Transactional God
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash Those who know me know that my faith journey has been evolving; through it, my understanding of God has expanded beyond the narrow definitions and boundaries outlined by various denominations and churches, and my conception of grace and mercy has also deepened and widened. One thought that has occurred to me, living in privilege as a Canadian who was raised in a capitalist society, is that my view - and maybe yours - of the faith relationship between us and God has been heavily influenced by these Western values, the end result being that my view of God was transactional; I was taught that my faith and my works were tied to the amount of Divine grace and blessing I might receive, as well as the size of my "place" in Heaven. Of course, almost nobody directly preaches that kind of thing on the pulpit anymore, at least not in my circles. But if I take a step back and truly examine the messages being sent from the pulpit - any pulpit
