Where do we go from here?

Monotheism is evolving.  It started out in Egypt about 3500 years ago, was introduced into the Canaan territory by an Egyptian exile (Moses) who established the Hebrew (Jewish) religion.  The next big step was the work of the Apostle Paul in establishing synagogues that promoted the story of Jesus Christ throughout the Middle East.  Our present day Christian religion was really initiated by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD and then Christianity began a long, contentious, and bloody extension into more than 3000 denominations.

Thanks to a few leaders like retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong there is a chance that Christianity may eventually evolve into a more reasonable and useful religion.  I agree with him that atheism is not a solution.  There is a Supreme Being.  We human beings just do not have the intelligence or imagination to be able to conceive of the real thing.  Also, most of the time, we don’t have the imagination or intelligence to take full advantage of the unconditional love provided by this Being.  We are just conscious enough to be one step ahead of our dog.

We need to think about how we can help Christianity evolve into something that would truly be “God’s Kingdom on Earth”.

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest . . . a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.  (Albert Einstein)

*************************************************************************************************

I don’t know why I use the term “Christianity”. There are already more than 3,000 “Christian” denominations, the title is almost meaningless.  I guess we need a new Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, or someone like that to show us the way.  The term “unconditional love” keeps coming up in my musing.   If unconditional love could be a major force in our culture, its source would be the Invisible Being that we are a part of.  It is there, it is available, it  just needs to be used as a basis for our daily behavior.

Jesus often promoted unconditional love: the Good Samaritan, turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, touch the unclean, love one another, remove the beam from your own eye, etc.  In that same vein, Bishop Spong’s admonitions “do not diminish another” and “give wastefully” would qualify.  This would require true humility.  To me real, sincere humility is a sign of strength, not an indication of weakness. With the egos we all have, and the culture we live in, true humility is probably one of the most difficult personality traits to acquire and maintain.

Jesus Christ was not a power broker.  Instead, He promoted unconditional love, prolific  generosity, and true humility.  “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven!”

Who is a socialist?

I have been called a “socialist” because I believe that every person in the United States (regardless of their birthplace) should have the same kind of medical care and education that is available to me and the members of my extended family at the present time.  I also believe that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are worthwhile programs and should be continued – that is also a “socialist” opinion to the conservative Republicans and the Tea Baggers.

The dictionary says that ‘socialism’ is: “a system of society or group living in which there is no private property.”  Who says that I want to give up everything I own?  If we want to get into name-calling or pejorative labels I would call my critics “fascists”.  The dictionary definition of ‘fascism’ is: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and race and stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Our fundamentalist conservatives and the Tea-Party have a political philosophy that exalts our nation (no one is as good as we are), is racist (Muslims, Hispanics, Asians, Blacks), wants a small, autocratic, centralized government (NO, NO, NO, unless we are in control), pass laws that create social regimentation (abortion, homosexuality), and use smart bombs to subdue the opposition. This is very close to the dictionary definition of fascism.  Now, all we need is a dictator.  Perhaps Mr. Cheney or Mr. Rove would qualify.  They ran the Bush administration from the back seat for eight years.

A reminder: Jesus Christ was not a power broker.  Instead, He promoted unconditional love, prolific generosity, and true humility.  “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven!”

A beautiful story

Thought you all might enjoy this!

In an article from the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle,
reads a story of a female humpback whale who had become
entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was
weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to
struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope
wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her
mouth. A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands
(outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for
help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined
that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and
untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and
eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in
what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and
every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently
around as she was thanking them. Some said it was the most
incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the
rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole
time, and he will never be the same. May you, and all those you
love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who
will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.
And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude