I am reminded every significant election year how much we are influenced by the values into which we are brought up. Our values are the things that motivate, direct, and influence us more than anything else. Any conscientious voter will agree that, as they are reading through the issues and deciding on which candidate they will cast their vote - the one thing that influences those decisions more than anything else is what they value. I was brought up to value people over anything else (except faith, but it is because of my faith that people are valued) - those with whom I have a relationship and those with whom I do not... People are essentially the most valuable resource we have and thus should be cared for as one's top priority. This lends itself quite well to a certain political perspective. I know others, however, for whom fiscal responsibility, freedom, liberty, and hands-off government are key values. Again, that leads to another political perspective. I had a discussion with one of our local candidates recently about how, when he starts off his speech by talking about budget and finance, he immediately turns off a voter such as myself. Yes, I want fiscal responsibility, but I hear him saying "cut cut cut" and in my brain that translates to people being left behind. And that is unconscionable to me. We want essentially the same things, but our values direct how we talk about it and how we act on it.
I was thinking of this in relation to God as well. Our values very much determine how we describe God - or if we even believe in God at all. I struggle with the cultural aspects of how we see a "higher power." The academician in me wants to acknowledge that my culture and values have created a God in their own image - in the same way someone from an atheist worldview sees "God" as an interpolation of the weak-minded; or how a Hindu might see a god as an active, if somewhat malicious, participant in personal events, requiring propitiation but not providing any lasting effect for creatures trying to reincarnate to a higher form. Culture defines how we understand God. But does that mean God does not exist - if culture forms our image of God? Can God still exist in some pure form that is nothing like what we expect, but yet completely what we expect, and more?
My culture has produced in me certain values - my family and upbringing have further defined and shaped them. I see God from that perspective, but also acknowledge that there are other viable perspectives on God that can only further my understanding of who God is, rather than challenge God's existence as if God can only be one or the other. It's like the political point above - we all look for essentially the same things, but our values direct how we talk about it and how we act on it. A Muslim sees God in the routine of daily prayer, in the giving of alms, or of the call to pilgrimage to Mecca. A Jew sees God in carefully-followed laws and observances. An atheist doesn't see "God" at all, but sees the natural order as a god of its own kind - a series of forces that make all things work and give human beings the intellectual capacity for scientific knowledge of these forces.
As I said, I am convinced that God exists - beyond culture, beyond values, beyond worldview. But I also acknowledge that God is so much bigger than what I can possibly define, so I am willing to accept other people's understanding of God as equally as valid as my own - or at least on the same footing. But I know... KNOW... that God exists. It's the subtle, quiet assurance of Spirit reaching out to spirit to convince and assure me when I begin to question. It's at the same time indescribable and indisputable.
But my values far too frequently try to put God into a box - one in which God cannot fit. It's like trying to say that politically I can ONLY vote for those things which value people, ignoring the needs of corporations and free economy. I will vote my conscience, but I have to accept that the judgments of "the other side" are valuable as well. I can continue to inform and mold my own political worldview in the same way; hearing and welcoming the religious perspectives of others informs and molds my understanding of God.
