Chances are that you’ve seen John 3:16, either in total, in part, or by reference.  From the King James Version:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This is often combined with John 14:6, which goes:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

These two statements are often (too often) combined to make the arguement that Christianity is the “one true way”, that one’s specific interpretation of the Gospel is the “only way to salvation”, and that anyone straying from this particular path is evil, wicked, sinning, and bound for destruction and annihilation.  This has been used to justify endless prosecution, endless pain, and endless death at the hand of mankind, who take judgment into their own hands and dole out punishments they think fit the crimes (when they almost never do), never leaving it to God to do the work as he said he could, would, and should.  People have used this as a means to sweetly encourage people to convert and fuel their organization or die at the post, when this goes against Christ’s command to tell people to move on and wipe the dust off their feet when they don’t want to listen to them (Matthew 10:14).  Even if you ignore the story about Jesus and the crowd about to stone the prostitute, injunctions abound in the Gospel and Bible to tell people to back the fuck off from others, let go, and let God handle the work of faith, life, and afterlife. 

It’s all kinda shitty, really.  I mean, if you’re going to be a tool, at least let someone who knows how to handle tools use you instead of going off and fucking shit up on your own.

Now, let me also show you another quote from the same gospel, John 10:16, which has Jesus saying:

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Consider it this way: the Son is the Logos, the eternal and almighty Word of God, which is God.  God is pretty damn big; speficially, he’s infinite, and infinite things are endless.  Infinite things cannot be defined (literally, “to mark an end”), so no one word of mankind can match up with the Word of God.  It’s like this: there’s only one Sun that shines on the earth, and it’s the only real source of power that we have to give us food and life, but each language has their own word for it, their own pronunciation, intonation, spelling, and graphological style for it; each culture has their own myths about the Sun; each person has their own memories and interpretations of the Sun’s effect in their lives, from the sentimental to the scientific.  Does any of this change the underlying truth, existence, or nature of the Sun?  Does the Sun not shine on a particular group of people because they pronounce their word for Sun in a different way from their neighbors?  Does the Sun deny some people their crops and livelihoods if they prefer to stay inside?  Does the Sun burn one person more because fuck that guy?  No.

Just so, I can’t bring myself to fall in line with what is (unfortunately) a pillar of institutional Christian religion.  Christ is the Word, and the Word is available to all using no tongue mankind can utter; why, then, do we try to put words in his mouth and make ourselves more right than the other guy?  It’s stupid, pointless, and misses the whole point of what Christ was trying to do.  Yes, God as Logos was given by God as Nous to the world to make it better (John 3:16); yes, God as Logos is the only way to fix shit, your own or of collective Creation’s (John 14:6); no, any one way to God as Logos is not the only way with all others leading to the garbage heap just because you think you’re special (John 10:16).  Divinity is One, Truth is One, Power is One, but as they say, “all roads lead to Rome”.  If only the current denizens of Rome really grokked that, maybe the world wouldn’t be as badly off.

Now, with all that said, let me be clear about my stance on religion: I have no problem with it.  I’m not Christian by any definition, and in fact I’m pretty far from it, but Christ is awesome.  Christ got it (not only did he have it from the get go, he was it from the literal start), and a good number of people I know do, too.  The people who actually follow Christ’s words, the real Christians in the crowd, the ones who are charitable, are kind, don’t judge, live well, and live forgivingly and tenderly are amazing, and should not only be befriended but aided whenever possible.  It’s the Christianists, the greedy liars who segregate themselves from the poor, weak, meek, and shunned because “ew dey sinnin’ ‘cuz I dun likes ’em”, that I can’t abide.  It’s the people who use holy writ to kill, maim, torture, control, dominate, and fuck with others just because they’re different (in color, in belief, in sex, in sexuality, in language, in culture, in origin, in success, in failure, or in any other way) that I can’t abide.  It’s the people who use religion, faith, and spirituality as a crutch to support themselves in the world instead of using it as a gate to reach higher that I can’t abide.  It’s the people who use something holy and sacred beyond utterance into a base and vulgar tool to obtain filthy power entirely opposed to holiness and sacredness that I can’t abide.  Whether it’s Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Alexandrian Wicca, or any other spiritual path, if you can’t use religion to reach higher, if you can only think of using religion to fix things in the world for your own benefit, be it material, mental, or otherwise, then STFU and GTFO, because you’re wasting all our time, mine and yours.

To the occultists in the crowd: please don’t go thinking that I’m equating Jesus with Logos, or Jehovah as the First Father.  Yes, they are the same, just as much as Osiris or Bakkhos is Logos, but in the sense that the emanations are a part of the greater Source, not the other way around.  I’m stating things from a fairly reasonable Hermetic standpoint, which (you should know) allows for a very wide interpretation of how Logos can be revealed to individuals.