thanx for sharing, its wonderful

Thank you for sharing this letter.  

I loved the letter & website posted here.  Growing up I was raised in a penticostal 'religious' setting and found myself to be very condemning of others who did not think the way I thought & was always manipulating- in one way or another- others to recognize Jesus was their savior.  

For a long time I could not understand why God would create an entire earth with so many religious choices & cultures yet core beliefs were ultimately the same.  I tried to put myself in anothers shoes, but the fact is, if I grew up in Africa or India, my core beliefs would be different than what they were at the time & I would be just as invested and stubborn in those convictions!

In the past two years of my life through some tough times, I've grown to realize that God is Love.  I would ask my family how it was that if you HAD to recognize Christ as savior why everyone who believed this wasn't all over the world professing this message.  Although there are missionaries, etc. I know MANY Christians who wouldn't dream of giving up their day job or families...

Anyway, I recognize all religious texts as gifts from God & share a universal view of love, forgiveness & happiness.  My family is not accepting of this & I am somewhat of an outcast at this point.  Although discussions start amicably, they always end with me being evil.

I'd be grateful if anyone had any text besides that website to help me share my point of view with some research/support.  Remember, these are people who think the Bible is the end all, be all, yet fail to encumber the very basics: Love, forgiveness & free of judgement.  It's strange, but ever since my POV has changed I live my life more like that of what a Christian professes to live by than I did before when I was one!

Welcome to the site and I suppose we have almost the same view on God.Jesus and Religions.

I define God as something good, a father/mother figure.

If we can agree upon this, then why would he create one religion who carry the truth and several other who do not?

I suppose none of us can believe that any God would do such a thing.

Therefore, mankind, on different places of earth, created a long time ago, when each region was isolated, a Religion to pray to God.
Furthermore, they gave this God a name.

Then there came a time when we started to move around with greater speed, and we heard about the different religions.

The church, who fight for control of their congregation, start to call all other beliefs for heathen, and we start to have "religious wars".
All believe that their belief is to the true God, and in my opinion all of them is, but the Church can't accept it like this, because then they lose their power.

A belief is in itself a good thing, it can give comfort and help in difficult times, but when a belief start to be " to strong and the only one" it has a tendency to destroy more than it serve, because it narrow the members view of other people, and the belief in itself become the tightly controlling element of the day.

Therefore, in my opinion is it more important to see how you have lived your life, not how many times you have visited the church, and prayed and donated to the church.
I respect all Religions that live inside the rules of the society, and this is also the view of society, since most Country has freedom for Religions.

So, never feel that you are evil, you will never be that, by a belief, only by actions.

The more we respect each other and try to understand each other, the more we can live in harmony, and I am so "simple" that I believe that would please God most!