Yes KathyM.... I've witnessed all of that too. Religious intolerance in any form is cause for a very heavy heart. They are not of God but of the godless who are the most deceived. One can almost feel the tears of Creator and the sadness among the angels to see it go on and on and on.....

Many of my community's precious artifacts were burned because early religious Christians saw the paintings and carvings as evil. The ancestor's weeping can still be heard and be interpreted in the signs left behind. That is precisely why my beliefs are so liberal for lack of a better word. No matter the cultural context there is but one God -- 'the great spirit creator who has many names' but whose message is consistant. Walk with me in love and harmony and know my beauty from within where we commune together in peace.

God meets us where we are. That teaching is a cornerstone for me. It tells me no matter the context, the culture, the tradition, religious practise, the world view.... no matter the decor or setting or colour of the skin of the believers.... God makes 'his' presence known. Is accessable to everyone in the way that they will best understand. Naked before God with nothing but a willing heart or dressed up in ceremonial robes and loaded with abundant offerings.... the same before God.

I avoid cluttering my faith, my relationship with God with too much doctrine, too much ceremony, too much ritual. Too many boundaries.... rules, regulations, right, wrong, good, bad.... they distract me from my relationship with God and the spirit world. I've seen too much death and distruction in the name of God to have any tolerance for religious discord.

One can sit in a Chruch and sing with the choir and listen to the preacher. One can do all that twice a week for a lifetime and still never have a personal spiritual connection with Creator... still not choosing the way when the time comes for them to look. One can even go into a sweat lodge and be surrounded by the sights and sounds of the spirit world and not see any of them or learn anything from them. Ritual and ceremony does not cause one to know God.

God is love and the messages from Jesus came to remind us to be loving and kind and giving to one another. To break out of the chains of religion and rest in the love of God. Simple message. Clear rebuke of 'religiousity'.

The messages of Jesus' coming is to tell us to put aside our distracting ways. Put aside our prejudices, put aside our hurtful attitudes, put aside anything that causes one to not love and care for all living things. The messages of Jesus said love our neighbours as ourself. Love as I have loved. Love...... He didn't come to show us the latest candle lighting technique... from the left or from the right.... clockwise or counter clockwise.... red robe or purple... no jesus came with nothing, carried nothing, and left again with nothing of earthly value. His lax attitude about ritual got him into trouble with the ritual holders but he told them to get their focus back on God the Spirit.

Without love there is no God. The message of Jesus exuded love and had need for nothing because love was enough. Love caused others to feed him. To wash his feet and fill his cup. To care for him, to hear his wisdom, to follow his example. Love did that. The message is to be like Jesus, walk always in love, in need of nothing. Lead by a faith that love will never fail.

I have attended chuches, temples, longhouses and various other places of prayer and worship. Some are more tolerant than others of my native tradtions and views. I'm respectful of each communities right to worship in their own way. I can be with God in all of those places. I practise native spirituality with ceremonies passed down by the ancestors at a church where everthing is integrated. We don't have many trappings of religion around us. Just an open space where we pray, sing, share wisdom and understanding, dance and feast. We honour our ancestors and whe practise our traditions -- respectful of both ancient and modern understandings. We read from the Bible and from other sacred writings. We listen to prophecy and we discern its teachings.

Free to be free in the spirit.... all children of the same God... all touched by the messangers, the angels that do the work of the heavens on earth. Connected by love. Living to know and be one with love.