Redefining Christianity

I've long been put off by Christianity. It started when I was a very young though I tried to conform to its practices, dogma, and beliefs. I was sent to church, sunday school, and bible school by my parents, and taken by my great-grandmother with whom I lived for a few years while very young. We walked to church mostly, except in very inclement weather. We usually went to the nearest but every now and then my brother, sister, and I were invited to go to another church by some family, usually the parents of one of my sister's friends. We went to Pentecostal, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Christian, Evangelical, and Catholic services so I pretty much had a broad exposure to most of the tenets, beliefs, teachings, and philosophies of Christianity in many of its forms. I went to a various churches in Southern Illinois as well as in the northern part. I attended Christian service while in the Army. I was baptized in the First Christian Church in Rock Island, Ill. after, at the age of six or seven, I walked down the aisle to be the only person to answer the call one Sunday when the church was about three-fourths full. I participated in communion after the baptism, partaking of the drink and the wafer along with all of the other Saved church members. But I never felt one whit different except for that sensation of being impelled to walk down the aisle to stand alone, looking up, at the base of the podium where Reverend Hoe was ready to close the Call, not having noticed the small boy at his feet.

I've felt that sense of being impelled, nudged, tugged, or pulled many times since then, but I've never connected with the message delivered from the pulpits of the Christian churches I've attended. There is too much unexplained and too many convolutions that can't be explained and don't make enough sense to be able to trust the supposed message. So, I've been looking most of my life for answers. I think I've found some and have begun to feel secure in what I've discovered and in the epiphanies that burst over me so many times that I can't begin remember them all, much less count them. And the thing about these epiphanies is that, when I explain my new insights to others, I invariably will see good changes in those people I confide in. They see the reason and the soundness in my insights almost always with just me simply telling them the background usually and then explaining the insight. No one has told me that my ideas are crack pot nor in error and all of this led to me applying for and receiving an ordination in the Universal Life Church. I'm now planning, along with two other people, the beginning of a church dedicated to teaching a redefined Christianity--Christianity explained in a way that makes sense gives a person much more security in himself as well as a cogent body of philosophy to work from and on which to base good sound morals and spirituality.

It's taken me a long long time to get to this point. I am much like any other person asked to teach spirituality. I asked over and over, "Me? Me? Why me?" It's taken since about 1965 to get the answer. It's because I have found some answers and they need to be taught to people who are searching for them as I was.

So, I am going to be a spiritual teacher, which is what Jesus was and was the way he viewed himself--as a teacher.

Walk in Peace, Love, and Harmony.