Friday, August 29, 2014

Not the Nicene Creed

I have been asked if I believe in the Nicene creed; the answer is that I do not. I am suspicious of anything created by the Roman church hierarchy in partnership with political power, as was the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed seems to me a one upsmanship in the religious power game.

I believe in God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth. (To put one human face on The Sacred Spirit diminishes the majesty of The Sacred Spirit's manifestations throughout the universe.)

And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our lord. (I believe that all who have ears to hear and eyes to see The Sacred Spirit share in the same Spirit that Jesus embodied on earth and freed up at Pentecost. We are told that Jesus said he was not our lord, but our brother and friend.)

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, (as are all conceived in love).

Born of the virgin Mary. (I don't believe that virgin births were physically possible then. Even if a child is conceived without sexual intercourse, the act of giving vaginal birth breaks the seal of the womb, the hymen. I believe the fixation on virginity makes a travesty of the true process of sexual intercourse, gestation, and bloody births attended by frightened fathers.)

Suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, dead and buried. (The fixation on the last three days of the life of Jesus are the stuff of warrior mythology. Jesus was a joyful Jew for many years; this is where I put my focus.)

On the third day, he rose again (who cares whether this was in his body or simply in the power presence those who loved him felt when they were gathered together?) and thence will come to judge the living and the dead. (While we live, we share our positive and negative power with all those we encounter. This energy lives on, so there is no need for judgement. It is all an eternal balancing act that we have no way to know, nor should we, how it ends.)

I believe in the Holy Ghost (Sacred Spirit), the Holy Catholic Church (not Roman catholic), the communion of saints (as all have the ability to be to some), the forgiveness of sin (through human restitution) and life everlasting (through metamorphosis). *This is what I believe.*