I was reading the other day that Starbuck’s has 82,000 choices available in just one store (give or take a few dozen) when it comes to combinations, etc. Diana Butler Bass in Christianity After Religion writes:
“Americans, even those of modest means, exercise more choices in a single day than some of our ancestors did in a month or perhaps even a year. From the moment we awaken, we are bombarded with choices — from caffeinated or decaffeinated, to flipping on any one of a hundred television stations as we ready the children for school, to getting our news in print, online, or via a mobile device, to what sort of spinach to buy to go with dinner (local, organic, fresh, frozen, chopped, whole leaf, bagged, or bunched).”
A little later on, she writes:
“The economic, social, and political world in which we live has opened up the possibility for 82,000 choices at the coffee shop and probably about ten times that many when it comes to worshiping God and loving your neighbor. Some will choose well, others badly. Some will choose thoughtfully, others not so much. Some choose something new, others choose what they have always known. In the end, however, everybody chooses. Contemporary spirituality is a little like that line at the coffee shop. Everybody makes a selection. Even if you only want black coffee.”
Some churches would say we have a choice now, too … believe and be saved; don’t and be damned. But what I am really coming to believe is that because each one of us has a private relationship with God, there are infinite ways to approach religion and spirituality. So what’s the bid deal? It’s always been that way.
It’s only been in the folly of human minds that we think there’s any kind of unified “religion.” Isn’t religion supposed to be just the way that we individuals come together in order to find a common way that doesn’t offend too many of us and share our spiritual experiences? We’re SUPPOSED to be individual … but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some practices in common.
Isn’t is like a car dealership? Each car is individual but there’s a lot in common.
I don’t know… it all just seems like a lot of WORDS to provide an excuse for folks who want to keep division going.
To me it’s a lot like the presidential campaigning that’s going on now where we’re focused on dogs, on some pretty petty stuff. I just want to say, “C’mon, guys … let’s get down to the real issues here.”
President Obama is is on The View right now. I don’t normally watch it, but I really want to see him. They are talking with him about his new stand in support of gay marriage. That’s another thing… isn’t it like abortion? To be Pro Choice does not mean that you will FORCE someone t have one. It means a person has a choice. To be pro-gay marriage doesn’t mean that you have to FORCE people to support it. It means it’s a choice.
It’s a choice like our 82,000 choices at Starbuck’s.
Not every law, not every rule, not every religion or even every Christian Church is for everyone. We just have to have some grace and generosity of spirit so there’s room for everyone at the table.
Isn’t that what Jesus was all about?
I’m just sayin’ … 🙂
Transformational Whispers 
“because each one of us has a private relationship with God, there are infinite ways to approach religion and spirituality”
Amen, sister! Unfortunately, as you also mentioned, in far too many churches (and minds) it’s “believe as I do or be damned.” I grew up in that kind of environment so I know it well, there was no room for free exchanges of ideas or questioning of rules. Too many people still live like that.
I’ve always assumed that the reason humankind developed different forms of religion, and the various denominations or sects within them, was to bring into the fold others who “drink the same brand of coffee” (to borrow your analogy), but as I think about it there is also an aspect of excluding others who choose other brands. (Not to mention the tea-drinkers…) It seems that especially in the last decade or so the splintering has been more obviously based in a desire to not only exclude, but to condemn those who make different choices. We hear less about what people believe in, and more about what they stand against. And unfortunately, what they stand against isn’t injustice and intolerance and hatred and division…it’s anybody and anything that doesn’t precisely fit their personal view of how the world should be. The pendulum is swinging back toward the Old Testament style of religion bound by voluminous prohibitions strictly regulating the tiniest details of everyday life, and away from the simple two principles to which Jesus reduced the law: Love your God with all yourt heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
By the way, I love the coffee shop analogy, but I think of it as more of a salad bar where we don’t just place an order…we make our choices and with our own hands create a unique combination.
Salad bar works for me… and probably a lot healthier. 😀