When I was in seminary, a "famous theologian" gave a big speech. During the question and answer period, I raised a point. "If God is absolute Being, and I Am, then my being is God, isn't it? Not just me, but a flower. God is the being of every flower. And God is the being of a fly on the window."
Everyone in the lecture hall was shocked and silent. I guess we weren't allowed to ask questions like that. Then the theologian explained that, while God's Being is absolute, our being is only "contingent being." I just stared at him, saying to myself, "WTF is contingent being?" I sat down.
People wouldn't join me in the dining hall. They thought I was a heretic. They whispered, "universalist." I asked, "What is a universalist?" They said it was someone who believes that God's grace pours equally upon all, no matter what their religion, whether they confess the Apostle's Creed or not. I said, "Yes, that is exactly what I believe."
So I decided I could never be ordained as a Christian minister, because everyone is already ordained by their first breath, which is the breath of God.
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