“I told them openly and honestly that I did not agree with the gospel
that they were used to, and why I believed as I did.
But to judge by the looks on their
faces, they thought it was pretty funny. They looked around at each other,
and one simply could not keep from smiling and nudging his neighbour with
his elbow.
Finally, it was as if a liberating sigh went through the entire congregation,
and one or another of the bravest members confided in me that secretly,
deep inside, he had thought the same as I, but he had simply not dared to
say it
out loud.
They readily put aside the old idolatry with Bible texts, the
contradictory trinitarian dogma, the bloody teachings about atonement
and eternal Hell. The hardest
part was giving up their faith in Jesus as a god, but I reassured them
with the thought
that …… what we should agree about is to love Jesus and follow him.
Then our opinion as to whether he was a god is a little detail that
should not
divide
us.”