Yesterday I gave a very brief talk to a gathering of the Protestant community at my college. The talk was in a series called: "This I believe." It was an interesting experience preparing what I would say. It raised a number of questions: Actually, what do I believe? What is belief? Are my beliefs justified? Does it matter? I only a couple of minutes to say it, so I couldn't say much. I decided that I would try to work out what my core beliefs are. When I did, I realized that a few words cropped up a number of times and seem important to me. I have italicized them.
This is what I said (with a few brief comments on each in the telling):
That religion is a human attempt to make sense of the experience of transcendence.
That all religions, at their best, bear witness to the way of love, compassion and nonviolence.
That God is love, and wherever we find love, there we find God.
That Jesus—in his life practice, teaching and in the way he died—is an exemplar of the way of love.
That orthopraxy (right practice) is more important than orthodoxy (right belief).
That through our practice we can become more loving and so change the world for the better.
So, an interesting experience. Try it for yourself!
+Ab. Andy