Are You A Free Christian?

To be a Free Christian is like the art of living. It has to do with finding the right balance in your spiritual journey as a Christian. Every religion is characterised by a spiritual journey and Christianity is no exception. I submit that without freedom there can be no balance in our spiritual journey. Obviously freedom covers a lot of areas in life. As far as healthy religion is concerned, it is necessary in such areas as freedom of thought, freedom to love and truly accept those outside your group (inclusive faith), freedom to make decisions about your own life, and of course, freedom to relate to God as you understand best.

Free to think

"The mind is like a parachute, it doesn't work if it's not open." (Frank Zappa)

I believe that God gave us brains with the intent that we use them. The nature of human consciousness is such that it can only function properly in freedom. A person cannot be free unless he/she enjoys freedom of thought. Unfortunately freedom of thought has come to be associated as the opposite of Christianity. We have for example the secular movement called Freethinkers  ("free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists..."). This movement rejects Christianity -and all other religions that claim exclusivity to truth- as the enemies of free thought: 

"Freethinkers are convinced that religious claims have not withstood the tests of reason. Not only is there nothing to be gained by believing an untruth, but there is everything to lose when we sacrifice the indispensable tool of reason on the altar of superstition. Most freethinkers consider religion to be not only untrue, but harmful. It has been used to justify war, slavery, sexism, racism, homophobia, mutilations, intolerance, and oppression of minorities. The totalitarianism of religious absolutes chokes progress"

The worse case of opposition to free thought comes from those Christians who believe and teach the doctrine of Hell. Needless to say, those who teach the doctrine of Hell are opposed to basic human rights like freedom of thought. The advocate for religious freedom, B.A. Robinson  puts it this way:

"In countries with advanced human rights records, people are sentenced to prison because of what they have done, not for what they think -- i.e. not for thought crimes. Rejecting the Gospel is basically a thought crime. It involves no overt act. It does not directly affect another person. It does not threaten society. In fact, there are some indications that Atheists have a lower level of marital divorce and bigotry than some Christians. Some pariah nations who grant few human rights to their citizens arrest and imprison individuals because of their beliefs and teachings. Amnesty International and similar organizations commit most of their effort towards freeing such individuals, whom they call "prisoners of conscience."... Again, this conflicts with many passages in the Bible which appear to state that all unsaved persons will be routed to punishment in Hell after death. They would clearly be guilty of thought crimes -- of holding beliefs about deity, humanity and the rest of the universe which do not include trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior. According to many conservative Christians, the Bible clearly states that Hell is reserved for such unsaved people" 

He adds: "The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada, the constitutions of other countries, and various United Nations documents, guarantee that everyone enjoys religious freedom. This includes the right to follow their own spiritual path, to change their religion at any time, to practice their religion (within certain limitations) and to proselytise to others. Some countries deny some of these rights to their citizens. In some areas of the world, it is an offence punishable by execution for a person to change their faith from the state religion to a different faith. But these countries are generally severely criticized by human rights advocates, and international courts. Conservative Christians generally believe that only a small subset of humanity will attain heaven. Many believe that Christians who are unsaved and persons of other religions will be punished in Hell. In essence, religious freedom does not exist after death" ( see: Major conflicts about Hell )

Free Christians are free to accept, modify, update, expand and dismiss any doctrine or belief without any fear of offending God. Free Christians are free to even reject all doctrines and creeds and simply enjoy the great mystery of God without placing God in any box. By avoiding creeds and "infallible" doctrines, Free Christians are always free to move forward in their spiritual journey "from glory to glory".

Freedom of thought basically means that you don't have to subject yourself to the "thought police" of your Church. If you find any doctrine of your Church offensive or untrue or just irrelevant, you are free to reject it. Regardless of what your church leader might think, you are in no danger from God regarding your beliefs. God respects human rights more than anyone else!

Nor is the Almighty offended or shocked by our wrong beliefs regarding, say, the doctrine of Trinity or what ever else. God is infinitely better than that...

Nor is God offended when we reject the doctrine of Bible Infallibility. Quite the opposite would be the case if God were to be offended... The Bible is filled with mistaken notions about God, notions that make God look like a horrible monster ( see The Attributes of Satan ). Free Christians are free to simply dismiss such mistaken notions, whether they are taught by the Bible, by the Church, by Holy Tradition or by the Pope, "even by an angel from heaven". As liberal Bishop Spong says: "What the mind cannot believe the heart can finally never adore" ( Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism, Bishop John Shelby Spong, San Fransisco: Harper Collins, 1991, p. 24 )

To the question "Do you believe in Biblical Inerrancy?", Episcopalian John S. Morgan answers:

"I‘m sorry; I have a great problem accepting that any educated adult could sincerely maintain such a belief. In this country I help pay for, as we all do, the education of every willing child through four years of high school. If, after that, the person remains unable to ascertain the difference between chicken salad and chicken poop it is not my fault. The theory of Biblical inerrancy breaks down on careful scrutiny. If you put corresponding reports of the gospel evangelists side by side, it is easy to find contradictions of fact. For example, while each of the evangelists record what is described as the last words of Jesus on the cross, three are in total conflict. There are four different renditions of the message placed above Jesus on the cross. Then too the bible contains egregious errors of science... The greater we associate God with the literal authorship of these books, the greater we associate him with error. To my mind that is blasphemy... I am not under the authority of scripture. I am under the authority of God, the Ground of Being, about whom I have formulated some intimations thanks to the authors of the Hebrew and the Christian scriptures, as well as from other sources -- my own God-given reason and the broad human experience of those, in many times and cultures, semper et ubique, who have earnestly sought the True the Good and the Beautiful" ( Source: What I Believe John S. Morgan )

Sometimes liberals like retired bishop Spong and John S. Morgan "are thought to be Christians who have backslidden; people who don't have enough faith, or are too "in the world." Liberal Christianity, however, is not a watered-down version of "true orthodoxy." Rather, it is a way of approaching God, Jesus, the Bible and salvation from a stand-point grounded in experience and reason. It is an honest approach to understanding the Christian faith, and its place in an ever changing world. Most of the world's greatest and most influential theologians are liberals. Many of your neighbours go to liberal churches. But what is a liberal Christian exactly? What do they believe? What don't they believe?" ( see: WHAT IS A LIBERAL CHRISTIAN? and NOT OF THE LETTER )

One of the biggest proponents of liberal religion, Robert Brinsmead, whom I will quote extensively in what follows, explains why it is impossible to live "by the Book":

"Christianity failed to understand Paul's critique of life "under the law." He did not break with his old existence because it was Jewish. That part to him remained "holy, just and good" The deficiency of the law, according to Paul, lay in its form as "written text." (See Romans 7 and 2 Corinthians 3 ) No written text can give life, says Paul, not even if it is written by the super apostles in Jerusalem! Not even if it is written with God's own finger like the Ten Commandments! And we might add, Not even if there was a verbally inspired Bible! ( John 5:39) The real new testament, declares Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, cannot be written in ink. It can only be written by the spirit of God in people."

"That which is laid out in a written text is laid out like a corpse. It may have the form of the truth just as a corpse has the form of a person. This may sound like a harsh judgment, but what it is intended to show is that the written text is an inadequate vehicle for the spirit of God. It should never be equated with God's Word which the New Testament says is "spirit and life... Human life too transcends any written code. Millions of laws are enacted, revised, updated and redrafted through the legislative bodies of the world. The task is never done because it is not possible to create a system of law which does justice to the infinite variety of human situations. There will always come a time when carrying out the written code will lead to the neglect or abuse of the neighbour; there will always be a situation when blind obedience to what is written will be without human sensitivity and compassion, even (or especially) when it is God's law. As an old wisdom saying puts it, "Law is for the guidance of the wise and for the blind obedience of fools."... Spirit is always greater than letter. In his epic Chesapeake, James Michener tells the story of how a little Quaker woman was the first to raise her voice against the institution of slavery in the United States. Churchmen tried to silence her with Biblical proof-texts in support of slavery. "Won't you agree, - they argued with her, "that you contradict St. Paul. She frankly acknowledged that she did, but said that slavery was clearly contrary to the spirit of the Nazarene Teacher. In the Christian culture of her day, it took a lot of courage and conviction to place spirit in opposition to the written text."

"If living by the law proves inadequate even in civil life where the rule of law is pre-eminently suited, it is even more inadequate in the spiritual life. The regime of a Torah may make a person religious but it cannot make a person spiritual. If the human spirit transcends the confines of any written code, if not even God can make a law which is adequate for every human situation, then how can mere Scripture encompass the spirit and life of God's Word? Is this to be reduced to a mere propositional revelation, and laid out in a cold text to be analyzed and dissected? "Forgive them, for they know not what they do!"..." (The Scandal of Joshua Ben Adam, by R. Brinsmead)

Free to love

Freethinkers also call themselves Secular Humanists. Again, it is sad to note that the term "humanism" has come to mean something opposite to Christianity. It is even sadder to see conservative Christians reject the concept of "humanism" as something evil. They might as well call humanity evil! By rejecting "humanism" conservative Christians basically portray themselves as anti-human and inhuman. The anti-religious movement is especially strong in America as a reaction to the choking presence of Christian Fundamentalism. The Religious Right considers Freethinkers, Atheists, Secular Humanists, Liberals, etc as enemies of God and ( of course ) enemies of America. The Born Again President of America George Bush once said: "No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God...." ( source: Concerning Christian Charity, by Dr. Tim Gorski ).

I submit not only that Free Christians can be humanists but also that Christians cannot be considered as "free" without being humanists.

A liberal theist and secular humanist writes: "Admittedly, it's a rather odd philosophical niche to occupy: a secular humanist theist (albeit a very liberal theist). Yet it's not as big a stretch as you might imagine. If you are a theist, all you have to do is ask yourself honestly: If God told me to kill somebody, would I do it? Now, this question requires a few disclaimers. First, no copping out and claiming that the God you believe in would never ask such a thing of you - this is hypothetical. Second, the person to be killed does, in fact, want to live: s/he did not request this, this is not euthanasia; nor does s/he deserve it for crimes committed. This is cold-blooded murder, with no mitigating circumstances or hidden aspects that will make it all right in the end. So, would you do it? If the answer is yes, then perhaps you won't gain much from reading further - we obviously have deep philosophical differences about the value of human life. But if the answer is no, then I submit to you that you may already have what it takes to be a secular humanist theist, even if you've never considered it before"

The problem with religions that make exclusive claims to truth is that they inevitably promote inhuman views about God and reality:

"Under the influence of religion, violence and inhumanity are made into a sacred duty. It is done in God's name. The greatest evils to humanity continue to be done in God's name - in Palestine, Northern Ireland, in Bosnia, in Afghanistan, in Iran. The ultimate cop-out is to say, 'God made me do it,' or 'I was just following orders'. That too was what the Nazis said at Nuremberg before they were hanged... May God save us from those who are so cock-sure of God's will. The greatest inhumanities are carried out by those who are absolutely certain they are doing God's will... Traditional theism cannot create a truly human society. That of course includes Christianity. Whenever the great churches have had the power and the scope they have been oppressive. But the social, spiritual and psychological oppression of the little Christian sects is even worse. They are pig pens of human oppression. They are systems of rigid thought control. Inmates think they are surrendering their individuality to God's will when they are in fact being de-humanized by some ridiculous, religious hierarchy which stands in God's place destroying human freedom. The root of the problem is that inhuman views of God are invariably reflected in inhuman structures and actions. Traditional theism ( the Sky-God above ) is based on the erroneous premise of a vertical relationship with God -master and slave, ruler and subject, domination and submission. In theistic societies this is the poison in the pottage. All religions create hierarchical societies which are in their very essence inhuman." (See: The Scandal of Joshua Ben Adam,
by R. Brinsmead)

Free to live

"Love God and do as you like" St. Augoustine ( The father of Latin theology said some good stuff too... A better version would be: "Love your fellow humans and do as you like"! )

Free Christians are free to live their everyday lives as they understand better. Rather than doing good because some external authority says so, Free Christians seek to do good because of that "inner voice" in the depths of their being which always calls them to express the image of God. Free Christians recognise that God inspires them to do good from within. They recognise that God does not force humans to do good under the threats of punishments or the promise of rewards. In this way, the "good works" are more authentic because they are not done in an effort to avoid punishment or gain rewards by a Tit for Tat God (see: Tit for Tat by T. Naylor) (Progressive Christianity: Faith and Ethics in Everyday Life by Janice M. Gregory)

Free Christians consider the complexity of life and conclude that rather than following a rigid code of behavior they are better off following the often spontaneous leading of the Spirit within: 

"God is not only the source of our humanity, but... he is more human than we are. He is more loving, compassionate, kind, caring, just or anything else we recognize as being human. He is more sensitive to our rights to be free and human than we could possibly imagine. There is no imposed authority, no encroachment of our individuality, no interfering with our rights to make decisions even if they be wrong ones. Won't God be the first to respect his image and likeness in us?"

"It is a mystery how God lives in us, making it possible for us to be conscious, human and free, yet doing this so unobtrusively that our choices and actions are wholly ours. He can inspire us, but he never dictates; his spirit prompts us, but does not interfere. The life we live is ours, not his. The pious imagery of his using us like an empty vessel or as a person with no will of our own is utter nonsense. He is a God of freedom and he knows that we are not human unless we are free. So in all things he gives us the space we need in order to be human because he is the supremely human spirit. Joshua ben Adam's vision of a supremely human God helps us understand why he allowed the church to make its mistakes and develop a domination system which destroyed human freedom. Or why he allowed it to refashion Joshua ben Adam to fit a totalitarian regime so totally at odds with his vision of the kingdom. God allowed it because he is a God of freedom - far more passionate about human freedom than we could ever be. He doesn't force humanity to do it his way. God didn't stop the Inquisition any more than he stopped the Holocaust."

"What faith and patience God had to wait until the man Joshua actualised the human potential of being God's image and likeness! What faith he must have to wait until even the church, so long the arch enemy of human freedom, sees that the way of the vertical order, with its domination and submission, is a sad human disaster. In recent times the church has learned many lessons and has moved on to repudiate inhuman things like religious intolerance, slavery, racial discrimination and opposition to science. Hopefully we will soon see less resistance to Biblical scholarship, more equality for women, a greater willingness to admit its mistakes, but above all the total elimination of the error of all errors - a vertical relationship to God... If we are to be truly human, the monarchical images of the sky-God must go, and the supremely human One in whose image and likeness we are made must be allowed to relate to us without the mediation of an imposed authority. That includes the Bible. It is doubtful whether Paul or any other New Testament writer thought through the failure of the law in terms of it being a verbal authority. A lot more water would have to flow under the bridge of human history before the inhuman character of all vertical authorities would be demonstrated..." ( ibid )

Opponents of Free Christianity accuse "liberal Christians" of promoting sin and evil. But, what is sin and what is evil? Commenting on the parable of the Good Samaritan ( Luke 10:30-35 ) Robert Brinsmead writes: 

"Joshua ben Adam's sayings and parables exposed human evil in a devastating way. Yet he rarely used the word sin. It was not a normal part of his vocabulary as it was with his contemporaries and the early Christians. Sin belongs to the vocabulary of religion. Religion is pre-occupied with sin, and so are all religious people." 

"The Judaism into which Joshua ( the historical Jesus ) was born had invested certain days, places, institutions, foods and customs with sacred significance. These religious icons had to be reverenced and observed in a prescribed way. Any non-compliance was thought to be a sin against God incurring defilement and guilt. The sacred things were also important to sacralize Israel's identity as God's people. Any non-conformity to the taboos of the tribe was a sin against the whole system of tribal righteousness. Many people at the bottom or on the margins of Joshua's society could not avoid "sin" because they were ignorant of the Torah (the religious rules). If they were also sick and destitute this was regarded as a sign of God's displeasure. They were then trapped in double guilt... The more privileged people spent a lot of effort observing the purity code to avoid defilement. This pre-occupation with religion and sin blinded them to how inhuman they were. Their whole value system was distorted. As Joshua said, they strained at gnats and swallowed camels ("unclean" animals). A speck of sawdust in a brother's eye was deemed a greater offence than a log in their own eye. Whilst they fussed over the minutia of religious sin, they neglected the big issues of human existence like justice, equality (love your neighbour as yourself), forgiveness and compassion."

"Real evil, according to Joshua, has nothing to do with the religious icons whether they are foods, rituals, garments, days, places or anything else. Evil has to do with the way we treat people, nothing more and nothing less. The living God has given us a living icon or image of himself and it is people. Nothing else matters!"

"Joshua makes this point in the story of the man left half-dead at the side of the road. The parable turns the value system of Joshua's day on its head. The Priest and Levite represented the religious elites, the recognized "goodies" of that society. They failed to do the human thing, presumably because they had to keep themselves free and pure for their service to God. The Samaritan on the other hand had a standing akin to a prostitute or a Mafia man. He was the recognized "badie" in the story. Yet he had pity on the wounded victim. He put his life at risk when he stopped to help. He did the human thing. Joshua told this story in answer to a question about finding eternal life. The story tells us that religious affiliations, practices and belief systems don't really count. The only thing which matters is doing the human thing." 

"The Christian may thank God that he is free from the religious regulations of the Old Testament. But there are plenty of Christian icons to take their place. The Christian religion is divided into numerous sects, big and small. Each group has its own special religious icon. It may be a mode of baptism, a Eucharistic tradition (The Supper), the keeping of a certain day in a distinctive way, an apocalyptic schema, a religious institution, a unique theological belief or a religious practice."

"Each group derives from its icon its reason d'etre. It uses the icon to sacralize its own identify as superior to the rest. The icon is the rallying point of tribal righteousness. And consciously or unconsciously, the hierarchy or power-holders in the group use the icon to keep the people captive within their system. If someone in the tribe calls the surpassing glory or importance of its icon into question, all hell breaks loose and there are broken bones and dead bodies all over the place. It would be all too easy to give some real life examples from church after church, but it is all too sensitive and embarrassing, so we will spare everybody because there has been too much human pain already in inquisitions, heresy trials, purges, burnings, drownings, floggings, shunnings, defrockings, social pressures, name-callings, intimidations, guilt trips and the like. But who ever heard of such things happening in a church because some members were judgmental, unkind, uncaring, hard hearted, unforgiving or in any other way not truly human? Even robbing the bank won't disturb the tribe nearly as much as a sin against the tribe's icon. The religious authorities perform as if the integrity of God's throne is at stake when it's only some human throne which deprives people of the freedom of being human. The Christian religion has produced the same inhuman distortions which Joshua ben Adam exposed in his day. If sin is forsaking the religious icons to join the human race, then let us "sin bravely" as Luther once said. There is only one evil, and that's the failure to be human..." ( ibid )

Free with God

Any relationship of love can only be expressed in freedom. This includes the relationship between humanity and God. There is no need for third parties here. There is no need for others to tell you what God wants from you or how to please God. When it comes to God, each one of us is a God-expert. We all have equal access to God. We may be limited in our freedom in regards with the world around us, but with God we are truly free to enjoy and interpret His reality any way we want! Beware of all those self-proclaimed representatives of God who would have you put God in a box, that is, their box. Let no one rob you of your wonderful freedom that you have with God as a birthright.

Many Liberal Christians have been accused of being atheists because they reject archaic notions about God (ie as a monarchical Sky-God "up there" or "out there"). In fact, what many Liberal Christians reject is not the existence of God, but the now bankrupt traditional theistic views of God. Controversial author John Shelby Spong asks: "is theism the only way to understand God? I do not think so. Throughout western history a subterranean minority voice has always been part of Christianity which has never spoken of God in supernatural or theistic terms, as a superparent, or a divine Mr. Fix-it. That tradition is called mysticism. It sees God in the words of Rudolf Otto, as the "mysterium tremendum," the inexplicable presence, the symbol of transcendence, otherness, the emerging life force that produces an expanded consciousness... This mystical understanding of God calls its adherents out of childishness into a radical new maturity. It manifests itself in a human willingness to accept responsibility for our own actions, to see ourselves as lives through which the power of the divine can enter and shape human history. If one listens, one can hear echoes of this understanding of God even in the New Testament. Paul speaks of the God "in whom we live and move and have our being." The Johannine Christ is made to say "I have come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly." Jesus is portrayed as arguing against a theistic understanding of God when he suggested that the people who perished when the tower of Siloam fell were not more guilty than those who survived..." (J. S. Spong.. Beyond Theism)

Spong adds: "Yes, I am convinced that there is a realm of spirit, transcendence and otherness beyond the limits of my physical existence. I use the word God to speak of this realm... I do believe that in this mysterious realm of the divine, our love and our caring can loose energy that embraces us, makes us whole, brings healing power, and invites us to share in that which is timeless. I further believe that those of us who know this reality are responsible for acting it out so that it impacts our world and transforms it, calling us into a new awareness of the holy. Finally, this is what leads me to say that I see God in Jesus of Nazareth; and he becomes Christ and Lord for me because he penetrated this realm as no one else has done and his life made clear what God as the Source of Life, the Source of Love and the Ground of Being really is... Those of us who are disciples of this Jesus call ourselves "The Body of Christ," which means that we are called to be agents of the life, sharers of the love and enablers of the expanded humanity revealed in his being. Perhaps the time has come for men and women of faith to recognize there is no divine supernatural being who inhabits the sky. There is only a divine presence deep in the heart of life, bubbling up in each of us, waiting for the opportunity to emerge in the expansion of our being. So I turn inward to meet God, and the God I find there is the God I see in Jesus of Nazareth. When I give that God away, I become a revealer, indeed a bearer of God in this world. In this sense we human beings are the workers of miracles. We are the persons through whom that holy presence we call God enters life and invites others to enter that which we call the realm of the divine. The incarnation of God, a phrase that we once used to speak of Jesus, becomes now expanded to include the incarnation of God in each of us. The Reformation of Christianity, the delivery of this faith system of yesterday from the irrelevance to which the knowledge expansion has doomed it, must start here, where passive dependency is removed from religion and where we come to understand that in our expanded humanity God is revealed. It was that experience that forced the first Christians to say Jesus is Lord. In and through his humanity, so full, so whole and so free, the holy and transcendent God was met. A Reformation Church will be built on that conviction." (ibid)

We are free to interpret our God experience any which way we want. As long as we don't force our views upon others as "infallible truths" we can indulge in exploring the infinite depths of God. By it's very nature, our experience of God is purely subjective, and so is our interpretation. The moment we objectify our interpretation, the moment we create "infallible" or final definitions, we create an idol because we put God in a box. A golden rule I always recommend is "whatever you think about God be sure that the reality of God is infinitely better". 

Commenting on the gospel verse "Foxes have their holes, the birds their nests; but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head" (Luke 9:58), Brinsmead makes the point that humanity is on a free journey with God because every son/daughter of man, that is every human is created as a free itinerant spirit by God: "Joshua ben Adam ( the historical Jesus ) declares that the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. He probably made this enigmatic statement with a big smile on his face just as there was a big smile on his face when he told enigmatic stories to lampoon conventional wisdom. The statement tells us far more than the simple fact he was an itinerant who moved from place to place. It tells us that the one who accepts the calling of being human as God intended is an itinerant spirit, a person who is free and on a journey.... This itinerant spirit, the spirit of being free and on a journey is not natural. It is above the natural. It is supernatural. It is God’s image and likeness, for God too is free and on a journey. His creation is not yet finished. He has created humanity in his image and likeness to participate with him in the ongoing creation and in this journey into an open and therefore human future. It has to be open precisely because God and his partner are free. It is a journey of discovery with possibilities which are "infinite in all directions"... When we consider that this freedom to be on journey with God is our calling and destiny, why should we try to find our home, our security, our resting place in a restrictive religious system, a sectarian prison, a stultifying creed, or in any ideology or ism. All these things must appear like the puny burrows and nests of the animal kingdom to which we can easily descend when we lose the vision of being free and on a journey with God. 

He adds: "We all know that the Christian Church quickly lost its itinerant character. It did not remain a movement of a free people on a journey through history. It would be hard to find an institution so fearful of and hostile to human freedom as the Church. Basic religious tolerance was not even considered an option by either Catholics or Protestants until it was forced upon them by the events of modern history during the reign of Queen Victoria and the beginnings of the American nation. And generally speaking, the Church was an Establishment bent of resisting most kinds of human progress whether in democratic rights, science or diversity of ideas... Is God a Catholic - who speaks Latin? Is he a Protestant - a white Anglo-Saxon? Is God a Christian? Is God a Jew? Is God a Muslim? Is he male? Of course he is none of these things! Can he be put in a sectarian box? Can he be tied down by a religious creed? Whilst the Church was chanting its creeds and resisting science and human progress, God manifested his freedom by going outside all religious structures to inspire free men to launch an age of enlightenment, of science, and of human progress. God by-passing the theists and working in and through atheists? He must have a great sense of humour."

"As for the human spirit made in God’s image and likeness, is it not crystal clear that it also transcends nationality, race, religion, gender, culture and age? The human spirit is neither Jew or Gentile, African or Caucasian, black or white, male or female, old or young. That which invests the human spirit with dignity, superiority, and equality is not its racial identity, sexual identity, cultural identity, and certainly not its religious identity, but simply and only this - its human identity... God cannot be locked up in a religious structure. The human spirit cannot be confined in a sect. The kingdom of God cannot be contained in a creed or be identified with any Establishment. There is no "Theory of Everything" which can contain the human sprit which is free and on a journey with God into an open future. Any creed will be out of date before the ink is dry. The human one is above Socialism, Capitalism or any other ism. At best all of the foregoing systems or institutions could only be what fire is to human need - a good servant but a bad master. Their rightful place is under people’s feet. (Psalm 8:6) No wonder Joshua ben Adam could say "Foxes have their holes, the birds their nests; but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head". There is no home worthy of the human spirit except in him who is "our dwelling place from generation to generation". (Psalm 90:1) No one says it better than this: "God is love; he who lives in love lives in God, and God in him." (John 4:16)..." ( ibid )

Let us live in Love! Let us be Free Christians!
Let us enjoy being human!