In 2005 NPR revived an idea originally pioneered by Edward R. Murrow in the 1950s of broadcasting short statements of faith from common, everyday people called This I Believe. The NPR broadcasts ended in 2009 and true to form, I have finally figured out what I would have said, if asked. I always seem to think of the snappy rejoinder just after the person it should be directed at has left the room.
First, I should clarify that this is definitely not a “revelation” that has come upon me suddenly. What I am about to commit to bytes are the beliefs that I have come to slowly and steadily over the past 30 or 40 years. It is only the words to express them simply and reasonably accurately that have at last emerged.
Second, while I remain culturally Christian, I have known for a long time that my beliefs were not theologically orthodox, or for that matter, anywhere near mainstream. Again, nothing has changed, I have just found the words that express what I have long believed.
So, in the best and most accurate form I have found to date, here is my credo:
- God is infinitely creative and infinitely creating
- God is more than the sum of all that creation believes and has believed that God is
- No revelation is final, God has not, and will not cease to communicate with creation
From these three core beliefs stems all else that I believe. These are the truths that drive my actions, behaviors and ideas and emotions. I put this out to the universe not in any effort to convert or persuade another, but that others may understand me a little better.
Peace,
Tim
Hey Tim, What a pleasure to be reading your blog again. My memory seems to be turning into dust. I didn’t even remember that you had a blog until your note came today(!) I like your Credo very much. My response to it is threefold. First and foremost is a simple “Amen!”–though part of me shrinks away from that particular word because of some of the zealously dogmatic connotations which that word carries for me. Even so, I’m not ready to throw “Amen!” out the window. So I will stand by it.
I like that when it comes to your beliefs, you find yourself nowhere near the mainstream. I think the mainstream can quickly become a petrified river bed when the wellspring of thinking NEW, BEYOND, & FURTHER dries up. Surely God is much more than “the sum of all creation” can or ever will conceive, imagine, or believe.
Finally a question: When it comes to God, does LOVE fit in there somewhere? I don’t find that particular term in your Credo. Yet I can’t help but think that I see it nonetheless shining through your words. Is that the case–or am I hallucinating again?
My visit to your blog today led me on to read some of your other posts since I last visited well over a year ago. There is a lot of treasure to be mined here. Thanks for inviting me back.
Comment by David Turner — January 2, 2012 @ 2:42 pm
David,
Interesting that I did not notice that the word love is missing from this credo. I guess it is implied in the idea that an infinitely creative and creating God would love all God creates. I expected to be called out first for having no explicit acknowledgement of evil, which I find too often is the primary focus many Christian theologies before, if not above God and Christ. I would imagine a future version of my credo will explicitly include love, but for now it is implicit.
Tim
Comment by me — January 2, 2012 @ 5:27 pm