- I believe in reincarnation
- I believe in crystal, plant and earth energies
Some Christians will take issue with at least some of the things you listed, though not everything. I think these two things here that I've isolated are the most problematic, because they are theologically problematic.
Christian teaching asserts belief in the innate and intrinsic goodness of the human body as the creation of God, though we are (with all of creation) beaten and battered by sin and death, God's good purposes for creation are found in and through Christ. Therefore the Christian hope is believe in the resurrection of the body. Reincarnation is deeply problematic for a number of reasons.
What is reincarnated? The soul? In that case it posits a spirit-matter dualism that is at odds with orthodox Christian teaching; we are not "embodied souls" but more accurately, ensouled bodies. The "soul" is not the true inner self housed in a body, we are human creatures of flesh, bone, tissue, etc our bodies are intrinsically part of what makes us
us. And so in believing in the resurrection of the dead we believe that the body, though it dies and decays will be raised up and transformed: it is sown a "soulish body" it is raised a "spiritual body" as St. Paul says.
In the Buddhist idea of reincarnation and samsara there is no permanent self at all, which is (at least in part) what the goal of Buddhism is, to end suffering by following the middle way, to recognize that the self is not really anything, and so to break the cycle of samsara and achieve nirvanna and buddha-hood. Of course if there is no actual self, if the self is merely illusion, then that's a problem as well from a Christian perspective. On the contrary, human personhood is not transient or illusionary, it is actual, concrete, and permanent--that permanence is bound up in the resurrection. The actual person, body and soul, has a permanence, and that permanence is found in the good creation of God being renewed in and through Christ, in the hope of the future world.
In order to assert some sort of reincarnation would, fundamentally, to deny either the intrinsic goodness and purpose of the body (and the material world more broadly); or else to deny that human personhood is, in fact, something
real. Both depend on some idea of the sensible and material world as being fundamentally irrelevant or an illusion, ideas which are explicitly heretical in Christian thinking. On the contrary, Christianity asserts faith in "one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen" and points back to the explicit statement that all which God made is "exceedingly good" or "exceedingly beautiful", it has purpose, meaning, it's relevant and its existence is a
good thing.
The idea that there are innate energies in crystals and the like, well that's mostly going to be an issue simply from the basis that most Christians will see that as basically just new age pseudo-spirituality. Such new agey stuff tends to be based on pseudo-science, western occultism (which often relied on 19th century pseudo-science), and the like.
As for the other things you said: You believe the love shared between same-sex partners is the same as love shared between opposite-sex partners, many Christians are fine with that even if many aren't (of course that particular topic of discussion isn't permitted on CF, so let's leave it at that for now). You think that abortion is sometimes necessary? Not all Christians have the same view of abortion, while arguably most Christians will see abortion as tragic, many believe that the pro-choice ethic is not in conflict with a broader pro-life ethic--it's a complex ethical topic that should have its own discussion elsewhere. Many Christians would not have a problem with euthanasia in certain situations as a way to mercifully alleviate suffering--that doesn't make euthanasia good but a tragic necessity at times. Most Christians, arguably, don't have a problem with evolution, some of the foremost scientists in the world are practicing Christians, for example Dr. Francis Collins the former head of the Human Genome Project who under his leadership mapped out the human genome is an Evangelical Christian who has written a lot about the relationship of science and faith, who accepts evolution and helped found the Biologos Foundation to help facilitate discussion and learning about the cross-section of faith and science.
A few others, for example not believing in Hell or Satan--while that would certainly place you in an unorthodox corner, it wouldn't be as problematic as the issue of reincarnation. Also, depends on what you mean by "Hell", you'll find that there is no single definition or understanding of Hell among Christians, because it's not one of the things which was ever really seriously discussed in the ancient and historic debates of the Church; and which there has long been different views and thoughts on the topic. So if by "Hell" you mean some underground cavern with flickering flames and devils poking people with pitchforks, I think you'll find that the majority of Christians don't believe in that anyway. Most, arguably, wouldn't even say Hell is a place at all.
Ultimately, I'd want to know what you mean by "relationship with God". That sort of language is most typically used in Evangelical circles when talking about a "personal relationship" with the Deity or with Christ; but that isn't necessarily how most Christians might talk about relating to God (or perhaps more importantly, God relating to us). Fundamentally the most important thing is Jesus, that Jesus reveals God to us and that God has made Himself known to us in and through Christ, who is the Word made flesh, God incarnate, the eternal Son of the Father and who makes the Father known. That is, we do not know God except through Jesus. Such would be, really, the only meaningful sense of "relationship with God" in a mainstream Christian parlance; such a relationship is not about being "personal" or some direct experience of God, but about the Gospel,
God come down to us.
And without the Gospel, without Jesus Christ living and incarnate, everything else doesn't matter anyway. Evolution or not, it doesn't matter. There is no "relationship" with God apart from and without Christ; as we can only know God through Him.
-CryptoLutheran
