I hope that this will be a helpful website for those who have left or are considering leaving the church. I just wanted to add that leaving the church does not necessarily mean rejecting spirituality. I hope that those who have left or are considering leaving the church do not get discouraged by their past experiences in Christianity. Simon Chau, whose articles are also listed in your website is a rather good example of a man who said goodbye to Christianity still continuing his spiritual journety. Which is great. Although I am not into the kind of 'New Age' spiritual/psychology cocktails, I do think he is a very good example of what a human being can and should do to fulfil his higher needs. For those who are interested in checking out Simon's thoughts, see: http://www.simonchau.cc/ Please note I am not his follower/student.
I also like the writing of this Trappist Monks–Thomas Merton. Again I should state upfront that I am not a Catholics or Christian but what I like about Tom's writing is this man's openness and the very deep sense of spirituality that he demonstrated in his words. Christians often project a image to people that they are very narrow-minded people and have no tolerence at all to other paths of spiritual development. Having read a few of Tom's writings, I get a very strong sense that most of the so-called Christians I encounter are quite indeed non-Christian. Tom demonstrates a height of human consciousness that a Christian can reach. I have high respect for him even though I myself come from a totally different background. If any of you are Christians but are somehow disillusioned with the modern church and popular Christianity, then perhaps read some Tom Merton, to see if what you have been by the Church is really what Christianity or a Christian should really be. Some websites about Merton:
http://www.merton.org/
http://www.mertonfoundation.org/
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/mys/merton.htm
http://www.mnsmc.edu/merton/altany1.html
Of course, many modern people are scared of religions but they are still very interested in spiritual development. I would still consider interreligious communications a very meaningful/valueable thing to the human mind. In fact, what's more scary than the aggressive evangelism which has unfortunately has brought some unhappy experiences to some people, is those 'New Age' isms that try to blend and distort the teachings of several spiritual traditions. I would say that probably is a much more dangerous trend. Because some preachers of such New Age isms tend to package their 'products' in the form of science or psychology, which seem to be no harm except that they only make people more 'positive'. Indeed, it may be even more dangerous than some of the evangelism that comes from a more traditional background. Many thanks for the link anyway hope more people will find the information useful.
Visual Art Discussion Room (已離線)，Padma Tsering
2004-04-01, 09:01 PM 抽刀斷水