About
Who am I? Well, first of all, I am neither a theologian nor an academic. But I have been captivated by the concept that people can go through stages in their religious belief stance and that most of the time, these changes represent personal growth. I first read about this in about 1990 and since then the concept has continued to deepen for me as I read further texts on it and noted its validity in the real life stories of people I actually knew. Understanding this has colored my entire view of life and has left me prone to a generous interpretation of the belief stances I see in others.
A few years ago I began wondering why the concept of religious/spiritual growth was not more commonly accepted in our culture. Then I came to see that the researchers who have written on this topic write at a very abstract level that most people would not be motivated to read. Over time a means of bringing the concept down to the general public in an appealing way occurred to me. Somewhat to my dismay (I was quite happy and comfortable in a different career; my children were grown and I was just beginning to look forward to some leisure time!) I began to sense that it was my responsibility to follow through on my idea of using true life stories to capture the human interest side of the growth stages.
My purpose in trying to bring this to light is I feel if the general public could only just begin to understand that people with different beliefs are not evil and not even necessarily wrong, there could be less strife and divisiveness in our society. If people could just see that others, who seem so different in their beliefs, are just working at a different level, it would seem there should be much less reason to fear them, shun them, marginalize them and persecute them.
At first I thought I would write a book of such stories. But then I realized I could get the concept across faster, and judge interest in my topic better by doing a blog first. My intent is to give my readers an opportunity to send in personal stories of religious and spiritual growth. Those for which I can see a pattern, I will post and provide commentary trying to show how that the person has gone through a growth change - again using concepts developed by serious researchers but humbly interpreted by me, a regular person who only wants to spread tolerance and understanding in our society.
Please bear with me as I grow this blog over the coming months. I am new to the concept of blogging and will be learning as I go along.
Margaret P. Johnston