Part V: Moving Beyond a Religious (Foundational) Framework to Completion.
I was thinking about the many differences that humans are born with that oftentimes they have absolutely zero control over. In the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), we read in more than a few texts where individuals who were born with various deformities were prevented from engaging in common worship practices under the Mosaic Law. And no matter how cruel the practice seemed, it was the Law.
Was it an individual's fault how he was born, what gender they happened to be of or what complications accompanied his or her birth? How much should it matter if someone has a birth defect? Should they be treated any different from anyone else? Many of us have relatives who were born with 6-digits on their hands (I am counting the thumb as a digit), there are other individuals born with 6 digits on their feet.
Have religious people patterned themselves too much after the Apostle Paul, much like those who on one occasion questioned whether it was the blind man or his parents (in Acts chapter nine), who were responsible for the young man being born blind. Those judges apparently wondered if the son sinned (in a pre-life), otherwise the question does not make any sense.When I think about a lot of what comes through with respect to the Apostles record of harshness towards other people, particularly religious ones, I recall his own words. Paul wrote that he was a member of the strictest sect of the Pharisees. The question that follows then is did his strictness come from God or from some other source?How much of Paul’s attitude carried over after his Damascus Road conversion experience is open to discussion? And, please recall that his religious zealotry led him to have other believers who did not see things the way that he did to be arrested and apparently put to death. In fact, he volunteered for the job, showing no mercy whatsoever to his captors.
In the case of those who stood by and questioned Jesus about the young man’s congenital blindness, they were in facts judges, who had judgmental attitudes. They had already decided that something was either wrong with the young man or within his family lines for him to have been born with such a condition. The obvious implication was that they his critics were superior to him. At any rate someone had to be blamed for the tragedy of those poor wretched humans who were born with defects in deference to their religious judges. Here are a few questions that came to mind after I reconsidered what was being posited in John chapter 9. Whose fault is it that inner-sex people are born the way that they were and are born? Whose fault is it that an autistic child is born autistic, or that non-whites are born non-white, or that some individuals are born female instead of male, or that a child is born with other birth defects or worse yet encephalitis?
According to Paul, a co-conspirator to murder himself who was shown mercy felt that there shouldn’t be any mercy shown to people who were not perfect in every way, physically or mentally. The irony of his attitude was this; the Apostle himself was apparently a frail and sickly man himself, a man with at least a chronic ophthalmic condition. . And based on what is recorded in scripture, he strayed down the wrong road more than a few times himself and he often needed to be redirected
Also, prior to his second missionary journey, he was rather harsh when it came to John Mark, a man that he would later send for when he was imprisoned. The Apostle showed a marked distemper (no pun intended) for Mark’s has not lived up to 'Pauline standards'. Frankly, both my reasoning and my spiritual selves tell me that the Apostle may have written a lot of what he wrote out of the heart of a Pharisee. Paul decided it would appear who would and would not enter into a Pauline heaven. Clearly, Jesus was far more merciful than the Apostle, than the Pharisee of Pharisees. .
Can truth find anyone who wants to find it? It doesn’t matter what country or culture a person lives in, or what religion he or she has been shaped in I believe; if that person or group of persons are looking for the truth it will find them. Even though I go on record as saying that oftentimes it can take time.
The names of our days of the week, months of the year ..., point to the fact that our predecessors were always looking for something to worship. And whether it was a person, a planet or some obsequious nothing, our predecessors found great delight in worship even a heavenly body. Most religious people simply have a need to worship, and it is hard-wired in their brains. And, the worship experience becomes an end in itself, and not the object of their worship.
Shifting gears a bit, what we frequently experience coming from religious individuals is what they believe to be foundational truth; and that is exactly what they are giving you, their foundational truth. What is interesting is that like the Whirling Dervishes once practiced, individuals can make anything the subject of their worship and end up with the same kind of mystical experience; it's like a placebo effect.
What religious people need to do is to escape from religious orbit, and to pursue the course of truth. For some religion is mystical, for others they prefer less mysticism and a need for having associated duties and do's and don'ts. All of these individuals need to free themselves from religious gravitational pull and instead go in search of the truth. One thing that most religions have in common, that is often a part of their foundational precipice is the pillar of death and dying.
Much of their dogma ultimately has to do with life after death, and of course life that precedes death. Religions often attempt to explain death to their audiences, and to succor those individuals who have been left behind by loved ones who have preceded them in death. The human mind left to its own devices cannot sufficiently wrap itself around the concept of death; the human mind does not accept death as a viable alternative to life.
The Prophet Jeremiah in the Hebrew scriptures of the Canon accepted that before he was ever placed inside of a human body that God already knew him. And seeing how God knew him absence from a human body, it was not inconceivable to believe that one could know God again once the body had been dispatched. So what’s wrong with that? Answer: perhaps nothing.
After Abraham, Hebrews came to understand that of all of the people on the Earth at the time, that they were uniquely the chosen people of God. Most dispensational theologians would agree that the Jewish people were stuck at the time within their own ancient religion dogma and their own cultural paradigms of the time. Their beliefs expiated the beliefs of all other religions and other religious people. The fact of the matter is that Jesus had a difficult time trying to move the Hebrew people away from their Mosaic-based foundational truths.
By the time that Jesus arrived again on the scene after knowing Abraham in its first manifestation, the belief that the Jews were chosen by God was deeply inculcated not only into their myth and lore, but deeply within their culturally shaped human psyches.
By the time that Jesus arrived on the scene, the Hebrew people were deeply ensconced in the exclusive worship of the words of their sacred. Their sacred writings were sacrosanct, and to question one tenet of their beliefs, as Jesus often did when he referred to the writings of the men of old, was tantamount to a sentencing of death. I often encounter Christians, who share the same angst when it comes to Constantine’s Canon.
I am particularly disturbed when I notice members of my own African-American heritage; the one’s who so vehemently defend Jewish texts that they know very little about their origins. But like many things in the Afro-American culture, ideas and stories have been borrowed in order to compensate for the loss of our own stories, if not our heritage. I often wonder why black ministers, if they are going to preach from the Canon, won’t preach more about how the Holy Spirit led Phillip, directly to an African eunuch, who was returning from Jerusalem and on his way back to Ethiopia.
How profound, that heaven felt that blacks were important enough to send the Holy Spirit directly to them through the person of the deacon-evangelist Phillip. Just as a side note, the spirit elevated a man that was assigned the task of taking care of the welfare of widows, when the Apostles believe that their calling was as such, that they could not take out time to deal with such trivial matters. Phillip was elevated by the Holy Spirit, and one of the most profound messages in the Greek New Testament scriptures was given by this Spirit appointed and elevated evangelist.
Just as black Americans have embraced white history, and white culture, along with it blacks have adapted and in a since preach a white man’s religion, having abandoned their own African Traditional Religions which were by and large derived from the Spirit. What a conundrum? Not to make this political, however, if religious groups are correct and if they are in synch with the divine mind, then why is it that in practically every religious group, not just Christian ones, you find so many divisions in the form of sects, denominations …!
Here is something to wrap your religious minds around. Jesus, prior to his departure from the earth instructed his disciples to advance to an upper room in Jerusalem and to wait for an event that was to take place from on high. What he didn’t say but it was implied was, ‘do not go to the Temple or to the Synagogues, or to the priests, Levites and scribes, and remember they believed that they represented ‘the chosen people’.
I often hear Christians speaking so eloquently about the same groups of Jews who they believe are God’s chosen people of today, when in fact the New Israel is not a Jewish nation in the true sense of the word. In fact the new Israel according to New Testament teaching is the born again and baptized believers into Jesus Christ.
Let me repeat what I said, Jesus actually ordered his followers (about 120) altogether, not to return to the Temple, just as it appears that it will be necessary to do today. Why did he do it? Could it be because Jesus knew that all of the religious hierarch and many of their followers, especially the Pharisees, where stuck in their foundational truths.
I often hear Christians argue when I discuss matters like these that God is the same today, tomorrow and forever more. And I argue that According to scripture that God had an unfolding plan, which most Christians oddly argue, was and is being fulfilled in different dispensations. Well if the latter is true, and if what Jesus told his disciples is true that in fact that there was more truth to be revealed in a future time period, why are religious people so stubborn and often entrenched to the extent that they will not move to another step?
When is the last time that you know of that any religious group on Earth has come up with a new and viable revelation. The fact is that each one has been doing today, what they were doing ten, twenty, thirty and forty years ago; they are simply continuing in the same practices and rituals. And oddly enough they are being taught that what they are doing is exactly what God wanted them to do. If that is the case then Jesus was wrong, for he spoke of the greater things that would be done.
I asked a rhetorical question one time with respect to a statement that Jesus made to his disciples. Jesus told his disciples that they would be able to say to a mountain to be removed and cast in the sea and it would happen. My question was did you ever hear or know of anyone who told a mountain to be removed and cast in the sea and it happened? The answer was, no!
I told them that I know of many individuals who have done it. In California there is an area that ironically is known as Devil’s Slide. Devil’s Slide is an area above a highway that Californian’s often use to drive to Half-Moon Bay, Moss Beach …, on Highway 1. Highway 1 sets above the seashore. Years ago the engineers that constructed the Highway found it necessary to remove a portion of the mountain that blocked a portion of the would be highway.
And they had to remove it or take the highway into another direction so that vehicles could traverse the would be highway. And how did they remove the mountain? They did what Jesus did as recorded in John the 1st chapter. Jesus came up with a creation plan in the beginning, and he put his architectural plan into action, speaking, here meaning that he used what we would refer to as scientific means in order to do so. When today’s architects and engineers speak a plan into existence, they do not walk out to the mountain and say mountain move, they bring in dynamite and bulldozers and remove the mountain from its place.
Some years ago, I knew a pastor, a very nice man I might add, who had laid out a foundation for a church that he was going to build. He paid an architect to draw up the plans for the building. And he would eagerly show you the plans for the building that he planned to construct. Before I was shown the plan, I was told that nothing would ever go on the foundation. In fact that happened to me with several different preachers. The lesson was that having a foundation does not a building make. Sadly, one of the preachers passed away and despite his years of labor and discussing his foundation, nothing ever set on that foundation.
When Jesus instructed his disciples not to return to the foundation of their faiths, Judaism, it was a terrible indictment to organized religion, to the Hebrew culture, the Priests and Levities, and to all that followed them. Jesus was introducing the next stage in the divine evolutionary religious plan. He explained to his Jewish audiences that his purpose was not to destroy but to fulfill the Law. In other words, it was always intended that the Law would be fulfilled.
Today’s Law, in most religious groups even Christians ones has never been fulfilled, why because they won’t get off of the dime I believe. Will God have to come back again, organize a new group which I believe he will have to, and tell them not to return this time to in addition the synagogues, but to the churches, mosques …, but to remove themselves yet to another place. The response to Jesus’ message amounted to fury.
The people were enraged with Jesus, and prior to killing him, they persecuted him. Jesus was not unaccustomed to being tossed out of a synagogue after he finished preached. It was not unusual for him to be followed, spied upon and hunted down, for many individuals were seeking an opportunity to kill him. Now keep in mind that Jesus was a carpenter’s son, and that he was not a part of the Religious School, or the religious oligarchy.
So just as he told his followers not to return to organized religious, on top of everything else he had not sat at the feet of the Gamely of his day. The same things happen today when someone outside of the religious hierarchy shows up and teaches something different from what is being taught in the old boys, and of late the old girl’s network.
Jesus prepared his disciples for this time, when previously he sent them on a Missionary Journey, instructing them if they were not received into a certain house, that they were simply to shake the dust from their feet, in other words they were to move on.Now you had to tell the disciples that, because they were not above calling down fire from heaven if they could, similar to our modern day radical Christians on the Right have often done or encouraged to be done to unsuspecting people. And, Peter (the Knife), as I often affectionately refer to him, at the time might have sliced a family-member up into small bits and pieces. Fortunately, these men later grew in grace, having left the principles and gone on into truth. Truth has a way of changing you, and even the Apostle Paul began to soften over time.
So how are religious groups doing 2000 years later, in comparison to their counterparts? Frankly, they were in better shape.The Earth today is full of religious groups, sects and denominations. Our religious groups are stilled locked into custom, law, myth, rituals and the like. And what Jesus said to his followers of 2000 years ago about the truth that is to come, hasn’t had any impact upon believers in various religious organizations today.
Why wouldn’t Jesus simply tell his disciples ‘the whole truth’ at the time? Was it because, as Jack Nicholson said in the movie A Few Good Men: ‘you can’t handle the truth’? Ah, I suspect it because too many religious people still do not want the truth, in other words they are not ready for it 2000 years later. The only new information that mankind has been receiving over the past two millennia has come primarily from the scientific community. Religion has not taught us anything new, other than it is okay now to kill your political enemies. Just wars are back in with the religious among us! What can God reveal to a coterie of religious leaders, who are more focused on preserving their jobs and building huge religious (barns) fiefdoms, after tearing down their smaller ones?
Most religious organizations have not budged one iota from 1st century understanding, and to boot they are proud of that accomplishment. In the book of Titus, the Apostle Paul was so bold as to write that God’s people must place Jewish fable …, into a proper historical context. I am suggesting the same for a post-modern religious world. However, I am not speaking as it relates to Jewish myth, I am saying that with regard to all myth, that it must be placed within a proper context.
Much of what is included in Constantine’s Canon needs to be considered within its proper context. I am still amazed at the number of religious individuals that not only accept wholesale what is contained within it, but who stake their complete understanding of revealed truth strictly on the Canon. Paul joined Jesus is trying to get these religious zealots to move out of complacency and on to truth.
Jesus, would often confront what had been taught by ‘men of old times’, note by men. It is time for us to reconsider what our men of told times taught us, and by the way, now I am in the older man bracket, however, I will be encouraging the young people to continue to forge ahead, and not to give up on God, because of the flaws of their parents and other ancestors. For just as Jesus and Paul spent their time trying to get ‘the chosen people of their day’ out of the foundational mud, I am trying to help get ‘the chosen people of today’, to move on into what should be the revelation of a divine plan for today.
If every religious group would seek the truth, and if every secularist would seek the truth, and if every student would seek the truth, I believe that all of us would end up in a common place. Have you ever heard someone say, I was Baptist born, and Baptist bread and I will be a Baptist when I’m dad? I have heard that expression before. What if all of us were to stop being whatever it is that we call ourselves, and just simply follow the path of truth in order to see where it takes us.
The latter, I believe, would signal to a substantial degree the end of denominationalism, sectarianism, religious factionalism, intolerance, the garden variety of religious groups and instead create viable individuals who could contribute to and help to lead the world to its rightful destination. I suspect that what we often refer to as God, would be happy if we could as a people get it together, and divorce ourselves from myth, ritualism and custom and move into profound truth. It would signal the end of wars, religious factionalism, poverty, neglect, abuse, injustice, greed and other vices.
And instead of simply standing by and waiting to be harvested, we would have extended the human life cycle far beyond, I believe, where it is today. We would be likely living as long as an Adam or a Methuselah once did. On the other hand, imagine how much some of us would carry on if we lived for one thousand years. Many of our departed loved ones would still be here with us today, and until we conquered the death conundrum. For shouldn’t we have conquered sickness and death by now. I suspect that it what the divine desired for us.
Members of those religious organizations who have often fought again scientific discovery were the first in line to reap the benefits in terms of medicines, cures…When the next major breakthrough occurs, even it results from studying stem cells; religious people will be the first ones in lines asking for the elixir so that their lives can be extended. As I wind up, what is at stake for all of the ones who are interested in progress instead of regress?
If the current trend persists, life will continue to be full of misery of the kind that results from disparity. The individuals who will follow after us, if the world survives the nuclear age, will have to go back and reinvent the wheel, in other words they will have to do what we were to busy to do, because we were still caught up in the mundane. I believe that each person ought to be vested enough in his or her own relevance, to make an investment in what is real and to work at progressing to new levels of understanding.
Why should we, as one leper asked another, just sit here until we die and then wait to be harvested? I believe that death is not inconsequential, we can defeat it, once we add the 5th element, and Aristotle stopped at four. If we ever imbibe love, imagine what we can accomplish together. Would what we refer to as God join us in our pursuit of truth and further accomplishments, I suspect so.
We must be very boring to God right now, with our incessant prayers for new cars, clothing, money…, when there are more important matters to be praying over. Like our predecessors too many of us have been shaped by the times, to the extent that we cannot see the forest or the individual tress. We have a lot of information at our exposal now and we must overthrow a religious trend that seeks to stop the spread of knowledge and informational discovery.
I will end this part of my written soliloquy with this scriptural reference taken from Hebrews 2:15: And deliver them who through fear of death were all of their lifetime subject to bondages. We should be more focused on advancement than the fear of dying. In the not to distant future, we won’t have to die perhaps, in order to live. Then we will be time independent beings and death will not have any jurisdiction over us.
Why won’t we then simply get in synch with the divine mind, and leave the past behind. And instead of accepting death for ourselves and our loved ones, we ought to imagine that there is no heaven and heaven, and join in and help and those who are attempting to further progress rather than simply waiting to be harvested from the earth. For after all the scriptures read that no man knows the day or the hour when the Son of Man will reappear! Love,
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
May 1, 2009
Waiting To Be Harvested? Religious People It Is Time To Move On
Part IV. Moving Beyond a Religious (Foundational) FrameworkI have experienced firsthand the difficulties associated with motivating individuals to move from one benchmark to the next. Upon reaching a benchmark, most individuals become complacent and are reticent to move on to the next one.
When you think about it, given all of what was required to reach the first one, who wouldn't want to remain right where they were and continue to celebrate that accomplishment.
And that is the problem, as I see it with religious groups and individuals who are satisfied with an initial accomplishment, as if it was the ultimate goal.
Most religious individuals and religious organizations agree upon a foundational benchmark and as it were it becomes law. It is all that they teach, and it is as far as they will ever go for both the organization’s hierarchy and its members prefer it that way. To them their basic teachings are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!
Next, they dig in and defend their conclusions, and nothing and no one is going to move them any further; and sadly, as we have witnessed from the history of many religious groups in the past, not even the entity that we refer to as God is going to move them either. When you think about it, isn’t that the epitome of arrogance for an individual or a group of individuals to believe that because they believe or see something a certain way, that it must be true.
In a sense I cannot argue with someone who picks up a document and reads it who will explain, well I know what I read. However, there is more to it than that for one must also ask this question, who wrote it and why? Jesus on occasion would debunk what the writers of old said, which had for years become a part of epistolary unquestionable truth; and that was one of the reasons that they killed him.
Each one of us ought to relate to this simple illustration, the first step is only the beginning step; however, there are many more steps to climb before one reaches the top of the staircase. In the Christian faith, when one becomes born again, an idea that is borrowed from the process of human reproduction.
A person is born into this world, however, they come into this world as an infant and not fully grown, even though they may have a full contingent of digits, a head, a nose and so on. I used to explain this to my congregation, for just like in any other congregation I would also experience new converts who felt that once they were saved that they were fully grown and ready to witness, teach, preach and pastor.
Or, to put it in other terms these new babies in Christ were ready to walk, talk, consume solid food and to do everything someone else could do that had been fully developed. I would explain it to my newborns this way, no one is saying that you haven’t been born (again), all that I am saying is that just as a newborn human baby requires an individual or a group of individuals to nurture them and help to foster their growth through various stages, that they were at the same stage as a new born.
We all know that when a newborn comes into the world, a lot is required to guide the newborn from entrance into this world unto maturity. And from birth to maturity in the human family often requires nearly 2 decades, and for some humans 3 or 4 decades! In my view, we have a lot of individuals in religious organizations, including within the hierarchy of many religious organizations that have never matured. Many of the ranting and raving at the top are still stuck at the foundational level themselves.
The terms that Paul used when he compared newborns to Jesus was, ‘and that we may grow up in him’ in terms of maturity in other words. Sadly, too many individuals believe that they were mature at birth and no one and nothing is going to tell them different.
On the other hand there are those newborns that are submitted to teachers whose job it is to nurture their growth, and they assume that their teachers have been called and are skilled at their craft. Most new and some old converts are vulnerable at this stage and they understandably assume that assume that the information that has been passed on to them from their teachers has been verified and is authentic.
Unfortunately, that is not always the case. There used to be a saying around the church some years ago that went something like this: God said it, I believe it and that settles it. In other words and as the saying goes, ‘my mind is made up and don’t confuse me with facts’! That statement reminds of what I refer to as closed minded religious people, and there are many of them around.
What they should be sure of before making that statement is whether or not God said it or not, or did someone simply tell them that God said it; in other words what proof is there that God really did say it. Humans have historically been known to attribute to God, sayings that did not originate with God. Many religious writing were oftentimes conceived and written by men.
However, many religious people feel trapped, because they are under a ministry where they are not permitted to question, or to use their own minds to figure out what is or is not true, or to determine whether what they are being taught has a few holes in it or not. Dogmatic teachers do not allow any room for questioning what they teach. And if their dogmatic teacher or teachers teach something, it is a fact in their minds, and that is the end of the discussion.
And sadly parents will raise their children up under this kind of ministerial bondage. Other believers and I mean that in a colloquial sense are afraid not to believe what they have been previously taught by some religious guru, preacher or teacher. Oftentimes, what information they have received has become hard-wired into their brains.
What has become lost on believers is that religious organizations, ecclesial bodies, clerics, rabbis, imams and others have a vested interest in confronting challenges to their orthodoxy as well as to their heterodoxy.
The fact of the matter is that either what religious people believe is absolutely true, and we all know that different religious groups do not agree with each other (so which one is right), or either way there are I suspect going to be a lot of disappointed people around someday.
Which one is right then Reverend know it all, you might be asking? It is academic, all of them are right simply ask them.
But seriously, how can all of the religious groups be correct since what most of them teach can be so broad and varied. Oftentimes members and teachers in the same group don’t agree on their group’s doctrinal positions, even though the members of said organizations wouldn’t know it. Why? Because publicly the teachers often put on the ‘we all agree face’, in light of the scripture that teaches that there must not be any divisions among you, and to let everyone speak the same thing.
However, the fact of the matter is that not only do the members not always agree, the leaders and the teachers do not agree either, in the Apostles were rarely in agreement themselves. To prove my point, if you are a Christian simply ask your religious leaders to explain the book of Revelations, then observe how many different explanations that they will come up with in one setting. There will be a lack of unanimity between the pre-trib’rs, the amilenialists, the historicists and so forth.
This problem has persisted for years going all the way back to the beginning of religion if not human kind itself. The fact that worshippers don't always agree I suspect is healthy. It would suggest that believers have the freedom to explore and determine what is and what is not valid.
Also, then new and old converts would understand that there is not unanimous agreement on everything that is being taught by religious organizations or from their sacred texts. New and old converts will also understand that no matter how sacred the leader pretends the scriptures and their rituals to be, that some things are merely based upon speculation, or upon what some group of individuals believes to be correct.
Years ago, a young man named Angel joined our transdenominational fellowship; our church family was cross-denominational and included everyone. How could that work? We simply asked everyone to seek the truth, regardless of what you called yourself. Included in our congregation were Baptists, Methodists, Muslims, Pentecostals and more. At the conclusion of the service, Angel who was Latino, and I suspect a previous Catholic immediately made his way back to me, his new shepherd.
He wanted to know why he wasn’t given the book of do's and don'ts of the church". I explained that we don’t have one of those. What was he looking for? Angel wanted to receive a book or a manual outlining in detail what things he could and could not do. He gave one example, may I drink wine or not?
Frankly, I felt that was his business, for Jesus not only drank wine, but he made it, and Paul encouraged Timothy to drink it. Why was he instructed as such, because Paul even believed that wine was good for his protégé, the nascent Timothy?
Well my God, Angel never came back to the church. Perhaps I should have told him not to drink wine, and that it was a deadly sin, except when it was drunk during Eucharist of course. Remember, Jesus served it to his disciples. This is just another perfect example of how religion goes wrong. Clearly Angel had been raised up before in religion, and he had learned some of the former ways of doing things.
And whether right or wrong, once the idea gets into a religious individuals, his mind is made up for ever more. And using this illustration with Angel and his companion is a perfect example of how and where I believe that all religious groups of the world get stuck.
Oh I know what you’re thinking, The Rev has a liberal church that teaches licentiousness, or as some put it, they abuse grace. No, frankly, I simply do not believe in teaching people to feel guilty about doing natural things, particularly, to make them believe that they will go to hell and burn forever, for doing what Jesus, Paul and most of the individuals in the ‘circum-Mediterranean culture did’.
I was the guest minister at one church and I referred to what Jesus said and did when he made wine. The pastor of that parish became upset because he was one of the ones who taught his congregation that drinking wine or any other thing was a sin. He also pointed out to them that if they did it, they were going to hell. I asked him, well what about what Jesus said and did. He countered, that wine was not fermented. Well for his sake then, how about if religious people drank unfermented wine then?
Do you believe that he would be happy then? Anyway, let’s move on because I happen to know that this same preacher would sneak off and smoke a cigarette when no one was looking. If I had raised that issue he would have likely responded as I have heard some say when referring to their vice, well the bible never said anything about cigarettes. Er herm!!!
And this is where believers of all of the world's religions get stuck at, they are looking for a book, a group, or a person that makes them feel guilty over the things that they do that are natural. In other words, give me do’s and don’ts or give me death! I wonder why Jesus didn’t bring a book with him when he was born? Could it be because he was more interested in a ‘living word’ than a dying one?
Even if you were to provide this genre of individuals with a book of do's and don'ts (and some religious organizations do), I suspect that as Peter explained to his fellow Apostles following the Apostle Paul’s return from his missionary journey, that we have never been able to live up to the rules in the rulebook ourselves, so why put Gentile converts under the same pressure? I suspect at the time, that the “I don’t eat anything unclean switchblade cursing Apostle’, wished that he was a Gentile convert at the time, then he could enjoy the freedoms that were being extended to the Gentiles.
Rulebooks lead not only to discrimination, but rather to a spirit of judgment and afterward intolerance. For example, the Pharisees were aghast at Jesus when he failed to live up to some set religious standard that came from the tenets of their rule books. I suspect that Jesus willfully ignored the practice of ceremonial cleansing on one occasion, and did not wash his hands before consuming what was put before him to eat, just to teach them a lesson about following empty man-made rules.
To these self-righteous religious fanatics, Jesus had summarily violated a sacred principle. In their minds I suspect, Jesus had just forfeited his entry into heaven and was on his way to hell too. I was thinking today; imagine if there was no heaven or hell. Or, let's put it another way, imagine if humans had never been taught that there was a heaven or hell, then how would it affect their behavior towards others and their assessments of themselves?
Would we be as harsh then in terms of our judgment of ourselves and others, or would there be more of a sense of understanding and tolerance for differences in people to include our family and non-family member, friends and enemies who haven’t lived up to our set standards? For after all, each one of us is fallible, none of us is perfect.
Adultery was a capital crime according to the Mosaic Law. A woman who was taken in the very act of adultery by self-declared good religious people, wanted her put to death under their form of Sharia Law, however, she was spared the death penalty by Jesus. Jesus clearly believed in mercy and grace, these hardened religious rulebook espousers did not.
The woman did not deny that she had committed adultery, a punishable crime under their Law, but nevertheless Jesus gave her a new lease on life. Now we don’t know if the officials recaptured her later and had the sentence of capital punishment imposed anyway, however, given the spirit of self-righteousness that was operating in them, I would not if surprised if they did.
‘Does God have a double standard? In one of my sermons entitled: God Knew About Your Problem Before He Chose You, I use examples of biblical icons like Moses the Murderer; David the Womanizer and taker of another man's wife (having had put that man who came to serve his cause put to death); and cursing Peter the Knife; call fire down from heaven and burn them up disciples or even the Apostle Paul a frequent accessory to murder.
Now, if a good religious person had the ability to select his team at the religious place where he attends today, I doubt that he would have selected any of these gentlemen, unless of course they were a dear friend or relative. Most humans have different standards for themselves, their friends and favored relatives, more than they do for other people. The Apostle Paul (a Pharisee) had very tough standards in all cases for everyone who was to serve, apparently having forgotten his own shortcomings, and yet he considered himself an Apostle.
And if it seems like I am being tough on the Apostle the Pharisee of Pharisees, I am. Why because clearly he still made judgments based on a spirit Pharisaism that was still inside of him. In fact, if King David showed up today and wanted to compose songs or direct the choir at any of our religious assemblies today, given his reputation, he would likely be declined the position. Why? Most religious individuals would say to him, didn't you steal another man's wife, impregnate her and surreptitiously have the man murdered in order to cover up your murderous tryst?
He would likely reply that that he had since been washed with hyssop and cleansed as white as snow; and the religious among us would likely reply, yeah but you aren’t going to be the director of our choir homey!
Peter, the knife wielding Apostle, would not be a prelate in any of the religious organizations that I am aware of, and he certainly wouldn’t be preaching on the day of Pentecost. But let’s move on.
Throughout my religious life, I have been taught that the problem with Judaism and its followers, the forerunner of Christianity and Islam, is that the Jews have failed to move to the next dispensation which followed the dispensation of the Law. I t is referred to in Christian circles as the Dispensation of Grace and Truth, with Jesus being the embodiment if not the harbinger of Grace and Truth.
And Christians, despite their romantic feelings and eschatological conclusions about their Jewish religious counterparts, have pretty much given up on their Jewish counterparts, the chosen people. Most Christians do not believe that they will ever accept Grace and Truth or Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Christians, believe that the Jews are still waiting for the real Messiah to show up on the scene. And as far as they are concerned, there is little hope of moving them from their entrenched religious foundational positions that is based upon the 613 precepts of the Mosaic Law, or is it 631?
And again what is so striking about this is that according to Jewish and Christian history, the Jews, descendants of Abraham are God's ‘chosen people’. So God’s chosen people don’t agree with what their offspring religion Christianity believes; and Jesus and Christians descended from them?
This again creates quite a dilemma for Christians who cannot believe that the chosen people, if any people, would not be first to accept the complete word of God as Christians understand it to be. Will this matter ever be resolved? Given the nature of humans, I doubt that it will ever be resolved, at least not in my lifetime.
In the meantime, Jews, the ones that I know believe that it is the Christians who are in error, and they are perfectly content to believe what they believe, while Christians continue on believing what they believe, even though the two communities come together to wage war together against non-Christian and non-Jewish foes. And the Jews aren’t ashamed to look the other way given the financial and military aid that they receive from Christian and Christian nations, which replaces the aid that they formerly received from Russia.
Ironically, some time ago, I made a critical observation with respect to the Christian community. I concluded that the majority of Christians weren’t any different from their Jewish counterparts whom they are often wont to criticize. Why? Because, the majority of Christians are also stuck within their own religious foundational framework; Christians believe in their paradigms. And, the Christian book of ‘the Law’ is better known as Constantine's Canon. And Christians are dug in, for in their minds, Constantine's Canon is 'the final authority on everything.
And to the Christian mind the Canon is sacred and God spoke or inspired every single word contained within its sixty-six books. Now having said that, even the least educated ministers who have completed in-depth Canonical research know better than that, and still many of them continue to teach their audiences that the Canon is inerrant. One of my favorite teachers, Dr. Gene Scott once taught his TV audiences that you either accept Constantine’s entire Canon (all of it) or you accept none of it.
And as much as I admire Dr. Scott’s teaching abilities, as far as I'm concerned even he went 'too far'. Since the Canon to Christians is as sacred as the Madras, Torah or Talmud are to Hebrews, or the Koran is to Muslims; and other sacred texts are to members of other faiths, it is almost a waste of time trying to get any of these groups or individuals to admit to the flaws, insertions, misinterpretations, deletions, lack of manuscript support, motivations ..., that plague each and every one of their respective sacred texts, and their belief systems.
However, the fact of the matter is that in that regard they are all just alike. But what do the rest of us do? Should we behave like them and become so stubborn and entrenched in our historical belief systems that we cannot pull our heads up out of the sand long enough to reason whether or not everything that we have been taught is factual or non factual?
Are we so narrow to believe that whatever source document that we use to teach from is absolutely sacred? So what does one do when he or she encounters disparate groups of religious organizations, and their followers insist that what he or she believes is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? May I suggest that you run for your lives? For how in the world can you reach individuals who have been conditioned to believe that what they believe, or have been taught to believe is absolute and there is no if, but or maybe?
And on the other hand if you fail to accept everything that they believe as the final word you are an infidel and going to go to hell instead of to heaven? Now let's refer back to what the writer of Hebrews wrote about moving beyond a foundational framework. What she wrote was that new that converts ought to build upon the foundation, but they should not stop there at the foundational faze. Instead she said that they should go on to perfection.
Perfect what? Perfection in this sense means wholeness, as opposed to basing your whole praxis on fractious ideas, which may in fact be true, some of which may be true but are not all that you need to know. For what is more important folks, where one begins or where one ends up? If anyone were to engage in building an edifice for example, and they stopped building right after the foundation had been poured or laid, then the building would not be complete.
Of course we could all go by and sit with the builder on the foundation and enjoy a cup of ice tea perhaps, however, the ice would quickly melt in the hot sun given that we wouldn't have a roof over our heads, and given that the builder stopped building after he laid the foundation. The same is true of religious foundational frameworks.
Some individuals have been exposed to a foundational framework by some teacher or preacher, or Imam; they are impressed with what they have heard and embraced it without doing any further homework. They don’t want to know whether it is true or not, all they know is that it makes them feel good. Love, Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
To be continued…,What Should Have Happened By Now: Here are a few examples, can you think of any more? The life cycle would have been extended even more than it has been, and we would likely be living what I refer to as time-independent eternal life reality. The suppression of females would have ended, assuming that we continued to occupy gender-based bodies. We would have done a better job of understanding and dealing with what we consider to be the more complex issues such as homosexuality (remember some humans have been born with 6 fingers and toes), stem cell research, the environment, infant mortality, autism, retardation...! We would have dealt in an intelligent manner with those forces that encourage suppression, divisiveness, war and discrimination; the latter would likely have been eliminated. We would also be able to communicate by now, in the language of what we refer to as God, instead of through the use of gibberish, nasal and guttural sounds. The means and the methods that we would employ in order to relocate in space would be far more advanced. Living on other planets (rocks), if we were to still exist in our current biological forms would have taken place by now, albeit we would have still been existing in a fairly primitive state of being inside of carbon-based bodies. We would have had a direct encounter with, and likely have understood better, and co-existed alongside the entity, sovereignty or principle that we refer in today's nomenclature as God. Remember this entity has been referred to by many names and inscriptions including El, Adoni, Ywvh, Allah, the Great Spirit..., in the past! Finally, if we don't get busy soon, future generations will consider us to have been nothing more than primitive failures.
When you think about it, given all of what was required to reach the first one, who wouldn't want to remain right where they were and continue to celebrate that accomplishment.
And that is the problem, as I see it with religious groups and individuals who are satisfied with an initial accomplishment, as if it was the ultimate goal.
Most religious individuals and religious organizations agree upon a foundational benchmark and as it were it becomes law. It is all that they teach, and it is as far as they will ever go for both the organization’s hierarchy and its members prefer it that way. To them their basic teachings are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!
Next, they dig in and defend their conclusions, and nothing and no one is going to move them any further; and sadly, as we have witnessed from the history of many religious groups in the past, not even the entity that we refer to as God is going to move them either. When you think about it, isn’t that the epitome of arrogance for an individual or a group of individuals to believe that because they believe or see something a certain way, that it must be true.
In a sense I cannot argue with someone who picks up a document and reads it who will explain, well I know what I read. However, there is more to it than that for one must also ask this question, who wrote it and why? Jesus on occasion would debunk what the writers of old said, which had for years become a part of epistolary unquestionable truth; and that was one of the reasons that they killed him.
Each one of us ought to relate to this simple illustration, the first step is only the beginning step; however, there are many more steps to climb before one reaches the top of the staircase. In the Christian faith, when one becomes born again, an idea that is borrowed from the process of human reproduction.
A person is born into this world, however, they come into this world as an infant and not fully grown, even though they may have a full contingent of digits, a head, a nose and so on. I used to explain this to my congregation, for just like in any other congregation I would also experience new converts who felt that once they were saved that they were fully grown and ready to witness, teach, preach and pastor.
Or, to put it in other terms these new babies in Christ were ready to walk, talk, consume solid food and to do everything someone else could do that had been fully developed. I would explain it to my newborns this way, no one is saying that you haven’t been born (again), all that I am saying is that just as a newborn human baby requires an individual or a group of individuals to nurture them and help to foster their growth through various stages, that they were at the same stage as a new born.
We all know that when a newborn comes into the world, a lot is required to guide the newborn from entrance into this world unto maturity. And from birth to maturity in the human family often requires nearly 2 decades, and for some humans 3 or 4 decades! In my view, we have a lot of individuals in religious organizations, including within the hierarchy of many religious organizations that have never matured. Many of the ranting and raving at the top are still stuck at the foundational level themselves.
The terms that Paul used when he compared newborns to Jesus was, ‘and that we may grow up in him’ in terms of maturity in other words. Sadly, too many individuals believe that they were mature at birth and no one and nothing is going to tell them different.
On the other hand there are those newborns that are submitted to teachers whose job it is to nurture their growth, and they assume that their teachers have been called and are skilled at their craft. Most new and some old converts are vulnerable at this stage and they understandably assume that assume that the information that has been passed on to them from their teachers has been verified and is authentic.
Unfortunately, that is not always the case. There used to be a saying around the church some years ago that went something like this: God said it, I believe it and that settles it. In other words and as the saying goes, ‘my mind is made up and don’t confuse me with facts’! That statement reminds of what I refer to as closed minded religious people, and there are many of them around.
What they should be sure of before making that statement is whether or not God said it or not, or did someone simply tell them that God said it; in other words what proof is there that God really did say it. Humans have historically been known to attribute to God, sayings that did not originate with God. Many religious writing were oftentimes conceived and written by men.
However, many religious people feel trapped, because they are under a ministry where they are not permitted to question, or to use their own minds to figure out what is or is not true, or to determine whether what they are being taught has a few holes in it or not. Dogmatic teachers do not allow any room for questioning what they teach. And if their dogmatic teacher or teachers teach something, it is a fact in their minds, and that is the end of the discussion.
And sadly parents will raise their children up under this kind of ministerial bondage. Other believers and I mean that in a colloquial sense are afraid not to believe what they have been previously taught by some religious guru, preacher or teacher. Oftentimes, what information they have received has become hard-wired into their brains.
What has become lost on believers is that religious organizations, ecclesial bodies, clerics, rabbis, imams and others have a vested interest in confronting challenges to their orthodoxy as well as to their heterodoxy.
The fact of the matter is that either what religious people believe is absolutely true, and we all know that different religious groups do not agree with each other (so which one is right), or either way there are I suspect going to be a lot of disappointed people around someday.
Which one is right then Reverend know it all, you might be asking? It is academic, all of them are right simply ask them.
But seriously, how can all of the religious groups be correct since what most of them teach can be so broad and varied. Oftentimes members and teachers in the same group don’t agree on their group’s doctrinal positions, even though the members of said organizations wouldn’t know it. Why? Because publicly the teachers often put on the ‘we all agree face’, in light of the scripture that teaches that there must not be any divisions among you, and to let everyone speak the same thing.
However, the fact of the matter is that not only do the members not always agree, the leaders and the teachers do not agree either, in the Apostles were rarely in agreement themselves. To prove my point, if you are a Christian simply ask your religious leaders to explain the book of Revelations, then observe how many different explanations that they will come up with in one setting. There will be a lack of unanimity between the pre-trib’rs, the amilenialists, the historicists and so forth.
This problem has persisted for years going all the way back to the beginning of religion if not human kind itself. The fact that worshippers don't always agree I suspect is healthy. It would suggest that believers have the freedom to explore and determine what is and what is not valid.
Also, then new and old converts would understand that there is not unanimous agreement on everything that is being taught by religious organizations or from their sacred texts. New and old converts will also understand that no matter how sacred the leader pretends the scriptures and their rituals to be, that some things are merely based upon speculation, or upon what some group of individuals believes to be correct.
Years ago, a young man named Angel joined our transdenominational fellowship; our church family was cross-denominational and included everyone. How could that work? We simply asked everyone to seek the truth, regardless of what you called yourself. Included in our congregation were Baptists, Methodists, Muslims, Pentecostals and more. At the conclusion of the service, Angel who was Latino, and I suspect a previous Catholic immediately made his way back to me, his new shepherd.
He wanted to know why he wasn’t given the book of do's and don'ts of the church". I explained that we don’t have one of those. What was he looking for? Angel wanted to receive a book or a manual outlining in detail what things he could and could not do. He gave one example, may I drink wine or not?
Frankly, I felt that was his business, for Jesus not only drank wine, but he made it, and Paul encouraged Timothy to drink it. Why was he instructed as such, because Paul even believed that wine was good for his protégé, the nascent Timothy?
Well my God, Angel never came back to the church. Perhaps I should have told him not to drink wine, and that it was a deadly sin, except when it was drunk during Eucharist of course. Remember, Jesus served it to his disciples. This is just another perfect example of how religion goes wrong. Clearly Angel had been raised up before in religion, and he had learned some of the former ways of doing things.
And whether right or wrong, once the idea gets into a religious individuals, his mind is made up for ever more. And using this illustration with Angel and his companion is a perfect example of how and where I believe that all religious groups of the world get stuck.
Oh I know what you’re thinking, The Rev has a liberal church that teaches licentiousness, or as some put it, they abuse grace. No, frankly, I simply do not believe in teaching people to feel guilty about doing natural things, particularly, to make them believe that they will go to hell and burn forever, for doing what Jesus, Paul and most of the individuals in the ‘circum-Mediterranean culture did’.
I was the guest minister at one church and I referred to what Jesus said and did when he made wine. The pastor of that parish became upset because he was one of the ones who taught his congregation that drinking wine or any other thing was a sin. He also pointed out to them that if they did it, they were going to hell. I asked him, well what about what Jesus said and did. He countered, that wine was not fermented. Well for his sake then, how about if religious people drank unfermented wine then?
Do you believe that he would be happy then? Anyway, let’s move on because I happen to know that this same preacher would sneak off and smoke a cigarette when no one was looking. If I had raised that issue he would have likely responded as I have heard some say when referring to their vice, well the bible never said anything about cigarettes. Er herm!!!
And this is where believers of all of the world's religions get stuck at, they are looking for a book, a group, or a person that makes them feel guilty over the things that they do that are natural. In other words, give me do’s and don’ts or give me death! I wonder why Jesus didn’t bring a book with him when he was born? Could it be because he was more interested in a ‘living word’ than a dying one?
Even if you were to provide this genre of individuals with a book of do's and don'ts (and some religious organizations do), I suspect that as Peter explained to his fellow Apostles following the Apostle Paul’s return from his missionary journey, that we have never been able to live up to the rules in the rulebook ourselves, so why put Gentile converts under the same pressure? I suspect at the time, that the “I don’t eat anything unclean switchblade cursing Apostle’, wished that he was a Gentile convert at the time, then he could enjoy the freedoms that were being extended to the Gentiles.
Rulebooks lead not only to discrimination, but rather to a spirit of judgment and afterward intolerance. For example, the Pharisees were aghast at Jesus when he failed to live up to some set religious standard that came from the tenets of their rule books. I suspect that Jesus willfully ignored the practice of ceremonial cleansing on one occasion, and did not wash his hands before consuming what was put before him to eat, just to teach them a lesson about following empty man-made rules.
To these self-righteous religious fanatics, Jesus had summarily violated a sacred principle. In their minds I suspect, Jesus had just forfeited his entry into heaven and was on his way to hell too. I was thinking today; imagine if there was no heaven or hell. Or, let's put it another way, imagine if humans had never been taught that there was a heaven or hell, then how would it affect their behavior towards others and their assessments of themselves?
Would we be as harsh then in terms of our judgment of ourselves and others, or would there be more of a sense of understanding and tolerance for differences in people to include our family and non-family member, friends and enemies who haven’t lived up to our set standards? For after all, each one of us is fallible, none of us is perfect.
Adultery was a capital crime according to the Mosaic Law. A woman who was taken in the very act of adultery by self-declared good religious people, wanted her put to death under their form of Sharia Law, however, she was spared the death penalty by Jesus. Jesus clearly believed in mercy and grace, these hardened religious rulebook espousers did not.
The woman did not deny that she had committed adultery, a punishable crime under their Law, but nevertheless Jesus gave her a new lease on life. Now we don’t know if the officials recaptured her later and had the sentence of capital punishment imposed anyway, however, given the spirit of self-righteousness that was operating in them, I would not if surprised if they did.
‘Does God have a double standard? In one of my sermons entitled: God Knew About Your Problem Before He Chose You, I use examples of biblical icons like Moses the Murderer; David the Womanizer and taker of another man's wife (having had put that man who came to serve his cause put to death); and cursing Peter the Knife; call fire down from heaven and burn them up disciples or even the Apostle Paul a frequent accessory to murder.
Now, if a good religious person had the ability to select his team at the religious place where he attends today, I doubt that he would have selected any of these gentlemen, unless of course they were a dear friend or relative. Most humans have different standards for themselves, their friends and favored relatives, more than they do for other people. The Apostle Paul (a Pharisee) had very tough standards in all cases for everyone who was to serve, apparently having forgotten his own shortcomings, and yet he considered himself an Apostle.
And if it seems like I am being tough on the Apostle the Pharisee of Pharisees, I am. Why because clearly he still made judgments based on a spirit Pharisaism that was still inside of him. In fact, if King David showed up today and wanted to compose songs or direct the choir at any of our religious assemblies today, given his reputation, he would likely be declined the position. Why? Most religious individuals would say to him, didn't you steal another man's wife, impregnate her and surreptitiously have the man murdered in order to cover up your murderous tryst?
He would likely reply that that he had since been washed with hyssop and cleansed as white as snow; and the religious among us would likely reply, yeah but you aren’t going to be the director of our choir homey!
Peter, the knife wielding Apostle, would not be a prelate in any of the religious organizations that I am aware of, and he certainly wouldn’t be preaching on the day of Pentecost. But let’s move on.
Throughout my religious life, I have been taught that the problem with Judaism and its followers, the forerunner of Christianity and Islam, is that the Jews have failed to move to the next dispensation which followed the dispensation of the Law. I t is referred to in Christian circles as the Dispensation of Grace and Truth, with Jesus being the embodiment if not the harbinger of Grace and Truth.
And Christians, despite their romantic feelings and eschatological conclusions about their Jewish religious counterparts, have pretty much given up on their Jewish counterparts, the chosen people. Most Christians do not believe that they will ever accept Grace and Truth or Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Christians, believe that the Jews are still waiting for the real Messiah to show up on the scene. And as far as they are concerned, there is little hope of moving them from their entrenched religious foundational positions that is based upon the 613 precepts of the Mosaic Law, or is it 631?
And again what is so striking about this is that according to Jewish and Christian history, the Jews, descendants of Abraham are God's ‘chosen people’. So God’s chosen people don’t agree with what their offspring religion Christianity believes; and Jesus and Christians descended from them?
This again creates quite a dilemma for Christians who cannot believe that the chosen people, if any people, would not be first to accept the complete word of God as Christians understand it to be. Will this matter ever be resolved? Given the nature of humans, I doubt that it will ever be resolved, at least not in my lifetime.
In the meantime, Jews, the ones that I know believe that it is the Christians who are in error, and they are perfectly content to believe what they believe, while Christians continue on believing what they believe, even though the two communities come together to wage war together against non-Christian and non-Jewish foes. And the Jews aren’t ashamed to look the other way given the financial and military aid that they receive from Christian and Christian nations, which replaces the aid that they formerly received from Russia.
Ironically, some time ago, I made a critical observation with respect to the Christian community. I concluded that the majority of Christians weren’t any different from their Jewish counterparts whom they are often wont to criticize. Why? Because, the majority of Christians are also stuck within their own religious foundational framework; Christians believe in their paradigms. And, the Christian book of ‘the Law’ is better known as Constantine's Canon. And Christians are dug in, for in their minds, Constantine's Canon is 'the final authority on everything.
And to the Christian mind the Canon is sacred and God spoke or inspired every single word contained within its sixty-six books. Now having said that, even the least educated ministers who have completed in-depth Canonical research know better than that, and still many of them continue to teach their audiences that the Canon is inerrant. One of my favorite teachers, Dr. Gene Scott once taught his TV audiences that you either accept Constantine’s entire Canon (all of it) or you accept none of it.
And as much as I admire Dr. Scott’s teaching abilities, as far as I'm concerned even he went 'too far'. Since the Canon to Christians is as sacred as the Madras, Torah or Talmud are to Hebrews, or the Koran is to Muslims; and other sacred texts are to members of other faiths, it is almost a waste of time trying to get any of these groups or individuals to admit to the flaws, insertions, misinterpretations, deletions, lack of manuscript support, motivations ..., that plague each and every one of their respective sacred texts, and their belief systems.
However, the fact of the matter is that in that regard they are all just alike. But what do the rest of us do? Should we behave like them and become so stubborn and entrenched in our historical belief systems that we cannot pull our heads up out of the sand long enough to reason whether or not everything that we have been taught is factual or non factual?
Are we so narrow to believe that whatever source document that we use to teach from is absolutely sacred? So what does one do when he or she encounters disparate groups of religious organizations, and their followers insist that what he or she believes is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? May I suggest that you run for your lives? For how in the world can you reach individuals who have been conditioned to believe that what they believe, or have been taught to believe is absolute and there is no if, but or maybe?
And on the other hand if you fail to accept everything that they believe as the final word you are an infidel and going to go to hell instead of to heaven? Now let's refer back to what the writer of Hebrews wrote about moving beyond a foundational framework. What she wrote was that new that converts ought to build upon the foundation, but they should not stop there at the foundational faze. Instead she said that they should go on to perfection.
Perfect what? Perfection in this sense means wholeness, as opposed to basing your whole praxis on fractious ideas, which may in fact be true, some of which may be true but are not all that you need to know. For what is more important folks, where one begins or where one ends up? If anyone were to engage in building an edifice for example, and they stopped building right after the foundation had been poured or laid, then the building would not be complete.
Of course we could all go by and sit with the builder on the foundation and enjoy a cup of ice tea perhaps, however, the ice would quickly melt in the hot sun given that we wouldn't have a roof over our heads, and given that the builder stopped building after he laid the foundation. The same is true of religious foundational frameworks.
Some individuals have been exposed to a foundational framework by some teacher or preacher, or Imam; they are impressed with what they have heard and embraced it without doing any further homework. They don’t want to know whether it is true or not, all they know is that it makes them feel good. Love, Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
To be continued…,What Should Have Happened By Now: Here are a few examples, can you think of any more? The life cycle would have been extended even more than it has been, and we would likely be living what I refer to as time-independent eternal life reality. The suppression of females would have ended, assuming that we continued to occupy gender-based bodies. We would have done a better job of understanding and dealing with what we consider to be the more complex issues such as homosexuality (remember some humans have been born with 6 fingers and toes), stem cell research, the environment, infant mortality, autism, retardation...! We would have dealt in an intelligent manner with those forces that encourage suppression, divisiveness, war and discrimination; the latter would likely have been eliminated. We would also be able to communicate by now, in the language of what we refer to as God, instead of through the use of gibberish, nasal and guttural sounds. The means and the methods that we would employ in order to relocate in space would be far more advanced. Living on other planets (rocks), if we were to still exist in our current biological forms would have taken place by now, albeit we would have still been existing in a fairly primitive state of being inside of carbon-based bodies. We would have had a direct encounter with, and likely have understood better, and co-existed alongside the entity, sovereignty or principle that we refer in today's nomenclature as God. Remember this entity has been referred to by many names and inscriptions including El, Adoni, Ywvh, Allah, the Great Spirit..., in the past! Finally, if we don't get busy soon, future generations will consider us to have been nothing more than primitive failures.
Apr 9, 2009
Waiting To Be Harvested? Religious People It Is Time To Move On
Part III. Religion v. The Scientific Community
Who will be the ultimate revealers of truth? Which group has a monopoly on truth? Can truth be defined or quantified? Will it be religion, in the final analysis that reveals all of the truth to us? On the other hand, will it be some other discipline like the scientific community that guides us into all of the truth? Moreover, how long will religion continue, to lay the same foundation over and over again?
Praxis: What is my praxis, and what do I believe. My position is simply this; I believe that truth does not strictly lie within the domain of religion. I also believe that truth has been waiting a long time for us to catch up with it, and that we have been hampered from doing so because of religion.
The worldwide religious community has been an abysmal failure over the years in many respects; therefore, it is difficult to understand why religious people believe that they have a monopoly on truth, or why members of the religious communities still take us seriously.
And what about all of the other disciplines, don't they have anything to say that is worth consideration? Does it matter at all what they have researched and found to be true?
Before Jesus departed from the earth, he promised his disciples that he would send back 'paracletos', a comforter that would guide them into 'ALL OF THE TRUTH'. That statement made it clear that not all of what his disciples understood at the time included all of the truth.
On another occasion, Jesus explained, that 'the truth will make one free'! How many people especially religious ones, feel as if they are free, if nothing else, from the tyranny of religion? And keep in mind that it was tyrannical religious folks in Jesus’ day, that kept the people in bondage; they were also responsible for the death of Jesus.
That the religious community is a repository of some of the truth is without question. That the religious community is the sole repository of truth is certainly questionable.
In Peter 2:17, he wrote, These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
He wrote that it would have been better if they had not known the way at all, than to have been conscripted by these religious teachers who brought them back into bondages.
The same holds true today I believe, whether you belong to the Synagogue, the Church or to the Mosque...! Too many religious organizations, and particularly religious prelates, pastors, imams, rabbis ..., simply bombard their followers with political and religious dogma as they proceed to dominate the thinking of their audiences.
And having placed their subjects (under a spell of fear and control), they proceeded to administer an implacable set of doctrines, from which the recipient finds it difficult to escape.
Too many religious people, regardless of whatever religious faith they happen to be of, live under the weight of fear and are subject to tyrannical control. Even when these individuals reason that something is amiss, they are too afraid to admit it, to speak openly or to act upon their suspicions and to conduct an unbiased investigation. Let's face it folks, different religious groups are suspicious, intolerant and in competition with other religious groups.
Too many faithful religious adherents today are missing out on the clarity and richness of thought. It begs the question when does an individual or group of individuals take responsibility for their destinies? Clearly, given all of the religious substrate organizations in the world, either none of them fully represents the truth, or all of them contain some elements of the truth within their belief systems.
In order for an individual to arrive at his or her proper his or her destiny, they must feel free to think and to be directed by something or someone other than a teacher that has some other interest in mind.
Domination can be as much a part of any religion organization as taking the sacraments. My childhood pastor would often teach us that, ‘we are living beneath our privileges’. Why? Because as a collective group of people, we have not learned yet how to make maximum use of our God-given power.
When the primary focus of religion has more to do with do’s and don’ts, or death and dying, one can easily spend his life leaving under a shadow of fear. How many people spend each day wondering whether or not this will be their last day on earth?
May individuals, particularly religions ones, are willing to forfeit the blessings that were bestowed upon them in this life, in order to gain what they expect in an afterlife; for them this life ends up being a throwaway life. These individuals have simply been taught to forfeit their time on earth in hopes of a better life.
Too many individuals have lived the majority of their lives beneath the oppressive yoke of fear and mendacity, and as a result have lived unfulfilled lives while spending their years on earth waiting for something spectacular to occur in the future.
As an example, in the Christian Church, the singular event that Christians are waiting for to take place is an expected event that is often referred to as ‘the rapture’. During this harvesting event, it is expected that God will exclusively extract good Christians from the earth, and everyone else will be ‘left behind’.
In the interim, good Christians are doing all that they can in order to ensure their entrance, in deference to others, into Heaven. Some Christians could care less about what happens to the rest of humanity. These Christians, given their years of dutiful sacrifice, feel that they alone deserve something better like a place in heaven.
The majority of Christians believe what they have been taught, that a seed has been planted and has subsequently germinated into the soil of their lives. And, seeing how they have become God’s living planted organisms and all that is left for them to do then (besides going to church) is to wait for the day of harvest.
Not so long ago, another religious group decided that knew the exact date when Jesus would return to the Earth, so they prepared to be beamed up to the mother ship. And whether it was said in jest or not, rumor has it that several of their ministers told their followers to live it up. The members were to charge everything on credit, because they would not be around afterward to pay the bills anyway.
And as it has happened many times in the past when some religious prognosticator attempted to predict the day of the Lord's return, once again he did not show up. Well, either that or they were left behind too! I suspect that some of these individuals are still paying off their bloated credit card accounts.
Oddly enough, most religious individuals do not believe in evolution. When I discuss the rapture with them, I often ask, ‘aren't you then waiting for the next step in the divine evolutionary life cycle’? My query is frequently met with silence. Most religious people cannot or will not accept theistic evolution as a part of divine planning.
Many Christians refuse to accept that many of the changes that have taken place on earth already were a part of pre-planned divine evolution.
Just yesterday, a believer was reading, in my presence, from the third chapter of the book of Genesis. In fact, he was reading form the passage where God cursed the serpent. According to the divine curse, the serpent was sentenced to crawling upon its belly, which presupposes that the serpent’s forward and backward motion up to that point, was done other than by crawling.
The latter supports the tenets of evolution, that some species adapted, grew legs and actually walked up out of the ocean. Was the serpent bi-pedal prior to the curse? The reader of the text became quiet at that point.
That many religious individuals deny theistic evolution is a consequence of classical religious conditioning. The object of most religious conditioning is to abut answers that may derive from any other source.
Since none of us have been here before, that is unless you believe in transmigration of the soul or spirit, how can religious groups be so firm in their resolve that there is no such thing as evolution, even divine evolution.
Oh and by the way, fortunately some religious groups are starting to crack under the weight of proof. They are beginning to admit that evolutionary adaptations have occurred in certain species. They still have a lot more to learn.
Having not understood this world yet, can you believe all of the religious individuals who are ready to take on another world? The question that religious individuals ought to be asking themselves is whether or not they have done all that was expected of them in this world?
That humans have the ability to reason at all, must have some purpose despite what religion teaches. Can faith and reason coincide; I have learned that the two disciplines can work hand in hand. Does God reason…? According to the book of Isaiah, God once invited Israel to come together with him so that the two could reason together.
Science: In our world today, two major groups have since the 17th century enlightenment period vied for our attention. Each one has attempted to explain what was once considered to be indefinable, inexplicable and mysterious.
Each discipline also attempts to answer the who, what, why, where and when questions that have plagued the human family since it began. One, more than the other often tries to define the narrative. Having said that however, the latter (science) has been proven to be correct more often than its self-described competitor, religion.
I am a very spiritual person, and I believe that there is that which exists that is unobservable to the unaided human eye. Here, we are getting into the area of quantum physics (something that religion and the religious community customarily ignore).
While believing (not by a customary religious definition) in the spiritual, at the same time I believe in science. In fact, I have a very deep appreciation for the discipline of science as well as for the members of the scientific community. I respect anyone and any discipline that is not in denial, and will make the effort to understand the truth, and to attempt to verify its findings, even if it occasionally makes mistakes while trying to do so.
I can still recall, on a previous occasion, when I was in a debate on this very topic, science v. religion. I reminded my opponent that the church has often been proven wrong, despite its claims of absolutism and inerrancy.
Which of these two disciplines (and there are others) is there than can supply us with responsible well thought out and tested answers? In my opinion, both disciplines have much to offer, however, because one invokes a methodology of proof when seeking after truth, religion in my opinion comes in at a distant second to science.
In my view, science informs us while religions trivialize to a substantial degree those things that matter the most to human beings. When it comes to religion humans are asked to make an incredible stretch, and simply accept, what some individual says is true, regardless of anything to support his or her claims.
Did the Apostle Paul or any of his contemporaries ever observe a microbial organism? Did they understand thermodynamics, entropy, Kepler's Laws...? What did the majority or our ancestors, predecessors and ancient writers understand, truly, about the heavens? Did they know anything about quantum or theoretical physics?
And yet, despite knowing very little about how the Universe actually began or worked, many of these individuals, including ancient biblical writers, made themselves authorities on a topic that they apparently knew very little about.
In post-modern times, we have visited, thrived and traveled back and forth in the heavens. We have dispatched probes into the far reaches of Space. We have landed humans on the moon. We have placed floating labs and telescopes into space, which have the ability to peer into what we refer to as the past. The latter begs the question, and then which discipline should be teaching the other? Should religion teach science, or should science be teaching religion.
Just imagine this, if God worked in the past with the untrained human mind (referred to in the Canon as the unlearned and the ignorant), imagine how much more powerful the combination of a 21st century trained mind (that has been guided by a divine mind), could be? One can only imagine the dividends that would result from such a combination? And just as I have always said in my sermons, what we refer to as God does not go to the library in order to acquire knowledge: 'GOD" is the library, or in other words the repository of all knowledge, wisdom and information.
Perhaps then, we could negate what had been written by the Prophet Isaiah in the book that bears his name: In Isaiah 55 it reads, 'your thoughts are not my thoughts, and neither are your ways my ways..., as far as the heavens are above the earth...! The fact is today, that we should not be worshipping a god of the harvest, a god of the wind, a Zeus, Poseidon, Osiri... as our predecessors once did; in fact, we ought to be seeking after what is real. God made it clear to Israel on many occasions that he was sick of their sacrifices.
I believe that what many individuals in religious institutions refer to as God does exist. However, I go on record as saying that I do not believe "IT" exists in the form, or that it is of the substance that most religions believe.
In fact, I believe that what most ancient, modern and post-modern religious groups and individuals refer to as God, is even bigger than what they could have ever imagined based upon the research that has been done in the scientific community.
Sadly, many religious individuals look at me in complete disbelief when I mention that a day is coming when we will no longer refer to this principle, entity or whatever it happens to be by the symbolic term God.
Soon we will abandon this description and the use of this expression, just as we have done with the other names and appellations that were used in the past to refer to 'IT".
I do not believe that 'IT" is an anthropomorphic being, at least not the kind that has been constructed by man and in man's image; I often refer to the latter as the anthropomorphic God. Now that is not to say that "IT" could not occupy a human body or some other form if "IT" so desired.
Could I be wrong? Of course, I could be wrong. But religion, I remind you again have often been wrong. And. I appreciate the words of the late Bishop Harris of Chicago Illinois. He was often known to repeat the following phrase: I suppose that my opinion is just as good as anyone else's.
And wouldn't this explain why 'IT' has never been seen before by human’s eyes, i.e., 'it isn’t human'! It could be a mathematical construct!
I can only imagine what both disciplines, science and religion could accomplish if the two worked together, minus the typical histrionic and annoying attacks that often arose from the religious community. Either religion needs to stay in its place, or it needs to change its model and begin to seek after truth - whatever truth turns out to be.
I believe that 'IT', 'I AM', or God if you prefer wants to be known, however, that humans have to be in a position to understand and recognize it.
This is a bit off topic; however, here is just another example of how religious influencers can go too far (without taking any responsibility for the consequences of their dogma). I was recently appalled given the interference of Pope Benedict II, the current Prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He recently insisted that citizens in countries like Darfur (where socially transmitted diseases are running rampant), should abandon the use of condoms and practice abstinence instead.
Frankly, like most people of the earth, the people of Darfur and other STD nations are not going to stop engaging in sexual intercourse. Therefore, why should anyone, including a religious leader, discourage the citizens of these states from engaging in responsible behavior? What happened to an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, prevention in this instance being the use of protection? Of course, since the Pope is celibate, I suppose that he feels that other people should have the same gift!
Why have so many religious groups and their leaders found it necessary to ignore one’s right to reason or to decide for themselves what is best for them? The late Pope, John Paul II was a proponent of reason and science; he endorsed reason, and explained how faith, reason and science could work together.
The late Pope encouraged the working of science and religion together. However, in consideration of the more doctrinaire Pope Benedict II, one cannot help but wonder whether certain religious groups and individuals simply have a death wish for other people, or are they simply preoccupied with death themselves.
Frankly, if individuals are not going to give up a practice (they don't have the gift and don't claim to have it), we should at least encourage them to do what they can to minimize the spread of diseases. Isn't that 'reasonable' if not responsible? Or, on the other hand would we prefer that humans play Russian Roulette with their lives as well as the lives of other people?
The message of religion often differs from the entity that religion refers to itself as God. ITs purpose was to save and to heal; the mission of religion often appears to be just the opposite. Religion takes on the role of the high court, often it is as if religion wants to find and punish sinners, as oppose to helping people to overcome! Are there any perfect people on the face of the earth?
Oftentimes, even in a post modern context, someone on the outside of religious circles makes a breakthrough discovery that is beneficial to humankind. And at the time they are excoriated for doing so by religious individuals or clerics.
I personally believe that if Jesus were to return to the Earth today in an unrecognizable form (even if his purpose was to rapture Christians), that the religious world would likely capture him and put him to death all over again.
Of course they would use some post-modern method to accomplish their aim. The Reverend Pat Robertson would likely settle for a simple covert operation that would result in the assassination of Jesus.
Last day prophets: I suspect that many of our past and present day scientists will likely turn out to be the true prophets of the post-modern era. And while scientists will be busy working to disclose what is real, our ministers will still be down at the church, or Imams at the Mosque, Rabbis at the Synagogue..., preaching adherence to the 1st century foundational stone.
How much more could our predecessors have gotten out of life, if they had not been conditioned to believe that they were, everyday of their lives, living in the last days, and with the weight of some impending catastrophic calamity hanging over their heads.
What would happen if Jesus were to come and certify that the way to eternal life would be through studying stem cells, or by genetic engineering, cloning or transferring consciousness from one body into another body?
On a personal level, death of our loved ones is probably the second most important thing to us, second only to our own deaths. Then why wouldn't we support any community that can come up with the antidote to sickness or the cure for death? Shouldn't we be living as long as let's say a Methuselah or an Adam once lived? What is holding us back?
We already know that religious individuals, in spite of their often misbehavior in terms of classifying most things as evil, will take antidotes whenever they are available.
Then how come they refuse to encourage the discovery of a breakthrough antidote or solution that will free not only them, but their loved ones from sickness and death? Again, will God reveal truth through a willing scientific community in order to bring about the long-anticipated eternal life? Or on the other hand will he continue to try to give new revelations to our stubborn group of stand-still religious organizations and clerics?
Once the breakthrough occurs, I assure you that religious individuals will be the first ones in line to take advantage of the eternal life solution!
Scientists may in fact be 'the comforters' who we were told would bring back the Spirit of Truth, as opposed to the spirit of dogma and error that is currently so pervasive. Jesus brought truth to the Earth, and he was crucified for doing so - nevertheless his message lives on today.
There are many converted scientists working in the scientific community that have discovered God in ways that religion never imagined, e.g., through mathematics, astronomy, theoretical physics, quantum physics... and the humane genome!
My God, Einstein, considered by many in modern times to be one of the greatest if not the greatest scientists of the 20th century, was a believer.
I also believe that the scientific community will find what the religious community has been talking about for what seems like a millennia, God, as a known and quantifiable entity.
Religious individuals, especially Christians ones will often say that if God can speak through a donkey or a chicken then certainly God can speak through a woman. This unflappable comment is not very flattering to women when you think about it, for it lowers women to the status of animals.
However, and having said that, by using their illogic, it is it conceivable then that God, the God Principle, the Singularity, the Unifying Principle ..., could speak through a scientist? I suspect that God has been doing it all along, that is speaking through the worldwide scientific community.
For after all how have humans come to understand, time, space, matter, entropy, atoms, quarks, motion, force, gravity? God apparently revealed the knowledge to the scientific community, we certainly did not learn about the natural world from religion. God is the master scientist, whether the religious community will accept that fact of life or not!
The world that we live in has been better understood as a result of scientific research and discovery, not because of religion. Humans depend upon science for concrete answers; humans depend on religion and religious organizations for comfort!
Again, Jesus insisted that his followers seek after the truth, which is what science often does while religion prefers myth and the mystical over what is real.
Again, I believe that it is time for the religious community to accept the scientific community as well as scientific research. It is not too late for the various religious groups of the world to embrace scientific proof as revealed truth. It is time for the two disciplines to work hand in hand. Otherwise, we have been taught to go around the same mountain long enough, and just as any good accountant would do when the figures did not add up, we need to go back, every religious group, and recheck the data.
The Apostle Paul is responsible largely for what most Christians in particular, believe about the rapture, despite the fact that he believed that he would still be alive when the rapture occurred. And the latter should not be lost upon a thinking mind.
In the fifth chapter of Hebrews, verse 5:14 and 6:1-5, the unknown writer of the book explains why her reading audience must go beyond the principles of Christianity and move on to perfection.
According to Dr. Ryrie, creator of the Ryrie Bible, what she was in fact relaying to her audience was, that they must go on to completion and stop wasting time and opportunities. I often wonder how much time has been wasted by well-meaning Christian organizations given their penchant for practicing religion instead of seeking ‘the truth’!
The problem with truth, from any perspective, is that one may be required to give up his or her long-held beliefs and prejudices that are simply not true when held up to scrutiny; and it doesn't matter how long one has been laboring under a misimpression. And what would be the benefit of doing so? It would result in freedom from the spirit of error!
Could you imagine attending school and having to repeat the same grade for let us say 12 years or more? Factually, that is essentially what is happening with most religious individuals, they spend most of their religious lives stuck in the foundational faze. Some never move out of religious kindergarten.
I suspect that fulfillment, enlightenment or a mature understanding will never be reached, if one were spend the majority of their lives festering in religious kindergarten (the place of beginner's foundational truth).
Some religious individuals spend their entire religious lives being nursing infants. And we all know after a certain period, an infant must be weaned from milk as its sole dietary source, and afterward provided with solid food.
Or how else can the child grow; or how long will the child survive if he or she were to remain on mother’s milk? IT is time to embrace all of the truth, even if it means giving up some things, that when tested has been proven to be untrue!
Is it possible for us to get on God's level, so that God, as he is often referred to as, could communicate with us 'on a divine level and in a divine manner'? For science has taught us how to decipher and to distinguish unknown quantities. Science, if you think about it, is indispensable, and where would we is without it (see addenda)?
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
A must read: The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney
to be continued...
Addenda: Are we smarter than our predecessors? Answer: We ought to be and we shouldn't be ashamed to say it, for we picked up where they left off.
What science has done a better job of explaining that religion (and keep in mind that many of the 16th and 17th century scientists were often religion people, including Catholic clerics):
Time - beginning
Space - heaven
Force -spirit
Matter -Earth
Motion - moved
Energy
Entropy 2nd law of thermodynamics
Gravity - electromagnetism
Shamayin (heavens) where God is
Nebulae Greek for the cloud, the region where stars are born
Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, the atmosphere
Light
Infrared only one
Radio waves - the longest
Gamma waves - the shortest
What is in Between visible light?
infraction is human light
Science has detected 200 alien planets
Pegasus 51 was discovered in 1995 by Swiss Astronomer G. Grant
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What Should Have Happened By Now: Here are a few examples, can you think of any more?
The life cycle would have been extended even more than it has been, and we would likely be living what I refer to as time-independent eternal life reality.
The suppression of females would have ended, assuming that we continued to occupy gender-based bodies.
We would have done a better job of understanding and dealing with what we consider to be the more complex issues such as homosexuality (remember some humans have been born with 6 fingers and toes), stem cell research, the environment, infant mortality, autism, retardation...!
We would have dealt in an intelligent manner with those forces that encourage suppression, divisiveness, war and discrimination; the latter would likely have been eliminated.
We would also be able to communicate by now, in the language of what we refer to as God, instead of through the use of gibberish, nasal and guttural sounds.
The means and the methods that we would employ in order to relocate in space would be far more advanced.
Living on other planets (rocks), if we were to still exist in our current biological forms would have taken place by now, albeit we would have still been existing in a fairly primitive state of being inside of carbon-based bodies.
We would have had a direct encounter with, and likely have understood better, and co-existed alongside the entity, sovereignty or principle that we refer in today's nomenclature as God. Remember this entity has been referred to by many names and inscriptions including El, Adoni, Ywvh, Allah, the Great Spirit..., in the past!
Finally, if we do not get busy soon, future generations will consider us to have been nothing more than primitive failures. And those of us, who will do so, must pass the baton in order to benefit both our contemporaries and the ones who are to follow us in future generations.
If our predecessors of thousands of years ago were to return and ask, what are you folks doing today and whether or not God returned or are we living in heaven? we would answer that we are still reciting the stories that you left us thousands of years ago. Furthermore, we would tell them that Jesus has not returned according to the stories that you passed on and finally that we are definitely not living in heaven!
Who will be the ultimate revealers of truth? Which group has a monopoly on truth? Can truth be defined or quantified? Will it be religion, in the final analysis that reveals all of the truth to us? On the other hand, will it be some other discipline like the scientific community that guides us into all of the truth? Moreover, how long will religion continue, to lay the same foundation over and over again?
Praxis: What is my praxis, and what do I believe. My position is simply this; I believe that truth does not strictly lie within the domain of religion. I also believe that truth has been waiting a long time for us to catch up with it, and that we have been hampered from doing so because of religion.
The worldwide religious community has been an abysmal failure over the years in many respects; therefore, it is difficult to understand why religious people believe that they have a monopoly on truth, or why members of the religious communities still take us seriously.
And what about all of the other disciplines, don't they have anything to say that is worth consideration? Does it matter at all what they have researched and found to be true?
Before Jesus departed from the earth, he promised his disciples that he would send back 'paracletos', a comforter that would guide them into 'ALL OF THE TRUTH'. That statement made it clear that not all of what his disciples understood at the time included all of the truth.
On another occasion, Jesus explained, that 'the truth will make one free'! How many people especially religious ones, feel as if they are free, if nothing else, from the tyranny of religion? And keep in mind that it was tyrannical religious folks in Jesus’ day, that kept the people in bondage; they were also responsible for the death of Jesus.
That the religious community is a repository of some of the truth is without question. That the religious community is the sole repository of truth is certainly questionable.
In Peter 2:17, he wrote, These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
He wrote that it would have been better if they had not known the way at all, than to have been conscripted by these religious teachers who brought them back into bondages.
The same holds true today I believe, whether you belong to the Synagogue, the Church or to the Mosque...! Too many religious organizations, and particularly religious prelates, pastors, imams, rabbis ..., simply bombard their followers with political and religious dogma as they proceed to dominate the thinking of their audiences.
And having placed their subjects (under a spell of fear and control), they proceeded to administer an implacable set of doctrines, from which the recipient finds it difficult to escape.
Too many religious people, regardless of whatever religious faith they happen to be of, live under the weight of fear and are subject to tyrannical control. Even when these individuals reason that something is amiss, they are too afraid to admit it, to speak openly or to act upon their suspicions and to conduct an unbiased investigation. Let's face it folks, different religious groups are suspicious, intolerant and in competition with other religious groups.
Too many faithful religious adherents today are missing out on the clarity and richness of thought. It begs the question when does an individual or group of individuals take responsibility for their destinies? Clearly, given all of the religious substrate organizations in the world, either none of them fully represents the truth, or all of them contain some elements of the truth within their belief systems.
In order for an individual to arrive at his or her proper his or her destiny, they must feel free to think and to be directed by something or someone other than a teacher that has some other interest in mind.
Domination can be as much a part of any religion organization as taking the sacraments. My childhood pastor would often teach us that, ‘we are living beneath our privileges’. Why? Because as a collective group of people, we have not learned yet how to make maximum use of our God-given power.
When the primary focus of religion has more to do with do’s and don’ts, or death and dying, one can easily spend his life leaving under a shadow of fear. How many people spend each day wondering whether or not this will be their last day on earth?
May individuals, particularly religions ones, are willing to forfeit the blessings that were bestowed upon them in this life, in order to gain what they expect in an afterlife; for them this life ends up being a throwaway life. These individuals have simply been taught to forfeit their time on earth in hopes of a better life.
Too many individuals have lived the majority of their lives beneath the oppressive yoke of fear and mendacity, and as a result have lived unfulfilled lives while spending their years on earth waiting for something spectacular to occur in the future.
As an example, in the Christian Church, the singular event that Christians are waiting for to take place is an expected event that is often referred to as ‘the rapture’. During this harvesting event, it is expected that God will exclusively extract good Christians from the earth, and everyone else will be ‘left behind’.
In the interim, good Christians are doing all that they can in order to ensure their entrance, in deference to others, into Heaven. Some Christians could care less about what happens to the rest of humanity. These Christians, given their years of dutiful sacrifice, feel that they alone deserve something better like a place in heaven.
The majority of Christians believe what they have been taught, that a seed has been planted and has subsequently germinated into the soil of their lives. And, seeing how they have become God’s living planted organisms and all that is left for them to do then (besides going to church) is to wait for the day of harvest.
Not so long ago, another religious group decided that knew the exact date when Jesus would return to the Earth, so they prepared to be beamed up to the mother ship. And whether it was said in jest or not, rumor has it that several of their ministers told their followers to live it up. The members were to charge everything on credit, because they would not be around afterward to pay the bills anyway.
And as it has happened many times in the past when some religious prognosticator attempted to predict the day of the Lord's return, once again he did not show up. Well, either that or they were left behind too! I suspect that some of these individuals are still paying off their bloated credit card accounts.
Oddly enough, most religious individuals do not believe in evolution. When I discuss the rapture with them, I often ask, ‘aren't you then waiting for the next step in the divine evolutionary life cycle’? My query is frequently met with silence. Most religious people cannot or will not accept theistic evolution as a part of divine planning.
Many Christians refuse to accept that many of the changes that have taken place on earth already were a part of pre-planned divine evolution.
Just yesterday, a believer was reading, in my presence, from the third chapter of the book of Genesis. In fact, he was reading form the passage where God cursed the serpent. According to the divine curse, the serpent was sentenced to crawling upon its belly, which presupposes that the serpent’s forward and backward motion up to that point, was done other than by crawling.
The latter supports the tenets of evolution, that some species adapted, grew legs and actually walked up out of the ocean. Was the serpent bi-pedal prior to the curse? The reader of the text became quiet at that point.
That many religious individuals deny theistic evolution is a consequence of classical religious conditioning. The object of most religious conditioning is to abut answers that may derive from any other source.
Since none of us have been here before, that is unless you believe in transmigration of the soul or spirit, how can religious groups be so firm in their resolve that there is no such thing as evolution, even divine evolution.
Oh and by the way, fortunately some religious groups are starting to crack under the weight of proof. They are beginning to admit that evolutionary adaptations have occurred in certain species. They still have a lot more to learn.
Having not understood this world yet, can you believe all of the religious individuals who are ready to take on another world? The question that religious individuals ought to be asking themselves is whether or not they have done all that was expected of them in this world?
That humans have the ability to reason at all, must have some purpose despite what religion teaches. Can faith and reason coincide; I have learned that the two disciplines can work hand in hand. Does God reason…? According to the book of Isaiah, God once invited Israel to come together with him so that the two could reason together.
Science: In our world today, two major groups have since the 17th century enlightenment period vied for our attention. Each one has attempted to explain what was once considered to be indefinable, inexplicable and mysterious.
Each discipline also attempts to answer the who, what, why, where and when questions that have plagued the human family since it began. One, more than the other often tries to define the narrative. Having said that however, the latter (science) has been proven to be correct more often than its self-described competitor, religion.
I am a very spiritual person, and I believe that there is that which exists that is unobservable to the unaided human eye. Here, we are getting into the area of quantum physics (something that religion and the religious community customarily ignore).
While believing (not by a customary religious definition) in the spiritual, at the same time I believe in science. In fact, I have a very deep appreciation for the discipline of science as well as for the members of the scientific community. I respect anyone and any discipline that is not in denial, and will make the effort to understand the truth, and to attempt to verify its findings, even if it occasionally makes mistakes while trying to do so.
I can still recall, on a previous occasion, when I was in a debate on this very topic, science v. religion. I reminded my opponent that the church has often been proven wrong, despite its claims of absolutism and inerrancy.
Which of these two disciplines (and there are others) is there than can supply us with responsible well thought out and tested answers? In my opinion, both disciplines have much to offer, however, because one invokes a methodology of proof when seeking after truth, religion in my opinion comes in at a distant second to science.
In my view, science informs us while religions trivialize to a substantial degree those things that matter the most to human beings. When it comes to religion humans are asked to make an incredible stretch, and simply accept, what some individual says is true, regardless of anything to support his or her claims.
Did the Apostle Paul or any of his contemporaries ever observe a microbial organism? Did they understand thermodynamics, entropy, Kepler's Laws...? What did the majority or our ancestors, predecessors and ancient writers understand, truly, about the heavens? Did they know anything about quantum or theoretical physics?
And yet, despite knowing very little about how the Universe actually began or worked, many of these individuals, including ancient biblical writers, made themselves authorities on a topic that they apparently knew very little about.
In post-modern times, we have visited, thrived and traveled back and forth in the heavens. We have dispatched probes into the far reaches of Space. We have landed humans on the moon. We have placed floating labs and telescopes into space, which have the ability to peer into what we refer to as the past. The latter begs the question, and then which discipline should be teaching the other? Should religion teach science, or should science be teaching religion.
Just imagine this, if God worked in the past with the untrained human mind (referred to in the Canon as the unlearned and the ignorant), imagine how much more powerful the combination of a 21st century trained mind (that has been guided by a divine mind), could be? One can only imagine the dividends that would result from such a combination? And just as I have always said in my sermons, what we refer to as God does not go to the library in order to acquire knowledge: 'GOD" is the library, or in other words the repository of all knowledge, wisdom and information.
Perhaps then, we could negate what had been written by the Prophet Isaiah in the book that bears his name: In Isaiah 55 it reads, 'your thoughts are not my thoughts, and neither are your ways my ways..., as far as the heavens are above the earth...! The fact is today, that we should not be worshipping a god of the harvest, a god of the wind, a Zeus, Poseidon, Osiri... as our predecessors once did; in fact, we ought to be seeking after what is real. God made it clear to Israel on many occasions that he was sick of their sacrifices.
I believe that what many individuals in religious institutions refer to as God does exist. However, I go on record as saying that I do not believe "IT" exists in the form, or that it is of the substance that most religions believe.
In fact, I believe that what most ancient, modern and post-modern religious groups and individuals refer to as God, is even bigger than what they could have ever imagined based upon the research that has been done in the scientific community.
Sadly, many religious individuals look at me in complete disbelief when I mention that a day is coming when we will no longer refer to this principle, entity or whatever it happens to be by the symbolic term God.
Soon we will abandon this description and the use of this expression, just as we have done with the other names and appellations that were used in the past to refer to 'IT".
I do not believe that 'IT" is an anthropomorphic being, at least not the kind that has been constructed by man and in man's image; I often refer to the latter as the anthropomorphic God. Now that is not to say that "IT" could not occupy a human body or some other form if "IT" so desired.
Could I be wrong? Of course, I could be wrong. But religion, I remind you again have often been wrong. And. I appreciate the words of the late Bishop Harris of Chicago Illinois. He was often known to repeat the following phrase: I suppose that my opinion is just as good as anyone else's.
And wouldn't this explain why 'IT' has never been seen before by human’s eyes, i.e., 'it isn’t human'! It could be a mathematical construct!
I can only imagine what both disciplines, science and religion could accomplish if the two worked together, minus the typical histrionic and annoying attacks that often arose from the religious community. Either religion needs to stay in its place, or it needs to change its model and begin to seek after truth - whatever truth turns out to be.
I believe that 'IT', 'I AM', or God if you prefer wants to be known, however, that humans have to be in a position to understand and recognize it.
This is a bit off topic; however, here is just another example of how religious influencers can go too far (without taking any responsibility for the consequences of their dogma). I was recently appalled given the interference of Pope Benedict II, the current Prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He recently insisted that citizens in countries like Darfur (where socially transmitted diseases are running rampant), should abandon the use of condoms and practice abstinence instead.
Frankly, like most people of the earth, the people of Darfur and other STD nations are not going to stop engaging in sexual intercourse. Therefore, why should anyone, including a religious leader, discourage the citizens of these states from engaging in responsible behavior? What happened to an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, prevention in this instance being the use of protection? Of course, since the Pope is celibate, I suppose that he feels that other people should have the same gift!
Why have so many religious groups and their leaders found it necessary to ignore one’s right to reason or to decide for themselves what is best for them? The late Pope, John Paul II was a proponent of reason and science; he endorsed reason, and explained how faith, reason and science could work together.
The late Pope encouraged the working of science and religion together. However, in consideration of the more doctrinaire Pope Benedict II, one cannot help but wonder whether certain religious groups and individuals simply have a death wish for other people, or are they simply preoccupied with death themselves.
Frankly, if individuals are not going to give up a practice (they don't have the gift and don't claim to have it), we should at least encourage them to do what they can to minimize the spread of diseases. Isn't that 'reasonable' if not responsible? Or, on the other hand would we prefer that humans play Russian Roulette with their lives as well as the lives of other people?
The message of religion often differs from the entity that religion refers to itself as God. ITs purpose was to save and to heal; the mission of religion often appears to be just the opposite. Religion takes on the role of the high court, often it is as if religion wants to find and punish sinners, as oppose to helping people to overcome! Are there any perfect people on the face of the earth?
Oftentimes, even in a post modern context, someone on the outside of religious circles makes a breakthrough discovery that is beneficial to humankind. And at the time they are excoriated for doing so by religious individuals or clerics.
I personally believe that if Jesus were to return to the Earth today in an unrecognizable form (even if his purpose was to rapture Christians), that the religious world would likely capture him and put him to death all over again.
Of course they would use some post-modern method to accomplish their aim. The Reverend Pat Robertson would likely settle for a simple covert operation that would result in the assassination of Jesus.
Last day prophets: I suspect that many of our past and present day scientists will likely turn out to be the true prophets of the post-modern era. And while scientists will be busy working to disclose what is real, our ministers will still be down at the church, or Imams at the Mosque, Rabbis at the Synagogue..., preaching adherence to the 1st century foundational stone.
How much more could our predecessors have gotten out of life, if they had not been conditioned to believe that they were, everyday of their lives, living in the last days, and with the weight of some impending catastrophic calamity hanging over their heads.
What would happen if Jesus were to come and certify that the way to eternal life would be through studying stem cells, or by genetic engineering, cloning or transferring consciousness from one body into another body?
On a personal level, death of our loved ones is probably the second most important thing to us, second only to our own deaths. Then why wouldn't we support any community that can come up with the antidote to sickness or the cure for death? Shouldn't we be living as long as let's say a Methuselah or an Adam once lived? What is holding us back?
We already know that religious individuals, in spite of their often misbehavior in terms of classifying most things as evil, will take antidotes whenever they are available.
Then how come they refuse to encourage the discovery of a breakthrough antidote or solution that will free not only them, but their loved ones from sickness and death? Again, will God reveal truth through a willing scientific community in order to bring about the long-anticipated eternal life? Or on the other hand will he continue to try to give new revelations to our stubborn group of stand-still religious organizations and clerics?
Once the breakthrough occurs, I assure you that religious individuals will be the first ones in line to take advantage of the eternal life solution!
Scientists may in fact be 'the comforters' who we were told would bring back the Spirit of Truth, as opposed to the spirit of dogma and error that is currently so pervasive. Jesus brought truth to the Earth, and he was crucified for doing so - nevertheless his message lives on today.
There are many converted scientists working in the scientific community that have discovered God in ways that religion never imagined, e.g., through mathematics, astronomy, theoretical physics, quantum physics... and the humane genome!
My God, Einstein, considered by many in modern times to be one of the greatest if not the greatest scientists of the 20th century, was a believer.
I also believe that the scientific community will find what the religious community has been talking about for what seems like a millennia, God, as a known and quantifiable entity.
Religious individuals, especially Christians ones will often say that if God can speak through a donkey or a chicken then certainly God can speak through a woman. This unflappable comment is not very flattering to women when you think about it, for it lowers women to the status of animals.
However, and having said that, by using their illogic, it is it conceivable then that God, the God Principle, the Singularity, the Unifying Principle ..., could speak through a scientist? I suspect that God has been doing it all along, that is speaking through the worldwide scientific community.
For after all how have humans come to understand, time, space, matter, entropy, atoms, quarks, motion, force, gravity? God apparently revealed the knowledge to the scientific community, we certainly did not learn about the natural world from religion. God is the master scientist, whether the religious community will accept that fact of life or not!
The world that we live in has been better understood as a result of scientific research and discovery, not because of religion. Humans depend upon science for concrete answers; humans depend on religion and religious organizations for comfort!
Again, Jesus insisted that his followers seek after the truth, which is what science often does while religion prefers myth and the mystical over what is real.
Again, I believe that it is time for the religious community to accept the scientific community as well as scientific research. It is not too late for the various religious groups of the world to embrace scientific proof as revealed truth. It is time for the two disciplines to work hand in hand. Otherwise, we have been taught to go around the same mountain long enough, and just as any good accountant would do when the figures did not add up, we need to go back, every religious group, and recheck the data.
The Apostle Paul is responsible largely for what most Christians in particular, believe about the rapture, despite the fact that he believed that he would still be alive when the rapture occurred. And the latter should not be lost upon a thinking mind.
In the fifth chapter of Hebrews, verse 5:14 and 6:1-5, the unknown writer of the book explains why her reading audience must go beyond the principles of Christianity and move on to perfection.
According to Dr. Ryrie, creator of the Ryrie Bible, what she was in fact relaying to her audience was, that they must go on to completion and stop wasting time and opportunities. I often wonder how much time has been wasted by well-meaning Christian organizations given their penchant for practicing religion instead of seeking ‘the truth’!
The problem with truth, from any perspective, is that one may be required to give up his or her long-held beliefs and prejudices that are simply not true when held up to scrutiny; and it doesn't matter how long one has been laboring under a misimpression. And what would be the benefit of doing so? It would result in freedom from the spirit of error!
Could you imagine attending school and having to repeat the same grade for let us say 12 years or more? Factually, that is essentially what is happening with most religious individuals, they spend most of their religious lives stuck in the foundational faze. Some never move out of religious kindergarten.
I suspect that fulfillment, enlightenment or a mature understanding will never be reached, if one were spend the majority of their lives festering in religious kindergarten (the place of beginner's foundational truth).
Some religious individuals spend their entire religious lives being nursing infants. And we all know after a certain period, an infant must be weaned from milk as its sole dietary source, and afterward provided with solid food.
Or how else can the child grow; or how long will the child survive if he or she were to remain on mother’s milk? IT is time to embrace all of the truth, even if it means giving up some things, that when tested has been proven to be untrue!
Is it possible for us to get on God's level, so that God, as he is often referred to as, could communicate with us 'on a divine level and in a divine manner'? For science has taught us how to decipher and to distinguish unknown quantities. Science, if you think about it, is indispensable, and where would we is without it (see addenda)?
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
A must read: The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney
to be continued...
Addenda: Are we smarter than our predecessors? Answer: We ought to be and we shouldn't be ashamed to say it, for we picked up where they left off.
What science has done a better job of explaining that religion (and keep in mind that many of the 16th and 17th century scientists were often religion people, including Catholic clerics):
Time - beginning
Space - heaven
Force -spirit
Matter -Earth
Motion - moved
Energy
Entropy 2nd law of thermodynamics
Gravity - electromagnetism
Shamayin (heavens) where God is
Nebulae Greek for the cloud, the region where stars are born
Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, the atmosphere
Light
Infrared only one
Radio waves - the longest
Gamma waves - the shortest
What is in Between visible light?
infraction is human light
Science has detected 200 alien planets
Pegasus 51 was discovered in 1995 by Swiss Astronomer G. Grant
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What Should Have Happened By Now: Here are a few examples, can you think of any more?
The life cycle would have been extended even more than it has been, and we would likely be living what I refer to as time-independent eternal life reality.
The suppression of females would have ended, assuming that we continued to occupy gender-based bodies.
We would have done a better job of understanding and dealing with what we consider to be the more complex issues such as homosexuality (remember some humans have been born with 6 fingers and toes), stem cell research, the environment, infant mortality, autism, retardation...!
We would have dealt in an intelligent manner with those forces that encourage suppression, divisiveness, war and discrimination; the latter would likely have been eliminated.
We would also be able to communicate by now, in the language of what we refer to as God, instead of through the use of gibberish, nasal and guttural sounds.
The means and the methods that we would employ in order to relocate in space would be far more advanced.
Living on other planets (rocks), if we were to still exist in our current biological forms would have taken place by now, albeit we would have still been existing in a fairly primitive state of being inside of carbon-based bodies.
We would have had a direct encounter with, and likely have understood better, and co-existed alongside the entity, sovereignty or principle that we refer in today's nomenclature as God. Remember this entity has been referred to by many names and inscriptions including El, Adoni, Ywvh, Allah, the Great Spirit..., in the past!
Finally, if we do not get busy soon, future generations will consider us to have been nothing more than primitive failures. And those of us, who will do so, must pass the baton in order to benefit both our contemporaries and the ones who are to follow us in future generations.
If our predecessors of thousands of years ago were to return and ask, what are you folks doing today and whether or not God returned or are we living in heaven? we would answer that we are still reciting the stories that you left us thousands of years ago. Furthermore, we would tell them that Jesus has not returned according to the stories that you passed on and finally that we are definitely not living in heaven!
Waiting To Be Harvested? Religious People It Is Time To Move On Part II
Part II. When Religion and Politics Are In Bed Together
Is there anything worse than totalitarian political religion? You won't know unless you have experienced it, and that is exactly what the world experienced during the George H.W. Bush Presidency. The world witnessed a faction of the American Christian Church behaving at its worst.
Let's consider the American conservative Christian Church as an example of backwardness and an impediment to progress, given the manner in which it behaved during the (undulating and debacled George H.W. Bush 8-year reign of terror).
According to an article in the October 12, 2007, edition of The Week Magazine, "one out of three Republican voters is a Christian conservative". And as a result of what occurred over the past 8 years, when conservative Christians and politicians were in bed together, the whole world it would seem took a step backwards.
During the Bush years, conservative Christians joined forces with venal conservative politicians and businessmen, in order to pursue a dangerously flawed and self-serving political agenda. On the one hand, as The Week Magazine also pointed out, Christian conservatives pretended to support a moral agenda by fighting against gay marriage, abortion and school prayer.
On the other hand it was conservative Christians and politicians who were the most ardent supporters of the unprovoked war in Iraq, a war that cost many innocent religious people, men, women and children, their lives.
One had to wonder after watching the 8 year Bush-religious-political fiasco, how could the two walk together except for the fact they really were in agreement? I am not talking about God and Republicans? On the other hand I am referring to the fact that Christian professers of conservatism did not have any remorse over forming a coalition that mercilessly destroyed innocent lives.
Prior to the 2000 general election, conservative businessmen and politicians typically wanted nothing to do with the conservative Christian Church. However, when it was believed that such an that the alliance could benefit both partners in crime, saints and sinners joined together in hopes to defeat the Democratic Party agenda, which they described as being a liberal agenda.
Even last year's Republican presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain, changed his mind about getting into bed with religious conservatives. Prior to that time, he privately excoriated conservative Christians on the Right. However, once be was convinced that the only way for him to win the White House was with the overwhelming support of religious conservatives, he had a change of heart and just as suddenly switched his previously held position. Afterwards, John headed straight down to (KKK) Bob Jones University.
He subsequently met with other self-proclaimed conservative Right religious officials like the Reverend John Hagee, Dr. Dobson of New Life Live, Reverend Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington DC, as well as the infamous and always smiling, wavering and sardonic Reverend Pat Robertson.
This fractious and dangerous coalition of religious and political fascists and mostly liars included another 2 or 300,000 Christian clergymen in their ranks; fortunately, the whole group was repudiated and soundly defeated in the 2008 general election.
The American people unmistakably, had enough, having witnessed firsthand what happens when a dangerous admixture of intolerant neo-fascist conservative politicians and fascist religious leaders and religious organizations get into bed together. Thank God that the majority of America's citizens finally came to their individual and collective senses. This modern day group of opportunists put the Pharisees of scripture, Caiaphas, Ananias and Herod to shame!
Regrettably, it was not only the self-motivated and directed conservative politicians that lost the confidence of the American people, so did many of America's religious leaders and religious organizations (particularly the leaders of 'the American conservative fascist Christian Church)'! Even the son of one of the founders of the modern day conservative movement, William F. Buckley Jr.'s son, switched sides and voted, along with other historical Republican stalwarts, for change.
And he was joined publicly by other former conservatives, including conservative Christians, who also wanted to see change. I could only wish that his father, and late Senator Barry Goldwater, one of the other principal founders of the conservative movement had been alive. And can you imagine what would have happened if they would have also voted for change? It would have meant the death of the religion of pseudo-conservatism.
William F. Buckley Jr., prior to his death, was also a vocal critic, along with other conservatives like George Will, of the principles of George H.W. Bush Jr. and his neo neo-conservative accomplices.
There is another excellent article in this month's (March 2009) edition of Newsweek Magazine. And, according to the Newsweek article: The Followers of Jesus, many Christians are identifying themselves as 'followers of Jesus'. They are no longer claiming an affiliation with any particular mainline Christian denomination.
I can certainly understand the reasons why reformed conservatives, both religious and political, decided that it was time to abandon pseudo-conservative religious denominationalism and political obsessionalism; they had enough! I have been encouraging other Christians for the past couple of decades to pursue truth, and to forget about religious denominationalism, political or otherwise.
I believe that is better to be non-affiliated, or on the other hand to join every religious organization that you can find. Perhaps, then the founders of all of these religious organizations will recognize that that we should be all apart of one body, and each one of us should be seeking after 'the truth not religion'. Frankly, in my opinion religion is often as messy as any other secular human enterprise!
To the credit of Democrats who have often been mischaracterized as 'liberals' by conservative republicans, many members of the so-called 'Republican party of God' consider Jesus to have been a liberal as well. That alone should tell you a lot about the nature of Republican politics - its duplicity as well as its hypocrisy - and what moreover Republican Christians and politicians really believe.
As far as Republicans are concerned, Jesus was neither a social nor fiscal conservative (which placed him in the liberal camp according to their narrow way of thinking). And despite their categorization of Jesus, given where he stood politically, it was not enough to stop them from invoking the name of Jesus, or to pimp Jesus in order to pursue their neo-fascist political agenda(s).
This same Republican Party's membership, both religious and non, will often invoke the name of Jesus and refer to him as Lord; however, they are the last ones 'to follow the path that Jesus prescribed for those who would 'follow him!
What were the motives behind the conservative coalition's leadership agenda? What was truly driving them, Satan? What held this unholy political-religious alliance together for as long as it did? I believe that the Party was motivated to return to business as usual, after the defeat of the Bill Clinton legacy (in the person of Al Gore) by doing the following:
1. Ensuring that America remained atop the world order by any means necessary.
2. Controlling both America's foreign and domestic policy agenda.
3. Unabashedly continuing the pursuit of worldwide political hegemony.
4. Taking steps to have more control over the worldwide economy.
5. Having the final say over America's, often misused, military might.
6. By stifling creativity and neutralizing scientific discovery.
7. Preventing peace from taking place in the Middle-East.
8. Controlling the political narrative in America, and disallowing any dissent.
9. Reinstituting the war against multiculturalism.
10. Bringing back the false elation of the Ronald Reagan let the crumbs fall from the rich man's table trickle down; voodoo economics; green mail leveraged buyouts favoritism for the wealthy; Reagan and Oliver North plausible deniability clandestine operations and contempt of Congress era.
11. To continue to stack the Supreme Court with ideologue conservative Supreme Court Justices.
Finally, it was their desire, as it has always been to usher in a permanent Republican Kingdom age (by doing away with a so-called liberal agenda and by killing Arabs for Jesus). They hoped to censor if not eliminate those individuals in particular who were as liberal as they claimed that Jesus had been.
To my way of thinking, these people were neither the 'friends of Jesus' social justice, progress or righteousness! The only technological interests that they had in mind were to create new weapons systems; to militarize space, to replace 75,000 nuclear weapons that have recently been destroyed and to replace them with more lethal nuclear weapons. And last but not least, their objective was to remain the number one weapons supplier in the world.
Republicans, tried to get rid of Democrats and the Democratic Party agenda, in the same manner that conservative Jews conspired in the common era with the Roman Government, in order to rid themselves of the troublesome threat to their power, Jesus Christ.
It would appear, 2000 years later, that history has repeated itself given the behavior of conjoined Republican religious and political party-members. Oftentimes, they invoked the name of Jesus, but their hearts were truly far from him. In fact the principles of Jesus Christ were their true enemies!
Instead, they attempted to place diabolic fascist and neofascist political control upon an unsuspecting world. Their Project for a New American Century (PNAC) nearly led the world to the brink of economic collapse, while at the same time, the economic status of many of their cohorts improved.
This group of Republicans were also chomping at the bit to 'call down fire from heaven in the form of UAVs...', either to defeat or drive unsuspecting nations, enemy combatants and other individuals and governments (who would not acquiesce to their variegated demands into the abyss)'.
The world (including some of America’s allies) was given an ultimatum, either submit to the will of American fascism, or risk invasion, imprisonment of their citizens, renditions, an extended stay for their citizens at GITMO or economic and political strangulation, if not annihilation.
What is even more outrageous is that these self-appointed pseudo-religious malcontents wanted the world to believe that their agenda was sent from on high by the Almighty itself and that somehow God was part and parcel of their mendacious plans. And in customary fashion, when inevitably the rug was pulled out from underneath them, they proceeded to do what they are masters at; they blamed their failed policies on the Democrats.
How could a group of praying clerics, churches and religious organizations get themselves entangled in such a mess that is if the church leaders were actually in touch with an almighty God themselves? Clearly, they were not in touch with the almighty, for in the same manner that conservatives labeled Middle-Easterners as radical fundamentalists and terrorists, they behaved in an identical manner.
Religious Muslims declared that Allah was with them, and conservative American Christians, masquerading as ambassadors of God, declared that God was with them. What is frightening is that both of these groups were either experiencing some form or religious ideation, in that they believed that God was talking to them, or the leaders of these groups were unabashed liars.
It does not appear to me that either of these two groups claims (and let's not leave out Judaism) that God was with them held water. Otherwise, they would have found a way to love their enemies and resolve their differences in the name of God instead! For whether it is Jihad, Fatwa or an American Holy War/crusade, all sides had something in common; each one had very little respect for human life and even less respect for the principles of God.
Certainly, their ways were not God's ways!
Forgive me for being cynical but somehow, I cannot conceive of God, Rush Limbaugh, Dominionists and Republican politicians and Church officials working together on the same team in order to pursue the common good for all people. Well that is, unless God is 'the god of war'!
The current state of this broken and weakened coalition reminds me a lot of what happened to Hitler's fascist NAZI regime (that also included as members of the Third Reich the German and Austrian Christian Churches within its ranks). Hitler would not have been as successful as he had been, if it had not been for the support of German and Austrian Christians.
Hitler and the German-Austrian Christian Church were soundly just as George Bush, the world's modern day Hitler, and the American conservative Christian Church was in the America's last general election.
Dr. King's remarks bear repeating and should be etched in our memories, if not within our collective conscience.
Many Americans experienced firsthand the full frontal assault of the Bush/Republican/Christian blitzkrieg against Americans; either you were with them or you were against them. And if you did not go along with them you were labeled a non-patriot. Americans know what it is like now, to live under a repressive, undaunting and unforgiving political-religious military regime, also what it means to be categorized as a non-patriot.
Not since the McCarthy era, have so many Americans been mischaracterized as they were during the Bush presidential years. The rest of the world also experienced the vituperation of the American religious-political juggernaut, which has also been referred to as the American-Christian military complex which replaced the American military-industrial complex.
The rest of the world also experienced the vituperation and vindictiveness of the American religious-political/military enterprise system.
It is evident that the conservative Christian Church in America, abandoned divine principles in order to pursue a diabolical agenda. What spirit was actually operating during the former Bush/conservative Christian Church reign of terror? The lesson that was learned by all was how wise the founders were, particularly Thomas Jefferson, who insisted that the two entities, religion and government not be joined at the hip.
He recognized, along with many of his peers that it would not be good for religion and politics, or officials from the two camps to dominant American politics or the American politick. Thomas Jefferson will be pleased to know if he could, that in this context, God's justice did not sleep forever!
Even the frequently vacillating Reverend Pat Robertson had to apologize, during the Bush years, given his recommendation that certain heads of state, including President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, be assassinated! What spirit was he operating under when he made this pronouncement? That action would have been against both domestic and international law. However, clearly the good Reverend believed like the President, that he was above the law.
And keep in mind that Reverend Robinson, after his initial run for the presidency over a decade ago, publicly stated that God told him (as is also recorded in his book) to stay out of politics. Oops, he doesn't obey God either it would appear. So who gives him his marching orders?
I suspect that the same spirit of murder that inhabited the late cult leader of Jonestown Guyana, the Reverend Jim Jones, who was a murderer in his own right, took up residence in the blood-thirsty Reverend Pat Robertson. This same Reverend Pat fought against the proposed Roadmap for Peace in the Middle-East. On many occasions I listened to Pat talk, and it did not sound to me as if he knew very much about 'the Prince of Peace’ or the ways of God. On the other hand, Pat seems to know a lot about the 'god of war'!
Clearly, truth was on the scaffold and wrong was on the throne during the George Bush years. And regrettably, this combination of conservative politicians, religious organizations and clerics are already plotting a comeback.
Neither America nor the world needs to be controlled by fascists of any stripe, even groups of religious fascists, whose sole desire is to take civilization(s) backwards! Again, this was a perfect example of the Churches' penchant need to take the world backwards instead of forward.
The world is still reeling in the aftermath of their evil plans, and from the effects of this dangerous coalition's coalescing of two dangerous factions that would not accept anything other than categorical determinism (the latter being radical western religious-political fundamentalism).
Clearly, the world-wide religious geo-political communities, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and others, need to rid themselves of the tactics of fear, the strategy of intimidation and all of those in their ranks who support worldwide terrorism in addition to religious and political hegemony. Otherwise, it would appear that Karl Marx right about religion being an 'opiate of the masses'!
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
...to be continued...,
What Should Have Happened By Now: Here are a few examples, can you think of any more?
The life cycle would have been extended even more than it has been, and we would likely be living what I refer to as time-independent eternal life reality.
The suppression of females would have ended, assuming that we continued to occupy gender-based bodies.
We would have done a better job of understanding and dealing with what we consider to be the more complex issues such as homosexuality (remember some humans have been born with 6 fingers and toes), stem cell research, the environment, infant mortality, autism, retardation...!
We would have dealt in an intelligent manner with those forces that encourage suppression, divisiveness, war and discrimination; the latter would likely have been eliminated.
We would also be able to communicate by now, in the language of what we refer to as God, instead of through the use of gibberish, nasal and guttural sounds.
The means and the methods that we would employ in order to relocate in space would be far more advanced.
Living on other planets (rocks), if we were to still exist in our current biological forms would have taken place by now, albeit we would have still been existing in a fairly primitive state of being inside of carbon-based bodies.
We would have had a direct encounter with, and likely have understood better, and co-existed alongside the entity, sovereignty or principle that we refer in today's nomenclature as God. Remember this entity has been referred to by many names and inscriptions including El, Adoni, Ywvh, Allah, the Great Spirit..., in the past!
Finally, if we don't get busy soon, future generations will consider us to have been nothing more than primitive failures. And those of us, who will do so, must carry the baton in order to benefit both our contemporaries and the ones who will follow us in future generations.
If our predecessors of thousands of years ago were to return today and ask, what are you folks doing and whether or not God returned by no, or whether or not we are living in heaven? Our answer would be that we are still reciting the stories that you left for us thousands of years ago. Furthermore, we would tell them that Jesus hasn't returned according to the stories that you passed on and finally that we are definitely not living in heaven, and the harvest has not come!
Is there anything worse than totalitarian political religion? You won't know unless you have experienced it, and that is exactly what the world experienced during the George H.W. Bush Presidency. The world witnessed a faction of the American Christian Church behaving at its worst.
Let's consider the American conservative Christian Church as an example of backwardness and an impediment to progress, given the manner in which it behaved during the (undulating and debacled George H.W. Bush 8-year reign of terror).
According to an article in the October 12, 2007, edition of The Week Magazine, "one out of three Republican voters is a Christian conservative". And as a result of what occurred over the past 8 years, when conservative Christians and politicians were in bed together, the whole world it would seem took a step backwards.
During the Bush years, conservative Christians joined forces with venal conservative politicians and businessmen, in order to pursue a dangerously flawed and self-serving political agenda. On the one hand, as The Week Magazine also pointed out, Christian conservatives pretended to support a moral agenda by fighting against gay marriage, abortion and school prayer.
On the other hand it was conservative Christians and politicians who were the most ardent supporters of the unprovoked war in Iraq, a war that cost many innocent religious people, men, women and children, their lives.
One had to wonder after watching the 8 year Bush-religious-political fiasco, how could the two walk together except for the fact they really were in agreement? I am not talking about God and Republicans? On the other hand I am referring to the fact that Christian professers of conservatism did not have any remorse over forming a coalition that mercilessly destroyed innocent lives.
Prior to the 2000 general election, conservative businessmen and politicians typically wanted nothing to do with the conservative Christian Church. However, when it was believed that such an that the alliance could benefit both partners in crime, saints and sinners joined together in hopes to defeat the Democratic Party agenda, which they described as being a liberal agenda.
Even last year's Republican presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain, changed his mind about getting into bed with religious conservatives. Prior to that time, he privately excoriated conservative Christians on the Right. However, once be was convinced that the only way for him to win the White House was with the overwhelming support of religious conservatives, he had a change of heart and just as suddenly switched his previously held position. Afterwards, John headed straight down to (KKK) Bob Jones University.
He subsequently met with other self-proclaimed conservative Right religious officials like the Reverend John Hagee, Dr. Dobson of New Life Live, Reverend Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington DC, as well as the infamous and always smiling, wavering and sardonic Reverend Pat Robertson.
This fractious and dangerous coalition of religious and political fascists and mostly liars included another 2 or 300,000 Christian clergymen in their ranks; fortunately, the whole group was repudiated and soundly defeated in the 2008 general election.
The American people unmistakably, had enough, having witnessed firsthand what happens when a dangerous admixture of intolerant neo-fascist conservative politicians and fascist religious leaders and religious organizations get into bed together. Thank God that the majority of America's citizens finally came to their individual and collective senses. This modern day group of opportunists put the Pharisees of scripture, Caiaphas, Ananias and Herod to shame!
Regrettably, it was not only the self-motivated and directed conservative politicians that lost the confidence of the American people, so did many of America's religious leaders and religious organizations (particularly the leaders of 'the American conservative fascist Christian Church)'! Even the son of one of the founders of the modern day conservative movement, William F. Buckley Jr.'s son, switched sides and voted, along with other historical Republican stalwarts, for change.
And he was joined publicly by other former conservatives, including conservative Christians, who also wanted to see change. I could only wish that his father, and late Senator Barry Goldwater, one of the other principal founders of the conservative movement had been alive. And can you imagine what would have happened if they would have also voted for change? It would have meant the death of the religion of pseudo-conservatism.
William F. Buckley Jr., prior to his death, was also a vocal critic, along with other conservatives like George Will, of the principles of George H.W. Bush Jr. and his neo neo-conservative accomplices.
There is another excellent article in this month's (March 2009) edition of Newsweek Magazine. And, according to the Newsweek article: The Followers of Jesus, many Christians are identifying themselves as 'followers of Jesus'. They are no longer claiming an affiliation with any particular mainline Christian denomination.
I can certainly understand the reasons why reformed conservatives, both religious and political, decided that it was time to abandon pseudo-conservative religious denominationalism and political obsessionalism; they had enough! I have been encouraging other Christians for the past couple of decades to pursue truth, and to forget about religious denominationalism, political or otherwise.
I believe that is better to be non-affiliated, or on the other hand to join every religious organization that you can find. Perhaps, then the founders of all of these religious organizations will recognize that that we should be all apart of one body, and each one of us should be seeking after 'the truth not religion'. Frankly, in my opinion religion is often as messy as any other secular human enterprise!
To the credit of Democrats who have often been mischaracterized as 'liberals' by conservative republicans, many members of the so-called 'Republican party of God' consider Jesus to have been a liberal as well. That alone should tell you a lot about the nature of Republican politics - its duplicity as well as its hypocrisy - and what moreover Republican Christians and politicians really believe.
As far as Republicans are concerned, Jesus was neither a social nor fiscal conservative (which placed him in the liberal camp according to their narrow way of thinking). And despite their categorization of Jesus, given where he stood politically, it was not enough to stop them from invoking the name of Jesus, or to pimp Jesus in order to pursue their neo-fascist political agenda(s).
This same Republican Party's membership, both religious and non, will often invoke the name of Jesus and refer to him as Lord; however, they are the last ones 'to follow the path that Jesus prescribed for those who would 'follow him!
What were the motives behind the conservative coalition's leadership agenda? What was truly driving them, Satan? What held this unholy political-religious alliance together for as long as it did? I believe that the Party was motivated to return to business as usual, after the defeat of the Bill Clinton legacy (in the person of Al Gore) by doing the following:
1. Ensuring that America remained atop the world order by any means necessary.
2. Controlling both America's foreign and domestic policy agenda.
3. Unabashedly continuing the pursuit of worldwide political hegemony.
4. Taking steps to have more control over the worldwide economy.
5. Having the final say over America's, often misused, military might.
6. By stifling creativity and neutralizing scientific discovery.
7. Preventing peace from taking place in the Middle-East.
8. Controlling the political narrative in America, and disallowing any dissent.
9. Reinstituting the war against multiculturalism.
10. Bringing back the false elation of the Ronald Reagan let the crumbs fall from the rich man's table trickle down; voodoo economics; green mail leveraged buyouts favoritism for the wealthy; Reagan and Oliver North plausible deniability clandestine operations and contempt of Congress era.
11. To continue to stack the Supreme Court with ideologue conservative Supreme Court Justices.
Finally, it was their desire, as it has always been to usher in a permanent Republican Kingdom age (by doing away with a so-called liberal agenda and by killing Arabs for Jesus). They hoped to censor if not eliminate those individuals in particular who were as liberal as they claimed that Jesus had been.
To my way of thinking, these people were neither the 'friends of Jesus' social justice, progress or righteousness! The only technological interests that they had in mind were to create new weapons systems; to militarize space, to replace 75,000 nuclear weapons that have recently been destroyed and to replace them with more lethal nuclear weapons. And last but not least, their objective was to remain the number one weapons supplier in the world.
Republicans, tried to get rid of Democrats and the Democratic Party agenda, in the same manner that conservative Jews conspired in the common era with the Roman Government, in order to rid themselves of the troublesome threat to their power, Jesus Christ.
It would appear, 2000 years later, that history has repeated itself given the behavior of conjoined Republican religious and political party-members. Oftentimes, they invoked the name of Jesus, but their hearts were truly far from him. In fact the principles of Jesus Christ were their true enemies!
Instead, they attempted to place diabolic fascist and neofascist political control upon an unsuspecting world. Their Project for a New American Century (PNAC) nearly led the world to the brink of economic collapse, while at the same time, the economic status of many of their cohorts improved.
This group of Republicans were also chomping at the bit to 'call down fire from heaven in the form of UAVs...', either to defeat or drive unsuspecting nations, enemy combatants and other individuals and governments (who would not acquiesce to their variegated demands into the abyss)'.
The world (including some of America’s allies) was given an ultimatum, either submit to the will of American fascism, or risk invasion, imprisonment of their citizens, renditions, an extended stay for their citizens at GITMO or economic and political strangulation, if not annihilation.
What is even more outrageous is that these self-appointed pseudo-religious malcontents wanted the world to believe that their agenda was sent from on high by the Almighty itself and that somehow God was part and parcel of their mendacious plans. And in customary fashion, when inevitably the rug was pulled out from underneath them, they proceeded to do what they are masters at; they blamed their failed policies on the Democrats.
How could a group of praying clerics, churches and religious organizations get themselves entangled in such a mess that is if the church leaders were actually in touch with an almighty God themselves? Clearly, they were not in touch with the almighty, for in the same manner that conservatives labeled Middle-Easterners as radical fundamentalists and terrorists, they behaved in an identical manner.
Religious Muslims declared that Allah was with them, and conservative American Christians, masquerading as ambassadors of God, declared that God was with them. What is frightening is that both of these groups were either experiencing some form or religious ideation, in that they believed that God was talking to them, or the leaders of these groups were unabashed liars.
It does not appear to me that either of these two groups claims (and let's not leave out Judaism) that God was with them held water. Otherwise, they would have found a way to love their enemies and resolve their differences in the name of God instead! For whether it is Jihad, Fatwa or an American Holy War/crusade, all sides had something in common; each one had very little respect for human life and even less respect for the principles of God.
Certainly, their ways were not God's ways!
Forgive me for being cynical but somehow, I cannot conceive of God, Rush Limbaugh, Dominionists and Republican politicians and Church officials working together on the same team in order to pursue the common good for all people. Well that is, unless God is 'the god of war'!
The current state of this broken and weakened coalition reminds me a lot of what happened to Hitler's fascist NAZI regime (that also included as members of the Third Reich the German and Austrian Christian Churches within its ranks). Hitler would not have been as successful as he had been, if it had not been for the support of German and Austrian Christians.
Hitler and the German-Austrian Christian Church were soundly just as George Bush, the world's modern day Hitler, and the American conservative Christian Church was in the America's last general election.
Dr. Martin Luther King also said
"...the problem is that the church has sanctioned every evil in the world. Whether it's racism, or whether it's the evils of monopoly-capitalism, or whether it's the evils of militarism. And that is why these evils continue to exist in the world today".
Dr. King's remarks bear repeating and should be etched in our memories, if not within our collective conscience.
Many Americans experienced firsthand the full frontal assault of the Bush/Republican/Christian blitzkrieg against Americans; either you were with them or you were against them. And if you did not go along with them you were labeled a non-patriot. Americans know what it is like now, to live under a repressive, undaunting and unforgiving political-religious military regime, also what it means to be categorized as a non-patriot.
Not since the McCarthy era, have so many Americans been mischaracterized as they were during the Bush presidential years. The rest of the world also experienced the vituperation of the American religious-political juggernaut, which has also been referred to as the American-Christian military complex which replaced the American military-industrial complex.
The rest of the world also experienced the vituperation and vindictiveness of the American religious-political/military enterprise system.
It is evident that the conservative Christian Church in America, abandoned divine principles in order to pursue a diabolical agenda. What spirit was actually operating during the former Bush/conservative Christian Church reign of terror? The lesson that was learned by all was how wise the founders were, particularly Thomas Jefferson, who insisted that the two entities, religion and government not be joined at the hip.
He recognized, along with many of his peers that it would not be good for religion and politics, or officials from the two camps to dominant American politics or the American politick. Thomas Jefferson will be pleased to know if he could, that in this context, God's justice did not sleep forever!
Even the frequently vacillating Reverend Pat Robertson had to apologize, during the Bush years, given his recommendation that certain heads of state, including President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, be assassinated! What spirit was he operating under when he made this pronouncement? That action would have been against both domestic and international law. However, clearly the good Reverend believed like the President, that he was above the law.
And keep in mind that Reverend Robinson, after his initial run for the presidency over a decade ago, publicly stated that God told him (as is also recorded in his book) to stay out of politics. Oops, he doesn't obey God either it would appear. So who gives him his marching orders?
I suspect that the same spirit of murder that inhabited the late cult leader of Jonestown Guyana, the Reverend Jim Jones, who was a murderer in his own right, took up residence in the blood-thirsty Reverend Pat Robertson. This same Reverend Pat fought against the proposed Roadmap for Peace in the Middle-East. On many occasions I listened to Pat talk, and it did not sound to me as if he knew very much about 'the Prince of Peace’ or the ways of God. On the other hand, Pat seems to know a lot about the 'god of war'!
Clearly, truth was on the scaffold and wrong was on the throne during the George Bush years. And regrettably, this combination of conservative politicians, religious organizations and clerics are already plotting a comeback.
Neither America nor the world needs to be controlled by fascists of any stripe, even groups of religious fascists, whose sole desire is to take civilization(s) backwards! Again, this was a perfect example of the Churches' penchant need to take the world backwards instead of forward.
The world is still reeling in the aftermath of their evil plans, and from the effects of this dangerous coalition's coalescing of two dangerous factions that would not accept anything other than categorical determinism (the latter being radical western religious-political fundamentalism).
Clearly, the world-wide religious geo-political communities, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and others, need to rid themselves of the tactics of fear, the strategy of intimidation and all of those in their ranks who support worldwide terrorism in addition to religious and political hegemony. Otherwise, it would appear that Karl Marx right about religion being an 'opiate of the masses'!
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
...to be continued...,
What Should Have Happened By Now: Here are a few examples, can you think of any more?
The life cycle would have been extended even more than it has been, and we would likely be living what I refer to as time-independent eternal life reality.
The suppression of females would have ended, assuming that we continued to occupy gender-based bodies.
We would have done a better job of understanding and dealing with what we consider to be the more complex issues such as homosexuality (remember some humans have been born with 6 fingers and toes), stem cell research, the environment, infant mortality, autism, retardation...!
We would have dealt in an intelligent manner with those forces that encourage suppression, divisiveness, war and discrimination; the latter would likely have been eliminated.
We would also be able to communicate by now, in the language of what we refer to as God, instead of through the use of gibberish, nasal and guttural sounds.
The means and the methods that we would employ in order to relocate in space would be far more advanced.
Living on other planets (rocks), if we were to still exist in our current biological forms would have taken place by now, albeit we would have still been existing in a fairly primitive state of being inside of carbon-based bodies.
We would have had a direct encounter with, and likely have understood better, and co-existed alongside the entity, sovereignty or principle that we refer in today's nomenclature as God. Remember this entity has been referred to by many names and inscriptions including El, Adoni, Ywvh, Allah, the Great Spirit..., in the past!
Finally, if we don't get busy soon, future generations will consider us to have been nothing more than primitive failures. And those of us, who will do so, must carry the baton in order to benefit both our contemporaries and the ones who will follow us in future generations.
If our predecessors of thousands of years ago were to return today and ask, what are you folks doing and whether or not God returned by no, or whether or not we are living in heaven? Our answer would be that we are still reciting the stories that you left for us thousands of years ago. Furthermore, we would tell them that Jesus hasn't returned according to the stories that you passed on and finally that we are definitely not living in heaven, and the harvest has not come!
Apr 7, 2009
President George H.W. Bush Did The World a Favor - The Evil Witch Is Dead!
According to the book of Ecclesiastes, in the King James Version of the Bible, "the end of a thing is better than the beginning".
For 8 years, George H.W. Bush presided over the most oppressive economic, military and political regime that the world has known of since the reign of Adolf Hitler and the NAZI Party. George Bush's hegemonical supporters included the Conservative American ChristianChurch, in addition to conservative politicians and other conservative supporters.
Given the shape that they left the world in following his departure in 2009, and the current condition of the world-wide economy, it would appear that George Bush accomplished what the Soviet Union and other nations before him could not do - he is responsible for dismantling an oppressive and unbending political-military hegemonical organzation.
The mean old witch is dead, the witch in this instance being American fascist conservative politics!
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
to be continued....
P.S. I heard on KGO Newstalk in the wee hours of the morning that current President Obama Hussein is doing the following: "He is steering left, in order to go Right!"
For 8 years, George H.W. Bush presided over the most oppressive economic, military and political regime that the world has known of since the reign of Adolf Hitler and the NAZI Party. George Bush's hegemonical supporters included the Conservative American ChristianChurch, in addition to conservative politicians and other conservative supporters.
Given the shape that they left the world in following his departure in 2009, and the current condition of the world-wide economy, it would appear that George Bush accomplished what the Soviet Union and other nations before him could not do - he is responsible for dismantling an oppressive and unbending political-military hegemonical organzation.
The mean old witch is dead, the witch in this instance being American fascist conservative politics!
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
to be continued....
P.S. I heard on KGO Newstalk in the wee hours of the morning that current President Obama Hussein is doing the following: "He is steering left, in order to go Right!"
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