Dad,

We have conversations about faith, religions, ad Jesus a lot in this magazine. I thought it might be helpful to look at some of the factors that define healthy faith journeys and get some feedback on what that might look like.

In short, here are 5 things that I think represent a healthy faith:

1. A healthy faith journey will be about evaluating your feelings and actions. Many sects and cults revolve around controlling and justifying behaviors and feelings. This can be dangerous, as it is not intuitive to personal growth and can be detrimental to building relationships.
2. A healthy faith will be centered around ideals and beliefs, rather than rules or personalities. Ideals and beliefs can be dissected and discussed by the faith community, where rules and personalities are authoritarian in nature.
3. God is the center of a healthy faith. Leaders and selves are the center of unhealthy journeys. The inherent flaws of people make them poor center-pieces for spiritual movements.
4. A healthy religious experience is typically rooted in long oral or written traditions, where fringe religions and recent or young traditions are less tested and can be manipulated easily by corrupted hands.
5. A healthy faith walk will embrace love and inclusiveness, rather than hate and punishment. Fear, wrath, judgment, expulsion; these characteristics are sometimes found in our faith traditions, but they are unhealthy as the focus and should be debated and revisited often.

These are some of my own criteria for looking at how healthy we are as we consider our faith and our relationship with our spiritual journey. They are not authoritative nor do they represent any religious or faith organization.

Visitors, Please feel free to let me know what some of your criteria are and how you feel about mine. I am interested in the faith journeys of others.

Bryan