…stories of growth and stages of belief…
We have all been told that our place of worship was built atop the Well of God, and that has been enough for most people–to simply be close, instead of being an actual PART of God. It wasn’t enough for me–I wanted to drink from the Well itself; I wanted to swim in the water.
For the last decade or so, I’ve been methodically examining and discarding Read the rest of this entry »
“It’s a good thing we are all Christians in here - or else we’d be killing each other!” The words hit me like a slap in the face with a cold slab of steel. It was the first time I had ever heard anyone imply that Christians were nicer, kinder, more civilized somehow. I was shocked! I mean I was brought up in the Catholic Church and taught that only Catholics had the “right” religion. Only Catholics could go to heaven. But nobody ever said Catholics were Read the rest of this entry »
As far back as I can remember I always knew there was a God. Raised as a Roman Catholic and attending parochial school all of my life, religion was a major part of my education. I not only learned about God, but also about his mother Mary, and all of the saints. Our day started with prayer, and then our first class was Read the rest of this entry »
David L. Allen says:
I was raised Roman Catholic. Not the CEO type (Christmas and Easter Only), but the every Sunday and all Holy days type and I attended Catholic School. At that time, in my world, there were only two types of people, Catholics and Read the rest of this entry »
In studying the stages of belief, need for certainty is one concept that stands out as very important in stage development.
Take the case of a Stage One. (See Religious/Spiritual Development…for Dummies for explanation of these stages) He has no certainty at all - and for him this is pathological. The Stage One person is at the whim Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Beth Cortez-Neavel
This story previously published
http://www25.uua.org/YRUU/synapse/2006-2/index.html
It was winter time, and my mother had arranged for my younger sister and me to travel to Denver, Colorado and on to Boulder to visit with her Aunt Barbara and Uncle Tom. Barb and Tom had a son and daughter, my mother’s cousins, a woman named Tamara and a young man named Joshua; aged twenty-seven and twenty-five respectively. All four of this lively family
I got into a short discussion with one writer whose story appears on this site about the stages of belief that I am writing about….and stages of morality. A note she sent implied the assumption that if a person is at a higher belief stage, they must also be at a higher stage of morality. Now, remember, I am not the expert on any of this. I am merely interpreting Read the rest of this entry »
Desperation
When my need is desperate,
When a child is ill,
when my world Read the rest of this entry »