Unexpurgated Ponderings Of Robert E. Whelan Published With Permission - A Poem by Bill Grace

Ponder for the Pilgrimage (Just thoughts to make things more Human)

1. Religion is too important to be taken seriously. Religion should be fun.
2. You cannot define your faith by denigrating some other faith.
3. Christianity was built on Judaism. At least 60% is the same.
4. Jesus was always a Jew. God's promises to the Jews never changed.
5. Theology is talk about God. No absolutes. Be wary of absolutists, iconoclasts. No dogma. Self proclaimed prophets should stay in a cave.
6. All religion is conceptual.
7. Truth and fact are very different.
8. Nothing is infallible.
9. After lots of years of studying theology, I have come to only one conclusion: 1) There is a God, and 2) I am not He.
10. Religion and spirituality are very different.
11. It is the pleasure of God to conceal and the honor of persons to reveal. The pilgrimage is everything.
12. The 'church' is everyone, not everything. It is nothing intangible, e.g. 'bride of Christ.'
13. Church history is all the actions that have led us to today. We choose those current actions which lead us into tomorrow.
14. Old is neither good or bad authoritative or not, just old.
15. The church has 95% of the functions as a business.
16. Any attempt to treat people as a mass should be avoided.
17. There is no kingdom of God to come versus the kingdom of earth. They are all together.
18. Control and guilt are exceedingly common.
19. Serious prayer and spirituality are uncommon and that is OK. There is no pattern and laity should not seek convents.
20. The first step to the divine is 'awe.' The last is 'aha.'
21. The best prayer is one person being with their God. It is all about being available to God, not finding God.
22. Anyone doing it for a living is suspect. The unexamined religious life is not worth living. Total acceptance is hateful. Doubt is good.
23. Every age rewrite, reinterprets and regards differently the religion handed down. Choose your own and stick to it.
24. Religion is what you make it. Invest heavily. It is worth it.
25. At very least be respectful of the name of 'God.' Use it lovingly or not at all. Do not presume to speak for Him or say what will please Him.