God Unites Us
To say that God unites people probably flies in your face right now. All around us we see how God is used to divide people. The most extreme examples of this would be the Christian Crusades from nearly a millennia ago and modern Islamic terrorist activity today.
This division manifests in much smaller ways, of course, like how I was taught to hold people of different ideologies in contempt when I was a child. Or how some churches ostracize people who are gay. Or the group of stay-at-home, Bible-study soccer moms who ignore the refugee family from Syria in their social activities. The God that is used to cause divisions such as these is the categorical, anthropomorphic, tribal God that ego-driven human minds create.
When I say that God unites us, I am referring to God that is the Power beyond what is apparent to us, the Both/And that transcends categories and the Presence awash in all things. Humans do not always live with this awareness, thereby creating massive waves of destruction at times, but it does not make it any less true.
The Source of Love is what I call God. I firmly believe that a kind, loving devout Christian and a kind, loving atheist mathematician both seek the same thing—a sense of place and purpose on this earth. The Christian uses the word God. The mathematician rejects the word God. But both seek ultimate truth. They have different languages and practices used to explore that truth that gives them their sense of place and purpose.
Persons living a life of humility and Love may experience God in different ways, through sports, nature, science, philanthropic work, the arts, academia, craftsmanship, the list is endless. Whatever endeavor connects people to one another and to the vibrancy of living is the carrier for the binding agent I believe is meant by the term God.
This blog piece is an excerpt from Chapter 1, Confession #7 of Confessions of an American None: A Credo of Sorts.