ASCRPWHLE

The question lingers in my heart. How many people who say, or appear that, they have "no religion," are "not religious?" We have just hit a major semantic barrier. A barrier that can not be crossed with mere words. The solution in this case comes in the form of friendship. And, until we are good friends, we shall never really know the truth of what men and women believe.

Suddenly, the cute, little idols in the perimeter walls, in the cemeteries, and in the homes lose their cuteness. There is a world of difference between respecting one's ancestors and heritage, and participating in the worship of the dead. And, this is the point at which culture and religion divide: it is the difference of being connected emotionally and being connected spiritually.

Now, to the pluralist, there is no reason to be alarmed because there is nothing there that isn't anywhere else. All religions are acceptable, only intolerance is to be abhored. The reasons pluralists take this point of view can be many. Some may give little credence to the spiritual at all, seeing it as superstition; in this case, culture and religion are two heads of the same thing, and people are only connected emotionally. However, at the other end, there are people who take a serious view of the supernatural, and yet fundamentally believe in monism, that all is really one: which is expressed in the affirmation that all ways lead to a heaven.

But, I am not a pluralist, I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and Jesus exists in both worlds; for he came into our history and impacted us emotionally, while He reigns now in heaven over us and remains essentially unseen. So I cannot take the indifferent view; that it does not matter. It actually matters very much! The things to which we are connected to spiritually control us.

Now there is a shocking statement! That this is true depends entirely on how we view the 'spiritual.' What is spirituality? Is it real, or is it merely an abstraction? Is it only the conditioned reactions to a belief, or is it something greater.

From my perspective, spirituality includes both the real and the imagined, and is embodied in both the effects of belief, and the affects of spiritual beings. There is a relationship between beliefs and spirits, and they are as follows: God made the angels to serve Him in spirit, and God made Man to serve Him in flesh and blood. God established a rule of free choice in His creation; that our emotional giving would not be fixed but spring genuinely up out of our judgement of life around us. However, free choice includes the right of rejecting service to God, and from the beginning our forefather rejected God, and chose to serve the idea of an angel who had also rejected God. Our lives pass before us, we die and then we wait. Never again do we, of our own volition have contact with the world we have left behind us. The barrier between us is and remains impenetrable. Yet while we live we can choose to serve God or another, and our choice remains free: it includes both the real and the imagined; it includes the true God, and things we call gods that are sometimes stone, and sometimes angels who have also rejected God, and sometimes ideas that seem great at the time until we perish in them.

God alone stands out because His ways are perfect, and lead to health and prosperity and life. But, 'the leading to' is not instanteous, and requires faith of us while we are yet alive.

Of what sort then are you, idols? Since, by virtue of having been worshipped, you have been proven spiritual, of what spirit are you? You are not God, and you are not Man. So then, you are either idea, stone or demon; and in each case, the representation of one's rejection of God, for human beings cannot truly serve both.

"I will praise You, Lord of the sky, sea and earth. Do you wonder why? With Him, I am unafraid to die."