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Copyright 2010 Greg Baenziger
In brief, Natural Christian beliefs were first established for
myself in the 1980's and had been developed from a composite of religious views
from numerous sources including standard Methodist teachings,
study of philosophies such as existentialism and transcendentalism, Quaker beliefs, Unitarianism, and my own personal beliefs.
As founder of the Natural Christians I am providing some background information to help provide some understanding of how the ideas for Natural Christianity developed. I am also the administrator for the web site and can be contacted through admin@naturalchristian.org.
I was raised a Methodist, but had many problems with
conventional Christian beliefs. There
seemed to be many contradictions between the various Christian religions and I
suffered from all the doubts of the many incongruous and illogical assertions
made to aggrandize the religion and make it greater than life. It was obvious to me that the religious
beliefs of the Christian religions could not ALL be correct, not to mention the beliefs of the non-Christian religions.
Accepting any religion appeared to be purely personal choice or an
inheritance of some choice made by others.
I strongly believed in some of the most
important teachings of Jesus Christ, especially those that avoid violence and emphasize love and
devotion, such as, love thy neighbor as you would thyself, turn the other
cheek, do unto to others as you would have them do unto you, thou shall not
kill, and many others - including the emphasis that devotion to God and the
avoidance of evil are critical to finding a path through life. I felt very strongly about these ideals and
opted for Conscientious Objector status when I came of age for military
service. It was at this time that I
learned of Quaker beliefs. The Quakers
provided advice and support in my attempts to avoid being forced to kill
anybody or to avoid supporting others in killing people. I was opposed to war and will always be
opposed to war. I still believe that if
I was to belong to any religious group, it would be the Quaker Society of
Friends. Their religious behavior seems
to me to be the most honest and devoted approach to Christian beliefs, behaving
and living as Jesus would have chosen.
I soon decided that if I were to be honest with myself, however,
my
beliefs were my own and did not fit exactly any religion that I knew
of. I also decided that my beliefs were religious in nature and not
just philosophies, even though the distinction is subtle, perhaps based
only on the level of conviction, thinking of them as a way of life, and
the use of the term God, which I really did not understand at the time.
I also decided that I should hold tightly to my
beliefs and exercise them, as honestly and devoutly as I was able.
Somewhere in the 1980's I had come up with
the idea that I should formalize my beliefs and I started thinking about
what
that would mean. It was important for me
to know how I would discuss my unusual approach to religion, in
discussions with
friends and family. I also decided that it
was necessary for me to come up with a name for my religion. My
background in reading and philosophy had
introduced the ideals of existentialism and transcendentalism, which I
found to
be more real than many religions. I
wanted to merge my devotion for the teachings of Jesus Christ and
distaste for
violence with the more philosophical ideals.
This step required me to think hard about my beliefs and the teachings
attributed to Jesus Christ juxtaposed with the contradictions and
seemingly irresolvable
problems, which seem to be inherent in many religions. These issues are
normally dealt with by
requiring the believer to have faith in God, the conceptualization of
God promoted, or perhaps more accurately to have faith
in the religious institution promoting the ideas. My love of the
outdoors, animals and nature,
combined with the naturalism inherent in transcendentalism, provided the
"Natural" modifier to
the "Christian" beliefs. By
this time I had also resolved the criteria that my religion could not
include
any beliefs that I could not believe to be true. Each of us must not
bear false witness by
promoting falsehoods or by accepting ideas that we do not believe. That
is, I would study and come to understand
the belief and accept it, or I would reject the belief.
Once I decided to formalize my beliefs as a religion and after I had made several
key decisions, my new Natural Christian religion really began to
develop in my own mind. I began to take a hard look at
each of the teachings of Jesus and the ideals of transcendentalism from
my own
experience and the new perspective. My
understanding of religion in general and my selection of beliefs were
growing quickly
with my own study and thinking and it was in this period that I began to
think
of religion as personal. The key
decisions were: first, to make the
religion personal and to suggest that others do the same; second, to
center the
fundamental beliefs around the peaceful teachings of Jesus Christ;
third, to accumulate
only ideas that I could believe whole-heartedly; and fourth, to resolve
the various
religious historical beliefs, to the best of my ability, to find the
combination of beliefs that best fit with reality. I could see that
depending on the perspective,
the words that Jesus spoke meant different things. One movie production
in particular, "Jesus
of Nazareth" seemed to present Jesus as speaking in terms of a state of
mental consciousness and devotion in the attainment of the Kingdom of
Heaven. I liked this perspective. It seemed to suggest that Jesus had
an
understanding almost like the Buddhist approach to Nirvana, suggesting a
heaven
on earth through devotion and striving to control and improve oneself.
The most important development that made all
the remaining beliefs follow logically was the conclusion that there was
a way
in which all Christian beliefs could be understandable and real without
so much
as a mention of faith. This was of
course that God was not external, but rather internal to everyone. The
more I thought of this pervasive
embodiment of God, the more I found that I understood the religious
teachings. I believe the transformation was important to achieve a
basic understanding that allows the teachings and traditions of many
religions to make sense without the reliance on faith and without
ignoring incongruities. The change in perspective would be all that was
required to see everything in a new light.
After developing what I consider my own personal religion, I
must also admit that many others have come along similar paths before me. There are many similarities in what I believe
to various groups, especially transcendentalists, Quakers, pantheists and stoicists. I intentionally select from each religion
just what I like from their beliefs and so I am duplicating their beliefs. For instance, by studying the history and
the branching of the Quaker Friends societies, many beliefs are similar to my own, from a
particular perspective. Looking for
God’s voice within oneself and each individual having the ability to find God
or find the path of Jesus are two key elements of my own beliefs. In thinking about what I believe and studying
other religious views, I have become very religious in my own beliefs and have
learned the importance of religious study, for every individual being, to find
and to follow a path of goodness through life.
I whole-heartedly recommend that each person who reads the
materials on this web site consider doing what I have done and choose not to
accept any traditional religious beliefs, including those presented here, without considering each aspect of
those beliefs very carefully and resolving what they believe before accepting
the beliefs of others.
I would appreciate hearing about your experiences and choices that you have made along these lines. Please, see our contact page.
