Godsey's Essay: Is God A Christian?

Is God a Christian?

Godsey begins with his view of how Christians look at God. He states, “Christians often think and behave as though God were a Christian.” I believe that he may be right. When I self-reflect on my own Christian beliefs I do not always step back and think of the other religions inspired by God and his word. I believe, along with Godsey, that it is important to recognize and understand the religions that claim God as a significant figure. Godsey wrote, “If religion is more than a language to learn or beliefs to recite and becomes, instead, a prism through which we begin to see our presence in the world, we should at least learn more about the prisms through which others are looking at themselves and their world.” Learning

Right out of the gate he expressed his feelings toward the subject by saying, “Jesus is not God’s only word.” This reflects that Godsey believed that God was not only a Christian but also spoke of other religions. He continues on to discuss how God also spoke true of other religious and historical people who were not associated to Christianity but are directly linked to God’s word. He mentioned people such as Muhammad, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr specifically along with others that are similar. Godsey explains why he believes that Christians assume that God is a Christian and he places the blame on people’s self-centered nature. Godsey wrote, “It is a form of myopic self-centeredness that presumes to place ourselves-our vision and our understanding- at the center of God’s universe.” He further supports his theory by saying, “We Christians should know that this kind of self-centered “if you are not with us, you are against us” thinking actually seems to be precisely the sort of religious thinking that Jesus was trying to get people beyond.” In other words, Godsey is certain that humans, especially Christians, when it comes to faith are extremely self-centered which results in them thinking that God is Christian and nothing more. The Christians may be so preoccupied with pleasing the Christian

He relates them all back to God and what presence he has in each one. For example, much like Christianity, the Jewish faith recognizes God as their leader. Their actions revolve around living contently with him and his word and building an important relationship with God that defines everything. Godsey then discusses the problems associated with fundamentalist religions. Godsey wrote, “If we are ever to build bridges, we will have to find the courage within our circles of faith to reject fundamentalist religion as a fearful and destructive force.” He believes that fundamentalism separates people’s foundations of faith and shows the evilness of the