Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Rejection Of God: The Power Of The State

Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.

1Sa 8:1 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. 1Sa 8:2 Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: [they were] judges in Beersheba. 1Sa 8:3 And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment. 1Sa 8:4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 1Sa 8:5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 1Sa 8:6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 1Sa 8:7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 1Sa 8:8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 1Sa 8:9 Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.

1Sa 8:10 And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. 1Sa 8:11 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint [them] for himself, for his chariots, and [to be] his horsemen; and [some] shall run before his chariots. 1Sa 8:12 And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and [will set them] to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 1Sa 8:13 And he will take your daughters [to be] confectionaries, and [to be] cooks, and [to be] bakers. 1Sa 8:14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, [even] the best [of them], and give [them] to his servants. 1Sa 8:15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 1Sa 8:16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put [them] to his work. 1Sa 8:17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 1Sa 8:18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. 1Sa 8:19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; 1Sa 8:20 That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. 1Sa 8:21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. 1Sa 8:22 And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Holy Days: Family and Community

The Seven Annual Sabbaths

Our inherent value = love and truth; the communitarian way, the environment instituted in the pages of the OT and exemplified in the NT has a built-in reminder to maintain "the continual", the daily worship (the practise of the way): the annual Holy Days, the festivals; the shared symbolic behavior so important to fellowship and cognition.

The seven annual Sabbaths instituted forever not only the Holy Days [God's Plan of Salvation for humanity] but the way of life within, explicit in the harvest feasts: the communitarian way, the *path* [personal achievement of true humanity] - the first day of the sacred year (the annual beginning); the Passover (the sacrifice, the reconciliation, the acceptance; the SAGE attempt to silence); ULB (the putting away of sin, the commitment); Pentecost (the gift of God; a society of the gift); the fall harvest season, Trumpets, Atonement, FOT, LGD: the return Christ, of His message; the putting away of the adversary (Mammon; the alienated, privileged attitudes); the harvest feast (feast of booths, the millennium, the communal reconstruction); the judgement (the Book of Life opened; all of humanity to share in the way).

The Passover observance at even (sunset), in the NT the Last Supper; the wine and unleavened bread taken by the Baptised in acknowledgement of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus for the remission of sins and in rededication as the very flesh and blood of the "body of Christ"; the Night To Be Much Remembered, observed the next sunset, was instituted to remember the Exodus of Israel from Egypt (typifies sin), the 7 Days of Unleavened Bread [ULB] begin; they picture the removal of sin from our lives; no leavened bread or products of any kind (the puffed-up lives, attitudes); the first and last days are annual Sabbaths; next is Pentecost, which pictures God's Gift of the Holy Spirit to the Christian Community, the 3rd annual Sabbath.

The Feast of Trumpets pictures the return of Christ; the Second Coming when Christ directly intervenes in world affairs and establishes the government or Kingdom of God over mankind; the beginning of the Millennium; the next event is pictured by the Day of Atonement; the binding and separation of Satan, the author of all sin (the transgression of God's Ten Commandments) away from mankind until after the Millennium; next is the Feast of Tabernacles [FOT] or Booths, a feast of ingathering, a seven day festival where we leave our homes and gather together if possible; it pictures the Millennium when Jesus Christ is Lord and King over all the earth, when the Holy Spirit is granted to all mankind alive and born during the Millennium and the earth is prepared for the next great event to take place; that event is pictured by the Last Great Day [LGD], the resurrection of every man, woman and child who has ever lived/been conceived (including the stillborn and aborted, placed into their parents arms); the dead stand before God; this is the Great White Throne Judgement, not a condemnation to a hell as traditional Christianity believes, but a time when the "Book of Life" is opened to all of humanity and they are given their first opportunity to receive God's instruction, to learn his way of love based on the 10 Commandments and ultimately to be born into the very Family of God.

The spring (3 Sabbaths) and fall Holy Days (4 Sabbaths) picture the plan of redemption for mankind and are explained thoughout the Bible; by keeping them as commanded by God every year, the Church (the community) is kept in constant remembrance of God's plan for mankind and man's destiny to be born into the Family of God and ultimately to share in the rule and continuing creation of the universe.

MM Book 2 Chapter 10-17

When we come in contact with, or come up against, “character” that *lacks* God [in others or in ourselves], it is an opportunity to express God: INIQUITY PURGED BY MERCY AND TRUTH [mercy/forgiveness] – all of us have been casualties of the prevailing systemic character, the fear “bullet” [arrow] that is shot deep into us; God will heal the “inflicted wound”, and heal us !! — we must pull-back “for” engagement [from the evil; we are in conflict of interest]; WE MUST *OCCUPY* COMMUNITY, WE MUST *PLACE* GOD’S PRESENCE INTO WHEREVER WE ARE [location or situation]; GOD’S CHARACTER AND ABILITIES ARE OURS TO PLACE !! – WE *ARE* GOD FAMILY, WE EMBODY [our being] AND CREATE [our doing] COMMUNITY, THIS *IS* OUR RESPONSE-ABILITY !! — OUR MINISTRY [ministration] IS ** OUR RELATIONSHIP(S) **, OUR COMMUNITY !! – AGAPE LOVE IS THE GIFT, AND THE GIVING !!

“… The three main festivals in the Bible are Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles – in the physical application Passover is the festival of political freedom, Tabernacles of economic freedom, and Pentecost, the central and most important, is a festival of spiritual freedom [see Harris L. Selig, "Links to Eternity", p. 370; Richard C. Nickels, Giving and Sharing, "Pentecost Paper"]:

PASSOVER = POLITICAL FREEDOM – EXODUS (out of bondage), Christ Systemic;
PENTECOST = SPIRITUAL FREEDOM – 10C, Covenant People, Holy Spirit, COG;
TABERNACLES = ECO-NOMIC FREEDOM – Ingathering, Harvest, KINGDOM OF GOD.

Previously posted MMr March 29, 2010

The Final Hour (41y8m): 1990-2031

For Your Consideration:

Four(4) Night Watches: even 6p-9p, midnight 9p-12a, cockcrowing 12a-3a [cry aloud], morning 3a-6a - final "hour" [1000/24] 41y8m [41.666667y / 500m] Psalm 119 "watches of the night", four(4) Watches [of 3 hours each]: ea. Watch = 10.41666675y = 10y5m = 125m / 3 hrs = 3.47222225 yrs [3y5m20d = 41m20d = 41.666667m] ...

W1 EVEN Jan.1990 + 10y5m = W2 MIDNIGHT May.2000 + 10y5m = W3 COCKCROWING [to shine, to shed light; voice, disclosure; trim wicks; Matt 24 witness] Oct.2010 *AT* MIDNIGHT [Psm 119:62, Matt 25:6] A CRY MADE + 10y5m = W4 MORNING Mar.2021 + 10y5m = Sep.2031 SUNRISE(6a) ...

Oct.2010 At Midnight (in the midst of) (Last Great Day/LGD Sep.30.2010; last Sabbath of the seven annual Holy Days) - The Midnight Hour (ref: Mammon or Messiah Book 2), Trim Wicks ...

Previously posted MMr January 11, 2010

The Annual Feasts and Holy Days MMmeta article
MM Book 2 Chapter 10 web page (widescreen)
MM Book 2 blog home

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Community Congregations

The hierarchical government form violates the 10C:

1. it is in the service of another god; BAAL [ownership; over and upon];
2. it is the Roman image, the image of the Beast;
3. it is taking God's name in vain; worshipping [as way of life] in vain;
[God's name(s) (His/our spiritual characteristics/responsibilities) denied; God's truth partially taught, but in *little strength*; His government has been denied; the strength has been consumed, in vain, from within];
4. it is employed, working for itself on the new moons, Sabbaths, holy days;
5. it is dishonoring God, our Father, and our Mother, the Church;
6. it is committing murder [the way of gain = the way of Cain];
7. it is committing adultery; fornication (with the world) as instrumentality;
8. it is stealing the authority of God away from the brethren; it is stealing God's tithes (community contribution) for its own work, the Gospel as product [maintaining the corporate church; way of gain as righteousness];
9. it is bearing false witness [hierarchy is NOT the government of God]; it is denying God's self-sufficient community [full preaching, witness]; it is denying the very "anointing" of the brethren, their ministry; it is (/they are) the "anti-Anointed";
10. it is covetous for position and power, honor and privilege; it is covetous for what its neighbor [the world] possesses.

The hierarchical government form is opposed to God, an enemy of God, *carnal*, yet, those within its grasp are our brethren -- you cannot exercise holy, righteous, spiritual character by utilizing the means of the world, the unholy, the unrighteous, the base; good cannot proceed out of evil [there is no good in evil, but, the *recognition* of the evil can bring the good] - God's presence will not occupy the same space, environment, with sin [evil is the absence of God; evil flows from sin, the negation of God's way; selfishness]; righteousness does not come from, originate, from unrighteousness, or its means, its instrumentality !!

We need to look at the governmental structure of the first-century church, built as it was on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, in which every person was a brother or sister and coheir with Christ; where no centralized hierarchy of power and control reigned supreme; where God's Spirit moved mightily among people who put their trust in Him alone -- we are the Body, *not* the corporation, of Christ; Jesus is our Master, King, High Priest and Lord - He and His apostles set the standard for governance -- it is when we understand our weakness that God will be our strength - if our hearts are right and our garments figuratively wet from washing each other's feet, then God can use us in His ** Ministry of Reconciliation ** to prepare a people for Christ's second coming - but, if we insist on patterning our self-rule after the kings of the gentiles, which invariably results in people *acting* like kings of the gentiles, then God might call others who will serve Him and Him alone. -- [this para., partial excerpt: Seeking the Government of God Here on Earth, by Lee Lisman; from the June 24, 1996 issue, In Transition]

The subject matter of 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 is *spiritual gifts*, positions of service and responsibility, NOT positions of rank, privilege, and authority over, or upon, the brethren, but in the service for, and of, the brethren - eldership and service from within the congregation !! - there is no professional ministry, no central authority; the government of God is a relationship amongst the ministry of the brethren with Christ as High Priest directing *the* work: the autonomous, self-sufficient, loosely confederated, and flexible [not rigid, but open to new truth, new experience] community-congregations, each *a* work of God, growing in the grace and knowledge of God, each walking with Christ, working out their own salvation with fear and trembling [reverence and awe] !! - a plurality of elders, mature in the spirit, providing guidance in each, with a sharing of the gifts by the brethren amongst the congregations, a *reciprocal relationship* of freely sharing all that God has freely shared with them, for the edification and growth of the Body of Christ - in *brethren assemblies* there is NO imposed distinction between clergy and laity !!

God's self-sufficient and free community ensures preservation of, and absolute, prohibition of evil [fornication as instrumentality; female rivals (church typed: hierarchy; divisions), etc.] within, the COG - the COG is in league [earth community covenant], in alliance with, the natural order of God's creation, in a *reciprocal relationship* [physical as-well-as spiritual; RESTORED TO LIFE] -- the COG is *our* dwelling, home, habitation, *the sacred tent* of God [the tabernacle]; it is a place of health, prosperity, and peace - the COG community is visited [to oversee, muster, charge, care for; do judgment] ** without sin ** [complicity, incur guilt; judge] [without losing oneself, without wandering from the way] - the absolute disestablishment of the hierarchical systemic accomplished; ** pre-millennial fulfillment ** possibility (it is up to us to avert the coming Holocaust); the COG persuaded, opened, made simple again; a very deep, and profound *work* NOW begins; the Holy Spirit deeply stirred, the COG collected, and bound together.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Michael Lerner: Americans Need National Repentance And Atonement

Americans Need National Repentance And Atonement
By Rabbi Michael Lerner article link article link
06 September, 2010 | Tikkun | CounterCurrents

Now that the Iraq war is supposedly winding down, America needs a period of reflection, repentance and atonement before rushing into more of the same mistakes we've been making globally and domestically. So I'd like to invite my non-Jewish neighbors and friends and allies in the struggle to heal and transform America to join with Jews to use the ten days of repentance from Rosh Hashanah (Sept.9) through Yom Kippur (Sept. 18) for that purpose-to create an All-American version of the Jewish High Holidays!

What makes the Jewish tradition useful in this regard is that it focuses not only on our own individual lives, but on taking collective responsibility for our larger world. The formulations of repentance and atonement use language like "Our father, our king, WE have sinned before you" and "For the sins WE have committed by…." (and then the community fills in the blanks).

The notion of collective responsibility means that we acknowledge how impactful the community, its institutions, its worldview, its shared understandings and assumptions, and its daily operations shape the behavior and consciousness of each of us. In contemporary terms, this means: Don't expect a society that privileges money, fame and power and ridicules idealism, prophetic critique and anything not judged "realistic" by the inside-the-beltway commentators and power-brokers to then produce human beings who can look beyond their own immediate self-interest and concern themselves with the well-being of the rest of the world and with the survivability of the planet.

The notion of "sin" in this tradition is also relevant. The Hebrew word for sin is cheyt, and derives from archery-the arrow shot toward the target has gone off course. In my own Jewish Renewal synagogue we expand on this notion by singing the atonement prayers this way: "Who are we? We're God's image and truth and infinite wisdom, eternal goodness. Yet we've abused, we've betrayed, we've been cruel, yes we've destroyed."

Rather than see ourselves as at the core evil, the Jewish tradition sees us as created in the image of God and hence intrinsically good and worthy-and it is with this understanding that Americans can then feel safe to explore where we've gone off course, missed the mark, and hence need a mid-course correction.

It won't take long to help each of us to construct a list of the areas that we need to address in our repentance.

We could start with the easy ones: our inability to stop deep ocean drilling for oil and gas even after the Gulf oil disaster; our inability to limit carbon emissions even though the scientific evidence is clear that rising emissions are above the level consistent with continuing human life (and possibly all life) on earth; our inability to acknowledge the pain we've inflicted on the Iraqi people by our invasion, pain manifested not only in having let loose a war that killed over 100,000 Iraqis and caused hundreds of thousands of casualties and millions of people fleeing their homes and becoming permanent refugees; our ruthless attempts, aided by drones to kill, or [to] imprison immigrants who have been driven to our country by the economic devastation brought by American trade agreements that wiped out local agricultural competitiveness for small farmers in South and Central American countries; our continuing legacies of racism, sexism, and homophobia which have not decreased even when prominent women and blacks assume national office or head major corporations; our growing Islamophobia leading some to participate in public burning of the Koran; our dedicating huge national resources to bailing out banks and investment companies while refusing anything comparable to the unemployed, under-employed, and those facing impossible-to-pay mortgages whose prices escalated dramatically when lenders invoked their small-print "rights" to raise monthly payments without limit; and the continuing degradation of the human rights fought for by the American Revolution but now being undermined in the name of a war on terror.

We have plenty of communal sins to address. Yet the cultural speed with which we forget and rush ahead, accelerated by the internet and by our sound-byte politics, makes it unlikely that we will ever have this badly needed community reflection and atonement unless we create a common ritual for doing so. President Obama is unlikely to help us do that-so this is one reason Americans might consider using the spiritual technology of the Jewish High Holidays to create public events in which we engage each other in public in this kind of a process.

Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun, chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (the interfaith organization, open to atheists as well, which is leading a campaign for a Global Marshall Plan and for the ESRA--Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and author of 11 books (most recently the 2006 national best seller The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right. He is also rabbi of Beyt Tikkunsynagogue in Berkeley, California. Please feel free to circulate this to your friends and everyone on your email lists or to post it on your websites. And if you or they want these kinds of messages to continue, please make a tax-deductible donation to Tikkun or join the Network of Spiritual Progressives.

Creating a Communal Atonement in Your Community

Invite your friends this year, and your larger community next year, to try this ritual. If your community assembled for the purpose of repentance and atonement, it might start by people reciting together the following "For the sins…" communal acknowledgment and then meet in small groups to discuss each one.

We Americans take collective responsibility for our own lives and for the activities of the community and society of which we are a part. We affirm our fundamental interdependence and interconnectedness. We have allowed others to be victims of incredible suffering, have turned our backs on others and their well-being, and yet today we acknowledge that this world is co-created by all of us, and so we atone for all of it.

While the struggle to change ourselves and our world may be long and painful, it is our struggle; no one else can do it for us. To the extent that we have failed to do all that we could to make ourselves and our community all that we ought to be, we ask God and each other and all the people on our planet for forgiveness-and we now commit ourselves to transformation this coming year, as we seek to get back on the path to our highest possible selves and most ethically and ecologically sensitive country we can possibly be.

We take communal responsibility and atone:

For the sins we have committed before You and in our communities by being so preoccupied with ourselves that we ignore the larger problems of the world;

And for the sins we have committed by being so directed toward outward realities that we have ignored our spiritual development;

For the sins committed in the name of the American people through our invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and the violence we used to achieve our ends;

And for the sin of not rebuilding what we have destroyed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan;

And for the sin of failing to prosecute those in our government who enabled the torture of prisoners around the world and in American detention centers and the denial of habeas corpus and other fundamental human rights;

And for the sin of not demanding that our elected representatives provide affordable health care and prescription drugs for everyone, and for the sin of not demanding that they make the dramatic changes that are needed to save the planet or to lessen the power of big money to shape our democratic process to serve the interests of the corporations and the wealthy;

For the sin of those of us in the West hoarding the world's wealth and not sharing with the 2.5 billion people who live on less than two dollars a day;

And for the sin of supporting forms of globalization that are destructive to nature and to the economic well-being of the powerless;

For the sins of all who became so concerned with "making it" and becoming rich that they pursued banking and investment policies that were destructive not only to their investors but to the entire society;

And for the sin of honoring the wealthy for their wealth but not the wise for their wisdom, the artists for their creation of beauty, or the prophets for their sounding the alarm of concern about the ways we have all gone astray and "missed the mark"'

For the sin of being cynical about the possibility of building a world based on love;

And for the sin of dulling our outrage at the continuation of poverty, oppression, and violence in this world;

For the sin of not being vigilant stewards of the planet or protecting it from those who area abusing it for the sake of private gratifications they are unwilling to share with others or for private profit;

And for the sin of indulging materialism and selfishness, consuming the resources of the earth without regard to the needs of future generations and the need to protect the life-support systems of the planet;

For the sin of believing that major changes in the global economy are "utopian" and hence allowing private profit to dictate destruction of the Earth for the sake of private gain and in defense of "giving people jobs" or "giving people what they want"--instead of redesigning our economy in ways that environmental sustainability would no longer be counterposed to people having enough food, clothing, shelter, energy and mass transportation to sustain a pleasant life with good-enough material benefits, and in ways that no longer allowed advertising and media to generate wants that could only be fulfilled by denying others their own needs or denying human life on Earth long-term sustainability;

And for the sin of believing that we have to be "realistic" and settle for "the lesser evil" candidates in elections--instead of building political parties and movements that actually reflect our own highest vision of the good;

And for the sin of allowing our media and elected officials to have no problem finding the monies to make wars in Afghanistan, maintain troops in Iraq and Japan and drones in Pakistan, to support close to one thousand U.S. military bases worldwide, and to bail out the banks and the large corporations-only raising questions of where the money will come from and the dangers of inflation when addressing health care reform, environmental measures, or aid to the unemployed, the homeless, and those facing crushing debt or impossible-to-pay mortgages;

For the sin of not doing enough to challenge racist, sexist, and homophobic institutions and practices;

And for the sin of turning our backs on the world's refugees and on the homeless in our own society, allowing them to be demeaned, assaulted, and persecuted;

For the sin of allowing immigrants to be persecuted, exploited, and denied shelter;

And for the sin of ignoring the Torah command to "love the stranger";

For the sin of not sharing responsibility for child-rearing;

And for the sin of not providing adequate community emotional and material supports for those who are aging;

For the sin of being so concerned about our own personal tax benefits that we failed to oppose tax cuts that would bankrupt social services;

And for the sin of being "realistic" when our tradition calls upon us to do "tikkun"--that is, to transform reality;

For these sins we ask the people of this planet and the Earth itself to forgive us.

For the sins we have committed by not forgiving our parents for the wrongs they committed against us when we were children;

And for the sin of having too little compassion or too little respect for our parents or for our children or our friends when they act in ways that disappoint or hurt us;

For the sin of cooperating with self-destructive behavior and addictions in others or in ourselves;

And for the sin of not supporting each other as we attempt to change;

For the sin of being jealous and trying to possess and control those we love;

And for the sin of being judgmental;

For the sin of withholding love and support;

And for the sin of doubting our ability to love and get love from others;

For the sin of insisting that everything we do have a payoff;

And for the sin of not allowing ourselves to play;

For the sin of not giving our partners and friends the love and support they need to feel safe and to flourish;

And for the sin of being manipulative or hurting others to protect our own egos.

For the sin of stockpiling and modernizing atomic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction rather than eliminating these weapons;

And for the sin of spending hundreds of billions of dollars each year on militarism to support the global American Empire-- that could be spent on more urgent human needs;

For the sin of giving attention to the sins of our own country (the U.S., Canada, U.K, Australia, France, Italy, Israel, etc.) while not giving equal attention to what is wonderful and positive about it;

And for the sin of avoiding the needed ethical confrontation with what is destructive and immoral in our country;

For the sin of tolerating racism, sexism, homophobia, disrespect for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transvestites,

And for the sin of tolerating anti-Muslim behavior and speech;

For tolerating a global economic system that leads to the death every single day of somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 children under the age of five from starvation or diseases related to malnutrition of that could be cured with adequate health care and pharmaceuticals;

And for continuing to be puzzled at why some people "hate us" for our insensitivity to the suffering imposed on them by the unfair distribution of the world's wealth and resources that could be remedied through a Global Marshall Plan;

For the sin of not ever having provided reparations to African American families still suffeirng the aftermath consequences of having their ancestors brought to this country as slaves and then facing a legacy of racism that still plays out today in the economic and political life of the U.S.;

And for the sins of never having provided reparations for Native Americans who are survivors of a genocidal assault on their communtiies by settlers on the North American continent, or all those other victims of Western colonialism and imperialism throughout South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Australia;

For the sin of not taking hatred of Jews or anti-Semitism seriously when it manifests around the world, among our friends, or in our community;

And for the sin of seeing anti-Semitism everywhere, and using the charge of anti-Semitism to silence those who raise legitimate (though painful to hear) criticisms of Israeli policies;

For the sin of giving disproportionate attention to the human rights violations of the State of Israel while ignoring or giving far less attention to the far greater human rights violations of the U.S., China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, and many other states;

And for the sin of not acknowledging the human rights violations that are an integral part of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its blockade of Gaza--and the pain and suffering that they cause, and not acknowledging or providing reparations for the Palestinian refugess displaced in the creation of the State of Israel;

For the sin of teaching hatred about Palestinians or Muslims, and then claiming that it is only they who teach hatred;

And for the sin of insisting that there is no "moral equivalence" between the deaths of innocent Israeli civilians, 9/11 victims, or victims of other terror attacks, and the deaths of innocent Palestinian, Iraqi, Pakistani, or Afghani civilians;

For the sins of tribalism, chauvinism, and thinking our pain is more important than anyone else's pain;

And for the sin of not putting our money and our time behind our highest ideals;

For the sin of allowing and participating in the dumbing down of our culture;

And for the sin of refusing to read longish emails that have important messages, or longish articles in magazines or newspapers, or longish books; thereby conveying to everyone that the short attention capacity generating sound bytes or type-bytes must replace the more complicated and complex thinking required to get a sophisticated and nuanced view of any given reality;

For the sin of not recognizing and celebrating and feeling blessed to experience the beauty and grandeur of the universe that surrounds us;

And for the sin of focusing only on our sins and not on our strengths and beauties;

For the sin of not giving adequate time to developing our own inner spiritual lives;

And for the sin of not building communities that nurture our spiritual capacities;

For the sin of religio-phobia and allowing cynicism to be dumped on those who believe in the possibility of a world healed and transformed;

And for the sin of believing that anything that cannot be verified through sense data or measured is not to be given serious place in our communal lives, but relegated entirely to our private lives;

For the sin of not being present to ourselves or each other;

And for the sin of being so caught up in the struggle for "success" that we didn't give ourselves time to relax, enjoy, and celebrate all that is good in our lives and all that is good in others;

For the sin of not transcending ego so we could see ourselves and each other as we are: manifestations of God's loving energy on earth.

And for the sin of not believing in the goodness of the American public enough to know that all these sins could be overcome when people feel safe enough to go for their own strong desire for a world based on love and generosity.

For the sin of always noticing what is wrong with others or ourselves and not enough attention to what is right in ourselves and others;

And for the sin of not forgiving others or ourselves for the ways that they and we have gone astray;

For the sin of moral relativism and believing that everything is o.k.;

And for the sin of being overly judgmental toward others or ourselves:

For all these, we ask each other, and the people of the world, the planet Earth, and the God/Spiritual Reality/Force of Healing and Transformation of the universe to forgive us and support us to do what needs to be done so that we can stop this kind of sinning and begin to be fuller manifestations of the love and goodness that sustains all life and of which we are an intrinsic part.

Feel free to make copies of this and to send it to everyone you know, post it on your website, or otherwise let people know that there is a Network of Spiritual Progressives that is bringing this kind of thinking into the global mainstream--and that they (and you) are asked to Join it or make a tax-deductible donation to it in order to help it survive the economic troubles facing all non-profits in this period. -Rabbi Michael Lerner RabbiLerner@Tikkun.org

Tikkun home page
ESRA: Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution article link
CounterCurrents home page

Friday, September 17, 2010

Gary Laderman: Dangerous Religion

Dangerous Religion
Which religion has proved the most violent and destructive in US history?
The answer should not be a surprise.
By Gary Laderman article link
August 20, 2010 | Religion Dispatches

What is the most dangerous religion in America?

A slightly loaded question that no one in their right mind would attempt to answer, no? But it is a question at the heart of the debates surrounding mosques and Muslims in America today. Theopposition against building an Islamic center near the site where the World Trade Center once stood, and the growing outcry around the country about the creation of other Muslim places to gather and worship, suggests that many Americans are not afraid to answer the question without hesitation.

In the post-9/11 world we now live in, Islam poses the greatest threat to American lives and security; a nefarious, fanatical religion that can bring death and destruction to innocent people, that disregards our laws and codes of conduct, and that is prone to acts of violence beyond the pale of civilized society. At least this is the message we are hearing more and more frequently in the news, especially in the wake of President Obama’s recent statements; views espoused by religious and political leaders as well as average American citizens fearful of Muslims abroad and at home.

Hatred of Infidels, the Subhuman, the Different

But perhaps it might be worthwhile to take a step back from all the heated rhetoric and passionate emotions fueling the fires of hatred and distrust in the current moment and take a brief look into the past. In the pre-9/11 world and backward through time to the founding of this great country, a historical perspective leads to a very different picture about religious violence and what religion poses the greatest threat to American lives. Anyone who takes the time to research and reflect on the nation’s past might be led to believe that Christianity has been the most dangerous and violent religion in the United States: that it is a religion inspiring bloodshed and discrimination, hatred and terrorist acts against people understood to be infidels, subhuman, or simply different.

“Christianity” of course is a meaningless label, as I’ve written before. Like “Islam” it is too broad a category to cover the radically diverse practices, beliefs, and interpretive communities associated with it. So let me be even bolder and say that Protestants, and even more specifically, Anglo-European Protestant men, would appear to be the most dangerous religious individuals in American history. Without question white Protestant males from the colonial era to the dawn of the twenty-first century have inflicted more pain, more suffering, more terror than any other individuals in this so-called “city on a hill.”

This historical perspective is placed in sharp relief by a new book that coincidentally arrived in the mail as I was preparing to write this piece last week. Religious Intolerance in America: A Documentary History, edited by John Corrigan and Lynn S. Neal, is chock full of fascinating documentation pointing to this interpretation, providing evidence that throughout US history the perpetrators of religiously-inspired violence have usually been white Protestant men fearful of non-Protestant communities. It’s an easy case to make with or without the book when commonly known events from historical eras are brought to mind:

• In colonial America, Protestant men burned witches at the stake, hanged Quakers on the gallows, destroyed indigenous surrounding cultures, and supported the heinous slave trade bringing Africans to North America.

• In the early national period and through the antebellum era, white Protestant males continued the wanton devastation of Native American tribes as the American territories expanded; inflicted horrible suffering on slaves by tearing families apart, raping innocent women, and killing blacks as if they were not human beings; murdered Joseph Smith and harassed early Mormon followers; and discriminated against Catholics in both subtle and overtly hostile acts of violence.

• In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, men associated with Protestant churches espoused awful anti-Semitic views that led to the lynching of Leo Frank and a host of discriminatory practices against Jews, harassed freed blacks and others by wearing white hoods and engaging in despicable, cowardly, and murderous acts, and enacted numerous policies that forced Native peoples to convert to Christianity.

• From the early decades of the twentieth century on through to the end of the twentieth century, white Protestants made sure that Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps on the West coast, joined a variety of Christian militia movements spread across rural America that promoted violence against the federal government, and participated in a range of hate crimes against blacks, gays, and others deemed to be enemies worthy of discrimination and brutality.

Is it Fair to Generalize?

Throughout American history white Protestant men enjoyed privilege and opportunities not available to others, and asserted that the destiny of the nation belonged to them under the providential power of their God. And they had no qualms about creating laws to oppress those less fortunate or taking the law into their own hands to lash out against the perceived threats to their version of a Christian nation. Racist views, economic injustices, and political machinations were rationalized by religiously-inspired, divinely-sanctioned hatred emanating from the home, the streets, and even, at times, from the churches they attended.

Did every single white Protestant male share exactly the same perspectives on blacks, Native Americans, Catholics, gays, and others? Were all white Protestant men guilty of heinous actions based on the cruelties and violence perpetrated by segments of the Protestant communities? Is it fair to generalize about an entire religion by singling out the acts of specific individuals associated with that religion?

Using the same logic as those who group all Muslims under one America-hating banner, the answer would appear to be yes. And if we follow this same ignorant logic, it would indeed make sense to begin protesting the building of Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist churches near hallowed sites that are supposed to symbolize the highest ideals and values of the American experiment: religious freedom, opportunity for all, equality before the law, sacrifice for a greater good, and so on. Forget about diversity within white Protestantism—the Social Gospel and pacifists, or communitarian movements and Unitarianism—in this worldview.

But no one in their right mind would use the kind of simplistic, odious, ill-informed logic we hear so frequently in the news and originating from the blogosphere and mainstream media about Muslims. Muslim-Americans who worked and died in the World Trade Center, who are pillars of their local communities, who participate in significant interfaith efforts—all of these religious human beings are utterly and completely disregarded in the vile rhetoric spewing from those who oppose ensuring Muslims have the same rights as other Americans. Even white Protestant Americans who belong to the same religion as those in the past who have been killers, fanatics, and terrorists.

Gary Laderman is Director of Religion Dispatches and Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Religion at Emory University. Order his most recent book, Sacred Matters (The New Press, May 12, 2009), here. His full bio can be found here. Read his other articles here.

Religion Dispatches home page

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Howard Bess: Would Jesus Hate Muslims?

Would Jesus Hate Muslims?
by the Rev. Howard Bess article link
September 11, 2010 | Consortium News

Editor’s Note: Though many Americans regard themselves as devout followers of Jesus, they often ignore his commands to reject fear and to love your neighbors and even your enemies. Instead, a disturbing number of American Christians are behaving like modern-day Crusaders ready to battle Muslims.

In this guest essay, Baptist minister Howard Bess voices his regret over these misguided Christians and challenges them to be truer both to Jesus and to the finest traditions of the United States as the world’s melting pot:

Early in the 21st century, America is being gripped by xenophobia, the fear of strangers or foreigners, or more broadly the fear of the unfamiliar.

There is evidence that this particular fear has become worldwide, heightened by a large increase in the global mobility of people.

The United States should be the world leader in calming the fear of new neighbors, the great melting pot nation. With great pride, we inscribe e pluribus unum on our coins, out of many, one.

However, over our 234 years of history, we have had great difficulty living up to our own standards.

Jews, Catholics, Quakers, Mormons, Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiians, Cubans, Mexicans, Vietnamese, African-Americans, Indians and Eskimos have felt the sting of persecution and rejection because of differences of skin color, hair texture, language, and religion.

The total list of Americans who have suffered discrimination is even longer. Indeed, the United States may qualify as one of the worst discriminators in the history of human kind, partly because it has so much diversity within its borders, so many different people to fear and discriminate against.

Yet, nearly all of this discrimination has occurred while Christians have held the majority in the United States and while many have waved Bibles, which contain Jesus’s teachings about loving thy neighbor and even one’s enemies.

The new target of choice for today's American xenophobia is the American Muslim community.
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Yet, with this rapid rise of the fear of Muslims, American Christians have been presented a unique opportunity. Now is the time when they can show the power and wisdom of practicing one of the most basic teachings of Jesus, the lesson about loving others.

So far, the performance of Christians has again not been hopeful. But the opportunity is there for American Christians to set the example as the world's leader in the eradication of xenophobia.

To do so, however, may require “A New Kind of Christianity,” the title of the latest book by Brian McLaren, one of the intellectual leaders of what many are calling “the emergent church.” The book’s subtitle is “Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith.”

We can disagree with McLaren (he welcomes that), but he has one thing correct. To get right answers, right questions need to be asked.

McLaren poses ten questions that he believes are vital to Christian beliefs and practices. (He also welcomes the posing of additional questions.)

I believe his first question is on target. He asks “What is the overarching story line of the Bible?” In recent weeks, I have had great fun asking people this question.

I also have heeded McLaren’s suggestion that addressing his questions not be an exercise in questions and answers. Rather, they should be an exercise in questions and responses with a commitment to be good listeners to one another.

I have asked his first question to people who have a high level of exposure to the Bible material and its messages. Some of the folks that I have asked are seminary graduates. The answers cover the landscape. No two people have given the same answer.

Of course, I have my own answers that keep changing or at least getting tweaked most every day.

This week, I addressed the question to a good friend who responded to the point. The Bible is a book about loving, he said. I resonate with his answer.

When Jesus was asked about the greatest of commandments, he responded with two love challenges. He stated that the first of all commandments was that you shall love the Lord your God with heart, mind and soul.

When he gave that answer, he was quoting the Shema, the declaration of faith in one God that was placed on every Jewish door post and worn as headpieces and bracelets. It was the command that was never to be forgotten by the people of God.

The second command from Jesus was that you shall love your neighbor. Again Jesus was quoting from Old Testament law, reinforcing Israelite prophets who said the killing of neighbors had to stop. They taught that love was God’s way of relating to neighbors.

Jesus added the comment that these two commands summarized all of God’s laws.

Collectively, the Bible materials do not make a unified statement about loving. In the history of the Israelites, the fear (not love) of God was at times a dominant theme, and there was active debate about how to handle neighbors.

Were faithful Israelites to love their neighbors or were they to kill their neighbors, especially if they wanted their neighbor’s land?

Jesus came down very clearly on the love side of this argument. Jesus also did not live a life of fear, and his recurring advice to his disciples was “Fear not!” His followers were to love their neighbors. Even enemies were to be loved.

We live at a critical time. And as some of the recent outpourings of anger, fear and hate have revealed, a new kind of Christianity is greatly needed.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His e-mail address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

Consortium News home page

Monday, September 13, 2010

Self Defense: A Christian Viewpoint

Self Defense: A Christian Viewpoint
by Dr. Marshall C. St. John article link
Wayside Presbyterian Church | Mouseguns

Many Christians are not aware that the Bible has quite a lot to say about owning and bearing arms in self-defense. Take for example the book of Esther. Esther’s central theme is the Providence of God, and especially His preservation of the Jews, by allowing them to defend themselves, in the face of the hatred of a high official in the Persian empire in the fifth century BC.

LESSONS FROM ESTHER

In Esther 9:1-10, the Jews established the "Feast of Purim," which celebrates the armed self-defense of the Jewish people. This feast is still observed by the Jews today but many Christians know little about the Feast of Purim. Here is the text...

"Est 9:1 On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king (Xerxes who reigned over Persia 486-465 BC) was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them.

Est 9:2 The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those seeking their destruction. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them...

Est 9:28 These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never cease to be celebrated by the Jews, nor should the memory of them die out among their descendants."

The Feast of Purim, also called the Feast of Lots, is celebrated in either the latter part of February, or early March.

Whenever we read the Bible, we should be looking for modern day applications. How does the story of the Book of Esther, and the authorizing of armed self-defense in the 5th century BC, apply to Jews and Christians today? Clearly, armed self-defense is approved by God.

"The tables were now turned in their favor; and though their enemies made their long meditated attack, the Jews were not only at liberty to act on the defensive, but through the powerful influence enlisted on their side at court together with the blessing of God, they were everywhere victorious." Jamieson Faussett and Brown on verse 2

In order for God's people to accomplish the will of God, it may sometimes be necessary for them to bear arms and literally fight. King David wrote in Psalm 18:34-39...

"He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms...I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle..."

LESSONS FROM NEHEMIAH

When Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, it was necessary for him and the other men to go armed for self-defense.

"And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me." Nehemiah 4:16-18

"We made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch] The strongest confidence in the protection and favour of God does not preclude the use of all or any of the means of self- preservation and defense which his providence has put in our power." Adam Clarke on Nehemiah 9:4

Many of the heros of the Bible were men at arms: Joshua, Gideon, Samson, etc.

LESSONS FROM GOD'S LAW

The first five books of the Bible are sometimes called the Torah, which means "The Law." In these books we find the Ten Commandments, and many other laws God gave to His people to order their lives. In Exodus 22:2-3 we read:

"If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft."

In other words, homeowners are allowed by God’s Law to defend themselves against burglars who break in at night.

"If a thief broke a house in the night, and was killed in the doing of it, his blood was upon his own head, and should not be required at the hand of him that shed it, v. 2. As he that does an unlawful act bears the blame of the mischief that follows to others, so likewise of that which follows to himself. A man's house is his castle, and God's law, as well as man's, sets a guard upon it; he that assaults it does so at his peril." Matthew Henry's Commentary on Exodus 22:2

LESSONS FROM JESUS

In Luke 22:36 Jesus commanded His disciples to be armed for self-defense.

"Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

Jesus commanded his disciples to buy swords, if they had none. They said they already had two, and Jesus said that would be enough. As a band of a dozen able-bodied men, they were quite safe from roving bandits, even if every man in the group was not carrying a weapon. The application is that Jesus commands us to be armed for self-defense, but He does not recommend that we go overboard with our weapons. Jesus said in another place, "He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword." Jesus encourages his followers to defend themselves, but He does not encourage us to be eager for battle and bloodshed. Self-defense may be necessary as a last resort, but violence should not be sought after and relished. God’s people are supposed to be peacemakers, not ruffians. Neither are we allowed to spread the Gospel by means of violence or military aggression.

The Old Bible Commentators agree that Jesus was authorizing armed self-defense in Luke 22:36.

Adam Clarke:
"Judea was at this time, as we have already noticed, much infested by robbers: while our Lord was with his disciples, they were perfectly safe, being shielded by his miraculous power. Shortly they must go into every part of the land, and will need weapons to defend themselves against wild beasts, and to intimidate wicked men, who, if they found them totally defenceless, would not hesitate to make them their prey, or take away their life."

Lightfoot:
"He warns them of a danger that is very near; and in a common way of speech lets them know that they had more need of providing swords for their defence against the common enemy, than be any way quarrelling amongst themselves."

And why is two enough? Because they were a large band of men, and not likely to be set upon by robbers.

Of course, Peter was wrong to do as he did, and try to stop Jesus' arrest by violence. But not because physical self-defense was wrong. It was wrong because it was necessary for our Savior to be taken, and to die for our sins, and Jesus had already told Peter and the other disciples that.

LESSONS FROM PAUL

"But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." I Timothy 5:8

We must provide food and shelter for our families. It is also our duty to provide protection from criminals. The most effective way to do this is to move your family to a safe neighborhood. Also, we should make sure our communities have effective law enforcement officers. But what would you do if a criminal broke into your home? Are you prepared to defend your family?

We pray for God to provide for us; but that does not excuse us from earning money, buying food and building houses. We pray for God to defend us from criminals, but that does not excuse us from taking steps to protect our families.

In Proverbs 25:26, we read: "A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well." Certainly, we would be faltering before the wicked if we chose to be unarmed and unable to resist an assailant who might be threatening our life. In other words, we have no right to hand over our life, which is a gift from God, to the unrighteous. It is a serious mistake to equate a civilized society with one in which the decent people are doormats for the evil to trample on." (Colonel William Flatt)

PRESERVING YOUR RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS

The importance of preserving your right to keep and bear arms is illustrated in I Samuel 13:19-22.

"Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his ax, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads. So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found."

The Philistines conquered and dis-armed the Israelites. They even took away the means of weapons production, in order to enslave them. But some Israelites had kept their weapons "illegally." In order to revolt and become free men, the few Israelites who had weapons attacked some Philistines and took their weapons. This process continued until many Israelites had arms. It is impossible to overthrow tyrants and have a free society unless the citizens have firearms.

In the Constitution of the United States we find the "Bill of Rights." It is vital for every Christian to realize that all our rights actually come from God. The government never gives you rights, but only recognizes rights you already have, or tries to take your rights away from you, to increase its power.

The second Amendment of the Constitution, the second right enumerated in the Bill of Rights, is the right to "keep and bear arms." If enough Americans will exercise their rights, especially the right to keep and bear arms, we may prevent our government from becoming a dictatorship. If the government begins registering, and then confiscating everyone's weapons, then don't be surprised at the tyranny that will soon follow.

AN OBJECTION ANSWERED

Someone may ask: "But what about turning the other cheek and not resisting evil? Aren’t Christians supposed to always act like that?"

The answer is simple: No. In those verses Jesus was telling Christians how to react to minor insults: a slap on the cheek, the loss of a coat, and so on. He was not addressing the Christian’s response to criminal activity. He did that when He said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." and "Love your neighbor as yourself."

If we love our neighbors, we will take steps to keep them safe from criminals. We will support our local police. Instead of taking vengeance personally, we will call on the police to find and arrest criminals. But when criminals attack us, and the police are not there, we will do what it takes to stop them, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of our families, and our neighbors. To dis-arm and to allow criminals to attack us and our neighbors unopposed is to be negligent about our Christian duty. Cities which forbid weapons to law-abiding citizens are playing into the hands of criminals. Gun control makes no one safer except the criminals, who never turn in their guns.

In the Larger Catechism, Answer # 135 we read that "The duties required in the sixth commandment" include "just defence against violence." Self-defense is not only our privilege as a Christian, it is our duty.

Mouseguns: Christians Bearing Arms index page
The Making Of The Westminster Larger Catechism web page
The Westminster Larger Catechism (1648) web page
Wayside Presbyterian Church home page

Saturday, September 11, 2010

The God Relationship Must Be Extended To All Of Humanity

MM Book 2 Chapter 8-12

The community of God is the ** relationship of God, of His family ** — our needs and wants, our management of ourselves and our resources, our labor providing for each other, is all held within the context of the “gift” – we all partake equally of the COMMON-WEALTH by our COMMON-MINISTRATION of the gifted-wealth provided by God – WE *ARE* EACH OTHER; WE CREATE EACH OTHER !! – OUR NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL ABILITIES ARE GIFTS TO BE GIFTED IN A RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP, IN LOVE !! – THIS IS WHAT GOD IS, AND WHAT WE MUST BE IN THIS WORLD !! – ** THE GOD RELATIONSHIP MUST BE EXTENDED TO ALL OF HUMANITY ** !! — business is the “wasting” of the majority of mankind and of our common home, while the few are enclosed in their own fat [Psm 17:10] [consumption is laying waste (our) humanity and environment; money is *not* life, money is disease, a wasting consumption; money is eventual death] !! – money is held as able to possess all; all is available to money; anything can be bought for those with “the” money [ownership as right, privilege]; all of life can be equated in terms of money, NOTHING IS EXEMPT, NOT EVEN GOD; MONEY IS ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY, MONEY AS GOD, and those with “the” money are regarded as gods !! — God’s community must provide God’s nourishment, physically and spiritually; WE MUST PROVIDE GOD’S LIFE, ** WE MUST DESTROY THE FALSE ALTARS ** !!

MM Book 2 Chapter 8-13

There are only two ways of life: “give” and “take,” and they are mutually exclusive, they cannot be blended in context [lukewarm] – the LOVE of GOD (rooted and grounded; righteousness) vs. the LOVE of MONEY (the root of all evil; unrighteous Mammon) – WE MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN THESE SYSTEMICS – as stated previously ** OUR CHOICE IS MAMMON OR MESSIAH ** !! – our society, its laws, institutions, relations, etc., are all based on money/iniquity [lack of righteousness or justice; wickedness; inequality] – GOD IS EQUITY [fairness; impartiality; justice; equality] and God’s community is equitable – business *claims* equity: all are equal and free to take from each other — our *only* motive is God; our motivation is His Kingdom, the Family of God !! – we *become* God by our “being and doing,” by our God-ing !! — the “family of man” has the potential of becoming the “family of God” yet the “family” in either instance is *not* recognized !! – we assume many labels, and these labels take precedence over our *being* Christian, ie., our national labels, our religious labels [Baptist or RC first, even COG first, Christian second (anyone actually "being" or trying to be a Christian would soon discard the labels; actually turning unto God makes God very apparent, God turns unto you !!)] – the Family of Man/Family of God [the physical/spiritual] are a mutuality; the corporate is a wedge driving apart the “body”, ripping it apart, taking what it needs for the “corporate body” discarding the rest [a beast without a conscience] – we must “overcome” the world, “repent” of our/its sins in total, we must separate and withdraw from it !!

MM Book 2 Chapter 8-14

Mankind faces a common enemy; that enemy is “business” [the banality of evil; commonplace; unrecognized as such] – the “corporate form” is opposed to God, no matter the cultural expression [expressing God, the consciousness of a God(s) in their lives (His love, attributes); their way to "form" God, to "know" Him, in terms of a particular people, time, place, experience, etc., expressing the God relationship without benefit of the Word of God, or of His Spirit, yet making (a) sense of life (testimony to the human spirit given by God); but, God is *not* carnally formulated (do this and God will do that), and is without carnal love and hate] – the commonalities of giving and love reflect God, the contrivances and excuses to take and hate reflect Satan !! – many today call the various religions and faiths “many paths to the one God,” but that very same God has laid out His path for us to follow [the many paths will eventually lead to, end at, the one path, and that path to God] – many claim Christianity is sourced from a variety of religions and cults, citing many similarities, yet it was the various mysteries, Pantheons, etc., which actually sourced from ancient Hebraism, from the revelation God gave to Adam and Eve [Nimrod, etc., the Mazzaroth] and the Patriarchs — THE GOD FAMILY IS *OPEN-SOURCE* AND INVITES EXAMINATION, DIALOGUE, A REASONING TOGETHER !! — man’s carnal religion(s), including his Christianity, is multi-sourced and polluted, but Christ is ** pure-sourced ** from God the Father Himself, as is His Family !!

MM Book 2 Chapter 8-15

A NEW HUMAN-ITY, A PURE CHRISTIAN-ITY vs. the Faith of the Fallen — the only true and righteous value is family and community; shewbread community – the Anointed become servants of/to humanity as God Family – we claim to be “spiritual Jews” yet we negate our Christian-ity in and by our “physical” existence; our physical systemic *serves us* by the use of oppression and violence on others – the use/abuse of another is slavery, incl., “wage slavery,” especially “minimum” wage; all human beings have ** EQUAL RIGHT OF GOD ** !! – MAMMON MINIMIZES MOST; GOD LIFTS UP, BRINGS DOWN, AND EQUALIZES ALL !! — each and every moment of our lives, each experience of our existence must be a God-moment, a God-experience, every thought must be brought to Christ and His righteousness, in the service of the Family – we must reduce and finally eliminate the compromises, the contradictions that are seemingly inherent – the passage of time, the growing maturity, deepens the roots into truth, the deep things of God; we are being prepared of, and for, God [1 Cor 2:9-10] !! — Human [Human Spirit] and Christian [Human-God Spirit] are two beings of consciousness designed by God, the physical Human designed to receive the spiritual, the very Mind of God; the physical being a reflection of the spiritual – the spiritual mind is in service of the physical mind; the God-family is in service of the Human-family !! – a Christian Being is a ** new creation ** in Christ Jesus; an “evolutionary” jump in consciousness.

Mammon or Messiah Book 2 web page (widescreen)
Mammon or Messiah Book 2 blog home The Midnight Hour

Friday, September 10, 2010

The Days of Awe, Days of Return to God

"Beginning on the Day of Trumpets and ending on the Day of Atonement ... [are] the "Ten Days of Penitence," or "Days of Awe," dedicated to the inner cleansing of the man. They are also known as "Days of Return," because we are to examine ourselves and return to God." [quote from article by Richard C. Nickels, MMr Day of Trumpets: The Return of Jesus Christ 2]

MM Book 2 Chapter 6-14

The 10 Commandments [10C] are a mental environment, each an attitude of mind [an expression of God's very own mind, His character]; “thou shalt not” implies the opposite “thou shalt *do*” [ie., in God's community there is no need, or desire for stealing, all shall freely share], our involvement and responsibility, our family consciousness [of God and man, our relationship], our personality; Philippians 2:5, “let this *mind be in you* that was also in Christ Jesus” – the 10C represent *together* the ultimate, genuine *survival* mentation matrix and paradigm [intelligent design, application (obedience); psychologically, the deep things of God; the ** COMMANDMENTS OF LIFE **]; 2 Cor 10:5, “… bringing into captivity *every thought* to the obedience of Christ” – the 10C are active, real, *living* laws, physically and spiritually [with real penalties when broken; witness the world], they *are* the God Family, they are the Family’s ** Law of Agape Love **, yet the 10C and God are not real to most people !! – it is the transgression of these laws [1 John 3:4, sin is the transgression of the law] that has separated God and man, that has made the reality of our evil systemic [and the resultant suffering engendered] paramount in our lives – these laws are the only way to a *sustainable existence* for man on this planet; they are God’s systemic, His guiding principles, they are what we were designed for !! — the reality of this world must be God’s reality, we must make God our own, a systemic based on “give” NOT a systemic based on “take”, a true systemic of resultant blessings NOT a false, evil systemic of curses [an absence of the blessings !!] – these “living laws” engender [to beget; to bring into being; cause; produce; originate] a *true life*, a living, symbiotic environment; they are part-and-parcel of God’s Holy Spirit, and as such THEY IMPART GOD’S LIFE AND WITHOUT THEM WE WILL CEASE TO EXIST !!

MM Book 2 Chapter 6-15

We know and love God, by, in and through His living and eternal law !! – God’s SHEPHERDING LAW is now *critical* to the very survival of humanity — the concept of grace without law is A LIE and has resulted in the bondage of mankind [Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? [Is] the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not *in* us] – the Law of God is NOT done away with; it provides the knowledge of sin and its existence, the knowledge that is so vital, so critical to our very survival !! – it is God’s *law of liberty* that gives us freedom, that allows community; it is eternal life, God’s *gift* to us !! — grace without law negates itself [grace is the freedom given to us by God to do the *works of God*; grace under law enables the shepherding "ministry of gifts"], it results in a false grace in bondage [slavery] to Satan and his systemic; it abrogate’s the environment of God’s grace, the way, the path out of sin, it abrogate’s the knowledge of God, the very preaching and witness [so speak ye, and so do] !! – WITHOUT THE LAW OF GOD WE CANNOT KNOW AND LOVE GOD, OR BE KNOWN OF GOD !! – the penalty of sin is death [cessation of existence], and faith without works [our Family Names, our responsibilities, and our purpose (to destroy the works of the devil)] is dead !! – WE HAVE, WE ARE *LIVING FAITH* – CHRIST FULFILLED THE *ROYAL LAW* AND SO SHOULD WE !! – THE 10C ISSUE FROM THE VERY THRONE OF GOD OUR FATHER, THEY ARE HIS VERY CHARACTER, AND THEY MUST BECOME OURS !!

MM Book 2 Chapter 6-16

The Works (spiritually/physically) of the Devil are opposed to the Law of God, to the Family:

1 you shall have other gods before God, you shall serve me (way of life);
2 you shall make images of the Beast, the hierarchical systemic;
3 you shall take/carry God’s name in vain, you shall worship me;
4 you shall NOT obey God’s Sabbath;
5 you shall NOT honor your mother and father;
6 you shall murder;
7 you shall commit adultery;
8 you shall steal;
9 you shall bear false witness;
10 you shall covet.

This is a description of a world systemic *of the devil*, of every evil way !! [John 8:44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the *lusts of your father ye will do*. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.] — BY DESTROYING THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL (the Works of the Flesh) WE FULFIL THE LAW OF GOD, WE FULFIL *OUR* PURPOSE !! — there is much brilliance in the world but the current, the force of flow lighting and applying that intelligence, is a fallen Angel, NOT THE FORCE AND LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD !! — man took to himself Satan’s knowledge of *good and evil* and that is the systemic in the world today; both good and evil are existent, and the evil separates God from man [our sins; our choice of the evil way].

Cross-post from MMr article link
Mammon or Messiah Book 2 web page (widescreen)
Mammon or Messiah Book 2 blog home The Midnight Hour

Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Annual Feasts and Holy Days

The Annual Feasts and Holy Days:

September 09, 2010 Day of Trumpets
September 18, 2010 Day of Atonement
September 23, 2010 Feast of Tabernacles
September 30, 2010 Last Great Day

The Scriptures teach that there are seven annual feasts and holy days which were ordained by God to be observed as special commanded convocations. These feasts and holy days portray God's plan of salvation for mankind. The observance of these holy convocations is a sign between God and His people. God's annual feasts and holy days were observed by His people during Old Testament times. In the New Testament, we find that ** Jesus Christ's entire ministry was centered around the *spiritual meaning* of these holy days ** [THE ENTIRE PLAN OF SALVATION]. The New Testament apostolic church faithfully observed these annual feasts and holy days. The Scriptures reveal that they will be observed by all mankind after the return of Jesus Christ.

As the holy days are annual Sabbath days, they may fall on any day of the week (except Pentecost, which always falls on a Sunday). When a holy day falls on a weekly Sabbath, the special observance of the annual holy day takes precedence. God's feasts and holy days are to be observed from sunset to sunset in accordance with the calculated Hebrew Calendar as preserved by the Levitical Jews. The seven annual feasts and holy days (along with their scriptural date of observance) are as follows:

[0. FIRST DAY SACRED CALENDAR (NISAN 1); MOSES SETS UP TABERNACLE]
[0. PASSOVER LAMBS SET ASIDE (NISAN 10); ISRAELITES CROSS JORDAN; CHRIST ENTERS JERUSALEM]

1. Passover: Kept 14th day of the first month. Not a holy day. [ANGEL OF DEATH PASSED OVER; BLOOD ON DOORPOSTS; CHRIST OUR PASSOVER LAMB SLAIN; PASSOVER CEREMONY AFTER EVEN (reflection all night, bed in morning)]

2. Unleavened Bread (7 days): 15th through 21st days of the first month (the 15th & 21st are HOLY DAYS). [LEAVEN; SIN PUT OUT; NTBMR OBSERVED AT EVEN ULB1, EXODUS FROM EGYPT (SIN); ULB2 GOD PARTS THE RED SEA]

3. Pentecost: Date counted annually. Fifty days are counted, beginning with the first day of the week [WEAVESHEAF (oblation of the first fruits of the harvest; Nisan 16)], following the one weekly sabbath day that falls during ULB. The feast is observed on the fiftieth day, which always falls on the first day of the week. [SIX DAYS THOU SHALT LABOR; 10C GIVEN; HOLY SPIRIT GIVEN]

4. Trumpets: 1st day of the seventh month. [1st DAY CIVIL CALENDAR; CHRIST RETURNS AT THE LAST TRUMP]

5. Atonement: 10th day of the seventh month. [SERMON ON THE MOUNT; SCAPE GOAT; SATAN BOUND]

6. Tabernacles (7 days): 15th through 21st days of the seventh month (the 15th is a HOLY DAY). [CHRIST'S BIRTHDAY 4BC, MINISTRY 27AD; FEAST OF BOOTHS; MILLENNIUM]

7. Last Great Day: 22nd day of the seventh month (HOLY DAY). [CHRIST CIRCUMCISED; GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT]

[8. NEW MOONS; 1st DAY OF EACH MONTH; NOT A HOLY DAY, BUT TREATED AS SUCH]

[9. FEAST OF DEDICATION; Chislev 25 (8 days); HANUKKAH; FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS; MARY, HOLY SPIRIT CONCEPTION OF CHRIST 5BC; (NOT HOLY DAYS)]

Scriptural References: Lev. 23; Ex. 23:14-17, 31:13; Ex. 12:1-20; John 7:37; Mat. 26:17-18; I Cor. 5:7-8; Acts 2:1; Acts 18:21; Acts 20:16; I Cor. 16:8; Zech. 14:16-19; Isa. 66:23. [Outline based on Statement of Beliefs: The Christian Biblical Church of God with additions]

Day of Trumpets: The Return of Jesus Christ 1 MMr article
Day of Trumpets: The Return of Jesus Christ 2 MMr article
Holy Days: Family and Community MMr article

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Arthur Waskow: Five Steps to Burning Books

Five Steps to Burning Books
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow article link article link
September 7, 2010 | Shalom Center | OpEdNews

From a small right-wing church in Florida, there has gone out a call to burn copies of the Quran on September 11. Instead of being ignored as clearly cuckoo, this call won national media coverage.

As the German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine wrote almost two centuries ago, "Those who begin by burning books will end by burning people.” The theater piece for which he wrote those words, called "Almansor," was addressing the Inquisition's burning of the Quran. In 1933, university students in Heine's own beloved homeland burned his books, along with many others. They burned people soon after.

Many American religious communities and organizations, as well as secular groups like Common Cause, have condemned this call for burning. The road to burning people is by no means so open here, now, as it was in Germany in 1933.

But still, we need to face the question: How did we get to the point where some Americans would burn a sacred book, and many more oppose the building of a sacred mosque in their own town––not only in Lower Manhattan, but in many other neighborhoods?

It would be easy to start with the aftermath of the terror attacks against the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. But the spiritual chasm between Christianity and Islam goes back centuries. The hostility of Jews toward Islam, on top of the ignorance of almost all European and American Jews about Islam, goes back at least to 1948. And the economic dislocations and unwinnable wars of recent years also have their place in pouring out the fear and anger that provides the fuel for the spark of bigotry.

Step 1: The Old Hostilities

There are perverse and paradoxical spiritual roots to the hostility between Islam and Christianity.

All the great religious traditions––not only those we call monotheist, but Hinduism and Buddhism and Shinto and Wicca and for that matter what we call "secular" traditions like socialism and liberalism ––are rooted in the profound effort to make loving contact with the ONE. One God, one historical dialectic, one Web of life in soul and body on our planet––ONE.

Once a community has begun to reach out toward the ONE, it begins to create the metaphors, the rituals, the languages, the practices in daily life, the festivals to embody this searching toward the ONE. And then the community bumps into another community that also claims it is in contact with the ONE, and has its own quite different set of metaphors, rituals, languages, and daily practices, with which to make this contact real.

There are often two responses to this discovery:

One is to say with surprise and delight, "You have shaped a different path from ours! Of course there must be many ways of lighting up the Infinite, unfolding truth. How could the great Infinity reveal itself except through sacred diversity? Let us learn from each other!”

The other response is to say: "We have unearthed the one way to the ONE, and any other path must be a false one. And worse than false––since you claim falsely to have made contact with the ONE, you must be lying. Corrupt. Deceitful. Worth killing."

In the various British colonies that became the United States, this bitterly hostile response was embodied in the persecution of one or another faith community (e.g. Quakers, Jews, Roman Catholics), by one or another of the original colonial governments. The uncertainty of who might get persecuted in the nation as a whole was one of the factors leading to adoption of the First Amendment, and much of the hostile reaction was then muted by the existence of the First Amendment. If no religion could wield state power and violence against another, this reaction was less likely.

Native American religions and Mormonism did not "count" in this context; state power or pressure was used against these religious communities. And there was public pressure in the 19th century against Roman Catholicism, and in the 20th century against the "Nation of Islam" (a racially focused variant not accepted by any other Muslims as truly Islamic).

Step 2: The 9/11 Attack

Until 2001 in America, both hostility and interfaith exploration were quiescent, in regard to classical Islam. Then a tiny proportion of the more than one billion Muslims of the world, claiming they were acting on behalf of Islam and God, murdered about 3000 people.

Again, there were two responses:

There was a wave of rage against Muslims and anyone who looked as if he might be Muslim. Some were attacked, a few were killed. Officials arrested hundreds of Muslims out of fear, almost always utterly unjustified, that they were would-be terrorists. Some of them were held for months without access to families or attorneys.

And during the same weeks and months, some Americans–– often religiously motivated Christians and Jews––rallied to protect Muslims and their mosques. Some stood guard to prevent attacks, some created vigils, some brought together Jews, Christians, and Muslims under " The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah.”

Step 3: The Wars with Islam

Soon after, the government of the United States began wars against two Muslim-majority nations. It quickly became clear that what began under the banner of "liberation” actually became conquest and occupation. Yet the wars dragged on, bringing death to thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians. And meanwhile, there were deadly US military attacks on Pakistanis, threats of war against Iran, and a continuing close alliance with the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

There is a process that researchers in psychology have uncovered and call "cognitive dissonance.” People who begin with one opinion but act in a way contrary to that opinion change their ideas more than their behavior. After almost a decade of American wars against a number of Muslim-majority societies, and several actual murderous attacks by self-proclaimed Muslims against civilians in various countries allied to America, some Americans who had begun with few opinions about Islam in general began to view it with anger and disgust:

"If we are killing lots of them and they are killing some of us, there must be something evil about them.”

Step 4: The Great Slump

Meanwhile, Americans experienced a disastrous economic slump. The last time that rates of disemployment and of home foreclosure had been this high, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, one of the reactions was a great wave of anti-Semitism across America. Father Coughlin on radio, Henry Ford through the Dearborn Independent, were reaching millions of Americans with fear and hatred of the Jews.

So now, in another time of economic trauma -- and now also of unwinnable wars and a deep sense of cultural dislocation -- there was seething not quite visible below the surface of American culture and society a current of xenophobia. Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal, became suspect. And Muslims.

Step 5: Crystals of Bigotry

And then into this hyper-saturated solution of fear, suspicion, and hatred came some who chose deliberately to drop the poisonous crystals of bigotry .

In December 2009, the New York Times––a liberal leader of opinion––and Laura Ingraham––a conservative leader of opinion–– carried articles and interviews about plans of American Muslims to establish Cordoba House, a community cultural center in Lower Manhattan. There was no fuss, no fury.

Not till May 2010 did the ultra-right-wing anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller and organs of Rupert Murdoch, the right-wing publisher who later gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, begin to carry inflammatory stories about what they call the "Ground Zero Mega-Mosque.”

And then, step-by-step, the crystal they sowed precipitated the super-saturated solution into a noxious brew. Right-wing blogs and talk-radio programs described the Cordova House as an insult to the dead of 9/11, a triumphal celebration by Islam of its victory in the attacks on the World Trade Center's, anything to arouse fear and hatred of Islam.

Even Jewish organizations that claimed their mission was to prevent "defamation" not only of Jews but of all religious and ethnic groups, or claimed their mission was to promote "tolerance," spoke out against the planning for Cordova House. "Yes,” they said, "Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan have every constitutional right to place their mosque or cultural center two long long New York City blocks from Ground Zero, but it is not ethically right or spiritually wise to do so. It would offend the sensibilities of the survivors of the 9/11 dead."

These assertions ignored both an important fact and a crucial principle. The fact was that hundreds of 9/11 survivors, in the organization called September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, had endorsed the placement of Córdoba House. The principle was that the constitutional right of freedom of religion has no reality if a wave of hostility from "private" citizens, sparked by great media empires and backed up by public officials, can prevent the fully legal placement of a house of worship.

Why then did the right wing media and right-wing politicians like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich decide to light this conflagration? The spark would not have lit a fire if that there had not been gallons of gasoline beneath the surface, but why light the spark?

I think the answer is that the right wing was and still is hoping to split the vote of progressive Americans by using not just Cordoba House but also broader fear of Islam as a wedge issue, just as they used the issue of gay marriage––which now has little bite. They have used the fear of Hispanic immigrants in the same way.

Fanning fear and hatred of Islam has one major advantage over firing up fear of gay people or of Hispanics: it may offer the possibility of splitting the Jewish vote, which is, next to the vote of African-Americans, the most progressive voting bloc in the country.

Indeed, many Jews, outraged by attacks on Israel that are sponsored by two Muslim organizations––Hezbollah and Hamas––and by Holocaust denials from some leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, may be susceptible to an Islamophobic campaign. At the same time, of all American communities, Jews are perhaps the most likely to smell and taste the danger of bigotry against a religious minority.

So the American Jewish community is one of the crucial arenas of struggle over whether burning the Quran becomes a step on the path that Heinrich Heine prophesied toward burning people.

Out of this witches' brew of dark past and explosive present, there emerged not only bigotry but another wave of interfaith engagement. Those of many religious and ethical communities gathered to condemn the burning of the Quran and to affirm all sacred texts, all sacred gathering places.

This kind of affirmation is important. And if indeed the official wars against Muslim-majority countries and the great wave of disemployment and home foreclosures have been crucial to pouring the gasoline of fear and anger that have been ignited by sparks of bigotry, then working for economic healing, a peaceful foreign policy, and the transfer of war budgets into rebuilding America are also crucial.

The path America will take is still uncertain.

As for the Jewish community, in its possibly pivotal role: Let us hope that a story from my own childhood echoes so strongly the memories and sensibilities of other American Jews that overwhelmingly, we will walk the path toward freedom and diversity, peace and economic healing:

When I was about seven years old (1940), my grandmother interrupted other Jewish women in line at the kosher butcher shop who were talking contemptuously about "the shvartzes" -- that is, Black people. She challenged them: "That's the way they talked about us in Europe. This is America, and we must not talk like that!"

We must not act like that, either.

The Shalom Center home page
OpEdNews home page

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

The Family
Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
By Northwestrain article link article link
February 15, 2010 "Politics & Imagination"

The FAMILY, by Jeff Sharlet, sounds rather like the title to a book about the Mafia. And in a way this book is about a religious fundamentalist mafia. The problem is that the very people who should read this book and be warned probably won’t be bothered to take the time. The Genealogy of American Protestant Fundamentalism goes back to the early history of this country, and further back to England and Europe, Lutherans and the wars among the Christians, Catholics and Protestants. Sharlet explores the early history and traces where the “Experimental” Fundamentalists breaks away from the traveling preachers or revival preachers – the Evangelical brand that is closely identified with the American Frontier.

Missionaries are part of many religions. The need to convert others, to save others, to offer salvation to the world, the heathen world has been a driving force behind the colonization of the globe by European Nations – oh that and the allure of Gold and other high values commodities. Set this concept of Missionary aside and think of the one very special class in need of salvation. Then set this aside and think of an even more exclusive class, the ruling class and even despot dictators.

The goal of the Secret Fundamentalist cult is to turn the US into a Theocracy followed by the whole world. Just a simply little goal – and as usual with cultist only the supreme leader is able to speak directly with their God. Democracy is messy. This Fundamentalist cult has a history of seeking the powerful politically and corporate leaders. Their idea of creating Christ’s heaven on earth is using the existing power structure.

Jeff Sharlet takes us from his first encounter with the Family and then backward in time to the roots of this Dominionist religion. If you were raised in one of the many American Christian Fundamentalists sects you will no doubt be familiar with much of the religion-speak. But forget about the Jesus of the New Testament and his beatitudes, of caring for those less fortunate than ourselves. The very wealthy corporatists aren’t interested in welfare and social security. Their version of God smiles on the rulers and leaders. The reason people are poor it is God’s will and it is the fault of the poor, they have been bad and are evil. The gilded era of America is when the missionaries to the top tier of the wealthiest began their form of American Fundamentalism. These missionaries are not interested in spreading democracy. The reign of Jesus on earth will not be through democracy in the view of the founders of this brand of Christians.

The problem is that this Dominion over the world brand of fundamentalist has a vision of their perfect world. There are several different versions of God’s Kingdom on earth according to the different evangelical fundamentalist sects, each has their own path to their perfect world. Free will or choice doesn’t enter into their perfect world. Independent women, or women’s view equal human rights to those of men isn’t part of the perfect world of the Dominionist’s world view. Women can and have been used a soldiers to further the goals of these Secret Fundamentalists.

It wasn’t Sharlet’s goal to write about the Domination of women by men, but that thread runs through his book. This is not surprising since ALL fundamentalist religions have as a foundation belief that women are evil and must be controlled or dominated. In some fundamentalist religions women who do not comply with the patriarchal rulers demands are eliminated. Wealthy women, especially widows who willingly fund the spread of the Dominionist fundamentalism are promised a special place in the new kingdom of Jesus on earth. These women have fallen for the oldest con in the world – the promise of heaven and “life everlasting.” This is one of the code words that fundamentalists use, which others who are believes, recognize instantly. These code words are spoken by politicians to let voters know that these politicians are working for goals specific to the Fundamentalist movement. GW Bush used code words, as have other politicians.

The wall between church and state have been breached; the Constitution is becoming a meaningless document filled with meaningless words that have no relationship to the Nation of God that the Secret Fundamentalists want for America. Many of the so call liberal blogs have been taken over by moles who do their best to block any discussion of the Dominionists efforts to take over the US. Anyone who brings this up is branded crazy.

Sharlet’s book is a must read, it is not an easy book to read because of the world view, the point of view of the Dominionist Fundamentalists so far from Democracy and Free will that most people simply won’t believe that such a thing could happen in America. To understand the Secret Fundamentalists means that you need to understand the history and the philosophy of Narcissistic personalities who founded this ministry to the despots and Corporatist of the world.

Previously posted MMr Feb. 16, 2010 article link

Jeff Sharlet blog home
Information Clearing House home page
Politics & Imagination blog home
MM Addendum 1-15 web page (widescreen) blog home
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