I was listening to Aled what's his name on the radio this morning and he had a guest from the All Faith Foundation (or some such thing) whose mantra was 'One God, many ways'. Basically it was the usual well meaning but, I have to say, quite condescending stuff that does not really take the claims of each faith seriously let alone try and understand the implications of those claims. Anyway, the point of this is that when asked why she had chosen this particular approach to faith(s) her reply was 'it just spoke to my heart'. The implication seems to be that as long as something speaks to our heart, it must be right! The fact that it rides roughshod over the 'truth' claims of a number of the worlds main faiths doesn't seem to matter so long as it has spoken to your heart. That got me thinking about how tempting it is to allow a warm and fuzzy 'heart feeling' to become the guide for our beliefs and the ultimate arbiter of truth. We can all very easily, and even inadvertently, walk this path. We may be well meaning and driven by good motives or we may just be lazy and not willing to invest time in seeking the truth but the results are a confused and confusing mish mash of half baked theology and unintended but nonetheless insulting conclusions.
This is not in any way supporting an intolerant approach to others with whom we differ. It is a plea to be open and honest about our distinctives and our sometimes mutually exclusive truth claims but to allow each other to listen and respond accordingly, and peacefully. It's also a warning to be guarded about just how we seek to discern what is or is not 'true'. Perhaps a 'nice feeling in the heart' is not sufficient?
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