04-10-2013, 03:35 PM
Some people are able to participate in organized religions without totally accepting all the dogma, but I'd say that's probably very, very rare. Carla does it. She, who channeled the Law of One, attends a Christian church! She has a reverence for Jesus and loves the praise, worship, and community of her church. For her, it works well. This would probably be quite a tall order for most of us, though...especially someone with a history of vulnerability to cults.
When you say you feel a longing for community, are you referring to the social aspects, or do you mean studying spirituality together with others?
If the former, social interactions can be found elsewhere, other than churches. You might find your needs met by joining, say, a health club, martial arts class, book club, or some other such area of interest. One can find just about any sort of local special interest group on meetup.com.
If the latter, then here is a follow-up question: Are you looking for spiritually-oriented people to hang out with, even if their beliefs aren't identical to yours? If so, then you might consider joining a Unity or Unitarian church. Unity churches are Christian but very loose regarding dogma. Unitarian churches embrace different paths and don't really have dogma of their own, as far as I know. (I'm not an expert on either so I could be wrong on this.) As others have stated, with Buddhism, it depends on the variety of Buddhism and the particular group.
In my city, there is a wonderful little New Age church that honors all religions. One week they might have a Christian service (sans the dogma), the next week might be a Buddhist meditation, the following week a Pagan ceremony, after that might be a New Age visualization for world peace, etc. The only complaint I have about the one in my area is that it's a little too loosey-goosey! I no longer attend it because it wasn't deep enough. Still, if you could find something like that, it could be enriching and offer community, without the dogma.
Or, are you looking for a group whose beliefs match yours entirely, and is one that you can adhere to completely? If so, would it be based on the Law of One, or something else? If the Law of One, then Bring4th is probably the closest you'll find. You're right: Everyone here has their own distortion, and even we are not entirely free of dogma! But we try.
If, on the other hand, you feel a pulling towards a local community whose beliefs you can fully embrace, then I would suggest a bit of contemplation to first get clear on what you're looking for. The truth is within you and is only mirrored by others. You don't need an authority to tell you what to do or what to believe. But sometimes it can be a little scary to trust one's own guidance, after coming out of organized religion, because organized religion teaches that we must look to some book or guru as authority. When I first left Catholicism, I then got into born-again Christianity. So basically I just traded one flavor of Christian dogma for another. It took me about 10 years to let go of the religious dogma I'd been brought up with. And that was 10 years after I'd discovered the Law of One!!
Blessings to you on your journey! I hope you find that which you seek.
When you say you feel a longing for community, are you referring to the social aspects, or do you mean studying spirituality together with others?
If the former, social interactions can be found elsewhere, other than churches. You might find your needs met by joining, say, a health club, martial arts class, book club, or some other such area of interest. One can find just about any sort of local special interest group on meetup.com.
If the latter, then here is a follow-up question: Are you looking for spiritually-oriented people to hang out with, even if their beliefs aren't identical to yours? If so, then you might consider joining a Unity or Unitarian church. Unity churches are Christian but very loose regarding dogma. Unitarian churches embrace different paths and don't really have dogma of their own, as far as I know. (I'm not an expert on either so I could be wrong on this.) As others have stated, with Buddhism, it depends on the variety of Buddhism and the particular group.
In my city, there is a wonderful little New Age church that honors all religions. One week they might have a Christian service (sans the dogma), the next week might be a Buddhist meditation, the following week a Pagan ceremony, after that might be a New Age visualization for world peace, etc. The only complaint I have about the one in my area is that it's a little too loosey-goosey! I no longer attend it because it wasn't deep enough. Still, if you could find something like that, it could be enriching and offer community, without the dogma.
Or, are you looking for a group whose beliefs match yours entirely, and is one that you can adhere to completely? If so, would it be based on the Law of One, or something else? If the Law of One, then Bring4th is probably the closest you'll find. You're right: Everyone here has their own distortion, and even we are not entirely free of dogma! But we try.
If, on the other hand, you feel a pulling towards a local community whose beliefs you can fully embrace, then I would suggest a bit of contemplation to first get clear on what you're looking for. The truth is within you and is only mirrored by others. You don't need an authority to tell you what to do or what to believe. But sometimes it can be a little scary to trust one's own guidance, after coming out of organized religion, because organized religion teaches that we must look to some book or guru as authority. When I first left Catholicism, I then got into born-again Christianity. So basically I just traded one flavor of Christian dogma for another. It took me about 10 years to let go of the religious dogma I'd been brought up with. And that was 10 years after I'd discovered the Law of One!!
Blessings to you on your journey! I hope you find that which you seek.
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