for your life.
Keep your eyes on me. Look deeply into my eyes of love. Fix your gaze on me and not your surroundings, circumstances or the people in your world. They can’t show you the steps to Our Dance.
Lay your head on My chest. Can you hear the beating of My heart? It beats to the rhythm of our song and it will keep you in perfect time to Our Dance. You have to listen to my heart or the other songs will confuse you. Listen to the rhythm of my heart until Our hearts beat as one.
I know your heart – you want Me – but you are afraid to step up and dance. You are afraid I am going to leave you on the Dance floor, alone, ashamed, humiliated. I will never ever leave you.
Do not let anyone “cut in” on us. Hold on tight and do not let anyone pull you away from my embrace. No one, no matter how much they love you can Dance to Our Song. Do not let anything keep you from the Dance.
You cannot schedule a Dance – for the Dance is your very life. I am your life. You are my life.
At some point during the Dance, while our hearts beat as one, and our steps in unision, your feet will slip off mine. You will be dancing alone – before me in worship. It will not be an act of defiance and independence but it will be an expression of the freedom you have in Me to worship me uninhibited in pure devotion. I will stand back and watch and enjoy the overflow of Our Dance.
As you dance in my honor – those watching will be overcome by the Love we share. They will want to Dance with Me too. They just never thought they could, but you showed them the way to the Dance. Some who are watching, used to Dance with me but now stand in the shadows – embarrassed to come to Me. They too will see Our Dance and be enticed back into their Dance with Me. They will want to climb up on my feet and learn to Dance anew.
Dance Dear One – Dance with ME -Dance with all your might.
Dance with the One you love
Love,
Your Heavenly Father
“And David Danced before the Lord with all His might’ 2 Samuel 6:14
Dear Ms. Fonda (this appelation is intended to be respectful, not rude, I don’t know you at all, and can’t call you “Jane” comfortably). I appreciate your willingness to answer the question on the hearts of many who don’t know you but for your notoriety – thank you for your transparency in an area you confess is personal. I too feel, and felt, that yearning to know intimacy with God. I believe that I felt it as a child, although was not exposed to organized Christian worship until my late teens – and rejected it (my mom had “been saved”, and this was only one of many forays into spirituality). However, it was to Christ that I turned when I had a crisis of faith (and of spirit) in college. It was not the “discriminatory” (in the sense of exclusive) nature of the uniqueness of Christ which drew me, but the profound thought that God would reach down, all the way down, to a stable to demonstrate his identification with my “personhood”, and then with the words “forgive them” welcome me home … although I had kicked, and railed, and hurt those he loved besides me. I am a free actor, and I choose to surrender my prejudices and call myself a child of God, and serve him who loved me when I hated him.
Hi Jane,
I love this entry because I’m experiencing something similar right now. I’ve actually always had a pretty strong faith, although I of course have had struggles. But right now I’m in a class called Christian Marriage and Sexuality and it’s so conservative and fundamentalist that I shake with anger every time I sit through it. This class teaches exactly what you were saying, about women being less than men because of the “fall” – this is also their excuse for why homosexuals are sinners. Like you, I identify as Christian, but I know a lot of people in that class would doubt that, as they have heard my many, many arguments to what the Professor states as fact.
However, my point is actually to make a suggestion. I was raised Episcopalian, and while it has a lot of the traditional aspects of Catholicism, it is more…well, I’m sorry Catholics everywhere, but it’s more intelligent and analytic. At least in the congregation I was raised in, the Bible is read more metaphorically and spiritually. Never in my life did I think it was meant to be taken literally!
The reason I’m writing is because I know how personal a spiritual journey is, and I admire you for writing about it here. If you chance upon this comment, I hope you’ll smile knowing that there are many of “our kind” of Christians out here, despite the fact that the Christian Right is so much louder. I smiled reading your thoughts – I was getting a little tired of hearing about how even married couples can’t have sex unless they’re trying to have a baby. Craziness!! It’s like they’re completely missing the point of religion!
Beautiful. I wish you joy and love on your Christian journey. I admire your words; they have lifted my soul today. Thank you for sharing with such reverence and intelligence. I especially loved your words about Christ and his relationship to women.
Bonnie, a Mormon woman from Utah
Jane – I loved your autobio.
SECONDLY, i just read your “ABOUT MY FAITH” blog. . i read it nervously -scared you were going to conclude with ‘christianity is B.S. . . god is in every religion . . bla bla bla’
BUT
thank God you didn’t – & are still on the right path.
doesn’t he provide such comfort? – that nothing else on earth can.
much love
jamie trimble
belfast, northern ireland
read the late Georgia Professor Elisabeth Fox Genovese’s books on feminism and God…the sad truth is, as big a star as you are…GOD RULES. and we his creation kinda have to listen to his requests of us…things like denying ourselves and loving our neighbor may be abhorrant to our flesh/selfish nature but that is ultimately what God requires…when you try to force God into an ideal formula for YOUR life you might as well have made him up and have him available at your disposal…what good is a God like that ? on a side note I happen to be in charge of the audio archives of a former Detroit columnist named SHIRLEY EDER…Shirley interviewed your dad and YOU many times and if you ever need a refresher on a period of your life for another book about your life get ahold me…in one interview with Shirl you actually say you would NEVER write a book about yourself…funny ain’t it ? Godspeed Ms. Fonda
Dear Jane, I ask this with all my heart, not to be mean or rude, but just seeking to understand…
You say, “I feel like a Christian, I believe in the teachings of Jesus and try to practice them in my life.”, but how could Jesus condone the killing of innocent unborn children, the Least of His, afterall “Thou Shall Not Kill” is a fairly clear Commandment of God the Father.
You say, “My faith is a work in progress (as am I) but I will plant my flag on the belief that God lives within each of us as Spirit (or soul).” When does a human being get a soul? Does a baby only receive a soul once she exits her mother’s birth canal?
You say, “Lots of folks go to church every Sunday and spend the rest of their time avoiding dealing with the question of consciousness. They try to pass time with pastimes, possessions, prestige.”
Yes, so exactly how does your conscience justify killing unborn human life for the sake of pastimes, possessions, or prestige?
You say, “That is what Jesus meant when he said that God is within us.” Yes, God is within us and when we kill one another, we are in essence killing our Lord and Creator.
I sincerely hope to continue this intriguing discussion with you and wish you the very best.
Hello Wynette- You know, there are those who believe, like myself, that the soul does not enter the body until one draws one’s first breath and does not leave the body until we breathe our last. Having said that, I was wondering if there is ever a time when you think that it’s appropriate to take another’s life? Do you believe in war, capital punishment, killing in self-defense, etc? I am not being accusatory, just curious.
thank you jane for saying yes to jesus now we can spend eternity together thank you thank you thank you
Hi Miss Jane,
I am just so blessed to know that you are spending eternity in heaven. I like what was said about in the book of Matthew that being perfect is not like
God because He is the only one who is perfect, but being whole for Him without any reservation so He can use us for His Gospel to go out. I am also a born again Christian love God with all my heart,soul and might in fact I answered the call to go out and preach the good news, right now I am in the Philippines doing His will and I am happy.
Also, we don’t have to through all those religious experts, just read your Bible and believe what it says and pray everyday the word of God you will go places you have never dreamed off.
God bless you and take care.
This is probably not a comment. I just want to extend my congratulations to Ms. Jane Fonda for being a fine actress consistently. I have been a fan of Ms. Fonda way back her movie They Shoot Horses don’t they? and until now she showed a great love to her craft. I just hope that she will continue to do more movies so that I can see her more often.
Happy Birthday and may God bless you and what you do for Him.
Sincerely,
Carol
Your experience confirms my own experience and what I hear from many of the young Christian women I work with. The male oriented, left-brain dominant, belief/thinking approach to faith leaves us empty and looking for something more.
In my own search in feminist spirituality, yoga, meditation, art and other realms outside of the Christian church, I found what I was looking for — embodied experiences of God’s love, wisdom and joy.
Now I offer retreats, workshops, health coaching programs and other resources to support others in discovering that too.
Thanks for sharing your experience here Jane. Since you’ve gone public with this, I’d like to quote your story and share it with the women I work with. I look forward to passing this on to others and hearing more from you on this topic.
Blessings of love, wisdom and joy to you in 2010.
Dear Jane -
Ever since I found your blog today, I’ve spent a great deal of time reading your various expressions.
This entry was amazing to read. The thing that struck me the most was how brutally honest you are in expressing the spiritual journey you are on. There is no arrogance. You simply make a gentle statement of what you believe, what has resonated in your soul and more importantly, what has not.
I’ve been a Christian since the age of 13. And I use that term in it’s literal meaning – trying to be Christ-like in my actions and speech. In all my years of studying scripture it has been the compassion and love Christ has for people, whatever walk of life they are in, that has confirmed my belief in His divine existence.
I have often pondered how frustrating it must be for Christ to watch us alter His beautiful truths. To distort them in order to oppress and rule a people. To use Christ’s words to forge judgments on others in order to feel superior. To employ Christ’s words as an excuse to kill others. To take the beauty of all Christ is and with our blood stained hands, re-write scripture to fit our global views. It must break Christ’s heart to watch us get it so tragically wrong.
As I’m sure you know, when you read the New Testament you will not find one place where Christ’s condemns another person. The harshest words Christ spoke were towards the religious zealots of the day. He called them vipers. An animal which sucks the blood from its prey. Pretty strong imagery for those religious individuals who were using God’s laws to oppress and rule a nation.
But what did Christ say to the woman at the well? [John 4: 1-42] The woman who was shunned by the public because of her questionable life style – living with a man who was not her husband and having been married to five men previously (which in that day was viewed as being a whore). She was a Samaritan. Samaritans and Jews didn’t normally converse with one another as Samaritans were viewed as being a low class citizen. She was a woman – meaning she had no civil rights and could be legally abused, raped, sold and killed. What were Christ’s words to her at the well? He had been hanging out with 12 men mentoring them in truths and He didn’t give them what He gave her. In fact she was the first person He revealed this particular truth to…………and what was the truth? He revealed He was the Son of God, the Messiah. This is who Christ decided to reveal the greatest truth to. A Samaritan woman – whom society had forgotten. And why? Why her?
I believe Christ wanted to demonstrate to the world then and now, how deep and vast His love is for all of us…..regardless of our backgrounds, social/economic standing, regardless of our failures or how the world judges us…..the God of the universe, who is the beginning and the end…who holds all things together….loves us all………just as we are. What a gift of truth to give to the world…….and to every soul who desires to have a friendship with Christ.
We have strayed so far away from the simple truth of God’s love. And so I stand with you in your journey. You are seeking God with all your heart. And I know, having experienced it first hand, God will not hide from you. God will reveal truths to you in a way that speaks to your soul. God has promised all of us He will never leave nor forsake us. God’s love is too vast to let any soul wander aimlessly.
There is joy in the journey Jane and I pray you continue to bathe in its beauty! May God continue to give you wisdom, strength and courage in your endeavor.
Respectfully,
Gina
I look forward to the opportunity to learn the ways in which your faith has altered your day-to-day experience. I am fascinated by your description of your initial exposure to Christianity in a practical as well as an emotional sense. Your search for the meaning of life and the anguish you experienced along the way is no doubt shared by many. However, your willingness to invest the effort necessary to forge an enhanced path to God rather than adhere to the dictates of established religion or discipleship will undoubtedly enrich your experience. Whether this particular instance is yet another expression of your creative spirit or merely an extension of a skill set developed on a stage that enabled you to fully experience and express any written word – it is to your great benefit that you engage completely the resources at hand in order to maximize this great experience. I and other readers I am sure would like to read of the impact of your experience on your your interaction with the world at hand. After all, you have been granted a stage much grander than ours and you interact with a much more extensive cast of characters.