May, 2014
In the United States, bakeries the nation over have become the new “front” in the fight for equality for the GLBT community that is rapidly turning into a fight to maintain the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
In several states over the last year or two, bakeries have refused to bake cakes for gay weddings, stating that “gay marriage” is against their religious beliefs and that they have a right to practice those religious beliefs even at work, therefore they are not required to bake a cake for a gay couple.
One bakery in Colorado refused to bake cakes for Halloween and bachelor parties because these too violate their religious beliefs. They seemed to imply that since no one is suing them to force them to bake cakes for these occasions, this proves it is a religious belief and therefore protected under the First Amendment.
There’s only one problem. The analogy doesn’t fit.
When one refuses to bake cakes for Halloween or bachelor parties, they’re not baking them for ANY Halloween or bachelor party, whether gay or straight. However, they DO back wedding cakes for straight couples and refuse to do so for gay couples. That is blatant discrimination and the First Amendment does not grant a public business the right to discriminate.
There are religions that are still being practiced today in which the belief exists that the races are not meant to “intermix”. Interracial marriages are against their faith and yet not once has it been reported that a bakery refused to bake a cake for an interracial couple. (There was a judge/justice of the peace in Louisiana who, in 2009, refused to marry an interracial couple because he did not believe in interracial marriages and there was a massive public outcry, even from those who support the ban on gay marriages that exist in most of the states of this nation.) This kind of discrimination is not tolerated in society anymore, although it was only in 1968 that the US Supreme Court overturned the laws that banned marriage between blacks and whites in the Loving v Virginia case.
There are religions who do not believe in interfaith marriages, yet there are no stories about bakeries who refuse to bake cakes for an interfaith couple. It is understood that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and their own religion and that what one does in one’s personal life (ie, marrying someone of a different faith) is not up to anyone but the persons involved.
But apparently, there are those who believe it is their right to impose their religious beliefs on others through the refusal of services based on “deeply held religious beliefs”. In order to “protect” this “right”, many states are seeking to pass “religious liberty” laws that essentially gives someone the “right” to discriminate against anyone who violates their “deeply held beliefs.”
Where does this “right” end? It is my deeply held religious belief that left-handed people are agents of Satan (don’t laugh: that was once a widely held belief and it is one of the main reasons that we shake hands with our right hands and not our left!) Does that mean I can refuse to serve anyone who is left-handed? What if I am a doctor and it is my deeply held religious belief that single mothers are violating God’s laws? Am I allowed to refuse to treat single mothers? What if I’m a loan officer at a bank and I think that interracial people are abominations (a word often used by some Christians to describe gays)? Am I allowed to refuse to provide a loan to an individual who is Asian and black? What if I’ve got a house to rent and I believe that anyone who drinks alcohol is violating God’s laws? Am I allowed to evict my tenant if I see him/her drinking a beer?
Every single person in this world has the right to live his or her life as s/he sees fit according to the beliefs they hold dear. However, in order to create a society, there is really only one way in which everyone’s right to live this kind of life can be respected, and that is by voluntarily limiting your own actions so they don’t interfere with everyone else’s rights. But since some in society won’t do that, governments are created to make sure they do by passing laws against things like murder, rape, theft, assault, etc.
Forbidding discrimination is NOT violating someone else’s religious beliefs because providing a service to someone does not imply acceptance of, endorsement of, agreement with or condoning of their beliefs or their “lifestyle” (being gay is not a lifestyle, but that’s another article). Simply because one bakes a gay couple a cake for their wdding does NOT mean that one supports homosexuality, that one agrees with gay marriage, that one condones homosexual relationships or that one endorses the “gay agenda” (which doesn’t really exist but that too is another article). It simply means that one is not allowed to impose his/her religious beliefs/standards on others.
There is no need to create laws to protect “religious liberty” because that is already done in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The “religious liberty” laws that are being written and enacted right now are nothing more than legalizing discrimination, something which we’ve been slowly eliminating over the years by recognizing the violation of the rights of women and other minorities and correcting those violations through laws. To now turn around and write legalized discrimination into the law is a step backwards and is blatantly unconstitutional.
I had the Holy Experience today. I had it this morning. I am still having it as I write this.
The experience feels interestingly like a new beginning. So many things are changing in our world, and so many things are presenting themselves for change in my life. I experienced this morning that I want to change how I am. I wish to become more loving, more patient, more compassionate, more giving.
Yes, much, much more giving.
This is wonderful, this feeling of being willing to change and to become a larger version of myself than I am experiencing today. It is part of the continuing adventure, of the never-ending process, that is the expansion of my humanity and the evolution of my human soul.
Just when I think “the game is over,” it never is! This is what is so extraordinary about Life. Even after what we imagine to be our death, life is not over. It never is and it never will be.
I don’t know why I am feeling all this right now, why I am knowing this as part of my experience today more than usual, but I am. It just feels like a new energy is coursing through me. And that feels good. I thank God for it. I thank God for letting me get up today with such revitalized energy, even at my age. I am not a young man any more, but my heart feels young as ever.
I think that part of what is behind all of this may have to do with the fact that I had a memory in my sleeping/waking moments this morning that I once spent the entire weekend going over the “script” of my life, and I was remembering that. And when I say I was going over the script of my life, I mean literally, not figuratively.
I had the screenwriter, the producer/director, and the director of photography of Conversations with God: The Movie at my house for the three days some years ago, going over the first draft of the script for the film. They were asking me to describe, in some cases moment-by-moment, many of my most meaningful life experiences—and that can throw one into deep introspection, as you might imagine. It is also something you do not forget, because it is very rare that a person sits down for three days and summarizes his entire life.
I haven’t lived my life the way I would have liked to. Some of the choices I have made have been very hurtful to others, and I deeply regret that. Yet I see now, whenever I review the entirety of my life, that certain things had to happen exactly as they have happened in order for me to be here now, just as I am—and for the others in my life to be where they are as well.
I know that sounds like the perfect self-absolving philosophy, a wonderful thought system that allows one to escape regretting one’s past—and even to, in some ways, justify that past.
I promise you, this idea brings none of those benefits. And least, not for me. I will always regret certain choices and actions in my past. And I can never justify those choices based upon a thought that things needed to happen exactly the way they happened. Nor could I possibly “justify” making those same kinds of choices and decisions today.
Yet regret is not guilt, and that is what is important here. “Guilt” is about feeling that I did something “wrong,” while “regret” is about feeling that what I did is not something I would do again. For it is as poet Maya Angelou has said: “When we know better, we do better.”
And what is it that I “know better” now? I know myself better. I know better Who I Am—and who, in the future, I choose to be. You see, there is one thing I did not understand back there. In my past, I did not understand what I was doing here. On the earth, I mean.
Then Conversations with God set me straight. It said, “Every act is an act of self-definition.” It made it clear to me that I was not my body and that I was not my mind, and that I was not even my soul, but rather, all three combined. And that the reason this Triune Being that I am came into the Realm of Physicality was so that I might both Know and Experience Who I Really Am.
Conversations with God taught me that God and I are One; that I am God, godding; that the purpose of my life is to recreate my Self anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever I held about Who I Am.
This is not a journey from nowhere to nowhere. This is a process. Life is a process. It is a process with purpose and meaning. It is a function of the Universe.
It is the Present Action of an Eternal Activity. I am not an infinitesimal spec of dust on the cosmic floor, unworthy to even be seen, much less celebrated. I am a big and important, and yes, an even glorious part of an Ever Ongoing Expression of Divinity.
Conversations with God also taught me that God forgives me completely and utterly for my “offenses” — which God sees as merely “mistakes,” “misunderstandings,” and simple “errors,” holding me in the cradle of Her love, embracing me in the warmth of His compassion and deep understanding, encouraging me now and giving me the strength to move forward with my purpose in this life: to know myself as Who I Really Am, and to experience that.
In this way, God experiences ITself…and it is the only way God can.
Let’s pretend just for the moment that it’s true that God wants nothing from humanity. If that is so, then virtually all of life’s apple carts are upended. Ancient myths are upended. Cultural stories are upended. Ethnic customs are upended. Familial traditions are upended. Religious doctrines are upended. Legal systems and educational systems are upended. Political, economic, and social constructions of every kind are upended.
Could this be the reason that the idea of a God who wants something has been perpetuated?
Think about this.
Why would God want anything? What is it that God could possibly want or need? What would cause God to want or need anything? What could cause God to become unhappy if He did not get it?
Now think about this…
What could cause God to make humans responsible for His getting what He wants? Would you make your children responsible for your happiness?
We have been told of a God who wants humans to love Him, to worship Him, to adore Him, to surrender to Him, to be grateful to Him, and to pay Him homage. Why? Why would God want this? Why would God care?
We have been told of a God who wants humans to keep His commandments, and if they do not, and if they fail to seek and obtain forgiveness in the proper and prescribed manner, He then wants them to go to hell, there to suffer intolerable anguish. But think about this. Why would God punish humans so horribly for their confusion and weakness?
If we wanted someone to understand us better and to obey us always and in everything, and if we just could not get them to do it, would we make it their fault?
(Well, of course, we would and we do. But who can blame us? We are using God as our model. Yet what if our model is based on faulty assumptions?)
We have been told of a God whose justice is perfect. Yet why would a God who is vulnerable to nothing and cannot be hurt or damaged in any way need to punish anyone for anything, much less sentence them to torture?
We have been told of a God who wants and invites humans to go to battle for Him, to kill others for Him, just as He has been recorded in the Scriptures as having killed thousands who incurred His wrath. But why? Why would God kill anybody, or ask others to kill in His name?
Does God really want humans to massacre others while fighting for His Cause? What is His Cause, anyway?
What is God up to? What is “God’s Cause”?
Is it to get everybody on earth to join a single religion? Is that it? Is that What God Wants?
Why? Why would God want that? Why would God care?
Does it really matter to God whether you are a Muslim or a Jew, a Hindu or a Christian, a Buddhist or a Bahai’i? What if you are a good person, a kind, caring, compassionate and loving individual, but are a member of no organized religion at all?
What if you actually speak out against organized religions and their extremes? Does that make you an apostate? Does that mean you are doomed? Does that make you an infidel and render you eligible to be killed by a True Believer? Is this What God Wants?
Why? Why does it matter? Who told you that it mattered? Was it the organized religion that wants you to be its member?
Think about this.
Is this the purpose of religion on the earth? Is this the Cause of God?
What happens to all of this, what becomes of this entire thought system, if it’s declared that God wants nothing, nothing at all, from human beings?
Can you believe in a God who wants nothing? Is it possible to hold such a thought in your reality?
Can you even imagine it?
I believe that if you can, you have imagined the beginning of the end of a world of violence, anguish, and suffering as created by many people who believe that God demands and commands many things — all articulated by the religion to which they belong.
We can now let go of those beliefs. We can launch a Civil Rights Movement for the Soul, freeing humanity at last from the oppression of its beliefs in a violent, angry, and vindictive God.
If you would like to become part of this movement, wherever you are in the world, click on the blue box in the right hand column back on the Front Page of this newspaper, and learn about the Evolution Revolution.
(NOTE: Our extended series of headline articles ends with this entry. If you have found this series of interest, you may wish to obtain the book from which these installments have been excerpted. The book, titled What God Wants, may be obtained here.)
In the last installment of the headline series of articles here humanity was given the answer to the most important question in human history.
What does God want?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.
Please think about this. What does God want? Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.
How does that feel to you? How does that thought feel when you try it on?
Does it produce an empty feeling? Does it produce anger? Does it produce simple agreement, as in “ho-hum, nothing new”? Does it confuse you? Does it make you happy?
How do you think the world at large would react if it turned out to be true? What, if anything, do you think would change?
Can there be any kind of meaningful theology if we have a God who wants nothing?
If we say that God wants nothing, are we as much as saying that there is no God at all? If we all agree that there is a God, but that there is nothing God wants, then what is God up to? What is God’s purpose and function? Why believe in God? Who needs one?
Some people have come to these questions and walked away shrugging their shoulders, saying, “There is no reason to believe in God. We don’t need one.”
I would argue strenuously that the first of those above two statements is false, and the second is true. There is a reason—and a very good one—to believe in God, and…we don’t need God.
The reason to believe in God is that this belief opens us to the possibility of God’s power playing a role in our lives. You can’t use the power of God if you can’t believe in the existence of that power.
Yet why would we care about using the power of God if we don’t need God? Fair question. The very fact that we can use the power of God is why we don’t need God. The answer is circular.
If a rich man writes you into his will in which he says he has given you all of his money, placing it is a safe deposit box for you, then you don’t need that man. Yet if you don’t believe the man ever existed, you will not even go to the safe deposit box to get the money. You won’t believe the money is there. You’ll think it’s all a ruse, a farce. You’ll be rich and won’t know it.
This is Part IX of an extended series of headline articles in The Global Conversation.
God made us “in the image and likeness of God.” This is a truth. This is not just a nice statement, it is what is so. It is as the Scriptures tell us: “Have I not said, Ye are gods?”
The idea that we need God is an illusion. It is an act of forgetfulness. It is what we imagine is true when we forget who we really are, rejecting our inheritance. If our belief in God is based on the idea that we need God for some reason, then most of our interactions with God will be dysfunctional. And, of course, they are. That’s the point here.
The very best reason to believe in God is that we don’t need God. God has made us capable enough to get along just fine, as any good parent would. Thus, we can be open to just loving God—and just loving God is the most powerful thing any of us could ever do. That’s because love unleashes the power of who we are, and when that power is unleashed, there is nothing we cannot do. Which is, of course, what God intended.
God did not intend for us to be dependent on Him. God intended for us to be independent. Free. And not only free, but fully capable. Of what? Of producing, of creating, of experiencing what we have long desired.
But just loving God means, of course, that we would stop fearing God—and that could only happen if we thought we did not need God. So long as we imagine that we need God for something, we invite fear, because, of course, we believe that there is always a chance that God will not give us what we need.
Most of humanity’s interactions with God aredysfunctional precisely because most of humanity has created a need-based relationship with God. This relationship not only assumes that we need something from God but, perhaps of more profound implication, that God needs something from us.
The relationship with God that so many people on earth have established falls apart if it is true that God wants nothing at all from human beings. Yet because the relationship falls apart does not mean the relationship is ended. Sometimes things need to fall apart for things to truly fall together for the first time. It does not always serve us to shy away from ideas that may cause things to fall apart. So let’s look again, and now more deeply, at this idea:
What does God want?
Absolutely nothing at all.
Please think about it. Even if you disagree with it vehemently, think about it. Especially if you disagree, please think about it deeply.
What makes you disagree?
Who told you that this statement could not be true?
What makes them right?
How do you know that they know what is true? Because they read it in a book? Fair enough. But then, what makes the book right? Because God said it was right? Which God? Which book?
Think about this deeply if only for the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual exercise.
(Our exploration of this topic continues in Part X, the final installment of this extended series, coming very soon. Don’t miss a single entry. And if you wish to catch up on installments that you have missed, simply click on the word HEADLINE in the Categories list at right, then scroll down to find the column you wish to read.)
Recovery from addiction, self absorption, behavioral deficiencies, and even old world thinking are one in the same. The first thing that is needed for change to take place is desire. Many times it also takes outside pressure to make “flip the switch” in our brain.
Closed-mindedness is the enemy to change. Most of us have a desire to be “right” about how we do life. We spend an enormous amount of energy on proving ourselves to be correct and in the process making other “wrong.” Denial is a defense mechanism of the ego that we use to shield ourselves from criticism. The willingness to address this denial and closed-mindedness is critical to change, and ultimately, happiness.
Opening our minds to ideas that may seem foreign or “wrong” doesn’t mean accepting these things as true, it just means that we are willing to look and listen, maybe even try it out. We can always go back to our way of doing things if these new suggestions do not bring us to a greater place of joy and freedom. After all, isn’t joy and freedom what we are all looking for here? I haven’t met anyone who truly lives just to be more miserable. Yet some people spend a great deal of their lives, maybe even all of their lives, unhappy.
I’m here to say it doesn’t have to be that way.
Life is constantly changing. That is what life is all about. Everything is in motion at all times. It is certainly true that people are changing all the time. Resisting this change is where our unhappiness is rooted. Going with change, and accepting it, opens us up to feeling better about situations that we are not really comfortable in. Finding an attitude of gratitude, even for unpleasant experiences, will serve our happiness better in the long run. One of the most profound statements to come from CwG is “what you resist, persists.” The follow up to that is, “what you look at disappears.”
Developing a practice of quieting the mind is key to handling the stresses of life with more control and confidence. The minds of the addicted are constantly racing. The unharnessed mind is the enemy to serenity and peace. Many times in our lives our conflicts escalate because we don’t stop to think about the appropriate responses. Our society pressures us to have quick replies, and immediate results. We constantly find ourselves falling into the rabbit hole because we don’t stop to take a breath and quiet our mind before we fire off a retort.
Saying yes to opportunities that stretch our comfort zone often reaps fantastic rewards. If you have ever seen the movie Yes Man with Jim Carrey I have found this practice to be very much like the movie. In our active spiritual life we are inspired to call forth new experiences in our lives. We set our intentions on whatever it is, we say a prayer or two requesting things, then we sit back and wait for them to appear, only to be disappointed and discouraged.
We ask,”what is the problem?” I have done all the right things, set my intentions, prayed, put into place a mantra or incantation practice, and I still have not experienced what I asked for. We assume that God said no.
Well God never says no. The answer is always yes, and it is always immediate. The problem is, in most cases, we didn’t know what to look for. Many times the experience is dangled in front of us, but the road looks too scary or risky and we turn back. Sometimes we say no to things that appear out of the blue because we are skeptical or cynical.
Being aware that life is a contextual field reminds us that where one thing exists the opposite must also exist in order for us to fully grasp the grandness of anything. So if the opposite is presenting when you ask for a thing, bless it and thank it for its presence, for without the opposite we cannot appreciate the fullness of a thing.
So here is a quick list of my favorite practices. These are the things that I find expand my consciousness, while at the same time opening up more space for me to experience happiness, joy and freedom, the holy trinity of a wonderful life.
1. Yoga – Healing the body, focusing the mind, tending to the spirit. You cannot beat yoga for finding peace. Side benefits: the people you find in the rooms are on the same journey as you. Looking for peace, health, and love. Not just looking, but creating.
2. Reading – Find the books that open your heart and your mind. Study them deeply. If you find something that works, keep on doing it. Then share it. What you give to another you give to yourself.
3. Communicate- And when I say communicate I do not mean talking only. Listening is a lost art in our culture. So far lost that is really all people want from others is that they just listen. You don’t have to have the answers, in fact, you shouldn’t have the answers. We all have our own answers; many times we just need another to be a heart with ears. Listening, not judging or condemning.
4. Drop expectations – When we expect things to appear there can be only two results. One, we get the thing. Two, we don’t. And if we expect something and get the opposite result, suffering can take place. It is great to have a preference for a result, but expectations usually end in letdown.
5. Be creative – And I don’t mean painting pictures or drawing elaborate plans, although those are wonderful things to do. What I mean is intentionally create your state of being. Decide before hand what it is you wish to be, and then be it.
6. Step outside your comfort zone – It has been said that if your palms aren’t sweating, you aren’t living, and I believe that is true. Great joy can be found in putting on our big boy and girl pants and living on the edge of comfort. Sometimes this just looks like starting a conversation with a stranger on an elevator instead of staring at the wall wishing the doors would open.
(Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional and Recovery Advocate. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, recovery coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery. Kevin has a passion for holistic living, personal awareness training, and physical meditation. You can visit his website Life After Addicton for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)
Look at what you are doing on this day. Are you spending most of your energy gathering, or giving? And if you are giving, are you giving in order to gather? Do you do the work you do in order for it to pay off for you? And what, exactly, is the payoff? What are you gathering?
God, of course, cannot gather. That is the one thing that God cannot do.
God cannot gather anything. That is because everything God would gather, God is. There’s nothing to gather.
I gather that you understand this.
Yet if God cannot gather, and if you are God, then you cannot gather, either. Perhaps you’ve already noticed this. Perhaps you’ve already noticed that, even if you do manage to collect a few things along the way, sooner or later it all disappears. At the end, none of it is there. You go on, but none of it goes with you.
What is it they say? “You can’t take it with you.”
In fact, it’s all starting to disappear right now. You don’t have the friends you had. You don’t have the stuff you had. You don’t even have the feelings you had. Everything you thought was “you,” or that at least helped to define you, has disappeared. There is nothing that is permanent. There is nothing that stays.
Everything goes. Which is an interesting fact about life.
Everything goes.
And when you understand this, everything goes. There are no restrictions anymore. You can do anything you wish, say anything you wish, think anything you wish, because you’re not trying to hold onto anything anymore.
What’s the point? You can’t hold onto it anyway. It’s all going to go away.
In the end, if not before.
This may sound like a desolate and despairing scenario, yet the truth is, it’s liberating. You can’t have anything forever. If you had it forever, the having of it would mean nothing.
The Holy Experience is knowing this.
Each moment becomes truly holy, because each moment ends. It cannot be held onto forever. Not a single moment can. Therefore, every single moment is sacred.
Like a snowflake, the moments fall and form a collection that melts into the stream of our lives that evaporates into nothingness, disappearing from sight but not from Reality, condensing and forming cloudy formations, which then drop down as new snowflakes, new lives, starting the whole cycle over again.
Each snowflake, each moment, is utterly magnificent; cryingly, achingly, tearfully beautiful, unfathomably perfect. As is each life.
In the last year the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has added to the dialog, and to the polarization of the world. It has become another contentious dialog between those who wish to see change vs. those who believe nothing should ever change; that the Bible is a tool of God vs. the indisputable word of God. It is the people who believe the Pope is the spiritual Head of the Church vs the Pope is the spiritual Head of the Church, but spirituality and politics don’t mix. It seems that talk about money/politics and faith are separate conversations, not one ongoing conversation.
This Pope has had the temerity to suggest, among many things, that we should be kind to homosexuals, review policies that exclude divorced couples from the sacraments, that we shouldn’t judge others, and, worst of all, has suggested that an equitable way of redistributing the worlds wealth should be sought!
We live in an age of ever increasing mechanization of labor, and still increasing population, and stagnant wages. Labor is told to get a job, but jobs are dwindling, and the real buying power of wages has shrunk dramatically. All the while the rich are getting disproportionately more wealthy.
The Pope sees this as against the teachings of Christ, around whom Christianity was born.
What is the response I have seen most often to this Pope’s stand on our world capitalist (Trickle down) economy model? The Pope is a Socialist! The Pope is a Communist! The Pope doesn’t “get it”, when it comes to Capitalism, because he took a vow of poverty and because he lived in a poor country! These are the cries I hear from people in the media…and from many people I speak to.
I, personally, think this means the Pope “gets it” more than any one of the media pundits, or anyone who lets others form their opinions for them. This Pope has seen first hand, and in grinding reality, what poverty really is, and how the “trickle down” economic model is not working. He has demonstrated that happiness comes from within not without. He has seen the effects of entitlement and separation from one another…and Divinity.
There is a whole discussion one could have right now on exactly what “Socialism” is, but I will only say that there is no one definition, and that it is a fluid thing, with, at its core, parity for all, with each culture defining what is of “value”, and what defines an individuals “value”.
What “Socialism” isn’t is an end to individualism, nor does it necessarily mean the government runs the whole thing. It is a fluid thing. What it means is that we can decide what our unique version of “Socialism” looks like, and then declare what we value and deem “productive” or having “value”…and isn’t that the same thing as deciding how we wish to express Divinity in our lives? America can invent and refine and define what “Socialism” means in America, other countries can determine how it would work for them.
Socialism does mean a shift back to production for use, not strictly for capital gains. It means that we will have to re-examine just how influenced by the attitudes of buy, buy, buy and begin to know that there is enough for everyone…and understand who benefits, and who does not, if these attitudes change. It means that a thing or persons value is determined by its usefulness, not by its exchange value. It means that when enough of a thing has been produced, we may have to share and repair!
Who, we must ask ourselves, is feeling the heat from the words of a Pope who also believes there is enough for all if we have the will to see life as being filled from within, and not from without?
So many of the issues that this Pope has brought up, and which are getting so much reaction, are also those that effect the marginalized or some minority… women, the poor, gays and lesbians. Why is it so upsetting to so many? What would happen if these suppressed groups changed their minds about themselves…what power do they possess?
This Pope says to welcome the immigrant, which usually translates to “the poor”, who will not, in economic terms, “contribute” in the short term fiscal picture. I believe very person of any strata of society in any contributes to the “system”, if not through income tax, then through sales taxes, labor, knowledge, spirituality, and even, simply, the belief in something better. None of these are small things, and most people do not see, minus the immigrant, their country would not look like it does today. The idea that the immigrant population pollutes the pure genetic strain is ridiculous and completely denies that we are all One. I don’t believe for one moment that different skin colors were created by Divinity as a social ranking tool, but merely as a means to know who we are through contrast, in this human experience….and I believe this Pope sees exactly that.
I ask…who and what is your God? Does your God represent all or just the privileged? Does your God ask you to fear change and your fellow man, or to know it is all God? Does this Pope create fear in you, or anticipation? Should this Pope stick to strictly “spiritual” issues, or is, as CWG says politics our spirituality expressed?
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
In the last entry of this extended series of headline articles here in The Global Conversation online newspaper it was promised that today’s installment would reveal to humanity, at last, What God Wants.
Human beings have been wanting to know and understand this for millennia. As we have said before in this series, many humans have thought they already understand it. So sure have they been in their beliefs about this that they have killed other people — many, many thousands of other people through the years — in defense of those beliefs…or to get others to embrace those beliefs.
That killing goes on even to this day. Yet those who have done and are now doing this killing in God’s name have not been accurate in their knowledge and their understanding of What God Wants.
Indeed, the world’s religions have been dramatically and vastly misleading in this regard. Each has sought to tell us what it is that our Deity commands and demands, wants and requires from us in order for us to rejoin Him in heaven after we die. But each has told us things that are simply not true.
The question now, however, is this: Can humanity believe what is true? We are now about to see. Following, immediately below, as promised in our last installment, is a full description, articulation, and explanation of exactly What God Wants.
This is Part VIII of an extended series of headline articles in The Global Conversation.
(The space between that announcement and this parenthetical paragraph contains the full and complete information about What God Wants, commands and demands of human beings. And our exploration of this topic continues in Part IX of this extended series, coming very soon. Don’t miss a single entry. And if you wish to catch up on installments that you have missed, simply click on the word HEADLINE in the Categories list at right, then scroll down to find the column you wish to read.)
Let’s play a little game here, shall we? I am going to assume you are sitting down right now reading this on your computer. If for some reason you are not, just do the opposite of what I ask of you. So here we go: Try to stand up. Now tell me this, are you standing or are you sitting? If you are standing, may I ask you if you tried to stand up or did you just stand up? If you are still sitting, did you try to stand or did you just sit there
The point I am trying to make here is, you never try to do something. You either do it or you don’t. For this blog we are going to use the addiction to smoking to illustrate the simplicity in ending addictive behavior. The problem is not in the ending of the behavior. The problem is starting it over again once you have quit. Smokers quit smoking many times every day and then one final time when they go to sleep at night. The problem is they start again once they awaken.
So how do we stay stopped?
What can we do to not start again?
First I am going to tell you what not to do. Oh you can if you want to but in all likelihood the following things will only be dead end streets down the same destructive path.
First of all, forget the patch. The patch infuses the body with nicotine, the drug in cigarettes that is highly addictive and destructive. You are not doing your body many favors by eliminating the smoke from your lungs while at the same time dumping harmful chemicals right into your blood stream. There is a much larger reason to stop smoking than just eliminating irritants from your lungs.
The next thing to put out of your mind is E-cigs. Ask yourself this question; Why am I considering quitting smoking? Take a good look at the answer. Is living a longer healthier life part of the equation? E-cigs have not been independently tested so we have no idea if inhaling nicotine is safe. Are we even sure that is the only chemical in them?
Do you think you can quit? I mean do you think you are capable of quitting smoking cigarettes? This is a big question here and the answer may just lead you down another road. If you really think you are not capable of stopping and staying stopped maybe the question you need to go back to is; who am I? In fact if you have not answered that question and deeply pondered it, now would be a good time to do so.
For anything we do in life we must have some form of belief that it can be done. We may not be fully sure we will succeed but we must believe on some level that it is possible. We may need to look outside of ourselves for assurance that it can be done. For quitting addiction, you only need to look so far as this column to see that someone has been able to remain drug, alcohol, and nicotine free for many years. If I can do it, you can do it too. We are made from the very same stuff!
Sometimes we have to look outside our self for our inspiration. This is where semi-blind faith comes into play. Believe that the God in you will give you all that you need to end this habitual self harm. See that others have gone before you and will tell you the great rewards they have had.
Take note of the benefits you will reap from quitting like enjoying the taste of foods and drinks again. That is one of the first things I noticed when I quit, not only to mention the money saved. Your health and wellness hangs in the balance here. Of course, in the eyes of God, there is nothing wrong with smoking, but is it bringing you where you say you want to go in life? Is this how you wish to treat the temple of your body? Is placing life-shortening chemicals in your lungs every 15 to 20 minutes the image you wish for others to see in you? Can you really say that while doing this you are acting out of self love? What would love do here and now? I think you know the answer.
(Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional and Recovery Advocate. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, recovery coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery. Kevin has a passion for holistic living, personal awareness training, and physical meditation. You can visit his website Life After Addicton for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)
In this installment of our continuing series of articles on What God Wants, let me ask you a question. In your opinion, have our earthly theologies provided humanity with effective guidance in how to live together in peace and harmony?
Here’s my opinion: No. In fact, far too often they have produced just the opposite result.
Today 400 children die of starvation every hour. Every hour. Yet it would be possible to feed all the starving children on the planet, to protect them from dying of preventable diseases, and to make basic education accessible to all, with no more than five per cent of the overall annual sales of arms in the world.
Five per cent.
Can this be possible?
Yes. It’s possible and it’s true.
How is this evidence of a failure of religions and theologies? Neglect of its own offspring to the point of starvation could only occur in a society whose people see themselves as separate from God and separate from each other, having little to do with each other, and this is what is taught by our religions. Only such a cultural story could justify a world in which the income of the richest 225 people is equal to the income of three billion poor people.
You may have missed the real impact of that, so let me say it again. We have created a world in which the income of the richest 225 people is equal to the income of three billion poor people.
Three billion.
That’s half the world’s population.
What’s so wrenchingly sad about all of this is not only that the situation exists, but that so many people think it’s okay that it exists. You tell them that the income of the richest 225 people is equal to the income of three billion poor people and they say, “Uh-huh. Okay. So what’s the problem?”
This is Part VII of an extended series of headline articles in The Global Conversation.
Want to know why there’s so much unrest and violence in the world today? Open your eyes.
Perhaps you already have. Perhaps you already know. Perhaps you understand. Yet it will take more of us understanding, and then deciding to do something about what we understand, for anything to change.
If only more of us could open our eyes to the world around us! If only more of us could see our world as an expression of our oneness. If only our theologies could help more of us do more of this more of the time. But in fact it is our theologies that keep us from experiencing the reality of our oneness, and teach us of separation. And it is our ideas of separation that allow such conditions to continue to exist.
If theology was a physical science—biology, say, or physics—I believe that its data would long ago have been judged unreliable in producing consistent results, even after thousands of years. At the very least, that data would now be questioned.
Does humanity have the courage to question its own data about life and about God? Are humans brave enough to ponder the unaskable What if?
What if something very important that humans think they know about God is simply inaccurate? Would that change anything?
How much more will people allow themselves to endure before they begin looking for the underlying reason that the world is the way it is? And, of those people who say that a belief in God is powerful enough to be the cure for the world’s ills, how many are able to see that an inaccurate belief could be powerful enough to be the cause?
How about you? Where are you with all of this? Given the state of the world today, do you think this may be a good moment to consider some new thoughts about God, about life, and about each other?
How is your own life going? Are things just fine? Or are you meeting more challenges than, frankly, you’d like to be encountering in your relationships, in your career, in your day-to-day movement through life?
As you look at your life and as you look at the world around you, do you think you are seeing a reflection of What God Wants? If not, what do you think that God does want?
Yes, well, I suppose that’s why you have kept reading this series of articles, isn’t it…?
I mean, you’ve kept reading to see what it had to say on this subject, yes? So now it’s time to say it. Now it’s time to reveal the great truth about What God Wants. This could well be the most important information ever placed before the human race.
It has been placed there in the past, more than once, but the human race has not seemed to understand it. It is now going to be revealed so clearly, so plainly, in such a new and accessible way, that there can be no possibility of future misunderstanding.
Because this information is so vital to humanity’s future, the entire next installment has been devoted to it. Do not miss this installment.
(Our exploration of this topic continues in Part VIII of this extended series, coming very soon. Don’t miss a single entry. And if you wish to catch up on installments that you have missed, simply click on the word HEADLINE in the Categories list at right, then scroll down to find the column you wish to read.)
