Nice post, bagsyl.

>>Certainly there will and should be debates as social values that arise from this cocktail of beliefs, but there must always be the search for truth.<<

I personally don't have any issues with searching for truth.

It's the people who claim to have found it that I have a problem with.

If my article has stirred some thought about your own assumptions, beliefs and world-view -- or about why yours differ from those of others -- then it was worth the effort to write. Thank you once again to all who have been contributing to this discussion.

Philo: I can only agree with you that Christ calls us all to have “the heart of God expressing love and compassion for those injured, oppressed and failing”. I think we should add to that, however, “whatever their colour, creed, nationality, gender or sexuality”.

Bagsyl: Thank you for your articulate and detailed posts. Although you call yourself “an orthodox Catholic” I am sure most of us would find the general thrust of your comments align quite well with our own views. As a “progressive Anglican” I deeply appreciate your emphasis on humility, compassion, and respect for people of different faiths and none, along with the imperative to seek the essence of humanity.

I included references to Spong and Fox in my article knowing that the radical nature of their views and, especially in Spong’s case, the very forthright manner in which they express them, would be very challenging to a lot of Christian readers. I thought this would be the best way to exemplify the nature of the ferment within the global Church today. For those who rely on uninformed assumptions about what the Christian church actually is like, I wanted to give a glimpse of views and directions usually not readily apparent behind the public façade presented by the institutional hierarchies.

Pericles: << I personally don't have any issues with searching for truth. It's the people who claim to have found it that I have a problem with. >> I agree. Every answer is questionable. I need to keep reminding myself of that.

Jon J,
Your life is written in light that is observable in light years that will resound for thousands of years. Is it worth observing as a style?

Jon J,
Your life actions are recorded in light and observable forever in light years. It it worth observing as wholesome or ignoring as irrellavent?