In religions where the God or Gods are personified or anthropomorphized using words like “Father”, it is possible to speak or act as if you were interacting with the Divine as you would another person. Christianity even refers to having a “personal relationship with God”.
Omnism expands the understanding of this to include the beliefs, perspectives or religion one has about the Divine as the primary way someone’s “personal relationship with the Divine” is defined. Taoists may speak of the Divine’s existence using the word Tao but their personal relationship with it does not look the same as a Christian who speaks of the Divine’s existence as their Father.
Omnists believe that the Divine will answer to any name we prefer to use, appear as One God if we believe in One, appear as Many Gods if we believe in Many and hide from those who don’t believe out of respect for their beliefs.
In the 3rd Centure BCE, Emperor Asoka of India wrote the following edict carved into rock where he declared:
“One should not honor only one’s own religion and condemn the religions of others, but one should honor others’ religions. So doing, one helps one’s own religion to grow and renders service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise one digs the grave of one’s own religion and also does harm to other religions. Whosoever honors his own religion and condemns other religions, does so indeed through devotion to his own religion, thinking “I will glorify my own religion”. But on the contrary, in so doing he injures his own religion more gravely. So concord is good: Let all listen, and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others.”
-Emperor Asoka in Rock Edict XII
Official Disclaimer of Faith on the Collective approach to the Divine.
As members of the Church of Omnism, we collectively house many views and approaches on faith and understanding of the Divine or God Essence. The Church acknowledges all concepts of the Divine each member holds true to them in their own personal relationship with the Divine.
While each priest or member of the advisory board might have a position that puts them in the public eye, the Church does not hold their interpretation higher than any member of the Church. The only interpretation of Divinity the Church does not acknowledge as true, is the belief that your understanding of the Divine or God is the only Truth or more accurate and True than that of others.
When speaking of the Divine, the word God may be used as a word for simplicity’s sake as it is more familiar to many; but the use of the word God in any service does not dictate or endorse any particular philoshopy or understading as the only valid perspective or interpretation.
The Divine many refer to as God can take many forms. The Church of Omnism respects your interpretation of the Divine or God Essence you hold to be true and all the Church asks is that each of our members respect each other’s views in this same way.
We will end this disclaimer with the following from the Bhagavad Gita where the Divine many call God says:
“In whatsoever form one seeks Me, I reach them in that form,
for all humanity are but following the paths I laid down for them.“
-Bhagavad Gita 4:11