We Talk About God As Though He

Let's Use Our Stories To Encourage Listening To One Another And To Hear Not Just The Good News, But Also The Pain That Lies At The Back Of A Lot Of People's Stories And Histories.

We Are Addicted To Our Egotism, Our Likes And Dislikes And Prejudices, And Depend Upon Them For Our Own Sense Of Identity.

The Awful Atrocities Of Religion Happened When People Assume That God Shares Your Likes And Dislikes. The Crusaders When Into Battle To Kill Muslims And Jews And Cried, "god Will's It." That Was Their Battle Cry. Obviously God Willed No Such Thing. The Crusaders Were Simply Projecting Onto A Deity They'd Created On Their Own Image And Likeness, All Their Hatred And Loathing Of These Faiths And Made It Endorse Some Of Their Most Awful Prejudices And Lethal Prejudices.

I Had Failed To Make A Gift Of Myself To God.

The Constant Reprimands Made Me Hyperconscious Of My Own Performance, And So Instead Of Getting Rid Of Self, I Had Become Embedded In The Egoism I Was Supposed To Transcend. Now I Was Beginning To Understand That A Silence That Is Not Clamorous With Vexation And Worried Self-regard Can Become Part Of The Texture Of Your Mind, Can Seep Into You, Moment By Moment, And Gradually Change You.