Fallen faiths

It is difficult not to feel tested when there are clergy of your church who so clearly do not believe or practice what they preach.  It is worse when serious criminals such as habitual child molesters are exposed in their midst.  Worse still when the response is a conspiracy of silence and the offender is quietly moved to another parish.

Is “Holy War” not a contradiction in terms - Mullahs selectively citing from the Noble Qur’an, interpreting to suit, inciting their eager followers^[1] to suicide, murder and destruction?

For the true-believers^[2] which part of “Thou shalt not kill” is unclear?

In the end priests, mullahs, and rabbis do not matter^[3].  The institutions of faith are just that – institutions.  Like all institutions they are self-serving and self-preserving^[4], and can lose sight of their reason for being.

What is important is your faith and your personal relationship with the Divine^[5], if you are fortunate enough to have this.  That faith and that relationship are yours and yours alone^[6]. 

While the actions of religious institutions and their clergy may at times conspire against the faiths they profess, any transcendent truths^[7] these faiths contain remain true.  Those truths will not be inconsistent with any transcendent truths in this work.