I Want To Believe - Why All Or Nothing?

"We also apply all-or-nothing thinking to ourselves, making the message impossible to obey on any honest level. As a result, we are forced to pretend, repress, deny, or become a hypocrite, because nothing human is or ever will be perfect enough, worthy enough, or pure enough. It is not so much that hypocrites join religious groups, but that the very structures of much religion encourage people to act and pretend. This all-or-nothing thinking is a cancer at the heart of our preached message.

The individual Christian is told to love unconditionally, but the God who commands this is depicted as having a very conditional and quite exclusive love himself .... ! The believer is told to love his enemies, but "God" clearly does not; in fact, God punishes them for all eternity. This stifles and paralyzes many Believers at the conscious or unconscious level, and it should.....

My intention is not to be unfair or negative in stating this so straightforwardly, but we must start being honest about the way what we called "good news" has ended up being bad news for many sincere human beings who really want to believe. Often, these are people of real inner Integrity or spiritual intelligence, who refused to deny, repress, or pretend. I have met them too often."

- Richard Rohr. The Naked Now.