A Kind Reconsideration of the Abrahamic Faiths In a Difficult Time

A KIND RECONSIDERATION OF THE ABRAHAMIC FAITHS IN A DIFFICULT TIME I I am interested in Moses, the baby in the bulrushes who eventually was able to speak truth to power and delivered his people to a promised land I am interested in Saul and David and Solomon and a just administration of a precarious culture under Yahweh or El in a dangerous location in the antiquarian world I understand (intellectually) the desperate need during Babylonian captivity for bringing folk tale and myth and political history into a culture-specific definition of law for the wandering shepherd, the tiller of land, and the unyielding monotheist whose Covenant with God made some people right and other people wrong! II I am interested, too in a brown-skinned man of fiery intelligence from the City of Nazareth who, though an ordinary Jew, managed eloquently to speak truth to power about spirit and duty, about service to all, and unconditional love, and shattered the framework of codified law, be it Jewish or Roman, in a dangerous location in the antiquarian world I am sorry for the way that his messages were gathered, re-worked and distorted, codified and written as an alarming New Testament with an unfathomable trinity and the adornments of empire making some people righteous and other folks wrong and trapping so many souls between heaven and hell! III I am also interested in the merchant of Mecca who saw in his people the uplifting potential of a civilization grounded deeply in the guidance of a merciful God in a dangerous place in the antiquarian world The impetus to “recite” led to unity of tribes through the codification of “final” revelations from the “seal of the prophets” that made some people right and other folks wrong as the good word of Allah was spread from the Atlantic to the borders of China, from the savannahs of Africa to the steep southern slopes of the mountains of Europe IV The powerfully seductive Abrahamic religions, bound by “The Book” of Tenakh and New Testament “sealed” by Quran, have comforted many since their explosive beginnings in the Sinai, the Judean, the Arabian deserts that were dangerous locations in the antequarian world But the codification that renders the law understandable to the many, but makes some people right and so many people wrong can easily lead us to isolation and conflict, to conquest and oppression, an uncomfortable confinement in doctrine and ritual that splinters humankind into the spiritual antithesis of the one shared breath our animistic ancestors thought united all life! Perhaps the global transmission of folk tales and myth and political history about spirit and duty, about service to all and unconditional love can be available to all without the codification of doctrine and ritual that make us righteous and isolated soldiers of god when all of us could be such determined disseminators of kindness, cooperation and love for one another and stewards of the life giving forces at hand V The entirety of this planet is a dangerous place in contemporary times when a capricious, arrogant and dangerous presence patrols the streets of my beloved community with its vicious attack dogs Carbon, Climate-Change and Covid, who menace my neighbors without mercy or constraint But the human condition is a slowly evolving divine work of art, a sacred creation, a spiritual journey in a numinous place, and its cumulative voice is a gospel ensemble assuring ourselves that, Abrahamic or not, our good stewardship is gonna rise up and shine, gonna do the right thing, gonna make it alright on this contentious blue sphere where we thrive and survive! If there is a creator and benevolent mentor even half as engaged as these well-meaning religions vehemently and desperately proclaim, may it respond to our prayers and offer us guidance in these difficult times on how to do better than we do!