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This week: Let Them Pick Cherries Edited by: NaNoKit  
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Religion is often seen as a package deal. But is that the best approach to take, or is "cherry picking" acceptable?
This week's Spiritual Newsletter is all about our own unique relationship with God.
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I quite like reading religious debates. I rarely jump in, because as regular readers of my Newsletter will know, I don't have a firm stance on what, exactly, I believe in. When I do participate, then, I tend to find myself under fire from all sides. So I mostly stick to reading, and I have noticed a peculiar trend..
People don't like those who follow their faith to the letter. They tend to be accused of all sorts of -isms, -ists and phobias. They like people who don't follow their faith to the letter even less, though, - it would appear that “cherry picking” is a great crime.
I find this difficult to understand. If , for example, someone not of a certain faith dislikes that that faith holds a particular stance on same-gender marriage, one would think that that person would be happy if a follower of the faith told them that, actually, they're fine with it. Instead, the person not of the faith can turn into the fiercest defender of said faith, despite their disagreement with it.
The general perspective appears to be that if you sign up to a faith, you sign up to all of it, not just the parts of it that you like. It's a package deal. Reality, however, is far more complicated than that. Someone might have been raised in a faith, yet question parts of it. Or someone might be in overall agreement with their faith, and feel at home with it, and any objections they have are not sufficient for them to leave.
We all have set views, and views that change during the course of our lives. We learn from our own experiences, and the experiences of those around us. There can be times when we, as people, change on a daily basis. The changes are likely to be minute, but they add up. I know that I am not the same person I was five years ago, and five years ago I was a different person to who I was five years before that.
This means that my relationship with God has changed along with my inner changes. And my perspectives on the world and wider society have undergone drastic changes. I have gone against the trend of growing more conservative with age – I am more left-wing now than I was in my youth.
Following a religion to the letter is difficult anyway, as society has changed through the ages. In addition, religions tend to be open to different interpretations. There are various strands of Christianity and Islam, and I assume that the same goes for faiths that I am less familiar with.
So, does it matter if people have their own interpretation within the particular interpretation of the faith that they follow? I think that, on the whole, it doesn't. There are key elements to religion. In most religions the main element is a belief in a higher power. In Christianity, another key element is the acceptance of Jesus as one's Saviour. In Islam there is the acceptance of the Prophet Muhammad as the final Messenger sent by God to mankind. If followers of these faith didn't believe in those elements, then it is fair enough to question why they see themselves as part of that particular religion. I don't think that the same applies to relatively minor details.
Faith is personal. Everyone's relationship with God is unique and special. That is something to be treasured, and so long as that relationship doesn't lead to harm, let's respect it. Every package deal will have some aspects that aren't quite one-size-fits-all.
kittiara
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Spiritual: April 22, 2015 Issue [#6949]
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