Lolly

As a card carrying Episcopalian, I can assure you that we come in many forms. What keeps us together (up until now, anyway) has been a belief that we can share communion despite divergent and varying views. That said, I suspect that the larger part of the Episcopal Church in the USA is fairly liberal. Some of us are extremely so.

I have a sense that the current crop of Southern Baptists has been coopted by the televangelists. As for Presiding Bishop-Elect Schiori, I say, "right on!" The Episcopal Church is living in interesting times right now. There is an active and painful schism growing in that church between progressive and conservative factions, mostly centering around the fairly recent consecration of an openly gay bishop, and there have been rumors circulating that the election of Schiori was, in part, driven by conservative votes wishing to further enhance the schism. I can't say if or if not that is true, but I do think that the lord works in mysterious ways. In my own church, a mention by our Dean of the first female Presiding Bishop was met with a hearty round of applause. Lots of folks approve of it, but some don't, just as some disapprove of the gay bishop. It all makes for a strained communion, and what happens, ultimately, to the Anglican Communion (of which the Episcopal church is a part) remains to be seen. Fortunately, at least in most churches, the politicking is being left mostly to the church politicians, and Jesus' message of love and redemption can still be heard each Sunday... at least in the church I go to.

I was baptized as an adult, just last year. For me, it was not about "washing away sins" but was a deeply symbolic action which acknowledged, as witnessed by the faith community, my personal committment to do my very best to live as Christ lived. If anything was being "washed away" it was my life outside of this committment to Christ-- in a symbolic, not literal, way, of course. For me it was an intensely meaningful and heartfelt experience, but I also recognize that many would view it in a different light, depending on what they believe baptism is meant to achieve. My advice would be that anyone who does not feel ready to do such a thing should not do it. Do it only with your whole heart.

Excellent. It's about time people started using legal recourse to deal with these issues. Of course, at the rate this administration is going, it won't be long before this "loophole" in the law is closed, too.

Well, this is true . However, to stick to the point, buddhists do fight over doctrine and dogma and tradition. A lot, actually. There are fundamentalist buddhists and non-traditionalist buddhists and all manner of buddhists in between. The fundamentalists believe that anyone who doesn't believe their orthodox version of what the buddha taught (which varies from sect to sect) is not practicing the religion correctly or with the proper amount of reverence. Some of the strictest non-traditionalists believe that anything which smacks of mysticism has to be a remnant of superstitious cultural baggage and refuse to consider that mysticism may be a valid part of religious experience. In addition, buddhism as it's practiced in the west is a very different animal from buddhism in the east, and there are even cultural "issues" between practitioners of Chinese vs. Japanese vs. Vietnamese vs. Korean forms of zen.

Yes Bigotry is not limited to this or that religious or ethnic group; it's a universal blight on the human condition.

Thank you, lily. That was nicely said and, in my own view, to the point. I agree with your impressions of early Christianity as a mystery religion. A buddhist friend of mine is fond of saying of religion in general that there's little percentage to be gained for any institutional religion if the goal is to fully liberate the follower-- and that there's little to be gained for any spiritual follower if the goal is not to become fully liberated. Liberation, in this context, is a kind of zen shorthand for the process of freeing oneself from the illusion inherent in clinging to concepts and ideas so as to become capable of seeing things as they are and fully experience/appreciate the mystery that lives and breathes in the everyday.

We just planted two willow trees out back to soak up some of the water here. The rear part of my back yard is like a sponge. I have fence posts back there that I can move back and forth in the ground, it is so soft, and when I do it you can hear the water sloshing around. I'm with you all about the no-mowing thing. I'm planning to plant a lot of indigenous ground cover and/or just put up a sign that says "Natural Area"... How is your foot feeling, Aletheia? Better?

Yup!

What do you all think of the thought that the divine is, perhaps, something which permeates all of creation (in some way) but which, due to our humanness, we simply fail to appreciate? Put another way: God/Divinity resides in the so-called mundane. There is no true separation between the mundane and the divine. It is only our clouded and dualistic vision that prevents us from fully realizing God in our own lives, from seeing the divine inherent in all of creation.

Fred, every time I read your posts I wonder if you and I were not separated at birth

Hi, James. Every "quote tag" requires a "close quote tag", as a quote must have a beginning and an end in order to work. So, if the number of quote tags and close quote tags is not the same, none of the quotes tend to work correctly. The "Close all Tags" option in the posting menu should help you find any unclosed tags. Also, on another board I frequent which uses the same software I believe there is a limit to how many tags each post may contain. If you have a lot of quotes in one post, that might be creating a problem. Not certain about that one, though. HTH

Awwwww That's so sweet.

Yikes! Sorry you had to go through that, but I'm very glad it wasn't worse (I had some horrible thoughts when I read the title of your post). Hope you have a speedy recovery!

Thanks, Earl. I just opened this link, and it looks very interesting.