Our own Jay Forrest, Education Director for the Spiritual Naturalist Society, has a new book out which many of our members may be interested in. In it, Jay tells of his own personal journey from Christianity to Buddhism to Humanism and Spiritual Naturalism.
Before becoming a Spiritual Naturalist and a Humanist, Jay was a Pentecostal Evangelical Pastor with The International Pentecostal Holiness Church. In over two decades, Jay was the Pastor or Assistant Pastor of churches in Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee, Arizona, and New Mexico. Jay did his undergraduate work at Central Bible College and Berean University, and received his Doctorate of Ministry from Trinity Evangelical Christian University. He also received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity.
“I had studied Zen Buddhism prior to my crisis of faith, and had been practicing Zen meditation. It was from this background I came to see that, just like Jesus, the Buddha was also just a man and just a teacher. And then on April 11, 2011, I asked the ultimate question, “Who was the better teacher, Christ or Buddha?” There was really no question in my mind – the Buddha was the better teacher. He taught me what to do, not just what to believe. As a result, I converted to Buddhism. But since then, I have become more skeptical of some elements of Buddhism, such as karma and rebirth. I have come to see Spiritual Naturalism as the best option for me.” –Jay Forrest
Readers can get the book through Amazon. By getting it through the SNS Amazon shop, a portion of your purchase price goes to help support the mission of the Society.
Click here to purchase or learn more >>
Note – You can get two other books by Jay, as well as many other Spiritual Naturalist books, through our store: “Secular Buddhism: An Introduction” and “Practical Buddhism: Wisdom for Everyday Life“.
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The Spiritual Naturalist Society works to spread awareness of spiritual naturalism as a way of life, develop its thought and practice, and help bring together like-minded practitioners in fellowship.