But my favorite quote from his article was the following:
People who are in a relationship with G-d are humble and do their utmost to refrain from judging others. Their proximity to a perfect being reminds them of their own fallibility. Their experience of G-d's compassion leads them to be merciful and loving. But those who worship a religion are arrogant and think they have the only truth. They are dismissive of other people's beliefs and maintain that advancing the cause of their religion is more important than life itself.
(It made me smile that he follows the tradition of not writing God's name out with all letters - to keep it sacred and from being overused.)
I love that quote. It echoes with truth. I have been accused in the past of not giving credence to documents from other people's religions, merely because I don't believe them. I wanted to clarify how I approach anything I read - whether from my own religious leaders or others.
I believe that God is the source of all truth and that he can speak to us in many ways and from many different sources. When I read something - like this article for instance - I try to keep an open mind and heart and allow the Spirit to speak to me. If I get a good feeling from my reading and have the Spirit confirm the truth of what has been said to me, then I believe the truth. It could be a portion of the article or the article as a whole, but the resounding truth confirmed by the Spirit is there. Whether it comes from the Koran, a Jewish Rabbi, a Native American medicine man, or a General Authority of the LDS church.
Once truth has been taught to me by the Spirit, then I try to act on what I have learned. One of the reasons I approach things taught by the leaders of my Church with perfect reliance in their truth is because I have had things confirmed to me by the Holy Ghost. In specific, I have had confirmed to me the truthfulness of Joseph Smith's record of the First Vision and the restoration of the Priesthood and the gospel to this earth and the Book of Mormon as a whole. Not only do I feel the truthfulness of these accounts confirmed every time I read them, but I have taken the matter to God in prayer and He has confirmed to me the verity of their words. Because these things are true, I know that the Lord restored His Church to the earth through Joseph Smith, that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and that the Lord is at the head of His Church today. He speaks to His prophet at the head of the Church (which was President Gordon B. Hinckley at the time I gained this testimony, and is now President Thomas S. Monson), as well as to the other leaders of the Church. I have the truthfulness of what they say reaffirmed to me as I read and listen to their words, but the Lord has given me His witness that what they say is true, so I do tend to listen to their words with faith in that witness.
Truth comes from all different sources, and I believe that God can speak to us in many ways. It is important for us to keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open to spiritual truth, no matter what the source. That way, the Lord will have no trouble speaking to us.
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I also really appreciated the rabbi's definition of a cult.
Those who worship their religion evince the classic characteristic of cult members. Whereas a real faith system is empowering and makes one strong and capable of operating outside their own faith community, cult members can only identify with other members of their group and require the environment of the cult in order to function. They don't have beliefs. Rather, they take orders.
This is not characteristic of the religion I observe, of which I am grateful. Thanks for the clarification, Rabbi Boteach.
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