Love, Compassion, Tolerance, Forgiveness

The shocking collapse of the al-Assad regime in Syria revealed the schism among the various branches of Islam. Since its origin in the 7th Century, these factions lived in harmony for centuries. But the discovery of oil reserves set the Middle East on fire as countries jockeyed for power and control of the oil markets.

Of the 1.8 Muslims in the world, 85% are Sunni and only 15% are Shia. Most Middle East countries have a mixture of both sects even if they have a majority of one of the branches. In these countries the distinction between secular and religious is not as clear as in the West. Religion and politics often are mixed in the power structures. There also is a distinction between Arab and non-Arab countries.

This illumination from a 13th-century manuscript shows the apostles writing the Creed, receiving inspiration from the Holy Spirit.

Recently I wrote an article in a magazine about my experience of Christianity as a gay man. It prompted a tirade from another gay man, who attacked Christianity (or religion in any form.) The following is a summary of my response.

Yes, much damage has been done by people in the name of religion. In the most basic terms, organized religion is a collective search for God -- our way of describing an entity outside of and larger than ourselves. The trouble occurs when people chose the freedom of choice that God gives us, even to make the wrong decisions. That metaphor started in the Garden of Eden with the Tree of Knowledge.

The Christian Bible includes a series of books written by many writers over hundreds of years. These are not chapters of a book, as is implied when you order a Bible. Jewish authors wrote the 27 books we call The Old Testament, and they called it the Masoretic Text or Hebrew Bible. It was part of their canon by 20 C.E. Christian authors wrote the 24 books we call the New Testament. The canonical Christian Bible that includes both texts was confirmed by the Council of Laodicean in 363 C.E. The King James translation includes a section called the Apocrypha that is used by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and some Protestant Churches. It is still one of the most used editions because of the archaic language.

Evangelical Christians consider the Bible to be the final authority regarding theology as well as the teachings of Jesus. They take a literal, word by word approach, while mainstream churches take a more nuanced approach. The final authority to the Catholics is the Catechism and the edicts of the Pope. They have hedged a bit on his infallibility.