Sin Cursed World

"Another sad, tragic consequence of life in a sin-cursed world is that children have to undergo pain, heartache, and a host of burdens that children should not have to bear."

I could not help contrasting this sentence from a fundamentalist bible study guide with the Buddhist Four Noble Truths. This study guide takes everything quite literally so the authors struggle to explain each verse that might be an illustration rather than a literal description. The study guide goes on after this quote to suppose that things will be better in heaven.

Although this is an extreme example, the general tone has me thinking about how despite being very involved in church activities and Christian studies, I have never felt comfortable with the basic view of the world in Christianity. I have written here about some of the Christian authors that attract me. I have the feeling that they are outliers; that Christians find their writings inspiring but that don't fit very neatly into the main message of Christianity as many see it. My favorite authors don't deal much with some of the basic themes like heaven and hell. In some ways, it seems the Christian authors I like have truly glimpsed spiritual truths and share them in their writing but they are not central to the teachings.

This relates to what I have been thinking lately. If I have to explain how the world works to someone struggling with some difficulties, I would much rather use a Buddhist explanation than Christian. But I am not interesting in converting people nor challenging the support their Christian faith gives them. So I don't say much to my friends and family about the excitement I feel in listening to Dharma talks. I do think about some of the thoughts I can share: ideas that they might assume are coming from a Christian perspective but actually comes from Buddhist. These nuances are just not that important to most Christians unless it comes out into the open.