"...People have become so accustomed to the idea of faith- and particularly organized religion - as a thing that shackles and says only "no," they can't wrap their minds around the fact that everything about God is positive, from alpha to omega and back. But the evidence of the positive coming from God resides in the very fact of creation, which grew on the yes of God's own intention....
...if commandments and teachings seem heavy on the 'shall nots,' those words are not actually about
God or Church saying no. Rather, they are warnings about what takes us away form God, what creates distance- the actions (born of ideas) that say no to him, no to others, and yes only to ourselves, which makes our world very small indeed.
To say yes to God is to say yes to the very essence of what is positive, expansive, and cocreative - and for anything creative to happen, there must first be space. A wonderful Anglican hymn begins, 'There is a wideness in God's mercy.' Both wideness and mercy are formed within yes.
What has 'no' ever created besides hell?...."
- Elizabeth Scalia in Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life., pages 43-44
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