Theo-Maniac

The problem is that most religions (meaning all the major religions, and a lot of others) DO teach basically the same moral values, etc. you've got the Golden Rule "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", the Wiccan Rede "An it harm none, do as thou wilt." (most Wiccans just have a problem understanding the reason why "An it harm none" is BEFORE "Do what thou wilt" and not after), Buddhism doesn't have a single such teaching, but does teach this value in general, Hinduism has similar teachings. What most people seem to forget, well, no, what they refuse to admit, is that we're all trying to understand the same thing, we just have different ways of going about it.

The way I see it, some actually happened (the ressurection in particular), although not necessarily exactly as they are recorded, which does not mean that feeding the five thousand is a metaphor for unbounded sharing or something. However, some were probably originally parables or stories that Jesus told that got turned into miracles he performed later. We have to remember that the only part of the Bible that was actually written down by the originator were the letters Paul wrote to the different churches, and we don't even have the original manuscripts of most of those anymore. I'd recommend everyone that reads this go out and read some books by two men, Paramhansa Yogananda, and Kriyananda (J Donald Walters). They founded a religion in the US thats sort of Christian Hindu Mysticism that deals with a lot of this sort of thing. I'd recommend their autobiographies, "Autobiography of a Yogi", and "the Path: Autobiography of a Western Yogi", in order to understand their viewpoint. I would recommend "the Promise of Immortality", about the parallel teachings of the Bible and Bhagavad Ghita, by Kriyananda, which gets into a lot of stuff about miracles, etc, but I wouldn't recommend it as the first book of theirs to read. You would probably be best off starting with a trilogy thats collections of transcripts from lecture given by Yogananda, the first one is titled "Man's Search for Meaning" I think, not positive, the second is titled "the Divine Romance", and I don't remember the name of the third. I would definitely recommend reading at least some of the first volume before the second, even though the second goes into Christian stuff and the first barely touches on the subject, as its likely there'll be stuff in the second that will make no sense to you without reading the first.

I'd definitely call myself a mystic Christian, mainly due to left-over beliefs from the years I spent studying Buddhism & Hinduism (Yoga). I still believe in reincarnation (which I can support with scripture refferences), and a lot of other Yogic teachings. If you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out two authors, Paramhansa Yogananda, and Kriyananda (J Donald Walters). Yogananda founded what is basically a Hindu-Christian Mystical tradition, and Kriyananda (Yogananda's closest disciple) has been carrying the torch for his guru since his death back in the '80's if I remember correctly. They both wrote a lot, and Kriyananda is still writing a lot. Their writings are basically Christian Mysticism thats deeply rooted in Hindu Yoga. Be sure to read their autobiographies first ("Autobiography of a Yogi", and "The Path: Autobiography of a Western Yogi" respectively) before you read anything they've written.

I blend Christianity and Buddhism, in that I follow the Buddhist 8 fold path, and some of the other "rules" in addiiton to the 10 commandments. I see no conflict with this, as the two are really quite similar, in that they are rules about much the same things.

The difference is that claiming someone is unenlightened from a Buddhist perspective is not an insult. Enlightenment is a state that is equivalent to the Christian goal of going to heaven, so claiming someone is unenlightened would not be an insuult, as very few, if any of us, are actually enlightened beings.

I attend a United Methodist Church near my house that sounds exactly like what you're looking for. Most churches these days have a "traditional" service, which is the funeral like one (although in my experience, this is not the case with the UMC), and a contemporary service similar to the non-denom churches. Unfortunately for me, I can rarely go to the contemporary service, as its early in the morning. I especially like the UMC, as it emphasises applying the Bible to your daily life, and really doesn't mention the afterlife much, if at all, and is still a "Bible teaching church". It is just my experience, but not all non-denom contemporary churches are hellfire and Brim-stone. I've seen a couple such services on TV, and while some are hellfire and brimstone, there are a surprising number that are similar to what I have just described about the UMC.

Ok, this is probably a touchy subject for some, but is it possible to engage in evangelistic activities and witness if one is a Liberal Christian? I would argue yes, as I do evangelise/witness, and am a Liberal Christian, but I thought I'd get some other people's input. To me, its the way you go about it that matters. If any of you have seen a series called "Way of the Master", I use a similar style to that, but with some of my own personal little twists. I see all religions as legitimate, but some make you work harder to get the same result. I usually use the metaphor of buying or building a house. If you are something other than Christian, you have to "build your own house" from the ground up, buying the property being similar to finding the "right" religion, and building the house being progressing in the faith. I then talk about how Christianity is like "buying a house thats already been built and furnished", which is a metphor for how Christ Jesus died for our sins, etc. I normally use the metaphor after going through the ten commandments, and occasionally I'll give the person a copy of the New Testament if I happen to have one. So, am I the only one that does this? Are there other Progressive Christians that evangelise? Is it considered unacceptable for a Progressive to engage in such activity?

Both of these are excellent. I'm reading Mr Gomes's book at the moment, and while I can't comment on that specific book, I highly recommend any Progressive Christian read all of Borg's books, which I consider to be excellent, and very insightful.

Everything by Hanh is good. I especially liked "Living Buddha, Living Christ", although I haven't read "Jesus & Buddha as Brothers", at least not yet.