tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18171692.post115505571090034453..comments2023-10-03T12:20:53.726-04:00Comments on ¡Cecilieaux!: Leon in WinterCecilio Moraleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283375962527765787noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18171692.post-1155512801581542302006-08-13T19:46:00.000-04:002006-08-13T19:46:00.000-04:00I have a Catholic grandmother, but my dad broke th...I have a Catholic grandmother, but my dad broke that connection back when he was a teenager, before I was born. I was converted to evangelicalism as a young adult, a convoluted process that I've documented elsewhere and won't attempt to describe here. Currently, my views on Christianity have led me to adopt a very "wide-open" approach to theology while I continue to work and live in a mostly conservative religious environment. Kind of a big juggling act at times, since I really don't want to forfeit all my relationships by stepping completely out of the boundaries that have been established and are mostly followed by the majority of Christians that I relate with on a daily basis. <BR/><BR/>So even though my connection to Catholicism is very tenuous, I am still interested in tracking what the large scale institutional representatives of Christianity say and do because I know that their leadership and guidance influences a lot of people. And I continue to regard Christianity as having a very important and pivotal role in steering our culture in different ways. Not always toward the best that we can be, but generally speaking a force for much good in the world. <BR/><BR/>My main beef with the church these days is that it continues to identify way too strongly with the powers that oppress or needlessly bind people from what life could be. A lot of bargains with the devil have been made along the way that wound up getting tangled up in doctrine and tradition, and once that happens, it's very hard to unravel the knots that result. <BR/><BR/>I'm trying, in my small way, to advocate for a style of Christianity that is less defensive, more willing to concede that there's a lot of hyperbole and superstition that found its way into church practices over the centuries, and that the best way forward is to neither refute it all in an absolutist, iconoclastic way nor try to boil it down to a new form of fundamentalism either of the right or the left. <BR/><BR/>But my perspective is admittedly individualistic and more non-binding on others than most people are ready to accept or expect from their religion. In light of all that, I'm not trying to start anything big... I'm just looking to connect with people who find something sensible and refreshing about this approach. That's why I host the email list and what generally ties together the random subject matter that I post on my blog on a daily basis as of late.David Blakesleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com