For me, our faith is our means for creating sensibility (order?) and coping with mystery. Ideas that have helped define my faith in the past year or two are at Faithful Moderates. Below are some useful sound bytes collected by Liz Sterling, and below that are links to faith statements by some local friends.

Mark Twain: "Man is the religious animal. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven."

Ralph Waldo Emerson: "In the matter of religion, people eagerly fasten their eyes on the difference between their own creed and yours; whilst the charm of the study is in finding the agreements and identities in all the religions of humanity."

Thomas Erskine: "In the New Testament, religion is grace and ethics is gratitude."

Adyashanti: "It is good to remember that the goal of Buddhism is to create Buddhas, not Buddhists; as the goal of Christianity is to create Christs, not Christians."

Deepak Chopra: "We cannot have peace if we are not at peace with ourselves. If you are not at peace with your family, it is impossible to have world peace. We have to have a critical mass of peaceful people in the world before we can have peace."

Mahatma Gandhi: "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Taoism says "The two lions (Fu dogs) guarding the entrance to the Temple of Enlightenment are Paradox and Confusion." I believe that in holding the "Oneness" and interconnectedness of all creation, we must be expansive enough to hold paradox/confusion, good/evil, rationality/faith as complementary opposites--yin/yang, different parts of the whole. (S.G.)