The High School Religious Education classes at church are using various movies, and television shows as a springboard to discussing bigger theological issues.
They are starting with Joan of Arcadia. Um, YAY! I ADORE that show. Recently the Spousal Equivalent and I got the series from Netflix. One day when watching that, I ran across this. The 10 commandments of the writers of Joan of Arcadia:
1. God cannot directly intervene.I was rather struck by this. Within those simple ten rules are many of the beliefs that I hold about religion and the existence of a higher power.
2. Good and evil exist.
3. God can never identify one religion as being right.
4. The job of every human being is to fulfill his or her true nature.
5. Everyone is allowed to say "no" to God, including Joan.
6. God is not bound by time. This is a human concept.
7. God is not a person and does not possess a human personality.
8. God talks to everyone all the time in different ways.
9. God's plan is what is good for us, not what is good for him.
10. God's purpose for talking to Joan, and everyone, is to get her (us) to recognize the interconnectedness of all things - i.e., you cannot hurt a person without hurting yourself; all of your actions have consequences; God can be found in the smallest actions; God expects us to learn and grow from all our experiences. However, the exact nature of God is a mystery, and the mystery can never be solved.
Now, if it wasn't for the language, I think that class should watch Dogma. In all of its zany Kevin Smith hijinks... it has a message that I think is powerful for religion in today's world. You shouldn't hold beliefs. Those are too rigid and can't change as time and society does. You should hold religious ideas.
And don't bless your golf clubs to get a better golf game.
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