...the next step
I was involved in little theater in Northern New Jersey for over 15 years. We rehearsed and performed on the stage of a Unitarian Church. It was like having your very own theater.... without the expense and upkeep... and I spent lots and lots of time there over the years. One day I decided to see what the Unitarians were all about and went to a couple of their services. It was quite different from the Baha'i folks. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the two religions... which obviously are worlds apart from each other and my Catholic background.
"In the Bahá'í Faith, religious history is seen to have unfolded through a series of divine messengers, each of whom established a religion that was suited to the needs of the time and the capacity of the people. These messengers have included Abraham, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and others, and most recently .... Bahá'u'lláh"
"Unitarians sum up their faith as "the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus." Historically, they have encouraged unorthodox views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science, philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions. They believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God."
At least the Bahai's were really friendly folk... not so with the reason/science group... all the intellectualism of Unitarianism didn't appeal to me at all... seemed much more interested in impressing people with their philosophical understandings of life than in finding God... I was searching to find God...
After scratching my ego in theater by doing every role I ever really wanted to do... I took off for a couple years to try to put my my marriage back together... finally gave up on that... moved out of the house and went back to little theater... I took a bit part for the first time ever with this little group, just to get back into it... they were doing a silly play... I took a silly part.... and they cast this tiny young lady opposite me... a Mutt and Jeff thing... as part of the humor... this great big guy and this tiny little 5 ft..... 96 lb lady... her name was Ellen McCloy... she was the first woman I ever met that I just enjoyed talking to.... that I wasn't trying to seduce...we talked and talked and talked waiting for our entrances on stage.... just very small roles... lots of time just waiting to go on... and talking...
Ellen was the best thing that ever happened to me in little theater.
And I was still searching for God.
:)
"In the Bahá'í Faith, religious history is seen to have unfolded through a series of divine messengers, each of whom established a religion that was suited to the needs of the time and the capacity of the people. These messengers have included Abraham, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and others, and most recently .... Bahá'u'lláh"
"Unitarians sum up their faith as "the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus." Historically, they have encouraged unorthodox views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science, philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions. They believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God."
At least the Bahai's were really friendly folk... not so with the reason/science group... all the intellectualism of Unitarianism didn't appeal to me at all... seemed much more interested in impressing people with their philosophical understandings of life than in finding God... I was searching to find God...
After scratching my ego in theater by doing every role I ever really wanted to do... I took off for a couple years to try to put my my marriage back together... finally gave up on that... moved out of the house and went back to little theater... I took a bit part for the first time ever with this little group, just to get back into it... they were doing a silly play... I took a silly part.... and they cast this tiny young lady opposite me... a Mutt and Jeff thing... as part of the humor... this great big guy and this tiny little 5 ft..... 96 lb lady... her name was Ellen McCloy... she was the first woman I ever met that I just enjoyed talking to.... that I wasn't trying to seduce...we talked and talked and talked waiting for our entrances on stage.... just very small roles... lots of time just waiting to go on... and talking...
Ellen was the best thing that ever happened to me in little theater.
And I was still searching for God.
:)



