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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1305075/David_top.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKnwscjqA8MG David Dickerson David D. David Dickerson Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:04:15 -0700 Radical love http://wideninggyre.com/radical-love http://wideninggyre.com/radical-love

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1305075/David_top.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKnwscjqA8MG David Dickerson David D. David Dickerson Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:58:00 -0800 Giving up the faith for Lent http://wideninggyre.com/giving-up-the-faith-for-lent http://wideninggyre.com/giving-up-the-faith-for-lent

Atheists
I first heard of the concept of giving up Christianity for Lent from Pete Rollins; at the time, I remember thinking that 1) he must be way smarter than me, and 2) that the idea seemed absurd. First off, why on Earth would anyone who believes in God pretend to not believe, especially for the duration of Lent? Is it even possible to not believe what you believe?

I thought "no" to that one. Simply put, I honestly don't think I could give up my belief in God, nor do I see a lot of benefit from trying--dark, overly-rational and noiresque don't really suit me, and they haven't since I was an undergraduate in college (though younger David was convinced it fit him great).

See, I was confusing the Creator of All Things with God, or vice versa. What I mean is, though I cannot truly decide to stop believing in God, who is above and within and beneath all things, I can choose to suspend my belief in my own concepts of God, and in those bits of conceptional dogma that two thousand years of tradition have left we Christians with. Once you "get" that difference--between God and my ideals about God--then it is clearer that suspension of those commonly-held beliefs is very possible and also beneficial.

"Beneficial?" you ask.

I am hoping to explore Christianity by first setting it aside, so that I might come to see more clearly what is at its heart.

Thinking back to Christian Mystics and church fathers, like Augustine, and even back to the example of Jesus, there is an intimacy that seems to be possible with God that just might not be possible to achieve while He isboxed in by my concepts about Him. Jesus seemed to step outside of the beliefs about God that were prevalent in His day toward a true relationship with the mystery that is God.

Maybe I am misreading things a bit, but it does seem to me that it is worth exploring my faith all over again.

I have often said that it would be better to throw out the very Bible rather than to use the book (of the God who is Love) to mistreat other people. Similarly, it would be better to not believe in a single limiting idea of God if that idea somehow caused me to withold love from someone, or if that idea kept me from being truly useful to God.

40 days without "Christianity" just might help me become a better Christian.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1305075/David_top.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKnwscjqA8MG David Dickerson David D. David Dickerson