Kathy, I agree with you. This is why I wrote what I wrote about Christianity having a sort of come to Jesus moment, if you will. LOL. I'm not in the believe in Jesus or go to hell camp. I think that's a bunch of BS. That's not love at all. Love isn't coercive. That's the antithesis of love as far as I'm concerned. Love is invitational. When I think of a great description of love, I think of what is written in 1 Corinthians 13. Regardless of whether you are church person or not, I imagine you've heard this passage if you've been to a wedding. Love is patient, love it kind, it bears all things, it does not boast, etc, etc. In that whole description there is no forcing, there is no coercion, there is no power struggle. There is only invitation.

I agree that when Christianity becomes a club for believers its real meaning is lost. This has been going on for far too long - going back to when the church got in bed with the empire in the 4th century and became Christendom. It was more concerned with power at that point. Empire is far different than what Jesus was about.

One of the more interesting books I've read recently was The Lost Art of Scripture by Karen Armstrong. She argues that Western Christianity has been preoccupied with the left hemisphere of the brain and lost the right hemisphere in relation to religion. I agree with her. The left hemisphere offers positives, but some of the negatives are that it is competitive, focused on being right, and literalism. That sums up Christianity's history for the last 500 years pretty well. The mystics, who are more right hemisphere oriented, offer more abstractness, embodiment, connection, relationship oriented, and differing views of reality all at the same time. Which I think also describe other aspects of love pretty well too. We have much to learn from them.