In paraphrasing an old saying, "A rose by any other name is still a rose," I 
submit, "A God by any other name is still a God."

I am taking this foolhardy position to demonstrate that I can no longer,
in good conscience, totally surrender my individual spirit to one 
religious dogma or doctrine.  Though I still have a religious preference,
I can honestly say that I am trying to develop a respect for all faiths.  
One might say that I am fast becoming a "born again" in reverse.  Furthermore,
I fully realize that some of our religious gurus might condemn me, but the
way I presently feel, I am beyond worrying about how religious gurus might
react.

When I was in combat during W.W.II, we took many German prisoners of war 
in military uniform.  And on all of the belt buckles of their military belts,
I noticed the inscription, "Gott Mit Uns" (God is with us).  And for all 
those years following the war and my safe return home, it left me to wonder:  
Which God were the Germans referring to?  I was disillusioned, to say the 
east.

My greatest disillusionment came after my involvement over the disunity of 
our North American Armenian Apostolic Churches in 1984.  Up to this point,
in spite of my first-hand war experiences, which I generally describe as 
mankind's greatest obscenity, I was still an avid churchgoer.  I sang in 
the church choir, I was involved with our fund-raising for the building 
or our present St. Gregory Prelacy Church, I helped establish St. 
Gregory's first men's club, I became a board of trustee and I was 
totally involved in every fund raising project that came along 
including carnivals, picnics, dinner dances, New Year celebrations, etc., 
etc.

B ut, as I said earlier, in 1984, I got involved with an effort to 
reunite our North American Armenian Apostolic Churches and ad hoc 
committee of honored members from our divided eastern Diocese and 
Prelacy churches.  It ultimately became my greatest disillusion.

We called ourselves, "The Coalition for Church Unity," and after years
of waging a heartrending struggle for church unity, we finally fell 
victim to the self-seeking religious and political hierarchies on 
both sides who believed more in holding onto their divided power 
structures than what would have ultimately been in the best interest 
of our divided congregants.  At present, the only time I go to 
church is to attend a funeral, christening, or a wedding.

And if I were asked to comment as an unbiasted visitor from super 
spect, I might start by saying, "A rose by any other name is 
still a rose."  Therefore, whenever you pay homage to Jehovah, 
Buddha, Allah, or Christ, why not accept the fact that they may 
be all One of the Same.  "If a rose can be a rose by any other 
name, then surely God can also be a God by any other name.

We may not know it, but our world may have been praying to the 
same God all along.   For sure, this may not sit well with some 
of our opposing witch doctors, but it's a damn sight better 
than going on trying to destroy each other.  In short, let's 
stop playing, "Last Man Standing."

Joseph Vosbikian