Life Is A Journey Of Personal Spiritual Discovery

     Probably the most satisfying and the most terrifying aspect of being human is our self-awareness. Because we are self-aware and can hypothesize beyond what we can verify, we seem perfectly willing to create simplistic answers to complex cosmic questions. For example, an interesting cosmic question is, "Why is there suffering on earth?" 

     A simplistic answer might be, "There is a devil tempting us to be selfish and evil toward one another." A more rational approach is that as creatures of evolution, we have an innate drive to dominate and control others. This insures survival, first for ourselves, then secondly, for our families or what we could call our "tribe."

     There is hardly a conflict between neighbors nor a war among nations that is not related, in some way, to an ethnic or cultural conflict. It always seems to be a we/they matter, where what WE think is right and what THEY think is wrong.

     You might ask, what is available to humans to counteract these innate aggressive and self-centered impulses when they are not appropriate? A simplistic answer might be, "God will reward those who are good and punish those who are evil." A more rational perspective is that we are completely capable of recognizing our own destructive, innate behaviors and changing them for the good of all. Our capacity for reasoning can override our survival impulses, if we so choose. The decision each of us makes determines the direction our life goes.  The good news is that each moment is a opportunity to decide anew.

     We cannot eliminate our innate impulses, but we can change our reactions to our own impulses. In fact, this appears to be the foundation upon which religions are based. Religions represent institutional attempts to prompt (shame?) individuals into controlling their survival drives when such impulses are no longer beneficial to society.  This includes the most basic sins involving sex, greed, and envy.

     Unfortunately, church organizations are human institutions and frequently evolve into theological families or tribes that compete with and attempt to dominate other theological families or tribes. They simply mirror the personal drives and impulses of their particular members. Again, the mantra is, WE are right and THEY are wrong. Unconditional love, which is the reality that defines God, is a level of understanding that is higher than the thinking we use to find fault in others or to demand retribution for the perceived sins of enemies.

     This does not mean that participating in church organizations is bad or wrong. God is wherever we are, listens when we speak, and speaks when we quiet our minds. Actually, I feel it is important to have a church home, it's just that each individual is responsible for what he/she believes, not some external church authority. Your most precious beliefs are between you and your experience of God. 

     Church administrative hierarchies are not at that level of understanding. They must reflect and promote the human cultural biases of their members or they risk losing them.  Yes, this creates an insulated, circular system, but in this way the teaching traditions and organizational hierarchy, including jobs, dogma, status, and material wealth are perpetuated.

     All human organizations exist with members serving in core leadership positions. This core is surrounded by an even larger number of peripherally committed members attracted by the presence of the leaders, who are respected as spiritual guides. It is primitive tribal grouping behavior. It's not bad, but it does tend to support organizational growth, and not, necessarily, personal spiritual growth. 

     You learn and grow, spiritually, into the presence of God from within your own mind and heart as an individual. Spiritual growth is not mastering details of doctrine, nor memorizing scriptures or creeds, or expressing Christian apologetics, making public professions of faith, nor accepting dogma because it is written in a particular book or spoken by certain people. Righteousness is not arranging to be seen doing the right things, but rather, it is seeking and knowing the right things to do from within your capacity to love and understand...the link we have with our Creator.

     You grow spiritually by reading, listening, thinking, praying, meditating, deciding, acting, and observing how your world and life change as you make better, more spirit-led choices. What you grow to understand may be in perfect alignment with the teachings of your church, and that is a wonderful experience. If it is not, however, be true to what you have learned from your own spiritual development. It is revealing to you something more important than what your church teaches.

     Interestingly enough, from among the multitudes of religions and denominations around the world, there are individuals who decide to accept responsibility for their own thinking and strike out on their own personal spiritual journeys into the presence of God. They have participated within their institutional home to the point of becoming spiritually aware of themselves and aware of something greater than themselves. And when that awareness occurs, their allegiance to the doctrine and discipline of their religious heritage becomes secondary to their personal spiritual understanding.

     I know this happens, because I have met many such individuals during my life. Our religious backgrounds are very different, but what we have come to understand, as adults, about the world, life, humanity, and reality is strikingly similar. 

     This has confirmed and reconfirmed to me that spirituality is a personal job, within the mind and heart of each of us. A group of independent mystics, regardless of their original theological heritage, will express more unconditional love and unity among themselves than will members or leaders committed to specific religious organizations. The fact that religions are "organized" means that membership in them is "conditional." Jesus never taught anything like that.

     Still, yes, participate in churches or religious organizations that are meaningful to you. God is wherever you seek. Find and rejoice in a religious family and support ministries as you see fit, but realize all along that your true spiritual journey is guided by however you experience God's presence and in that presence we are all one.

     

Thanks, To My Fundamentalist Friends

     Years ago, I gained new friends in an organization of primarily fundamentalist Christians. Throughout my life, fundamentalists have appeared to me to be somewhat bipolar. On the one hand, better people you could not hope to find. They will care about you and for you without question, except, perhaps for the obligatory probe, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?”

      Basically, they are wonderful, honest, helpful, kind, patriotic, loving, and family-oriented individuals. However, whenever the discussion turns to religion, from the depth of his or her being there arises a cynical, judgmental, assertive, and intractable presence that hovers over the conversation like a vulture awaiting the death of all living opposition. As I said, it can be an almost shocking change in the social atmosphere.

     Despite disagreements on issues of theology, I doubt neither the sincerity of their Christian faith nor the depth of their concern in trying to save me from my own way of thinking. It was suggested that I read the Bible again and meditate on it. I said that I would and I did. After my reading and meditation, I felt even more strongly that many specific sections of the Bible directly contradict other sections in both the Old and New Testaments. There are, also, many sections that directly refute their fundamentalist dogma.

     Feeling a need to study the Bible more carefully, I started reading what Biblical scholars have to say about how the Bible was written, assembled, and interpreted. I am grateful that my friends had suggested I look at the Bible anew.

     Much to my astonishment, what I had noticed as a non-expert Bible reader, is already well known and has been thoroughly studied and discussed for centuries. Bible research, discussion, and debate is continuing right into the 21st century.

     It seems to me that there are two major contrasting perspectives from which the Bible has been viewed and interpreted through the ages. One is what has been called the prophetic view and the other is the apocalyptic perspective.

     The apocalyptic viewpoint assumes God’s imminent return by a direct, supernatural intervention to place his final messiah into power to rule over the end of the human domination systems that exist and to make final judgment on every soul. The origin of this kind of thinking comes from Jewish traditions several centuries preceding Jesus. 

     "Messiah" comes from the Hebrew word māshīach, which means “anointed.” This was the title given to all the kings of the Jewish nation. Saul was the first anointed king of the Jews (messiah), but he was unable to unite the various Jewish tribes. However, the second messiah, King David, through his military and political skills, did establish a strong and prosperous Jewish nation over which he reigned for 40 years. One of his sons, Solomon, was the third king (messiah) and he ruled successfully for another 40 years. This was the foundation for the thinking that successful messiahs could be expected from the line of David.

     Centuries later, after being defeated as a nation and oppressed by other countries for generations, there seemed no hope that a new messiah could arise from within the remnants of the Jewish nation. Gradually the expectation grew that God would have to directly intervene in world events to provide his chosen people with a messiah, in the tradition of David, who would bring forth God's final kingdom and rule on earth. This is why John The Baptist was calling for Jews to repent, for the day of the Lord was coming.

     Into this atmosphere Jesus arrived with a message that had an unexpected, non-apocalyptic angle. His message of love and ethical conduct is based on the prophetic viewpoint, first articulated by ancient Jewish prophets. Jesus' parables and sayings suggest that righteous motives from within are what please God. Jesus taught that to conform to religious law and rituals has its place, but external appearances are secondary to inner attitudes and behavior based on unconditional love. Recall Jesus’ ethical reconstruction in his Sermon On The Mount of the laws of Moses.

     Jesus’ teachings strongly state that God’s desire for loving behavior (righteousness) from human kind is ever-present and meeting this expectation is all that is necessary to enter into His kingdom on earth. This perspective is expressed in Hosea 6:6, and echoed in Matthew 9:13, and Matthew 12:7. Jesus’ teaching that the kingdom of Heaven is ever present and within mankind’s reach or “at hand” as written in Matthew 4:17 (RSV) clearly indicates the prophetic viewpoint. Through either the Aramaic or Greek language, whichever was used by Jesus, the meaning of that passage is unambiguous. The Kingdom of God is specifically available now.

     Despite this emphasis by Jesus, Paul and other early members of the developing Christian communities appeared to revert to an apocalyptic view after Jesus was gone. Plus, they expanded their mission to include people beyond the Jewish nation, which actually was consistent with Jesus' teachings. Since their message found willing listeners among the gentiles (pagan non-Jews) this helped alter the purpose of the anticipated apocalypse. 

     Former pagans had little interest in reviving the Jewish nation on earth, but they did have interest in saving themselves from the idea of an afterlife in hell. This was a doctrine perfect for the pagan mindset. We must remember that pagans constituted more than 90% of the general population. As a result mystical, magical polytheism was commonplace thinking, even for Christians. 

     In fact, there were numerous Christian centers of teaching that were polytheistic. One Christian group believed that the God of the Old Testament was angry and vengeful but a different God, described in the New Testament, was kind and redeeming. Other Christian groups claimed there were as many as 365 different gods. All these groups claimed to be Christian.

     This resulted in considerable infighting among the various Christianity’s during the first couple of centuries. Each saw themselves as the true believers and the others as heretics. It is clear that paganism had a profound impact on the direction and course of Christian theology.

     What is so amazing is that the common thread of Jesus’ prophetic viewpoint was maintained in the Bible, across the gospels, despite the apocalyptic notions of the writers and followers of the gospels. The biblical scholars believe this happened because both Jesus’ disciples and the leaders/teachers that followed them (e.g. Paul) did not fully understand what Jesus was teaching.

     You might recall their lack of understanding was frequently reported in the gospels. What Jesus taught was so different from what they were expecting, yet so closely tied to familiar Old Testament teachings, that they were simultaneously spellbound, uplifted, and perplexed. Still, after Jesus was gone, they just couldn’t seem to free themselves of the need for something apocalyptic to occur, despite the clear prophetic message in Jesus’ teachings.

     Paul, too, seemed affected by both Jesus’ teachings of love as well as Paul’s own background of dedication to every detail of Jewish law. Law and doctrine were at the foundation of his very being. When he had his spiritual awakening, he may have changed his spiritual view of Jesus’ role as redeemer, but not his need for strict religious discipline. The topics in his writings vacillate between beautiful expressions of Jesus’ prophetic message and detailed, legalistic explanations of proper Christian theology, unlike anything Jesus would have ever said about himself.

     Despite this obvious clash of perspectives, even today fundamentalists appear to accept Paul’s apocalyptic perspective and dogma on faith, as opposed to Jesus' teachings and feel no need to explain or defend their decision to do that. In fact, I was told that Christian doctrine cannot be debated or rationally explained. It must be accepted on faith. 

     This stretches the meaning of “faith” beyond all limits. You can learn arithmetic and have faith in your ability to perform arithmetic calculations that you have never seen before. But how can you have faith in irrational doctrine and traditions that cannot be objectively confirmed through life events and which you must simply memorize? That does not demonstrate faith. That demonstrates obedience to what you have been taught and fear toward thinking differently. That is not developing faith. It is, rather, relenting to the propaganda of your own human heritage. There is a time for each of us to take on the responsibility for our personal spiritual thinking and development. When that moment occurs your journey of faith has truly begun. 

     My fundamentalist friends don’t seem to read the Bible to consider the accuracy or consistency of its contents. They simply assert there are no problems, no contradictions, then interpret the Bible however they wish. They continue to assert a lot of things, such as the inerrancy of the Bible, the need for literal interpretations including the stories of creation, heaven, hell, the devil, etc. which they accept ‘on faith.’ If fundamentalist Christian beliefs are considered the ‘orthodox’ beliefs for Christianity, then even Jesus could not qualify to be a Christian.

     Even though my Christian beliefs appear to contrast sharply from my fundamentalist friends, they are spiritual Truth to me. I have lived them by applying them to the practical activities of my life and they have always provided better answers than I could have ever discovered on my own. 

     When you turn the other cheek in real life, it totally changes what’s happening and what others expect, and different outcomes result. Approaching people of different cultures, races, sexual orientation, etc. with an attitude of complete acceptance changes the dynamics of such encounters in ways that can easily lead to the resolution of conflicts. Applying Jesus’ teachings to everyday activities just hasn't failed me. I’m hooked and cherish dearly what I have learned from His teachings and example. I am compelled to hold firm to my Christian beliefs until God leads me through life experiences to even higher understandings.

     I make only one demand of you, my fundamentalist friends. Just as I will always respect your right to practice apocalyptic Christianity as you understand it, (e.g. the teachings of Paul), I ask that you, also, respect my right to practice prophetic Christianity as I understand it (e.g. the teachings of Jesus). I must also thank you for prompting me to journey again through the Bible. It has meant more to me than you could ever imagine.

Love Was Jesus' Only Message

Consider Jesus’ parables. When you really think about their practical implications, you realize Jesus’ only message was offering us practical hints on how to love one another.  According to Jesus, successfully doing this places us in God’s presence. That’s it. All the ideas like Mary being a virgin mother, Jesus rising from the dead, his resurrection representing atonement for original sin, and the importance of the trinity represent human theology developed, debated, and modified years, decades, and centuries after Jesus taught only love.

Conservative Christian theology has its purpose. It provides a basis for church organization, discipline, and materialistic growth.  It asserts that the Bible is “God’s word” and therefore “perfect, complete, and infallible.” From these common basic and untenable assumptions, each fundamentalist Christian institution then interprets the Bible however it wishes and behaves as if its interpretation is the only true version of “God’s word.”  Statements of Christian dogma then propose to answer human questions like, “What is the purpose of life?” and “What happens to me after I die?”

Many have been so totally immersed in conservative theology for so much of their lives there is little chance they could ever evaluate what they say they believe from a rational viewpoint.  I would suggest those individuals stay right where they are if that is where they feel comfortable. My only caution is that whatever they are taught they should do to "save" those they define as "non-believers", does not come from the teachings of Jesus.

All the New Testament authors were different. Paul did not say the same things as Mark, Luke, Matthew, or John. Later on, scribes altered Bible passages to fit the Christian theology of their day. Then the whole Christian movement was thoroughly shaken up and modified to suit the religious whims of Constantine, the 4^th Century emperor of Rome. The Christian sect he supported ended up defining orthodoxy. All the other Christian organizations, and there were many, were outlawed, attacked, and eliminated.

There are practically as many theological viewpoints in the Bible as there are authors. But the teaching voice of Jesus, somehow slips around and through all the verbal battles about doctrine letting his singular message of love survive.

I would like to suggest that each of us knows exactly how to demonstrate unconditional love and compassion in every situation we face in life. We know it, but we can't (won't) do it. We “sin” constantly because we convince ourselves it is  important to exclude from our unconditional love those people we don't like or actually hate. We want our family, our tribe, our personal cultural and our religious views to be better than all others.  Self-centeredness is the primary motivation behind most human acts of evil.

           We make exceptions to Jesus' example of unconditional love so we can blame our personal feelings of unworthiness, temptation, fear, anger, hate, jealousy, envy, greed, and regret on others.  Jesus taught that we should replace these self-centered emotions with an understanding of God that allows love to dominate. It works in simple, practical ways every time we seek loving solutions. Of course, we are also free to ignore his teachings.

It is so strange that Christian dogma which originally derived from the teachings of love, has devolved into fearing, rejecting, and shunning fellow humans  because they are different. Jesus never met a person he could not accept. We all understand this and agree that this is a true reflection of Jesus’ view of life, but immediately we tend to turn around and reject those who don't look, talk, act, or believe as we do.

When you accept the dogma of a human religious institution then you, yourself, are accepted by those already in that institution and you are made to feel welcomed. You become a respected member of the "club." You learn the words, the phrases, the nods and the winks that link you together. This does provide a community in which to experience and celebrate life. 

          But if your church membership pulls you away from what you know is the loving spiritual message taught by Jesus, you  have a decision to make. Which outcome is most important to you? Is a successful spiritual life attained by building barriers around God's love, to protect it from the unworthy? Or is it more important to remove barriers so all are seen as God's children?  That is a personal decision each of us must make on our own.

My rational mind and the spiritual experiences I have had during my lifetime tell me that personally seeking out the practical results of Jesus' teachings of love is the right direction to go. This leads an individual to a personal confirmation of the laws of love and frees him/her from the dictates of dogma. Dogma chains you to law, intolerance, and the status quo. Love frees you to discover, learn, and grow. 

          Jesus taught love.