Gay Marriage

Illinois will soon become the 16th state in the nation to recognize marriage as NOT JUST between a man and a woman. Very excellent and a long time coming. I was, however, made aware by our pastor, a woman dedicated to freedom and equality for all and who leads us in an open and affirming church, that our denomination still prosecutes pastors who marry or even oversee civil union ceremonies for gay or lesbian couples, and who do not condone either as pastors in their churches. I am deeply saddened by this. It caused me to remember an incident in my past. A rousing debate on the subject with a pastor of a former church I attended.

We were discussing this several years ago, and the issue was not gay marriage, as that issue was perhaps just emerging onto the stage, but it was homosexuality in any situation. My pastor at an introductory dinner, despite the fact that no one had asked the question, offered that the church considered homosexuality to be a sin and in direct violation of Biblical teachings. Well I was unprepared at the time, but I decided to look into this. Here is what I presented to him later. For a great and fair discussion see, http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibl.htm. It is a great site for all sorts of religious reference and analysis.

I asked, if homosexuality is such a dire act, as you say, then certainly Jesus preached against it at least once if not many times. I asked if he could show me where in the Gospels he explains that homosexuality is a sin. He could not.

I asked, well did Jesus point out any sins in his time on earth. Well certainly, and he rattled off several, which I agreed were in the Gospels. He pointed to Matt 15:18-20: "...those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man..." Note that sex with a person of the same sex is not specifically listed, though it is argued that it is subsumed in the word "fornication" since homosexuals could not marry one another. If, however, they can be married, then this argument is lost. In many translations, however, this word is interpreted as "prostitution," which is a different matter entirely. Most of what is translated as homosexuality is mistranslated in this manner.
The pastor did not mention any of this.

I said, "Well I wonder then, if it is an abomination, why Jesus left it out of his message entirely? I said, we are Christians, right, and so he is sort of "the guy" on what we believe, correct?"
He agreed. He did point out that, "Leaving it out does not mean he favored it. It only means that in his world of Galilee and Judea, it was not an issue that arose such that he had a reason to deal directly with it."

"But", I said, "the region was full of Greeks, Romans, Arabians, Persians, and many other non-Jews during that time. That was a big reason the Jews wanted a 'Messiah,' someone to free them and the Promised Lands from these outsiders. The area had been part of many empires over the years. The most popular was the Greek empire. Many Jews and Hebrews took on the beliefs and activities of the Greeks during these years. Many peoples, especially the Greeks, practiced homosexuality as an open part of their culture. Certainly Jesus' cared little for the Greeks and Romans, and homosexuality was a part of their culture that many of his Jewish targets had become comfortable with. He certainly would have had reason to not only run across it, but to expressly condemn it as part of the heathen cultures around his people."
No real response. He reiterated that not mentioning it does not mean he did not condemn it. The argument on that front was over. So I moved on.

I asked, "Wasn't a core part of his theology, loving everyone no matter who they are, what their sins are and even one's enemies?"
"Oh", he said, "We love homosexuals. We just believe the act is a sin under heaven. So we care for them and try to help them stop having homosexual thoughts and actual intercourse."

"Didn't Jesus also say that it is not for us to judge others?"
"Oh", he answered, "We do not judge them."
"But you just said that you judge their homosexual acts and thoughts and consider them a sin."
"Well, we believe they are not their thoughts and acts. They are the work of the Devil."

"OK, but still we are sure that Jesus never condemned homosexuality ever, right?"
"Well, no. He did not per se."

OK, so it is certainly in the Ten Commandments."
"Well, no. Not really."

"Well is is certainly one of the seven deadly sins."
"Well not specifically. Lust is on the list."
"But the concept of lust focuses us on coveting someone else's wife or someone other than our own spouse or girlfriend, or contemplates sex with someone else without their consent, essentially rape, or someone who is just looking for sex at every turn without love as a part of it at all, correct?"
"Yes, that is what it contemplates."
"Couldn't a gay or lesbian person be in love with another person of their own sex, be devoted to that person just as you are to your wife, and thus not be lustful at all?"
He stated that the church did not believe that gays and lesbians actually loved one another in that way.

"Well where is this strong and clear objection to homosexuality then and if Christ did not think it important enough to even bring up ever, how do we consider it such a terrible sin?"
He pointed to Leviticus. The current translation seems to clearly make homosexuality a sin.
I provided him a text from the Internet site above that explained how difficult that section is to translate from the original Hebrew, and that there are many translations other that the one King James' translators put to it. He looked it over, un-convinced, which I knew from the beginning what not going to happen and was not my objective. I asked, "Why are we dead set against a more positive translation? Clearly there were homosexuals at this time, and yet there is no clear demonstrable statement against it in the Old Testament. They opposed prostitution, rape, and the like, but not with any clarity, homosexual activity. Why do we force the interpretation that they did?"

We discussed some other references in the Old Testament. I pointed out that they were all about public sex, rape or threatened rape, prostitution (hetero- and homo- and other-sexual), and sometimes in the context of worshipping god with public sex. I think we are all pretty much on board that those things are at least arguably bad.

I asked if there wasn't somewhere in the Old Testament where homosexual sex between consenting adults who cared for one another was clearly banned as a sin?

"What about the New Testament?" I asked.
His eyes brightened because he knew Paul was clearly against homosexuality.

He pointed to Romans, Corinthians and Timothy as examples. As to the latter two, Paul uses a made up Greek word, "arsenokoitai." It is not found in any other Greek writings. The Greek word for homosexual males was at the time, "paiderasste." He did not use that word, so he could not have meant, consenting homosexual males.
There is a great discussion of what he may have meant at this site.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/homarsen.htm
I gave him the explanation. I had printed it out. He promised to read it over.

It is widely contemplated that Paul wrote to his Jewish audience in Greek. There is a fair amount of current argument that he actually wrote in the language most people he was targeting, mostly Jewish, but also Gentile peasants in far off lands, actually spoke - Aramaic. This would allow their leaders to actually read it to them so that they could understand. Aramaic is a pre-language of Arabic and is closely related to Hebrew, with similar alphabets but somewhat different pronunciations and some different words. It is contemplated that the Persians who ruled the area for so many years, forced all residents to speak it, even non-Jews, and so peasants who would never have been trained in Greek regardless of their heritage, would still generally speak Aramaic, just as Jesus did along with those he spke to. I do not know if all that is true, but it is interesting.

The Church of the East, which is an old Christian church that managed to escape persecution because they lived in the mountains of the area, has a very old version of the Bible written in Aramaic. They consider it the original version of the writings of the Apostles and of Paul. The pages have been translated into English. See http://www.v-a.com/bible/ and other sites.

The Aramaic "original" of this Corinthians passage translated into English reads, "Neither adulterers, nor idol makers, nor fornicators, nor perverts, nor child molesters." It does not mention homosexuality. So perhaps the translation of the Greek that the Romans used in 325 to create the Bible, was a rather failed attempt to properly translate the words from Aramaic. Perhaps it was not Paul who created "arsenokoitai" but a mediocre ancient translator who made the word up to fit an Aramaic word he was not sure about. Who knows.

Bottom line, whichever "original" you choose, NEITHER meant homosexual!

Perhaps the most powerful passage used is Romans. In just the plain reading, it seems to me to refer to prostitution. Most believe that the context clearly indicates temple prostitution. The translation from the Aramaic seems to make this clearer: 
"For their women exchanged their natural virtue for that which is unworthy of their nature. And likewise their males abandoned the female's natural virtues and exhibited their depraved lusts one for the other, and males acted shamefully against males, and they received wages worthy of oblivion in their beings."

"Regardless, unless I am mistaken," I concluded, "we are not Paulians. Paul was just a man, correct?"

"Yes, but a holy man who witnessed Jesus and spread the Word . . . "

"But he was not Jesus, right. You are a man. I am a man. We both care what Jesus preached for us. We are not a aggressive as Paul, but we are just as inspired and just at human. Why then do we ignore the positive messages of Jesus to love everyone, in favor of an arguably poorly translated message of hatred that not only conflicts with what Jesus was all about, but conflicts with everything else Paul preached to the world?"

We decided to agree to disagree, but I think I at least got him thinking. He took the pages I gave him. Who knows?

The Golden Rule - Not Quite Right

I was talking to my lovely wife Barbara about what most people believe about religion, and she said probably just the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule is, as we know:

"Do unto others as we would like others to do unto you."

or something like that. I got to thinking about that and it dawned on me that the phrase is wrong. What if I am a sadomasochist? (I'm not, but just for pretend) Did Jesus then intend that I should be able to beat up on others since that is what I would like them to do to me? I think not.

I believe that phrase should be:

"Do unto others as they would like to be treated."

Don't you think we should be focusing on "the other" in this scenario, considering we are contemplating doing something unto them?

Perhaps the Golden Rule is really not all that Golden after all.

I am going to call the above the Platinum Rule.

Love to all (which is really the Diamond Rule don't you think)!


PS, Barbara thinks I am wierd. Does that mean I can call her wierd? Just wondering.

What Got Jesus Started - A Speculation

If the ball-parked timeline in the Bible is to be believed, Jesus began his mission rather suddenly in his late 20s. The Gospel of Mark was the first one written, not long after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the 60s CE (Common Era - formerly AD). Mark is the shortest of the Gospels. It has no reference to the birth or early life of Jesus. By comparison, Matthew and Luke are written at least 10 years later and perhaps due to a need for readers to fill in some of the gaps, add two different birth stories, both of which are full of factual and historical inaccuracies, and John, written right around the turn of the first century, some 70 years after the crucifixion, does not follow the others much at all, adding new passages to solve some theological issues that Christians were likely wrestling with at that time.

Mark begins with John the Baptist baptising many people at the river Jordan. In chapter 1 he predicts that someone more powerful than he will follow him, but he does not identify Jesus as that person. In the next chapter, Jesus arrives. "At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." No pomp and circumstance, as in the other Gospels. Jesus just arrives. John matter-of-factly baptizes Jesus and moves on to the next person. Jesus sees the heavens split and the spirit alight on him, but no one else sees this. He enters the desert with John the Baptist and his followers as was the custom of those following John. John is arrested. Jesus, a good disciple of John, heads home to Galilee to preach John's message and gather followers. The rest is history, sort of.

Jesus, according to the other Gospels, was a "tekton" which simply means laborer or artisan, not carpenter as it is widely interpreted. Nazareth was a very small town as it does not appear on any ancient map. Since there would have been almost no work in a tiny town like Nazareth at the time, Jesus would likely have been employed by contractors for the Romans and wealthy Greeks and Jews in the building of two major towns in Galilee that were expanding greatly at the time - Sepphoris, older and located not far from the contemplated location of Nazareth in the mountains, and Tiberius, built later on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, southwest of Caperhaum where Jesus started his ministry. While he likely started in Sepphoris, by the time he was in his 20s, Tiberius was the better source of work, so he likely went there. Plus he ends up on the river Jordan, directly south of Tiberius. Sepphoris is located significantly farther west in the mountains.

Based on the Bible, which is all we have to go on, what do we "know" about Jesus?

• He was in his late 20s.
• He was very bright
• He knew the Jewish laws and history despite the fact that Nazareth would not have had a synagogue and he likely had no formal education there as a child. Later, as he visits with them the priests are amazed, perhaps less about his great wisdom, but more that he knew any of the holy information that was their province. They were disappointed they could not pull the wool over his eyes. This guy knew what the books actually said. How annoying that must have been, and astonishing coming from a simple Galilean peasant.
• He was charismatic, a good speaker and people followed him.
• He was passionate and driven.
• He cared for the poor and downtrodden and disliked the wealthy, non-Jews, foreigners and the priests.
• During the time we know of his life, he is without wife or children, something that would have been very very odd for a man in his late-20s.

What could we logically speculate about him prior to his appearance at the River Jordan?

• Given his intelligence and leadership skills among the low class tektons, he would likely have risen by now to a management position, perhaps a supervisor of projects for the general contractor. Certainly, unlike the Roman, Greek or Jewish masters, he spoke Aramaic, the language of the workers. They would have required the services of a now veteran tekton with Jesus' obvious qualities to lead teams of workers to get projects done.
• Therefore, he was probably relatively well off financially for a person from Nazareth.
• He was tall and apparently handsome enough. He was almost certainly married and probably had children. He probably had a small  but nice place to live and was fairly comfortable. His children would likely have been teenagers, his sons probably at the lowest rungs of the work he was overseeing.
• He likely attended synagogue and learned the laws from the Jewish priests there. There is no evidence he could read or write, but it was more common for the stories of the Jewish law to be passed down orally, especially to the lowest classes. There was in fact at that time little practical use for reading and writing among those Jesus would have associated with.

So just applying some simple logic based on what we know about Jesus, Jesus probably has a nice little life. Good job, wife, kids probably following in his footsteps, a place to live, friends to hang out with, a church community and perhaps even a Rabbi to challenge his intellect with the stories of his heritage and faith. So that begs the HUGE question . . .

What would cause a grown man with so much going for him to suddenly leave it all and end up many many miles from home being baptized by a crazy man in the middle of the wilderness at the River Jordan?

Well what else do we know about Jesus?

• He was a Jew, fairly far from the holy city of Jerusalem but still in the holy land, in a growing town of Romans, Greeks, wealthy Jews and other foreigners. If he got anything from the Old Testament lessons, this was not the way the Jewish God would have wanted true Jews to populate the Promised Land. Wealthy foreigners ruling over poor Jews. No way. Those he associated with probably complained about this often. There were frequent uprisings of the poor at the time.
• He is a man of passion, with a strong belief in doing what is right. While his theology may not have fully developed until the days with John in the wilderness, his basic understanding of life seen later was likely part of who he was in his earlier pre-mission life.
• He was a tekton. Even if he was now a man with some power, he came from the lowest ranks of the population. He was likely as high up as he could ever go. He was high enough up, however, to see how the other half lived, how they acted and how downtrodden and mistreated his people were. 
• If he had them, his sons were now working age or very close. Perhaps one of them was mistreated in a way Jesus could not ignore.

He knew the story of Moses, who, as a privileged Israelite in Egypt, killed an Egyptian overseer who was punishing a fellow Hebrew worker. It would not be a stretch to think that Jesus began to make trouble on behalf of the downtrodden Jewish tektons he supervised, including his own sons. They should be paid better. They should be treated better. Days should be shorter. Working conditions better. They should not be beaten. Jesus may have been the first union organizer. It certainly fit his demeanor. Perhaps his young, impetuous sons spoke out at well.

What would the Romans and the wealthy class in these towns have done about this. They would have crushed any dissent, as they had many times before. They would have done so harshly, to make sure the lowly tektons knew their place in the order of things, and to make sure the troublesome Jews, and the even more troublesome Galileans, feared them and remained cowed. They killed more than the perpetrator, they killed their families and even punished those guiltless people unlucky enough to be associated with them.

What makes the most sense to me, as I see a bright and evidently passionate man with absolutely no possessions whatsoever, show up at the banks of a river located many many miles to the south, is that something terrible happened to Jesus in Tiberius. Something so terrible, in fact, that he barely got out of there with the clothes on his back. Perhaps as a result of his actions, his family was murdered, house ransacked and possessions taken. Perhaps Jesus barely escaped with his life, running from his pursuers around the Sea of Galilee until he reached the River Jordan, and then following it south, he ran into John, baptizing people.

Crushed at the loss of his family, betrayed by his Jewish God, hungry, tired and strung out, Jesus follows the line of people to the water. He may not have known why. He is baptized with them, and upon coming out of the water, Jesus has a vision. Perhaps as the result of the delirium driven by the tragedies he had faced, or perhaps it was real, but at that moment he finds God. Unlike most who are baptized that day, who simply head home, Jesus has no home to go back to. He has no where to go. So he follows John and his disciples back into the wilderness. Like John, he probably eats what he can find, locusts and honey. Certainly from time to time he is tempted to leave and find another way, but he stays. He learns the ways of this Ascetic/Nazarene holy man. They begin to resonate with him. No possessions. Freedom and equality for all. God as love. Jesus spends many (40) days in the wilderness with him. John is the teacher. Jesus the student (until later Gospels change this).

When he emerges, he is a changed man. He has found a calling. He has found someone that he can follow, and he does, until John is arrested. Now, with his leader gone, what is he to do. Jesus is reborn. He is getting his confidence, his swagger, his charisma back. So he heads home to Galilee. Not to Tiberius or Nazareth even, as those places may be too dangerous for him. He heads to the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee to a lawless fishing town called Capernaum and starts preaching John's teachings to the residents there. Followers join him and his confidence grows. It is quite a while before he is bold enough, recovered enough, confident enough again to take his message elsewhere.

As he builds support and begins to travel and teach, he avoids Sepphoris and Tiberius. When he returns very briefly to Nazareth, he is basically chased out of town. There is some reason he chooses not to preach his message to the many in these towns. Perhaps he is known there, and not in a good way. Perhaps going there would be too painful, if his family died there. Perhaps the poor reception in Nazareth is because the workers there were also punished for his actions.

When he leaves, Jesus' entire family leaves Nazareth and follows him on the rest of his journey, turning up many times thereafter. James, his brother, even becomes the leader of the church after the crucifixion. Why would they all up and leave unless home was no longer a safe place to be, or as outcasts, they could no longer make a living there. Jesus certainly was not afraid of big cities. He went to a few on his way to the biggest one, Jerusalem for his final days.

Why did he never marry again? There of course is speculation that he was married or at least very close to Mary Magdalen, and perhaps even had a son by her. If that is not true and my speculation is, it would not be odd for him to avoid marriage. Many widows and widowers can never bring themselves to remarry for the love of their deceased spouse. If he felt as though he caused their death, the pain of re-marriage may have been even greater. His new mission also made marriage and certainly children impractical, but again "replacing" children that you feel you may have indirectly killed, would have been difficult at best. John was likely a Nazarene, a devout monk-like sect of Judaism that did not believe in marriage, among other things. If Jesus was a disciple, he likely took on the same beliefs. Finally, if he knew the end-game was crucifixion, and we know he mentioned it many times, perhaps he felt that would be unfair to yet another family.

Who knows what really happened? But I was just thinking . . . what if?

The Bible

I saw a sign on a Christian Evangelical Church as I drove through Wisconsin today that reminded its congregation to "Read the Bible Every Day." Well the more I read the Bible and read what scholars know about what the Bible says, when it was written, by whom and why, I have come to believe this is very poor advice if one wants to keep the flock together.

The Old Testament, as anyone who has read this before knows, is full of mythological fairy tales filled with magic, violence, power, vengeance, favoritism, lust and random restrictions on things that are punishable by death or worse. Perfect for a movie script, but certainly not for theology. Even Jews have come to believe that the stories are there for guidance, inspiration, metaphorical meaning and to set certain standards of behavior. The mainstream Jews since the early 1st century if not before, do not profess that the tales are true.

I recently read the book Zealot, by Reza Aslan, which I highly recommend. It is an attempt to gain a better perspective on who Jesus of Nazareth really was and what he stood for. I cannot recreate it here of course, but as with several other books by similarly dedicated theological scholars, he points out the innumerable flaws in the Bible and in our current understanding of it.

He mentioned a couple of points that I had never really realized.

1. The concept of writing accurate history based on facts is a concept that is only a few centuries old. Prior to this, perhaps because history was mostly recounted for entertainment in oral form, tales of the past were elaborated upon in order to make them more powerful or to make a point relevant to the listener at the moment of the telling. This is similar to the way great story-tellers relate history today. That tradition has been handed down to them over the eons father to son. The stories of the Bible, old and new testament, are no different. The myriad inconsistencies in both Testaments between books can be reconciled by looking to whom the audience was. Matthew spoke to the Jews who lived outside Jerusalem who were less familiar with the Jewish Law, Mark spoke to Jews in Rome and Luke to the Jewish Greeks, though other than perhaps Luke, none of Matthew, Mark or John were written by their namesakes. Each book elaborates on the ones that came before. Mark was first, over 30 years after the crucifixion, is shortest and simplest and probably based mostly on oral testimony and perhaps a few written documents. Matthew and Luke are reasonably contemporaneous, another 20 years or so later in time, and include much of Mark, but both add: 
1. Some parts not in Mark that are relatively consistent with one another called as a whole by scholars Q since they seem to come from a single separate source material other than Mark.
2. The birth story, inconsistent, but critical to the messianic myth stories upon which their audiences may have relied.
3. Some completely ridiculous additions to answer questions and place blame for Jesus' crucifixion on the Jews rather than Romans, which would not have sat very well with any of the target audiences.
2. Authors often wrote under the name of a more famous person. Sometimes because that person could not write, but often because they were a follower and wanted to give the revered leader credit. While so authored, the writer was probably reasonably true to the beliefs of the stated author. In addition to Matthew, Mark and John, the epistles of the illiterate Peter and James, many of Paul's writings fall into this category. Several were written well after Paul's death.

So, bottom line is that most, if not all, of the Bible is a forgery and all of it certainly is made up and adjusted so as to push forward the messages that the writer wanted to push.

Even in the best of circumstances, Paul's theology, written by a man who never met Jesus, is completely irreconcilable with that of Jesus and those who did know him personally, Peter and his brother James. James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem after the crucifixion. James referred to Paul as the enemy, called him before him several times, dressed him down for his preaching and sent preachers to the churches Paul wrote to in order to fix the message Paul was professing. 

The Romans preferred the message of Paul. All of the "christian" leaders called to Rome for the Council of Nicea were Romans, not Hebrews. So, Paul is in and others were out.

Are we Christians? Are we really Paulians? Are we Biblicans? 

I for one, anymore, am none of the above and have been for quite awhile. I am just not sure it is wise for those in the evangelical christian movement who control the Biblical message to encourage their followers to read it themselves lest they find out the truth. Woe to the religion if this happens. 

So SHHHHHhhhhh!!! about all this OK?

What I Hear

I am speaking at the 8:00 am church service this Sunday. This is what I propose to say. I would love your thoughts.

I remember when my journey started. I was 9 years old and sitting in the front row of a packed United Methodist Church of Kirkwood, MO on Easter. The extremely traditional service in a very traditional church was trudging along. Men and young boys like me were fidgeting in their suits and ties. Women were sitting daintily in their Sunday best. I looked out over the crowd through the spaces in the balcony railing, and I thought to myself, “What hypocrites we all are.”

This is when I realized that most people are what I now refer to as “Check the Box” religious.

Attended Church on Easter                         Check

Attended Church on Christmas                   Check

Sent in some money                                     Check

SAVED, Halleluiah!!

I decided that was not the religion for me. So I began to ask questions. Some were asked of adults, but perhaps as many were asked of whatever God is. To my surprise, I got answers.

My father left our family, which was devastating. I did not like that answer.

My mother was depressed and we were suddenly poor, forced to drink powdered milk and eat Underwood Chicken Spread. I did not like that answer very much either.

I decided I did not like this thing they called God very much.

We found the Reverend Larry Watson and the Kirkwood United Church of Christ, KUCC, and things changed, not really for the better but I began to see a tad more clearly and started to get my feet back under me a bit. He was a good man and he led our Youth Group to great summer trips to Indian reservations across the west to build fences, dig drainage ditches, clear trails, etc, probably a lot like our ASP project. These were eventful. I nearly had my leg cut off at the knee by an axe in the Montana Mountains and was flown by helicopter to the hospital at Yellowstone for over 100 stitches to put me back together. I was bucked off a wild horse after a 4 second ride in front of several laughing Hopi Indians in Arizona. Just a few cactus spines to be removed from my shoulder and I was fine, with a newly earned respect from my peers and the Indians. Great fun. Not really terribly spiritual though.

High School was hell. College was bacchanalian. My first wife left me for a 6’4” gun-toting FBI agent less than one year into our marriage. So this God fellow was not yet a best friend, by any stretch of the imagination. 

Since then I secured a law degree, was married, had two wonderful children. I hated law and left it in 1999. My wife eventually divorced me as well. To say that God was not with me was an understatement.

My oldest daughter, Jessica, found a church during High School. Probably something she needed as I did after my parents’ divorce. The pastor was wonderful. We had our disagreements, (we had a humdinger of an argument about homosexuality once, and another about whether the Bible is true) but he got me to begin to read the Bible and most of all care about who and what God is. 

For the last 8 years I have been studying the Bible, other books, asking questions and listening. In a nutshell, here is what I have learned:

The Old Testament God cannot possibly be reconciled with the God of Jesus. Jesus’ God would never have a “Chosen People,” kill the first born of an entire population, destroy an entire army of human beings, order His people to enter a city and kill every living person and thing in that town, throw temper tantrums, etc. Jesus God is a turn the other cheek God. He is a passive resistance God. He is the God of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. So to me the Old Testament is a nice story of old myths and fairy tales, with some bits of inspirational thought, but it is not, to me, the Word of God.

Paul was a man. Paul was a dedicated man, but just a man. Paul met Jesus on the road six years after the crucifixion. Paul had a theology. An inclusive theology. But as we read what he wrote, we have to remember there were many competing theologies of men, some of whom actually knew Jesus, that were not chosen by the Romans when the New Testament was compiled some 300 years after the crucifixion. Paul’s letters should not, in my opinion only, be read as the Word of God. They are the word of Paul, a great man to be true, but not Jesus. We should equally revere the words of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John Wesley, and many other great men and women, many of whom also died for the cause of peaceful change. They are no different than Paul.

So, for me, that leaves us with the four Gospels to wrestle with. The inaccurate and conflicting accounts of what Jesus actually said. I believe he has several core messages, revolutionary messages indeed.

1. Personal Relationship: You have a personal relationship with God. One on one. You do not need to pray through anyone or anything. Also, there is no right or wrong. Jesus implored us not to judge others. He did not say, Do unto others according to this rule I command of you. No, he said, do unto others AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU. The Lord ’s Prayer points out that you will be forgiven your sins TO THE EXTENT YOU HAVE FORGIVEN OTHERS. What is right under God, is what is right for YOU and YOUR personal relationship and path with God. What is right for you is not necessarily right for me.

2. What is this God? First, I want you to know that I can prove there is a God, or at least a spirit. It is provable through the basic laws and theories of physics and biology. It is too much to cover here, but if you are interested, I can provide it to you. As I spoke to physicists and scientists and others to prove God, I learned many things about WHAT God really must be.

To me, God is the connection of the souls of all those living and past, whether human or otherwise, who have souls. I call it the spiritual internet. It strives naturally and without thinking or judging or compassion or hatred, like all things in nature, to achieve balance and harmony among all beings. If we disrupt the Harmony with negativity, God, the harmony, the Spirit of Truth, will fill that rift with exactly what you are looking for, more negativity. The balance in the universe is restored. When we break the balance with positive energy, a deep positive desire for something, the Spirit fills that rift with more positivity. If we are tapped into this power, we are guided in a way that keeps us in positive harmony with all other souls and can provide us with gifts and strength we never knew we could muster. 

3. Ask. Ask for what you want out of life. Determine what you truly, deeply want. What are you most deeply passionate about? What would you love your life to be like? What do you want most in the whole world, down deep in your heart?

If you focus on the negative, God will give you exactly what you are asking for, more negative things. If you focus on the positive, God will give you exactly what you are asking for, more positive things. God does not decide for you. Ask and you shall receive. Barbara gave me a great metaphor. When you focus on the negative you create a whirlpool in the Harmony that draws negativity to you. When you focus on the positive, you create an equally strong whirlpool that draws positive things to you. When you are deeply focused on what you want in particular, and do it in a positive way, you will create a whirlpool that will draw that to you. 

When you do this, it is very cool how often it works, even in the littlest examples.

When we all pray as a group for something we all deeply want and care about, we can create a maelstrom of positivity toward the result we all are driving for. That is perhaps as cool a part of this as anything.

This is the Power of Positive thinking and it has been around for centuries. Jesus taught us this.

4. Believe. Have faith that what you want will come to you. You have to truly believe that you will get what you are asking for. 

Jesus did not really heal anyone. Read the stories. The faith of the person who came to Jesus healed them. They healed themselves or their friends by asking for it, believing deeply that it would happen and then acting upon that faith, even if it would get them into trouble or it seemed impossible.

5. Act. The final step is the act. For many years the following was the sole part of my belief system

Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do and you will find yourself in harmony with all of God’s souls.

I still deeply believe this is the key, and it serves me well every day. I know that you know in your hearts what the right thing to do is, pretty much every minute of every day. You are often afraid to act on that because it is scary, embarrassing or your mother would not approve, or that chocolate chocolate chip cookie just looks too good to pass up. Can I get an AMEN on that one!!

The story of the rich man who came to Jesus and wanted to follow him is not a condemnation of the rich. The man knew what he wanted. He had faith he could achieve it. He even stepped out of his comfort zone and met Jesus where Jesus was. Jesus offered to accept him into his fold. BUT when Jesus explained what that entailed, the rich man was not willing to do what was required to secure what he knew in his heart was the right thing for him. Giving up his fortunes was too difficult. He failed to have the faith to act on what the Holy Spirit guided him to do. That was the failure of the rich man.

On the other hand, the story of the friends of the paralytic knew what they wanted, believed with the deepest of faiths that it could be achieved, and they climbed onto the building and broke a hole in it to achieve their results. Despite the difficulties, a nearly certain arrest and the near impossibility of their actions, they acted with faith that they were doing the right thing. They were doing what the Holy Spirit was driving them to do. 

How many of us would give up all our wealth to follow Jesus? 

How many of us would haul our paralyzed friend up onto a building, break a hole in the roof and drop him in to cure him?

This is the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, guiding you through the harmony of all the souls in the world, living and dead. If all you do is do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do, you will live in God’s way. You will follow the path that is right for you.

But your life can be more than that. Ask for what you truly want. Create your own positive whirlpool. No matter what happens along the way, keep the faith that it will come to you and most of all, ACT.

Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do, do it with deepest faith that what you want will come to you, do it with positive energy, and act on what you know the Holy Spirit is guiding you to do, and you will receive what you have asked for.

That is what I hear.

Doing Good

A good friend of mine read my last blog post and had this to say:

"When I read your blog, I was struck with the overwhelming impression that you place the responsibility of a person's well being in each person's hands.  If you really want it, go for it.  If you have questions, think about it and you will come up with the right decision.  When I think about myself, I totally agree that I have the means (God willing, I suppose) to take care of my own destiny.  But this is due to the background I was born into, the money and resources that my parents and grandparents provided, the educational opportunities that I received, and sheer luck that I am physically and mentally in reasonably good shape.  If I complain with all that I have, shame on me.  Totally agree!

What bothers me is that you also seem to imply that if you are not doing well, that is your fault.  Having traveled to many disadvantaged regions in the world, having learned first hand about discrimination and stereo-typing, knowing from my work with people with [certain] disorders, I know that there are people who are not able to overcome their situation without the help of others.  My understanding of Jesus is that he wanted his disciples to take care of the marginalized.  "Tend my sheep" is what he said to Peter.  Sure, he told the beggars to "pick yourself up and live with faith", but he balanced it with a strong plea that we must take care of the disadvantaged.  This is the message I am missing from your blog."

I certainly did not intend that helping others was not part of the bargain or that we are "at fault" for our own situation. I am a huge believer in helping others. It is part of who I am. We all know that the greatest pleasure one can enjoy is giving to others and seeing them joyfully receive the gift. 

What I needed to learn, however, is that I do it for myself. I do it because it makes me feel good. It is the right thing for me to do at the time. When you do things for the others, you guide your universe in that manner, whether that is good for you or not. You have intentionally created a Harmony that sacrificed your world for theirs, whether they give a rat's buttocks about you and your help or not.

Now, I do what I know is right for me to do for others. I hope that the things I do help the people intended, but I realize now that is entirely outside of my control. That is entirely within their control. If what I bring to the table for others ends up helping to change their world in a positive way, it is because they took it and changed their world in a positive way. I, other than being a provider, had zero to do with whether their life was changed or not. Of course, the benefit may be small or large, and again, that is up to the recipient, not the provider. Either way, if I did it because it felt good to me, it is good for me and my Harmony with my universe and all other souls. 

Just as often, of course, a person in need of help refuses to benefit from the gifts of others. This can be for many reasons. Perhaps to improve is frightening. Perhaps to feel good seems wrong. Perhaps to find a better way may mean risking stability they have in their current situation. Perhaps they are strong while the supporter is there to do it for them, but fall into their old ways as soon as they are on their own again. Who knows why a person chooses not to benefit from gifts, but we all know it happens. In the end, though, it is the decision of the recipient whether to benefit from or fall away from the gifts of others. Who are we to judge how they fit in the Harmony of the universe? Their world, however wretched in our minds, might be perfect for them or at least makes them feel in Harmony. I could never live like the Masai on the high plains of Kenya, but they seem to love it. We don't like it so we build stuff for them and bring them things we are sure they will like. We try to help. We feel good. All is good. 

Or, perhaps they are stranded in a negative world they cannot seem to get out of. 

Perhaps the greatest gift we can provide one another is the power to believe that each of us is in control of our own world. We each have the power to make our world better, to ask for the things we need, to have the faith to believe that it can happen, and most of all the strength to do what is required, to do what each of us knows in our heart is right, to do what the Holy Spirit guides us to do, immediately and without hesitation. 

I believe that there are two parts of the universe:

• Nature that is completely bound by the laws of physics, unable to adjust or change from them. This allows us to build things, send things into space, throw a strike with a baseball, etc. Our physical bodies are part of Nature. They break down. They have issues. Like any machine, they do not always run the way they should. We are bound to occupy our bodies for better or worse. Why not do so for the better. The examples of those who simply refused to succumb to the limitations of their bodies, to look at the positives and strive for the maximum their lives could be, are myriad. They made that happen for themselves. Perhaps others helped them? Perhaps someone lent a hand or provided guidance? In the end, it was they who accomplished the feat, not the counselor, not the coach, not the friend. They created their harmony within their universe around the bodies they were stuck in.
• The Harmony, the spiritual connection of all souls to all other souls, God, the Holy Spirit, the spiritual internet, is the power that allows us to drive the machine. For more, consider reading my post on Proof of God. This is the part of us to which the Law of Attraction applies. No matter the condition of our body, the political system around us, our wealth or poverty, the country we live in, or the differences, strengths or weaknesses we were born with, our spirit is who we are and is what allows us to control our place in the Harmony of all souls. The Harmony is what allows us to change our spiritual world either to the positive or negative.

Being positive is not limited by our situation. It is limited only by our faith.

I believe that the connection of all of our souls matters. AA, NA, GA, OA and all of the other "__A" members meet in small groups that support one another. These group members pull for one another, but a core understanding is that each member is responsible only for him or herself. He or she is not responsible for anyone else in the group. Each member has a more veteran sponsor who helps to guide his or her charge through the process, through stresses, threats and temptations. But this idea that the successes or failures of the charge are not the responsibility of the sponsor applies equally to this more direct relationship. Success or failure rests solely on the shoulders of the member. Sometimes they fail. Often it is the strength they find in the group that gets them back on track. They reconnect with the part of the Harmony that helps them. But in the end, the individual is responsible for his or her own success and failure.

Is our situation our fault? Fault is a difficult concept and I do not like it much. It implies blame where often there is none. Our situation is frequently just that - our situation. It could be due to many factors outside of our control, as listed above, entirely within our control, but most often it is a combination and mash up of many responsibilities. I know that the majority of my situation I brought upon myself, but there were many co-conspirators and participants, and there are aspects of my situation, such as arthritis in my knees and ankles, spreading to my hips and hands, that are genetic and part of the frailties of my body machine. For awhile last Fall I succumbed to "my situation," gained a bunch of weight and felt worse. I could have kept going but I chose to change. Am I without pain? Far from it, but I decided to be positive, change my world and it has worked. I am not out of the woods, but I am on the way.

I am not special. If I can do it anyone can. Perhaps with a little help from our friends, we all can.

The Law of Attraction

Well blow me down and shiver me timbers. There is a LAW that essentially states all the things I believe. It has been around for a long time. Check out this website.

• http://applying-the-law-of-attraction.com/ 

So basically the Law of Attraction says that you control your universe and attract to you what you "ask" for. Like any law, it is impersonal and does not care what you actually want or mean or who you are. If you complain about being poor and in debt and lonely, the universe will make sure you get your wish. You will become poorer, more in debt and lonelier. If you wish to be happy, wealthy and full of friends, and that is what you think about, have faith you deserve and work toward, you will be happy, wealthy and full of friends.

One of the components is to do in life what you are deeply passionate about. Anyone who knows me knows that passion is the key to everything. I have long professed that to be successful you have to become best in your world at what you do. Your world is described by you, and can be limiting or broadening. Up to you.

Being best in the world is difficult. It takes time and commitment. It requires you to become an expert. The only thing you will spend the required amount of time doing the things required for you to become best in the world is that about which you are deeply passionate. As it turns out, focusing on your passions, what you want most in life, what you love most in life, and following through, essentially bends the universe so that you can achieve it. The universe bends to make it easier for you to reach. You want it so badly that to maintain harmony and balance in the universe, what I call the Harmony, brings it to you.

This applies to everything. This is the Harmony. When you do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do, you are tapping into this.

My concept of God as the connection of all souls makes perfect sense within the Law of Attraction. That force wants balance, harmony and for everyone to be happy. Harmony, grace and balance is found in happiness, not in sorrow, misery, fear and hatred. But, if you want to be poor, to maintain harmony, the Harmony/God/Connection of all Souls, will give you what you want.

I think back over the time during which I have become aware of the Harmony and I realize I have gotten EVERYTHING I have asked for. I have the job I chased down and got and love. I have Barbara, the love of my life. I have two great kids. I have a great family and even a great ex-family. I have friends, a great church, a nice place to live and all that stuff.

BUT, I am poor and in debt financially, BECAUSE I asked for it!  I never asked or tried to have wealth. I am working on that. I have realized I am too nice and cannot effectively manage people. They were more important to me than money, so I let them get away with stuff. That actually made me happy. If Paul was feeling good about himself, I felt good, even if it was costing me money.

Ursula asked if I have always made the "right" decisions. I told her I have always made the decision I believed was right in my heart at the time, based on what I wanted out of the deal. For the period I knew him, Paul was off drugs, productive and happy. Once I moved away and our business ended, he went back to his old problems and is back in jail. I am sad for that, but I know HE asked for it! He bent the universe so that he would end up back in jail.

Did I learn from those decisions? Of course. I learned that I get exactly what I ask for. I can only control MY universe. Not Paul's. Not any of yours. I gained a greater understanding of the Harmony, of being poor, of who I am as a person, my strengths and weaknesses, and the importance of recognizing that you cannot have as YOUR main objective the universe of another person. You have no control over that universe. That is not your Harmony to deal with.

God is not a weird scary vengeful being in the sky. God is, in essence, YOU. God is the connection of all spirits and you control YOUR part of that universe. To stay in Harmony, God will adjust to what YOU ask for, so ask for things you really want.

There are even the same basic 3 steps in the Law of Attraction:

• Know what you want. Tell everyone. Write it down. Ask for it. Pray for it. 
• Have unwavering faith that you will achieve it. Believe, no matter the obstacles and no matter the challenges along the way, that it will come to you. This is how you begin to let the connection of souls/God/the Harmony know how your universe needs to bend in order for it to stay in harmony.
• Finally, do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do. You will become aware of the steps you need to take, the processes required, the people you need to meet, the things you need to say, etc, in order for you to achieve your objectives and restore balance to the universe. Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do IMMEDIATELY!  Do it without hesitation. Do it on faith. I have and it has landed me in precisely the place I asked for over and over again. 

This applies to huge things and little things. Barbara and I were attending the Strawberry Festival a few weekends ago. We had worked out and were tired. I asked for a spot close to the fair. Barbara agreed we would find one. We found a pretty good one, but we both knew there would be a better one and passed it up. Sure enough the car in the very first spot next to the entrance pulled out as we arrived and we got the best spot in the place. We got it because we were in the Harmony and did not second guess what we knew would be true. I would say this is just a coincidence, but I do not believe in luck and we do this all the time and it always works!

For this to work, you really have to believe in it. You have to know what you want and go for it. You have to have faith when you know you are supposed to, like Indiana Jones, walk on the invisible walkway over the chasm to the chamber where the chalice, your goal, is located.

Find your passions, little and big. Find your loves, momentary and permanent. Find your dreams, short and long term. Make them happen. They are yours for the 

asking.

The Big Picture

I thought it was time to summarize what I have come to believe through reading, discussing but mostly deep thinking and receiving answers. To start with, you must forget almost everything the Bible, your parents, pastor and whoever told you about most things and be willing to ascribe new meanings to words you have long used, like God, Soul, Spirit, etc. I wrestled with using new words for these things, but decided to use the old words and figured if you are reading this, you can handle it.

What is God?  "God" is simply the interconnection of the spirits of all things with Souls to one another. I have likened it to a spiritual internet. From the great prophets in many cultures, well before Jesus, through Jesus himself, to many many brilliant connected theological thinkers since, it has been made clear that God is within each of us and we have a direct connection with and to God. Just because everyone calls it by this name, lets go ahead an refer to the spirit within us as the Soul.

God is not a separate being. We are God. We are all God together. We, connected and acting in harmony with one another without even knowing it, are God. We control God, not the other way around. We control our universe. You control YOUR universe. We use the Laws of Physics to do this.

Us.  We are composed of two parts. Our bodies and our Souls. Our bodies are very complex machines controlled by a very complicated computer. The Laws of Physics govern how it does what it does. Lots of the things that your body does, it does simply be operating properly. Heart beats, breathing, endocrine, lymph, waste and hundreds of other systems just function in accordance with the Laws of Physics. So the fact that a heart beats before birth does not mean the body has a Soul. I do not know when that happens.

There are all sorts of bodies out there that operate in this way, that may not have a Soul. The machine just functions by absorbing energy and functioning to stay alive until it dies. Plants just operate. Do they have a Soul? Are they connected to the God network? I don't really think so, but do not really know. Contemplate one-celled animals, reptiles, and amphibians; all of which are almost completely reactive critters. What about mammals up to dolphins and primates? Perhaps the complete balance of nature means that all of them are? Who knows?

Like any machine, it requires an operator for it to work. When your Soul enters any body, your body, whenever that is, you become the operator of that body. As the operator, you drive the machine. You choose where to drive it. Coolest thing is that by interacting with God, the spiritual internet, the super energy connecting all of us to one another, the super energy that wants all things to stay in harmony, you can change your universe to get what you want for YOU.

How does that Work?  Since you are always connected to the spiritual internet, you can tap into it. If you ask, the answer will be provided. If you need something, ask for it in a positive way, focus on it, believe with deep faith that you will receive it, and then act in accordance with the guidance from the spiritual connection we all share, what you need will come to you.

Nature strives for balance and harmony. That is not always good for any particular animal, as, of course many are inevitably food for others. Generally, however, food animals tend to reproduce rapidly and it tends to be the weakest among them who perish. So in essence, balance in the entire system is maintained.

Jesus noted that the sparrow never worries about where his next meal will come from. Assuming the sparrow is connected, it knows what it needs and has absolute faith it will find it and being connected, does without even thinking about it exactly what it is guided to do to find what it needs when it needs it. Except, of course, the weaker ones eaten by hawks or cats. Circle of life.

I saw a video that likened it to the genie in Aladdin, "Your wish is my command."  I think it is more like what Jesus said, "Ask and you shall receive." Jesus did not heal anyone. In the stories they came to him, asked for what they needed and because he was there and they truly believed in him, what they asked for happened. He even said that. He told them, because of your faith you are healed. He never said, because of me and my great powers, you are healed.

There are three requirements:

• Ask for what you need in positive terms.
• Really believe that it will happen. Faith must be strong to keep the spirit working.
• Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do, always, all the time, no matter what.

The Power of Positive Thinking: The spiritual internet, God, is part of nature. It does not think. It is just a force, the force, creating harmony and balance among all living things.

Inexperienced soccer coaches often make the mistake of telling their shooters "Do not hit the goalie." This is a negative statement. The result is they hit the goalie. Zero percent will score. Experienced coaches tell them to hit the goalpost, knowing that most of the time they will miss the skinny goal post and a percentage of those will be inside the goal post for a chance at goal. The difference is the first is what NOT to do, which does not work, and the second is a positive action, which does.

If you are in debt, pray for, ask for, what you need. Do not ask to get out of debt. That is negative. If you want to lose weight, don't focus on what NOT to eat or do, but instead on what weight you are going to get to and what you will eat and do to make that happen. Cast whatever you need in the positive.

Do not be greedy. As Mick Jagger pointed out, "You don't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." Mostly greed is something that you never really believe deeply enough that you will achieve. If you truly believe you will receive/achieve it, ask for that.

That being said, go for more than the minimum and ask for what YOU need. I own two houses I am going to sell soon. I acquired them for purposes of helping others, which happened, but not to my benefit. I did not ask for that. That is why good people sometimes do not get what they want. Because they think it is greedy or inappropriate to ask for it. They ask only for things that benefit others. Your wish is my command. Ask and you shall receive.

Believe:  When you truly believe and have faith that what you have asked for will happen for you, this reinforces daily, momently, what you have asked for to the spiritual internet, to God. It creates an imbalance that the force needs to balance to return nature to harmony. If you do not believe, there is no actual request and thus no imbalance to remedy. You may not get what you are asking for in a day, a week, a whatever, so faith has to be complete and constant.

Act:  Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do. The world spirit will communicate to your spirit how to guide your body to remedy the imbalance. You must do all of these things all of the time or you will be fighting against the very thing you have asked for.

Why does that happen. Because the world spirit, the spiritual internet, God, whatever you want to call it, is driven toward balance and harmony for every creature in the system. It does not make decisions. It does not screw you over. It does not think. It just does. The system simply strives through natural processes to balance itself. You are simply letting it know how your world is out of balance and then doing the things required to re-balance your world.

You can be and have everything you need and want as long as you ask, believe and act.

Christianity is Simple (not easy though)

In my humble opinion (and I suppose since I write this perhaps humble is a matter of opinion itself), Christianity is not as complicated as so many seem to make it. Afterall there are a lot of people out there making a lot of money telling you what you are supposed to believe. It would suck for them if it was not very complicated.

So by Christianity I mean, what Jesus taught. That is in the four Gospels (and perhaps other writings if you like them). It is not necessarily in the rest of the Bible.

The Old Testament:  The God of the Old Testament is irreconcilable with the God of Jesus. The God of the Old Testament was viscious. If you take the Bible literally (which I don't), the first thing the offspring of God's first humans did was fight and kill and then run away. God later killed thousands in a flood, destroyed two cities, turned a woman to salt, killed every first born son of an entire country, killed the Egyptian army, and ordered the Israelites to kill every man, woman, child and every animal in Jericho, and punished the Israelites who did not do so. These are just a few of the murders commited by or ordered by the God of the Old Testament.

The God of Jesus is about love, kindness and non-violence. The God of Jesus is the love your enemy and turn the other cheek God. So, either there are two completely different Gods, which I suppose is fine, or the Old Testament is like the mythologies of the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians and other ancient peoples of the same time period, just stories of human-like anthropomorphized gods to explain things in nature they could not understand and the violent orders of violent leaders hell-bent on taking land from a foe. Nothing increases the subservience of a people in scary times than the much scarier fear of being smited by God.

So, to me the Old Testament is not relevant to being Christian. There might be some inspiring words and sayings in it, but it is not what being Christian is all about.

Paul:  Most of what is quoted from the New Testament comes from the letters Paul wrote, or allegedly wrote, to various rising groups of Christians. We quote Paul as though he was Jesus, but he was not. Paul never met Jesus while Jesus was in his ministry. He ran into him on the road to Damascus after the resurrection. So, everything that Paul knew about Jesus and his teachings came from what others must have told him or what he read in whatever was written about Jesus at the time, none of which we have now.

Paul was a man. Just a guy, like you or me, or perhaps more precisely your minister, priest or someone else who has dedicated his or her life to spreading what they believe to be the word of God as expressed by Jesus. He was hugely important to the birth of the Christian faith and arguably without him, there would be no Christian faith. He spread the "Word" to non-Christians all around the Mediterranean. This was not all that well received by the disciples, who generally believed that Jesus' teachings were for Jews. So without Paul, Jesus would just have been a prophet of a sect of Judaism.

BUT, he was NOT Jesus. Like the Old Testament, what he says has to be taken as inspirational, but not how to be a Christian.

Jesus:  So what did Jesus say Christianity is. To me, it is very simple. Hard perhaps to execute, but very simple. Here is how I see it and you are welcomed to disagree.

1. Personal Relationship: He explained that we have a personal relationship with God through the metaphorical Holy Spirit or Spirit of Truth. This was revolutionary. Jesus explained that you do not have to ask your priest, minister, a saint, an icon or anything else to intercede on your behalf with God. You can speak directly with God and if you ask for guidance, and listen, you will know in your heart what the right thing to do is. The priests and rabbis of the time did not like this message. Their careers depended on being the source of God's word for the people. Great rulers also did not like this. They waged wars and convinced the ordinary people to follow them out of fear that they are God's chosen ruler and God will smite the masses if they do not follow the ruler. This was radical but it is the core of Jesus' new religion.
2. Unconditional Love:  Jesus taught us to love everyone without limitations of conditions. This includes not just our families and friends but enemies, the poor, children, women, the diseased, the infirm and everyone else no matter who they are. These teachings are clearly inconsistent with the teachings of Paul which are often interpreted or translated, perhaps inaccurately, as intolerant of homosexuals, women and others. Loving unconditionally is difficult. It does not require, I suppose, for us to particularly like everyone. Bottom line, love everyone completely. Respect them. Care about them. Be real for them. But most of all love them for who they are, where they are and what they are all about, no matter how much they irritate you, annoy you or their positions are contrary to your own. That is what Jesus taught us.

Really everything else is a corrolary from those two. Non-violence is an extension of loving everyone, including your enemies; as is tollerance of others, foregiveness of others for everything they do for you or others. Love your spouse and don't covet those other's love, etc. If you love everyone, you cannot be greedy. You cannot take things from those you love. You cannot kill those you love.

I actually consider that everything derives from the first rule. Anyone who has read anything I write knows that I go by that first rule exclusively and it has never led me to any result other than the second rule. I ask God for guidance, to know what is the right thing to do. I feel that when I do this, and listen for the answer, I find I come to know in my heart what the right thing to do is. It does not always lead to great financial results. But in the end it makes me happy. I feel like my decisions help make others happy. I feel as though I live in harmony with others.

If Jesus actually performed the miracles reported in the Gospels, they were illustrative of the power of love for everyone, even people Jesus did not know at all. They could have been horrible people. He did not care. He loved them, period.

All of that stuff is window dressing on the very simple message of Jesus. The spirit is with you (wherever you believe it comes from). Ask and you shall receive relates to guidance, not stuff.

All that being said, following that one simple rule, followed by the second simple rule, is very difficult to do every day. Being a Christian is simple, BUT it is NOT EASY.

A New Religion??

A while back a friend of mine who reads this stuff asked if I was trying to start a new religion. It made me think about what the question really means.

There are a few "major" religions and hundreds or more "minor" ones around the world. Each major religion at least is divided into several subdivisions from "orthodox," to "protestant," to "progressive." Those are divided into different subdivisions, often by region, led by people with different interpretations of the main religion. Each of those sub-sub-divisions are practiced somewhat differently within each parish, church, synagogue, temple or whatever, depending on the thoughts and ideals of the spiritual leader. Within that are individuals and families of attendees who come from different upbringings whose core beliefs and practices vary from that of the local spiritual leader in the church they have elected to feel a part of.

Even those who profess to be the most devoutly orthodox often differ widely on the interpretation of the rituals and underpinnings of that religion. The Catholic Cardinals, about as high up in that organization as you can get, are followers of different versions of that religion. Apparently the new Pope is the first from the Jesuit group of religiously orthodox Catholics. One would think that if there was one religion that the followers of the oldest christian-based one would have complete agreement at the very top.

Then of course, the majority of the population, at least in the US, are irregular attendees at any church and have wildly divergent beliefs based on their own thoughts on the world. Almost 1 in 5 who answered the question admit that they follow no religion at all. Among that majority of Americans are atheists, agnostics, non-deists, deists, and a whole host of others who either do not believe in any god, are not sure if they do or do not, or could care less either way and never really think about it. I think most of us have "religions" or spiritual beliefs that change significantly through our lives based on things we read, things that happen to us, people we meet, ideas shared and significant moments that make us evaluate our lives.

So, when asked "am I trying to start another religion" with my weird thoughts on things, the answer is, I suppose so, yes. Mine.

Just like you have created your own belief system (even a determined lack of belief is a belief system). I am sure that yours is something that you are comfortable with and makes you feel good about your life day to day and within the grander scheme of things. And I don't expect you to believe ANYTHING I write, just as I expect you will not mind that I don't take as "gospel" anything you or anyone else has to say on the subject.

That being said, perhaps we can all learn from one another a bit more from time to time about the mysteries of life. I am listening and interested!!

Death

I suppose that following Easter is a good time to talk about death. As far as that subject goes, Easter is about the brightest moment for death in human history. Death intrigues me. It is counter to everything in nature. But, you say, every living thing dies. Ahhh, but does it?

One of the most basic concepts in nature is infinity. It is a concept that is very hard for most of us to get our heads around because we live in a finite world with walls and . . . well death. But in nature everything is forever.

Space is infinite. It never ends. There are no walls out there and if there were, there would be more space on the other side or the wall would have to be infinitely deep. Even though we cannot see it, space is infinite.

Space is infinite in the other direction as well. Every part of one small thing is made of still smaller things. Chihuahuas are made of molecules, which are made of atoms, which are made of neutrons, protons and electrons, which are made of quarks and other sub-atomic particles, which, scientists with very good eyes have discovered, are made of even smaller things. Actually that stuff is largely theoretical in that its existence is mathematical and proof involves smashing really tiny things together at nearly light speed in a super-collider in Europe (which I think is a fine place for it should anything go very poorly). The resulting collision creates these ridiculously tiny things for a nearly immeasurable instant in time. Nearly immeasurable, but not immeasurable, and so scientists can measure what happens in that instant. Pretty cool really.

At the ridiculously small sub-sub atomic level, things appear to behave rather weirdly. This is where we find things actng by the not yet close to being understood "rules" of Quantum Mechanics. Anti-matter and matter seem to inter-relate rather than annihilate. Particles seem to fly right through others without any effect whatsoever. Some seem to disappear and re-appear, though we cannot tell what exactly is happening. They may of course still be there, just not in a form we can detect. All those odd little particles, however, are composed of even tinier particles that, if we could figure those out, would likely help explain the erratic behavior of the ones we can detect, well so long as we could understand the behavior of the even tinier particles that they are made of. Infinity.

Time is infinite in both ways. There was no beginning and there will be no end of time. Even if there was a Big Bang, everything in that tiny dense thing existed before it went Bang. The Big Bang was not a beginning, it was a moment in time that led to our current status. Perhaps eventually everything will coalesce again and the Big Bang will happen again.

Numbers are infinite in both ways. You can count in positive and negative numbers and you will never reach the end. Fractions are infinite. Every number can be halved again and again. Every segment of a line marked by two points has an infinite number of points between them, no matter how close they are to one another. The decimals following Pi go one forever. The same is true of other natural numbers.

There are the long understood rules, if you will, that matter and energy cannot be destroyed. It can only transform between those two states or into other types of matter or energy. The amount we "started" with, at the Big Bang, is precisely the same amount we have today, had before the Big Bang AND will have throughout infinity into the future.

When a body dies, it decays, changes into dirt, is taken in by the roots of a plant, eaten by a herbivore, which in turn is eaten by a carnivore, which then has babies, and the cycle starts all over again through infinity. Or the organic matter is crushed over time and turned to coal or oil or diamonds and a pretty girl wears it until she dies and turns to dirt as her heirs fight over it. Regardless, the body parts' parts do not go away. Things change, but nothing changes.

As avid readers of my work know (all 3 of you), I consider the body to be a machine. It is a miraculous machine, but a machine nonetheless. Without an operator, like your car or this computer, it would just lie there lifeless - dead. I consider the operator to be our soul. I consider that to be a real thing. An energy perhaps with which we are not yet familiar. It seems to have mass because in repeated studies, when someone dies, within an instant of death one loses a small amount of measurable and unexplainable weight that is in excess of that exhaled or excreted upon death. This was first discovered over 100 years ago.

I have postulated that God is the connection of all of our souls to all others. The metaphorical spiritual Internet. The reason we can be guided to do the right thing by this "God" is that all of our souls drive the overall process toward universal harmony. We want balance. That is also a natural driver in nature and of the universe. For every action there is an equal an opposite reaction - balance. Crazy things happen when things are out of balance. Out in space, those are often terribly dangerous things. We create bombs, for example, by intentionally knocking volatile things out of balance causing a violent reaction. After the explosion, however, everything returns to balance. A new state of balance, but balance nonetheless. Nature wants things to be in harmony with one another.

When we do things that we know in our hearts are wrong, we are stepping or acting outside of the drive toward universal harmony. That is the essence of free will. We can violate the harmony of all things, and we do it all the time.

I generally believe that animals and anything truly living (not just animate but alive) has a soul. I think that most animals, excluding probably apes, porpoises and other more evolved creatures, cannot operate outside the harmony. They can only do the right thing. We call this instinct. We take advantage of this in training, repelling and hunting animals for our benefit and have for years. Perhaps that is evidence those animals have no soul, but are in reality just machines, but they can't read this so I don't really care about them . . .

So when death happens, the machine dies due to heart failure, cancer, a smashing by a bus, worn out parts or whatever. The matter and energy in the body transform eventually into dirt and heat, etc, and exist forever. The soul, it seems to me, also then must be infinite. It is, in my opinion, some undiscovered energy with mass. It is a real measurable thing, not a weird undefined magical spirit thing. It is what connects us to everyone else and into the harmony of all souls. (Just an aside, as physicists try to create the "Theory of Everything" if they leave this soul thing out, they will never get there.)

The soul, in my way of seeing things, is like everything else in nature; it continues on into infinity. That is the natural way of things. Balance and infinity. Harmony.

Easter

It is Easter afternoon and I sit here contemplating the importance of the Christian holiday just celebrated. As a child, of course, I thought it was all about chocolate bunnies and colored eggs and the like. Then as I grew up, Easter became a mysterious time about a miracle that I could never quite get my arms around. For those who have read much of what I write, it has become clear I am not one for miracles. Then my children were born and Easter again became the more comfortable day of chocolate, eggs and family. My children are now well past the age of such frivolous things, though I am proud to say they are not past frivolity by any stretch of the imagination, which they also do. I find myself at an age where what is real in spirit has become very important to me.

So what to do with Easter? I am now somewhat comfortable that the entire story was a marvelous ruse concocted by wise and well-connected men of the time for the purpose of accomplishing precisely what it managed to accomplish. I have also come to realize that this is the moment that the teachings of Jesus became permanent, real and different than the prophetizing of all of the many others of that time, the time previous and, for the most part, of all the times since.

The teachings of Jesus were unique. They changed the thinking of the world. They were about a personal relationship with God that did not require an intermediary. They are about love, unconditional love, for everyone including, and perhaps most particularly, our enemies. They are about our connection to God, referred to as the Spirit of Truth, that allows us to always know in our hearts, if we will only listen, what is the right thing to do. And it is just that simple and just that glorious.

Those concepts were not what the leaders of the church, then or now really, wanted to hear. After all their jobs depended upon the reliance of the masses.

If each of us are connected directly to God and can interact directly with God then why do we need them?

If the secret is so simple, love everyone unconditionally, then what mysteries remain for the religious leaders to hold over our heads?

But Jesus never wrote any of this down. His followers were simple illiterate men. Like so many others, his message was told by those who knew him, those influenced by him, those who followed him. Given the rather negative reception he received when offered freedom by Pilot, his followers were not in the majority by a log shot. His strongest disciple denied him three times. The objective was simple, cut off the head of the snake and the entire snake dies. Certainly, without the rest of the story, that would certainly have happened and we would not know the great vision of a great but simple man.

During the weekend, the focus at our church was about how we exhibit those basic principles. We were asked to contemplate those who have been victims around the world. Those who no one seems to love. Very powerful.


I spent a Saturday morning with several men discussing this time in the Christian calendar and what it means. The focus was on how hard it is to exhibit unconditional love.

While certainly we should contemplate these things at all times, I wonder if we would consider them at all had the "Easter story" not occurred the way it did?

So the moment that Jesus failed to dutifully remain in his tomb, however it is that he disappeared from it, and then when he then appeared to several people thereafter, whether risen from the dead or risen from the presumed death makes no difference, his status as immortal and the immortality of his simple message became inevitable.

It is a funny thing for me to to say really, but, thank heavens.

Why Risk It?

There is a new commercial for some sort of identity protection system, I guess, where a guy meets with a non-stereotypical medium. The customer has had his identity stolen. The rather slovenly, heavy and ordinary-looking male medium gazes into his crystal ball and sees that the thief is buying pre-paid cell cards and leather pants, "lots of leather." The customer moves to the medium's side and tries to peer into the crystal ball. The medium stops him and says, "You can't look into the ball, you're not a medium, it will tear a hole in the universe, or something."  The customer asks if he is sure and the medium says, "Why risk it?" The customer acquiesces.

As weird as I am, I immediately figured they were doing a spoof on religion. So often I read or hear about things required of this or that religion, and wonder, "Why do people think God cares about this stuff?" It dawned on me as I watched that commercial. It is because someone in a purple robe in a pulpit told them that if one did do it, or did not do it, or did it this or that way, then one would go to hell. Well, for the many, when the guy in the pulpit says something, then we do it. After all . . . . why risk it?

What troubles me is that much of what we do today that is called religion, we made up. Over the 2000 years since Jesus, we just made stuff up. Heck, the holy day, to the extent a day was recognized at all, was on Saturday. And Jesus, thought very little of the "Sabbath." This was a man-invented idea that Jesus realized God did not care one whit about. He got into a lot of trouble for that, because after all, he was asking them to take a lot of risks, ignoring the Sabbath like that. Jesus took risks to get away from the man-made pomp and circumstance and back to what was really important, a simple and direct daily relationship with God, as you understand Him or Her.

Paul expanded on what Jesus said on all of this. Paul pointed out that anyone who worships or considers idols to have any power at all is one of weak mind. Note that, of course, idols include the cross, the Madonna and all those things for saints that people pray to. We fast for periods of time, refuse to eat certain foods on certain days during certain times of the year, and do all sorts of odd things in God's honor. We made all this stuff up. God does NOT CARE that we do it. Paul explained that there are no special foods or days, and yet because the man in the pulpit says so, we do it. Why . . . well, Why risk it?

Some demand celebacy until marriage, consider homosexuality a sin, don't drink or dance, all because they think God will smite them or condemn them to hell if they violate these rules. The largely egotistical, testosterone driven males leading the various religions over time have created a whole host of these rules, and in many cases the only way to get out from under the curse if you did them was to confess to them, or their underlings, as though they possessed the power to free one's soul from eternal damnation. Today, fewer and fewer people follow these ancient rules, but in conversation one can glean that they are still a bit concerned that perhaps the guy in the pulpit was right. So they follow the rules when they can. After all . . . why risk it?

Because Jesus risked it. Moses risked it. Paul risked it. Mohammed risked it. Siddhartha the Buddha risked it. Gandhi risked it. Martin Luther King, Jr risked it. Bill Wilson risked it. John Wesley risked it. All the great people of all time, took the risk. Amazingly, every one of these people came from nothing. They were not famous. They were not sons of great people. They were regular people like you and me. What made them great? As to the thing they are known for, they each had the clarity of mind to say, "This is silly, God does not care that we are doing this, and we should stop doing it!"

In reality, all of these great people did not feel they were the ones taking the risks! They understood that each of us has a personal relationship with God. The rules are so simple that they do not need a hierarchy of great church masters to explain them. My biggest concern is that ceremonies, rituals, dogmas, and rules allow people to check the boxes of their spiritual lives without ever checking in.

• Went to church on Sunday or Easter or Christmas, check.
• Did the communion thing, check.
• Got the kid baptized, check.
• Ate fish on Fridays during Lent, check.
• Said some Hail Mary's, check.
• Attended the kid's Christmas pageant, check . . . that counts right?
• Prayed, check - yea it was for that par putt to go in, but still, I prayed, and I made the putt.
• Gave some old clothes to the Good Will, check. Got my tax receipt, too.
• Gave the pastor that big check in front of everyone, check.

OK, so now I am a Christian. Off to make money in any way possible. What is the bigger risk?

I suppose there is no harm in any of these practices, so long as we understand God does not care if we do them or not, and we are doing them because they are important for us and our connection to God, as we understand him. Jesus said that if we are going to fast, or whatever, then do it for God and without letting anyone else know that you are doing it. The Muslims fast during the daylight during Ramadan, and those who follow Mohammed's teachings, do it without letting anyone know or changing their ways. If fasting is important to their relationship with God, they do it, but for those who do it is not a way of checking the box. I am not a huge Paulian, but one of my favorite things he said was essentially, recognize that God does not care about man's created idols, saints, special ceremonies, days, foods and the like. BUT if that is important to someone else, do not judge them, but instead, when with them, respect their traditions and eat as they do, drink as they do and respect the things they respect.

Anyway, I am fairly sure that if you are not a true medium and you look into a crystal ball you will tear a hole in the universe. I mean . . .

Why risk it?