admin on May 9th, 2009

I grew up in a denominational church environment within the Bible
Belt where things were a bit different than say New York or Seattle: not to mention the Far East or other nations around the globe. My purpose was to understand and embrace my religion's moral system and be good in contrast to those being evil.

In other words, instead of chopping down the tree of good and evil, I was constantly fertilizing it to make sure every limb was secure and that the leaves were getting sufficient water and sunshine. Worse yet, I became engrossed in comparing my denominations GOOD with the GOOD of other denominations down the street. And, you know what? The verdict was that we were better at being good than all others.

Amazing blindness!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "The knowledge of good and evil seems to be the aim of all ethical reflection. The first task of Christian ethics is to invalidate this knowledge". Ah, if only we would; however, let someone walk into the church with a low cut blouse and skirt a bit too high above the knees and the bells go off. You know, I think someone must have forged what Jesus said when they wrote that prostitutes will see the Kingdom before the rightly religious.

Do you agree? :-)

Religion has not only majored in sin management but anointed and appointed "self-righteous sheriffs" with the badge of boastfulness (of the law), a character of certitude, an attitude of arrogance, a lifestyle of legalism, a perception of piety, and a demeanor of determination to KNOCK OUT ALL EVIL

News flash! Give it up. It's not your job! We're simply called to LOVE and as I wrote in a Mother's Day email last Saturday, "We only love insofar as we abstain from judgment". For the seriously minded religious fundamentalist that takes all the fun out of being a Christian! :-(

News flash! The solution to overcoming sin is not be GOOD! That original sin that Augustine liked to hammer, or what I call the first sin, was simply the consciousness that there is SEPARATION. Hello! Can you say good, can you say bad, or can you say dualism as well?

News flash! Obedience isn't following the many laws of religious heritage nor adhering tightly to the established orthodoxy: but rather, being LOVE that WE ARE, that I AM, that HE IS, and so on. May we awaken (and many are) to our ONENESS! God is one substance (Light) and Jesus is that same substance (light), and we are made of that same substance (light), and in fact all of creation is just a different vibration or frequency of the divine (light-photons-etc.).

Don't hear or interpret that I'm saying live like hell and forget about being good! How is that loving? But hear that we are ONE and when I see things in another that I dislike, may I embrace the "mind of the Christos" and have compassion for the pain that we see because it is a part of us whether we admit it or not.