Global Faith Work Updates

The purpose of Global Faith Org is ecumenical, to build understanding among peoples of various faiths. It is a-political, NOT about trying to unite any religious groups into a political force. It is the founder's firm belief from studying historic religions that have conflicted with nations and countries, that a primary factor was because the religion became politically powerful and the existing temporal powers felt their own power threatened. True religion excels and shines where it is meant to shine: inspiring humanity to the realm of transcendent and building the spiritual nobility of humans: faith, love, hope, peace, kindness, etc. Global Faith Org works to build peace among fellow humans through faith education and must remain apolitical in temporal secular affairs. Global Faith focuses on encouraging humanity toward mutual respect and understanding among faith traditions, world religions, in the spirit of peace and the Golden Rule toward spiritual maturity globally, through blogging, writing, speaking, dialoging, gathering, and engaging in ministry, and creating a network of "Global Faith" peoples who also are "ambassadors" of Global Faith.


Dear Fellow People of Faiths Near and Far,
Though you may not find regular (e.g. weekly or monthly) posts on this blog (but you can follow my more regular Tweets on Twitter, GlobalFaith4U), it does not mean that I am not active in my work and mission of Global Faith education. My World Religions course I teach at a college keeps me fairly busy, continually studying more myself in each religion to increase my understanding, and creating new strategies to engage my students instead of just continually lecturing at them.


My number 1 goal for this year is to complete the next book in the Global Faith Series. I had it titled "Global Faith: Universal and Existential." But I am re-titling it "Sacred Scriptures for the 21st Century and Beyond," because it has been planned from the first to become a sacred text, not by sheer individual human will fiat, but by a vision of the Spirit's leading, I believe, that it will eventually become a sacred text for many of various nations and cultures. It will be a blend of many thought patterns from various previous sacred texts of the ages brought into the current age AND fresh material that has come to me, I believe by the Spirit of God. It will all be woven together in such a way as perhaps creating a beautiful sacred literary masterpiece, which in some respects I do not even feel qualified to attempt. But all wonderful thoughts that have come to me, I am compelled out of sheer goodness, out of love of God and fellow human beings, to set all this in writing and publish for the world. Few in history have undertaken the task of writing a text that became a sacred text. I am very humbled at this prospect, but all that has been given me, that which as already been written down on paper with pen (I just need to organize and type it up) I truly feel that this text will be deemed worthy of being called a "sacred" text.


My students are on spring break this week, which gives me some extra time to get back to this sacred project. But before I engaged in it, yesterday, Monday, I first wanted to write "Guiding Thoughts and Questions for Visiting Houses of Worship for the Purpose of Studying the Various Faiths/Religions. I conceived it simply as a few page handout for leading or facilitating local groups to visit and then discuss afterwards to increase their learning of the various faiths. For years I have been planning to engage the local community in this way. After I wrote up the engaging thoughts and questions, I decided to put it into a booklet format which will be easier for the participants for carrying in and out of the places they visit. Therefore then, with this format and title and copyright symbol and date, I sent it off to a local printers. And I submitted a Public Service Announcement for the local newspaper for this new local group. It is open to all: non-student life-long learners and students alike.


This should even become a model for the Global Faith Movement, an important method of engaging the communities in faith education. My model is that groups form from those who respond to the announcement(s). The visits could be once a month or more than that. I presume that more than one person will be interested, thus a "group." After the house of worship visit, the groups should meet to discuss with each other, going through the questions in the Guide, sharing some of their notes (there is space between the questions for writing notes). The discussion is also an important part of the learning process. Even if a large group of 10 people visit any particular "house," each one will have a different experience. So you learn from others as well as from your own experience too. And I recommend the group to meet and discuss soon after the visit, within the next few days. Meeting right after the visit, such as for lunch or brunch may be ideal, while the experience is most fresh.


This Guide with is group use plan, designed to be used at virtually any house of worship or sacred interior space by anyone who is studying faiths more, can become a new model for people studying faiths through visiting actual gathering places. The "Guiding Thoughts and Questions for Visitors to Houses of Worship for...Study..." is a total of 12 pages long (in this booklet format) including an introduction with pre-visit thoughts to prepare for the visit. The main portion leads the learner to reflect on all the main aspects of the experience in the interior space: the lighting/ambiance, the physical setting and design, the images/paintings/symbols (if any) to the rituals of both the leaders and people gathered for the service, to the deeper meaning, the theological and philosophical beliefs behind both the elements in the service and the surroundings. This Guide will sure be a help to many. You can request a copy or a number of copies for a small donation to cover the cost of printing and shipping, by emailing me.

Guiding Thoughts and Questions

for Visitors to Houses of Worship

for the Purpose of Studying the Beliefs of Various Faiths/ Religions©

Mark Ahavel

Global Faith Org. Tallahassee, FL

Global Faith: A Model for the 21st Century

Dear Friends of Faith,
I am very pleased to announce the near completion of the next book (actually booklet) in the Global Faith book series: Global Faith: A Model for the 21st Century. You may go ahead and request your copies for a suggestion donation of $5 (US Dollars) by emailing me at: mark.globalfaith@gmail.com. It will soon be going to the printers.

This book summarizes and articulates the Global Faith I am defining, and presenting it as a model for people of faith, religion buffs, scholars, leaders, and common ordinary folks, globally.

This excerpt in an overview of the overview of this Model:

Worldview: Theistic
Belief System Category: Monotheistic, universal/global
Mutual Respect and Tolerance for all people, whatever creed, ethnicity, race, nationality, or gender
Non-Profit
Faith-based
Non-Sectarian
Not sponsored by any establish Religion or religious Institution
A-Political
International - Multicultural
Decentralized
Non-Proselytizing
Equality of all Humans of all ethnicities, races, genders, creeds, & socio-economic status
Heart for Service and Ministry
Made up Volunteers
Global Faith: A Movement
A Caring community

Each of the qualities, characteristics in the above list all contribute to the defining of this Global Faith and Global Faith Movement. Each of them are explained and expounded upon in the book. The book also includes Vision and Mission statements, and a near comprehensive list of values, highlighting some main ones are: human dignity, mutual respect, tolerance, love, and peace.

This simple and yet profound global faith booklet is a must read for all peoples of faith and those who are searching for the meaning of faith.

Global Faith: The Place of Meeting God

This article is a preview from the not-yet-published book: Global Faith: Universal and Existential, the flagship book of the Global Faith Book series which is scheduled to be published in 2012. But this article is included in the new book, about to be published, the second one in the book series: Global Faith: A Model for the 21st Century.

The Place of Meeting God

The prophets of the blessed past called the peoples to meet God of their faith each in their appointed consecrated places which in time became sacred, each in their homeland of origin.

The great Hebrew prophet Isaiah prophesied, "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established on top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, ' Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD'" (Isaiah 2:2-3a NKJV).

Some pious souls interpret this passage literally and look forward to its fulfillment in a literal Jerusalem. Yet other pious or faithful or scholarly souls interpret this passage spiritually-metaphorically. This latter realistically understands the sheer difficulty if not virtual impossibility of God's global people of faith traveling to Jerusalem, not just once in their lifetime, but perhaps many times as the text may suggest. Better it seems this spiritual-metaphorical interpretation of this prophecy that speaks to all God's people of faith globally, wherever they may live, even Global Faith peoples in these latter days who come to God in spirit and in truth and figuratively to His holy mountain, wherever we hear His words, His teachings, receive them into our hearts and souls, submit our wills to Him, and worship Him in all His glory and majesty.

God foresaw our day, our global age, and a growing movement of Global Faith peoples. God has brought a new age through His holy Son Jesus who proclaimed, "...neither on this mountain [Gerizim in Samaria] nor in Jerusalem [Mt. Zion] will you worship Me but in spirit and truth they shall worship Me" (John 4:21, 23 NKJV). Souls of faith, let God's Spirit inscribe these words into your precious hearts and minds. Notice that this speaks of NO CENTRAL place on earth where God's people meet God and worship Him. There is no geographic latitude nor longitude, but speaks of a spiritual Zion of longevity, where the sacred meeting place is the meeting of the Divine and the human being through his or her soul, wherever their bodies are physically, locally. In the roads of the well known Christian rock song by Petra, "the road to Zion's in my heart."

The believers of Judaism have the Wailing Wall, Christians have the Church of the Holy Sepulchre also in Jerussalem, and Muslims have Mecca, the Sikhs have Golden Temple in Amritsar, and Baha'is have the Shrine of the Bab (international Shrine, Haifa, Israel), but the prophetic scripture above from John's Gospel (claimed to have come from Jesus) looks to our day when and where people of faith are not bound to attend one specific sacred spot on earth-obligatorily-for the meeting place of God, for worship and prayer. The great Hebrew prophet Isaiah (most scholars refer to this section as Deutero-Isaiah) prophesied, "He is called God of the whole earth" (Isaiah 54:5d) and the prophetic scriptures speak through Solomon, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!" (I Kings 8:27 NKJV).

Therefore, Global Faith does not seek to establish any central sacred place for the meeting of God and His people, but it is intent on remaining decentralized; and likewise it does not to establish even a central global organization or institution. Global Faith peoples do not stress over where to establish a central sacred spot on earth, where it should be, what country it should be located in, consequentially refraining from the potential engine of conflict with established religions or governments. Be let there be thousands of local assemblies of Global Faith peoples who can gather on a regular basis (for example, weekly), locally. Moreover, let it be permitted that Global Faith local communities associate with each other, but remaining decentralized. And let them even establish regional shrines that they may make pilgrimages, either peacefully securing agreement with representatives of existing shrines or establishing new shrines. Global Faith peoples may peacefully worship, pray, and/or meditate in many and various religious settings. But peacefully seek official permission if groups of Global Faith communities want to gather at shrines/houses/temples/churches/gardens or grounds of existing religious institutions or organizations.

Global Faith Org Vision and Mission Statement

Dear Friends of Faith, globally,
I ended up posting a Global Faith Values Statement in a prior post before first trumpeting the Vision and Mission statement, now, here below. Not only is it fitting but indeed essential for every organization to have a vision and mission statement (currently "organization" is used in a loose sense, since the Org has not yet been formally formed).

Vision Statement:
That people as individuals and as humanity as a whole, globally, grow in mutual respect and understanding of other faith traditions, and that people individually and humanity as a whole grow more spiritually mature.

Mission Statement:
Global Faith Org encourages, inspires, educates humanity toward mutual respect and understanding among peoples of various faith traditions, world religions, in the spirit of peace, grace, and the Golden Rule and toward spiritual maturity globally, through blogging, writing, speaking, dialoging, gathering, engaging in ministry, and fellowship.

Global and Eternal Peace to you,
Brother Mark

To Be Human is to Believe

To be human is to believe.

Global Faith Overview

Dear friends of faith, spirituality, and religion (and those curious or interested but may not consider themselves spiritual or religious).
Thank you for your interest in Global Faith. Below is a quick overview of Global Faith, basic definition and main values.
Here I will give an overview of a definition and Values and highlight again the Global Faith Pledge. Look for more to come!

Global Faith Defined
Faith: In internal sense which connects all people who have alittle or much faith not in external sense like an established world religion or institution.
Faith is a connecting factor which helps to unite all people, even if the object of
their faiths differ
Global, International, but Apolitical: The emphasis is that Global Faith peoples are citizens of heaven or a universal or global spiritual kingdom that does not compete with any earthly kingdom or nation, recognizing that there is no political system or order of government on earth that is perfect. We stive to live peacefully in whatever system we find ourselves.
International Multicultural: There are no limits. Global Faith peoples are everywhere in various cultures, in all nations, and is therefore diverse and multicultural
Monotheistic: Most Global Faith poeples are monotheists, revering only the Supreme God Creator of the Heavens and Earth, but recognize other children of God who do not see God as a personal Being but have a monistic impersonal understanding, and we all strive to live in peace with each other, which also includes our polytheistic and animistic brothers and sisters of humanity.

Global Faith Values
Faith
Life
Love
Compassion
Kindness
Community
Univerality
Global Consciousness
Unity in Diversity
Tolerance
Freedom
Knowledge, Wisdom, Education, Enlightenment
Righteousness


The Global Faith Pledge (see below: November 13, 2010 post)

Global Faith Overview and Some Highlights

Dear friends of faith and those who are seeking or those unsure, thank you for reading this article and for your interest in Global Faith. You are invited to followthis Global Faith blog.

It this article, we define "Global Faith," highlight some previous points made in earlier posts, and highlight some new points not yet stated.

So what is "Global Faith" or how do we mean it? I know it may conjure up immediate concerns among many Bible-believing Christians today, many of whom have been taught the interpretation of Bible prophecies regarding the End Times that there will be a world order, one world government, and a one world religion. These prophesies speak of such things as the rise of the Antichrist, the mark of the beast, and even cataclysmic events. These Biblical prophecies are enough to put some fear in the hearts of most people. "Global Faith" therefore may bring up such connotations to them, thinking that it sounds like it is in alignment with such End Time forces.

But fellow believers, rest assured, Global Faith is not in league with nor aligning toward any such thing as a one-world government or religion; neither does Global Faith have a goal to unite the religions of the world together as ONE, or create a one-world religion consequentially controlling the world in a certain way. No, that is far from my intent. Instead, Global Faith is both heavenly and earthly; the earthly portion is the "global" which highlights the realm and fact of internal faith in human beings living on earth; the heavenly is the heavenly or "eagles" perspective of faith, or rather, from God's vantage point. The "Faith" component of Global Faith is meant in the internal sense, faith in the human heart, mind, and soul, which is in every human being who has as least some faith in the heavenly. Global Faith operates in the spirit of spiritual understanding and peace among human beings at a spiritual level, irregardless of what one's country's form of government it possesses, in the spirit of Jesus who said, according to John's Gospel, "My kingdom is not of this world" (Jn. 18:36).

More can be read on the internal verses external aspects of faith in the earlier post June 12 post on Faith, Purpose, and Image/Design of this blog or the blog:
http://dignityworld7.worldpress.com. Regarding the June 12 post on this blog, I realized after the fact that I did not make clear about the licensing of the Global Praying Hands (trademark registered) image used also on this blog. We do have license from the maker and owner of the Global Praying Hands image(s) to use in this blog and the Global Faith Org websites.

Now one comment about the Global Faith Pledge (also posted below). I look forward to many people, thousands (millions even better!) taking this pledge as it goes out online and across the globe. If you would like to help in this endeavor, please let me know.

Now on to the next point. Here I simply want to highlight the value that faith is quintessential. Of all the good values of Global Faith: faith, respect, dignity, love, goodness, honor, peace, all important they are, I am setting faith as the first, the prima, the quintessential. Without faith, such as in a good God who cares about them, do individual human beings have any hope in this world? Do not some without faith feel that what they are left with is meaningless and non-existence when they take their last breath? And what positive motivation do they without faith have in moral living and doing good to others? These are simply thoughts to ponder.

Next I want to highlight the two main goals of Global Faith. The first goal is educational: to educate humanity on the many good and positive things about faith, spirituality, and religion, the light and benefits. Similarly, teaching of the various religions from a non-sectarian position serves the purpose of building understanding in human beings. The final goal is the spiritual goal of building peace in fellow human beings of various religions (and no religions), and therefore working on global peace in the tangible realm, even with national leaders, though we do not endorse any one religion or form of government.

This brings me to the final highlight in this article, a vital and necessary component toward understanding and peace among fellow human beings: tolerance, religious tolerance (but which spills over into social, cultural, and ethnic tolerance). I am going to define and explain tolerance in a way that should be loud and clear, but unfortunately, very few voices had made it thus clear. I connect the topic of tolerance to human dignity.

I begin with what I'm calling the "old tolerance" understanding from the dictionary, using Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary meaning 2. of tolerance (the religious use) "sympathy... for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own." Indeed, I have had a few of my religion students say, "Why should I be expected to accept or believe their (other peoples') beliefs which is not my own?!" Is this not the natural voice and cry of most humans? I assert, on the basis of human dignity, that it is indeed not of human dignity to expect any human to have to accept the religion, creed, or faith of another person or group just because that person or group is now living in our country, community, or neighborhood. Faith should never be forced nor should it be imposed against peoples wills.

So this distinction I make and thus call it "new tolerance" is that no one should be expected to accept any other persons faith, period. But there is social, cultural, and ethnic tolerance of any who are different that us who may be now living in our community, or we find as neighbors or co-workers. Moreover, we should accept them as persons. For society to be healthy, that has people of different religions, ethnic groups, etc, there does need to be tolerance for the fact of co-existing in the community and living orderly and in peace. And there should be religious tolerance to the degree that we accept the FACT that others hold to different religions and faiths than our own, but knowing that we do not have to believe what they believe. So I call this the "new toleration" since there has been plenty of confusion on this point over the years that still has not been cleared up yet.

Look forward to more insightful points to come.
Yours in blessing and peace,
Brother Mark
mark dot globalfaith at gmail.com