Me

The most important person(s) in my spiritual development has certainly been my parents. They both had such influence on who I have become it is difficult to ascertain who had primacy over the other.

My mother and father both agreed that children must have a solid spiritual foundation. And, because of this belief I was raised in a nominally Christian home. I attended the local United Methodist church every Sunday where I sang in the children,s choir and was quite active in the Sunday school program.

Both of my parents encouraged me to explore other faith traditions as I grew. I would attend Synagogue on Friday nights with a Jewish playmate and mid-week mass with a Catholic friend. I even attended meetings of the Humanist Society with a quirky uncle. They taught me tolerance, acceptance, and helped lay the foundation of the Universalist that I was later to become.

I can see pieces of the spirituality that I embody in all of the faith traditions that make up the path I have walked. Methodist, Episcopalian, Unitarian Universalist, UCC, and especially Unprogramed Friends make up the largest portion of my being. But, I can discern Catholicism, Judaism and even Bahai’ism in myself if I look for it.

I am greatly indebted to both my parents for teaching me that there are many pathways that lead to God. My father used to tell me when I was a wee little boy that God was like the sun shining through the windows of our house. The light shone through each window and lit up a different portion of the house in a different way, but all the light was really the same light and stemmed from the same source. From him I learned that all truth is God’s truth.

No religion has a monopoly on truth. We are who we are and believe what we believe more due to the circumstances birth, the time and place in which we came into being , and the culture in which we were raised, than to any spiritual insight or divine handiwork. If I were born in the mid east it is likely I would be Muslim. If I were born upon the sub-continent I would probably be a Hindi. Were I to have been born in the Far East I would perhaps be a Confucian, Taoist, Buddhist, Shinto or even a Jain.

My parents taught me to accept the validity of many faith traditions. I was encouraged to explore them as I grew up and adapt what seemed best to me into my personal faith. I have faithfully held to their advice and hope someday to have the opportunity to impart what I have been taught to children of my own.