{"id":119,"date":"2010-09-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-08T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/2010\/09\/a-creed.html"},"modified":"2011-06-23T09:50:59","modified_gmt":"2011-06-23T13:50:59","slug":"a-creed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/09\/a-creed.html","title":{"rendered":"A Creed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been working for a while on a new kind of creed. I want to figure out what a belief statement would look along the lines of the Apostles or Nicean creed, that focused less on the historical facts, and more on the teachings of Jesus and living as a christian. This Is what I&#8217;ve come up with, It&#8217;s a work in progress, this is my third draft in as many years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I Believe in the Christian Life<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">In the depravity of mankind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">And in the desperate need of every human being for love<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I believe that the world will be a better place if everyone who was asked to walk a mile, walked two, and everyone who was asked for a hundred foreskins gave two hundred.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I believe that is more productive to respond to someone who has hurt me by allowing him to hurt me again, than it is to hurt him in turn.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Though I often fail, I believe in loving my enemies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I believe that more can be accomplished through peace than through violence. That wars can be won by laying down to die. And that under the right circumstances victories can be earned only by admitting defeat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I believe in truth<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I believe that truth is always better than falsehood, that it should be sought after, fought for, and protected<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I believe that everyone everywhere is important, and that the things that separate us mean less than the things that unite us.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I believe that men are supposed to cry. And so are women. I also believe we are supposed to laugh, and sneeze and live life,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I believe in life, in love, in hope, in faith, in sacrifice<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I don\u2019t believe I should hide, and pretend like I\u2019m the same as other people, but sometimes I wish the televangelists would.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">I am a Christian. This is what I believe.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Oh Yeah, I also think some stuff happened in Jerusalem a long time ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been working for a while on a new kind of creed. I want to figure out what a belief statement would look along the lines of the Apostles or Nicean creed, that focused less on the historical facts, and more on the teachings of Jesus and living as a christian. This Is what I&#8217;ve&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,10],"tags":[507,509,508],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emergent","category-inspiration-2","tag-creed","tag-creedo","tag-i-believe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Creed - A Fear of Whales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/09\/a-creed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Creed - A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve been working for a while on a new kind of creed. 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This Is what I&#8217;ve&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/09\/a-creed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-08T04:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-06-23T13:50:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rgaffney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Creed - A Fear of Whales","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/09\/a-creed.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Creed - A Fear of Whales","og_description":"I&#8217;ve been working for a while on a new kind of creed. 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