An Argument for Authenticity

Much has been written about how to multiply faith communities. As a community builder I work alongside lots of very smart people, some one whom have more experience and more education on the subject than I do. The trend these days is to create simple, reproducible faith communities. An analogy which is often used is that of breading elephants and rabbits. Elephants reproduce at a maximum of one offspring every two years. This is a slow, arduous process that requires specific environmental conditions and some luck. Rabbits, on the other hand, reproduce by the dozen every few months. They bread out of control and can overwhelm their environment in a hurry as they have done in Australia. The parallel is that faith communities should be designed like rabbits, reproducing quickly. I’m not so sure.

There are several assumptions made when one decides that rabbit like replication is the way to go. First, they assume that faith communities can be boiled down to a simple blue print which can be easily copied without losing it’s essence. Second, they assume that good, quality leaders can be raised up quickly and will be equipped to raise up new leaders just as quickly as they were raised. Third, it assumes that little variation is required from one community to the next. Like the blue print of a model home there is some room for edits to be made but major renovation would take the talent of an architect for which there simply isn’t time or resources.

I am not saying that faith can’t be simple, or that forming community requires the input of a well educated architect. I would suggest the healthy faith communities cannot be replicated. One can take a snapshot of a healthy community and build multiples but those new communities are likely to lack the essence which made the original community worthwhile. There are millions of photos of the Mona Lisa but no one is interested in buying them – people what the real thing, not a copy.

So then, the elephant? Maybe. Unlike elephants, community builders can have overlapping pregnancies which significantly cut down on the time it takes to birth an offspring. At the same time, I would argue that faith communities should be birthed individually, not as a litter. Significant variation, and individual attention to environment are necessary parts of community building.

In my opinion there should be several rolls involved. There should be a group of people who want the community. These are the homesteaders, the actual community or people. There should be at least one builder. This is the person or persons who are going to make sure everything gets done and works properly. Lots of attention should be paid to the land, this is the culture in which the community will exist. Finally, an architect should be consulted to help draw the plans. This is the professional, who may or may not be part of the community. He/she understands the land and the details of how to design the structure so that the water runs and the lights turn on. He/she is trained and knows how to make sure wind and rain won’t blow the place apart It is imperative that the architect listen to the community and the builders so that the structure reflects the needs and interests of the land and the community.

Rabbits, as well as photos of the Mona Lisa, are easy to find, and easy to destroy. They aren’t worth much and few people are willing to commit themselves to caring for them. Elephants and the real Mona Lisa are a huge pain to create and care for, they require a skilled laborer and are rare indeed. They are highly valuable and there are tons of people around the world ready to give themselves over to protecting them.

I would rather spend my life creating single work of art than spend a lifetime copying someone else’s grand work.

Constantinity

Christians have been known to wield a heavy axe of hatred toward all kinds of people and toward a plethora of topics. Typically these condemning remarks center around perceived moral discrepancies. These discrepancies, apparently, become manifest in any number of ways. The issue may be homosexuality, socialism, equal rights (race, sex, religion, etc). In the US, they have a tendency to coincide, not always, with the more liberal or progressive social or political worldviews. Today, the internet is a buzz with Pat Robertson’s Commentary concerning the tragic Earthquake in Haiti. Mr. Robertson chalks up the natural disaster to divine repercussions for the country allegedly  “making a deal with the Devil,” generations ago. One might note that Mr. Robertson had a similar reaction to the Tragedy in New Orleans During Hurricane Katrina, then it was divine repercussions for homosexuality.

Today I read a Post concerning this indecent. You may read it here if you like (it is short). I’d like to respond to your post Mr/Mss Kamikaze Airlines. For simplicity sake, I’ll refer to you as KA, I hope that is ok.

I am a follower of Jesus and I agree with almost everything you said. I agree especially with your opening statement: “[Pat Robertson] is the true face of religion, unsullied by centuries of corruption by rationalists, empiricists, scientists.” I’d like to approach that issue.

It is my belief that Jesus [Christ] did not found a religion. I believe he destroyed at least one, and destroyed the need for it altogether. Admittedly, Jesus was a Jew; and he worshiped at the Temple in Jerusalem and he attended the religious feasts. One could make a strong argument that Jesus was religious. However, I argue that his adult life was spent standing against the religious establishment.  Jesus’ most scornful words were toward the religious leaders, who were condemning those around them and lifting themselves up as pious, righteous people. Jesus was constantly bombarded by the religion of his culture for not following the rituals, and for befriending and loving the people who were unwelcome as part of the religion.

I agree that Pat Robertson is the true face of religion, just the way the high priest of 1st Century Judaism was.

The issue is that Christianity, as we know it, was not founded by Christ as the name would imply. It was founded by Constantine in the forth century. It was not until Constantine  announced Christianity as the new religion of The Empire that Christianity, as we call it, took shape. Almost immediately, church buildings, clergy,  regulated music, incense, preaching, strange apparel, and most if not all of the things that make Christianity a religion appeared. Interestingly, they were simply borrowed from the religion that Constantine knew, Greco/Roman Paganism.

My point is that Pat Robertson is “running the software” the way Constantine shipped it to him, but not the way Jesus “shipped” it. After Constantine founded Christianity, it has 1600 years to build the dogma and worldview that it has today, and it if from that dogma, I think, that comes the hatred you see. I think you are right, the problem is religion. But that’s not the way Jesus “shipped the software.” When a man asked Jesus was the most important thing in life was, Jesus said, “Love God, and love everybody else.”

What is Forgivness?

What is Forgiveness?

Christians are always talking about “forgiveness” but I challenge anyone to really figure out what that word means and what its exact place is in worldview.

Is forgiveness an obligation or an opportunity?

What if the instigator is unapologetic?

Must forgiveness and restoration of trust correspond?

What is righteous anger? Practically?

Example from this last week:

Somebody slit my tire and broke my bumper – Pissed me off fiercely, after about 2 hours I was saying The Lord’s Prayer to myself and was struck by, “forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us,” It honestly helped me calm down. What does it mean to forgive this person?

The next day my tire was slit again- Anger like I haven’t felt since high school boiled inside me and I was ready to curbstomp a fool. I haven’t physically attacked someone in the 8 years that I’ve been taking my faith seriously but I was ready to go. Now I live in fear of my tire being slit for no reason. What does it mean to forgive this person?

Let’s talk about Paul

Let’s talk about Paul, shall we?

One of the more divisive subjects between so called Liberal and Conservative Christians is the role and authority of Paul. On the far right, Paul is literally Christ incarnate. He is “The mouthpiece of Christ” and his words might as well be in red letters because when he speaks it is not Paul, but Jesus Christ who is speaking. On the far left, Paul, who lefties like to call Saul, is a misogynist, murderous, self-righteous Jewish leader. He was one of the exact people that Jesus scorned repeatedly and his words should be stricken from the Bible completely.

Hum, that is a problem. Those two views are pretty well irreconcilable.

Is he Jesus, or is he Satan (the adversary)? I would very much like to open this up for conversation but before I do I will add a little fodder to the fire.

It seems like much of this argument hinges on a person’s interpretation (sorry far right, I know you don’t like that word) of Acts 9. Specifically verse 15 which reads in the NIV, “But the Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man [Saul] is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.’”

So here are a few questions, the answers to which probably shape your view of Paul’s (Saul’s) authority: For the sake of argument we are going to risk error to the right on our evidences, accepting the text as legitimate, and using it as the primary source.

Is Ananias a trustworthy source?

How special is this authority which is given to Saul?

Does ‘chosen instrument’ imply direct ordination and infallibility?

After all of this, Saul, who starts being called Paul (so I will too), starts traveling and teaching. Some of his teachings are particularly divisive in the Church today. Many people discredit Paul, not because of his conversion story but because they find his teaching to be in direct contradiction to the teachings of Jesus. Other’s discredit him because he speaks strongly, on topics that Jesus never spoke of.

An example of one teaching of Paul’s that some Christians find contrary to Jesus is the teaching of ex-communication. Ex-communication requires that a person or group of people judge the heart and intention of another and cease to forgive said person. This may seem to be in contradiction to Jesus basic teachings of, do not judge, and forgive a brother 77 times.

An example of a place where Paul makes a strong stand where Christ is silent is the issue of homosexuality. It is difficult to read the letter to the Roman church and miss the point that Paul says homosexuality is unacceptable. Jesus never mentioned the subject.

So, If Christ and Paul disagree, what does that mean?

If Paul speaks where Jesus was silent, what does that mean?

I would like to know what you think.

No War is Holy

Christianity, a sect of Jews following the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth – the one they called The Christ, was a short lived philosophical movement. It lasted about 300 years from the time of Herod in the Eastern Provinces to the time of the Great Emperor Constantine.

History is written by the victor. Is this what would be thought of Christianity if the leader of a provincial Roman military had not claimed victory for Rome in the name of Christianity?

Until Constantine, following the way of Jesus was not a religion. There were no clergy, no detailed, unified dogma, no meeting places, no government recognition, and no political power. A single man, Constantine, both created a religion and killed a philosophy by the same name. The teachings of Jesus were forever lost to the masses when his name was used to instigate war, justify racist propaganda and murder. His life was forgotten when his name was used to gain political power and his deity was lost when he became a Pagan god.

In 310 AD Constantine militarized Christianity along clear racial, political, and religious lines. That impact has never been reversed. For 1700 years people have fought wars they called holy. In the name of Jesus, Political entities have been conquered, Religious groups have been massacred and Races have been targeted for genocide. These acts have not been conducted by a small group of radicals, and they have not been condemned by the leadership of the Church. The position of Pope has been the single most respected head of the Church from Constantine to today and this position has been directly responsible for the majority of the hatred spread by Christianity. The Pope led the Crusades, he was the Grand Inquisitor, and he shook hands with Hitler.

This does not excuse Protestants. They too share in the blame but have only been in existence for a few hundred years, and they are still the minority as compared to the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope may have shaken hands with Hitler and The Vatican was the first government to partner with the 3^rd Reich but it was Protestants who pulled the triggers and gassed the innocent.

In America it is Protestants who make up the KKK and it is primarily Protestants who fight the War On Terror (78% of the US Military is Christian, only 22% of which are Catholic). It is Protestants who blow up abortion clinics.

What did Jesus of Nazareth, that forgotten Rabbi, say about violence? What did he teach about Nationalism, Racism and Religion?

Jesus did not found a religion, he spoke out against it. Jesus put religious laws and rituals in their rightful place, behind the needs of the people and behind the philosophy for which they stood. Jesus is recorded by his follower Matthew as speaking at length about each of the hot button religious laws in his culture, Murder, Adultery, Oaths, and Justice -  He would not stand for the laws to be followed as such. He taught that his followers should follow the spirit of the law rather than the latter; do not Hate, Love, be Honest, and Forgive. That is the point of the law.

The question has been asked in many ways- Would Jesus stand by and watch or pick up arms against those who commit atrocities. On this there are essentially two camps of thought. Followers who decide that war is sometimes justified in order to protect the innocent, and followers who refuse to lift weapons against and enemy.

Jesus had every opportunity to raise an army against the Roman government, a government whose atrocities dwarf modern conflicts. He was a member of a subservient people group who had every right to rise against their oppressors. But he did not. He taught his followers to be peaceful and respect government even when it is unjust – His followers died at the hands of oppressive governments, they did not fight. As I read Jesus’ teachings it is hard for me to justify war. When he says, “If a man strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other,” when he says, “if a man takes your shirt, give him your coat as well,” and when he says ” if a man forces you to walk a mile walk a second as well.” These teachings expound upon, “Love your enemy.”

I believe that Jesus’ life teaches us that violence is never acceptable. If you believe that Christians have a right or obligation to fight for what they believe in then, please, state your case. I firmly believe that we can disagree and still love one another. My convictions are always up for debate and I have been known to change my mind.

INDOCTRINATING CHILDREN

The quotations in the following post are taken from interviews with people who were raised in Christian homes and chose to leave that faith as adults. The interviews were conducted for a separate project.

INDOCTRINATING CHILDREN

Christ is not accepted simply because a crucifix is forced down the windpipe of a vulnerable child. In the same way that a person is not committed to marriage by the atrocity of being raped, so a child is not a Christian by merit of being born.

“I have a problem with people labeling children. I do not think a baby can be Christian, because the baby doesn’t know what that means.” – Chris.

When a child is born to an attending family, the membership automatically goes up. Has the child professed some belief? Has he/she signed the dotted line or recognized Christ’s sovereignty? While certainly the child is welcome, and the parents are obligated to teach him/her as truthfully as they know, the child is not a member of any religion. A baby can be no more a Christian than a Buddhist because he/she has not understood any measure of Spirit or Truth.

I think that what I read and other people’s interpretations seemed at odds. My mom said, “Do you want your baby to go to Hell? Because that’s what will happen if you don’t get it baptized.” Seriously, what kind of religion says that a baby who hasn’t done anything will be condemned? I think that seems illogical. Why would you believe in a god like that? –Kimberly

As adults we watch these children grow and be taught. They often attend religious services alongside their parents. They attend Sunday school, worship, and other rituals. They memorize songs, portions of text, holiday traditions, Biblical narratives, and ritual practices. They do all this, before they are capable of understanding the implications of any of it. This is not education, it is indoctrination.

Certainly I am not arguing that it would be responsible, or even possible to raise a child in moral neutrality, spiritual ambiguity, or utter metaphysical ignorance. It is important that a child be given a framework in which to function.

But it is another thing entirely to have 2000 years of tradition, ritual and narrative forced upon a young mind. Since children are basically incapable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality before the age of seven it is reasonable to assume that they are unable to deal with the intricacies of truth with regard to the spirit world and how it might interact with our physical existence.

Comedian Jon Stewart Satirizes Christianity and his own background in Judaism with the following remarks:

The Jewish concept of God is too difficult to fathom. An omniscient, omnipotent Peeping Tom who loves us and smites our enemies. Although recent history suggests he’s a little slow on the smiting. We were created in his image, but you can’t see him or describe him. And why did he give us so much black hair?

The Christians had it right. Want to worship Jesus? Here’s a picture of him on the wall next to the refrigerator. There’s even one on black velvet. Not enough? Look at these movies he did. Long hair, sad eyes, trim…not a bad looking fellow. Put him on your dash board and go! He’s even got his own musicals. (Naked Pictures of Famous People p.46)

In the 6^th grade I was going to my friend’s Confirmation party, and I asked all of them how they felt about being confirmed. I wanted to know if I was the only one just going through the motions. None of them said they believed it. There were fifteen or twenty of them and they all faked it. My mom threatened to throw me out of the house when I said I didn’t want to get confirmed. It was a huge fight. I did not want to go through with it because the nuns were saying that you should not get confirmed if you are not 100% sure about it. Going back to my mom and saying I did not want to do it was not an option. That was not ok. I asked her why and she said, “So you can get married in the church.” She wasn’t married in the church. I know there were other kids like me but we all did it anyway. My cousin was my confirmation sponsor. I got an Emenem CD as a gift. We flirted with boys the whole time; we did not take it seriously because we did not want to be there. – Kimberly

In their book Why We Believe What we Believe, Andrew Newberg, MD (Psychiatrist) and Mark Waldman (Therapist) write the following discourse:

Many young children cannot tell if they will be punished or praised for their behavior by an unseen, omnipotent God. Some parents intuitively recognize this power and thus may be inclined to invoke a fear of God’s wrath as they try to encourage their children to behave in specific ways. However, there may be a price to pay for taking this approach. According to extensive research carried out by two psychology professors – Bob Altemeyer and Bruce Hunsburger – Children who grow up in fundamentalist families do tend to obey the authorities and follow the rules, but they also tend to be self-righteous, prejudicial and condemnatory toward people outside their groups. They have an us versus them mentality that many will carry throughout their lives. On the other hand, fundamentalists congregations experience a 50 percent dropout rate among their members.

Imagine being a child in 1741 in church on the day that Jonathan Edwards, the American Puritan preacher, delivered on of the most famous sermons in American history. Edwards shouted from his pulpit, for nearly an hour, that everyone in the room was a sinner, teetering on the edge of a fiery pit: “And you, children, who are unconverted, do you know that you are going down to Hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night?” You might as well read Stephen King to your four-year-old at bedtime.

A punitive god, like a punitive parent, encourages children to internalize anxious and potentially destructive concepts. As negative beliefs develop, they too become embedded in the neuronal connections being formed in the brain, and this makes them difficult to relinquish later on in life. Fortunately, the majority of religious groups successfully instill the disposition to forgive others.  Belief in a compassionate and forgiving god can give a child a since of optimism and safety. (p121-122)

As a child, I grew up in Huntsville, Alabama with my parents and my two older brothers.  We always attended church services; twice on Sunday and in the evenings on Wednesday.  I grew up being taught Christianity as Truth and innocently accepted it as much as any math lesson at school.  Being raised in the Bible-Belt, most of my friends, even at school, were from Christian families or were quiet about it if they weren’t.  To my undeveloped mind, being Christian was given and exceptions were an aberration.  Christianity was never anything I felt passionate about, it was merely factual.  To say that there is a God and that Jesus Christ was His son and the Savior of all humanity was to say that the Earth was round; something well established and beyond question.  In fact, even up to my very first year of high school, I thought I was a Christian by benefit of being born into a Christian family.  It was not until I realized I was not yet officially a Christian that any other possibility even occurred to me.  – Caleb

I don’t know if ‘believe’ is the right word for how I felt about church and Christianity as a child. To me, it was about as real as any story or fantasy I was exposed to at the time. Of course, the slight added investment was that I thought everyone around me did ‘believe’ it, and I knew, at least to some degree, that I was expected to as well. –Timothy

I did Confirmation and Communion.  Like everything else, I was just doing it because I had to. If you want to get married you have to do these two things. If you are going to be Catholic you have to do these two things, there is no choice. Most kids I’ve talked to just go to Church because it is mandatory for them. Most of them are sleeping, or texting. I had my Gameboy. I didn’t know what was going on. – Chris

Is it reasonable to say that these people have left Christianity? Have they abandoned an accepted oath? No, they never entered into a spiritual union. There was no mutual covenant of spirit and man. These are the words of those given to the Church as the bride of an arranged marriage, not those who have accepted the partnership of Christ.

The Sower and the Harvest

“Go forth and make Disciples!” Words practically screamed from pulpits around the world. It is true that this was the last command Jesus gave to his followers, and it is my opinion that it applies as much to his followers today as it did to those standing with him millennia ago. HOWEVER, over these last two thousand years the Church has so focused on the harvest that we have neglected the soil and the earth has become cracked, harsh and barren.

Walk the streets of Chicago for any length of time and you will no doubt be handed a tract explaining, and often depicting, the inevitability of Hell. Walk downtown and young men will preach at you from atop stool pulpits. Ride the train and you might even whiteness a man rapping his salvation story. It seems the fields are ripe with harvesters – none willing to till the ground. Ask a street preacher a question, I dare you – I have, several times. There is no need to fear the answer, you will receive none. In my experience, these evangelists are so intent upon the harvest that they are unable to even water the plants.

I am sure that many readers are quoting Luke 10:2 right about now, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” The harvest was plentiful, and it can be again, but the workers need to turn the mineral stripped earth. There is nothing to harvest unless first plants are tended. There are no plants to tend unless first seeds are planted. Seeds will not grow unless they are sewn in fertile soil. In our world, the difference between the rocky soil and the fertile soil is not the happen chance of the one sowing the seed. It is the blood, sweat, and tears of the workers toiling to restore nutrients to a scorched earth. How much Hell, Fire, and Brimstone can the garden withstand before the plants are burned and the ground is no longer fit to bare fruit?

I have been told that I can be overly passionate in my rebuking the Church. This is generally a fair assessment of my tone and demeanor. In this case I might hope to echo the prophets of ancient Judaism. I can only aspire to share in their tone.

If I “sow” a seed by tossing it upon the frozen, Winter Chicago asphalt, then go to pick its fruit I will surly find none to be had. Is it right for me to rebuke the seed? Is it right for me to hate it, scorn it, and through it away as unfruitful? No, It is MY FAULT! It is my arrogance, my ignorance, and my stupidity which flung it upon barren ground. I knew it would not survive the cold, I knew it would not receive nutrition and I knew it would by run over by busses. It is not the Seed that is to be blamed.

The Church has systematically stripped the earth of its nutrition and we blame the seeds for not baring fruit. On the whole, the Church shows no love, no honesty, no sensitivity, no community, and no faith. Instead, we, those who claim to follow Christ, hate those unlike us. We scream at them, protest their rights, dehumanize them, declare war upon them, murder them, and burn their buildings. We think that giving a sandwich to a homeless man is enough to show him love. We think that Paul’s condemnation of homosexuality is reason to take their rights away. We think that our obligation to our nation is greater than our obligation to turn the other cheek.

It is not right to hold someone to a stand to which they do not aspire. It is wrong to expect a person who has no taken on Jesus’ name as his own to strive to follow in this path. HOWEVER, If you do claim to follow him – You better tend that forsaken soil! You better restore the image of Christ’s church; the image of the teacher who loved everyone one passionately; the man, who gave health to the sick; the renegade who righted the wrongs of the religious; the God who refused to fight those who killed him. This, self destructive path is the path he walked, if you claim to walk his path you will uphold the rights of others above your own, you will not retaliate and you will passionately love those who disagree with you. If Christ is your example, drop your shears, pick up a shovel and restore the earth so that seeds can be planted and the harvest can be resumed.

Models, Scams and the Death of the Church

Search the internet for a few minutes, take a class or two in Church Planting or Modern Missions, or visit a theological library and you will be bombarded by books written by well intentioned, well educated, and well experienced people all telling you the latest and greatest way to plant and grow a community of faith. They will give you 3, 5 or even 10 steps to follow. They will teach you to write a well defined and eloquent Mission Statement, Purpose Statement, or Creed. They will give you timeliness, goals, road-marks and helpful hints. They will give you neatly arranged acronyms, and consonance. There will be diagrams, big and small. There will no doubt be an extraordinary thesis statement, which the author constructed delicately, both to entice you and teach you. They will tell you what to watch out for, and teach you how to overcome the inevitable pitfalls.

What they will not do is tell you to put the book down and listen to God! Stop it!

8,000 churches die every year in America alone. Almost every church is dieing a slow, painful death and ministers, coordinators, and leaders are scrambling to book stores tearing through pages looking for the next get fixed quick scam. Let me be clear that many of these scams are not meant to be scams, some are; but most authors are well intentioned.

We don’t need a $200 seminar to tell us that there is no equation that will bring the Church out of its death spin.

Our best intentions are destroying the Kingdom. Hey, Church, get the  hell out of the driver’s seat and let Jesus reign.

I HAVE A NOVEL IDEA! Here it is – Stop reading blogs and start loving people! – Sorry, that was Jesus’ idea.

You can’t love someone if you are judging their salvation – Let it go; it’s not for you to decide anyway.

You can’t love people if they are a #number# in your cushioned seat.

You can’t love people by theologizing, donctrinazing, or proselytizing.

Don’t write the damn Mission Statement; put the book down and pray.

They will know we follow Christ when we love them without obligation. Don’t teach people, let Christ teach you.

There is no model that will save the world. Jesus already did that – now live like it.

Hey, Teacher, leave them kids alone! All in all you’re just another brick in the wall!

Four Religions, One Weekend.

This last weekend Sara and I were able to visit several places of worship for various religions in Chicago. A group from Harding University came up and we joined them at four religious establishments. He is a short rundown of the weekend.

Mosque: Friday’s noon prayers are the “main event” for Muslims. This past weekend we were welcomed to the Islamic Foundation of Chicago, and impressive building currently under expansion. After taking off my shoes and finding a patch of carpet near the back of the large empty room I watched around 500 men enter the room. Women are given their own space, in a balcony where they are able to participate while not being subject to bending for prayer in front of or behind men. This is a practical consideration as the prostrated prayer position might be inappropriate for mixed company. The service lasted about 1 hour including a sermon in Arabic and prayers in Arabic. The phrase, Allah ha akbar, is recited several times which means God is great, a true statement that I can embrace. Later, the Imam spoke to us about Islam and presented us with portions of a book he had written and a pamphlet entitled, Muslims are the True Followers of Christ. The women prepared a snack for us, chicken and rice. It was very good.

SGI: Soko Gakkai International is a multi-national organization affiliated with Nichiren Buddhism, a specific sect of Buddhism born out of the teachings of Nichiren, a Japanese monk of the 13th century. The Buddhists welcomed us enthusiastically by waving flags and singing and shouting “welcome”. I sat near the front in the small round room. There was room for about 100 people sitting in straight lines facing a black and gold alter. The alter is home to the written form of a prayer as well as a few other characters written in calligraphic Japanese. The Buddhists are very respectful to the writings, touching the alter only with gloved hands and not allowing pictures to be taken of the document. They chanted a prayer in a mixture of Japanese, Chinese and Sanskrit for about 20 minutes as they do twice daily. Nichiren Buddhists differ from most Buddhists in that they do not seek Nirvana, the cessation of existence. They find this theology inconsistent with the eternal nature of spirit. They seek the Buddha state during life, a high state of consciousness which allows for true happiness. Thereafter we asked questions which they were happy to answer and received a tour of the facilities. SGI is intent on achieving world piece and has a representative at the UN. SGI was responsible for facilitating the first Arab/American dialogue following September 11th.

Hindu Temple: The suburb of Aurora IL looks like any other suburb, unless you turn the right corner to find a massive temple straight out of India. Gold trimmed walls adorned with intricately cut images. We entered and removed our shoes. We received a lengthy monologue about Hinduism from a lay practitioner before being freed to walk around the images. Hindus worship and present alms to the gods through images of the gods. They do not claim to worship the images and therefore they are not idols, because the god is not within the image. In this temple there were around 75 images, each enshrined in a box or room with incenses, fruit, or money. The Hindus were not expecting us because our contact was gone and had not left word, so the visit was very impromptu, but, nevertheless we were welcomed and treated well.

Sikh Temple: The Sikh temple mostly looks like a community center or club house in a wealthy suburban neighborhood. It is expanding due to growth and is where around 1500 Sikhs currently worship. After taking off our shoes we were given snacks and then presented information about Sikhism. While our contact was speaking to us he received work that the leader of the Golden Temple was in the building. Most of us didn’t realize at the time what this meant. This is the head Sikh, think Pope. He worships at the Golden Temple in Amristar India, the most Holy place for Sikhs! I still do not know what he was there but he walked into our room along with several other men. He asked, through a translator, if we were being well welcomed, to which we replied, yes! We went into the sanctuary where there was singing in Punjabi as well as a sermon given by the aforementioned ‘high guest,’ also in Punjabi. We were excused after about an hour while most of the Sikhs remained, this turned out to be because the dinning area could not accommodate everyone. We were given a meal of Indian food. When we were finished the rest of the Sikhs came and ate. Sikhism grew out of the clash between Hinduism and Islam as Islam traveled East across Asia during the 16th century. Guru is a Punjabi work with loosely translates to “Teacher.” The founder, was the first Guru. There were 10 Gurus in all until the 10th compiled the teachings of all into a book and dedicated it as the 11th and final Guru. This book is treated as a very important person: fanned, spoken to, and put to bed.

Synthetic Knowledge and the State of Education

It was recently explained to me by the Dean of Continuing Education at a prominent American University that Education is, by nature, synthetic knowledge. Unlike Training, which is experienced knowledge, education is knowledge which, at some point, was training for another person. That is to say that someone else discovered it to be true, then “educated” the receiver in a synthetic way.

The industrialized world operates on this system of synthetic knowledge. This system operates on the basis that it is not possible for a single person to experience and understand all aspects of reality. Surly this is true when it comes to fields like Genetics. It has been said that we stand on the shoulders of giants. That is to say that we have not discovered all of our knowledge on our own, but simply built upon what others have learned. Geneticists build upon the discoveries of those who discovered before them in order to progress the field.

I would like to suggest that this system is incapable of discovering reality. It is only fair, if I wish to make that statement, that I define “reality.”  If you wish to read about what I mean by reality read my post about it. It was originally discussed here but was split up due to length. I have already admitted that education has merit in the pursuit of knowledge, and I am not a religious fanatic who “hates science.”

What if someone down the line was wrong? What if one or more of those giants on which we stand was wrong? The educational system is much like a secluded tribal community. When a group of people decide what is true for a larger body of people we inbreed our knowledge like a secluded tribe inbreeds their genes. When people are not able to discover truth on there own we open ourselves up to harsh corruption. One does not have to think very hard before coming up with examples of this. Religious leaders constantly tell their adherents what their holy books say and educate them on how to understand what they read. This has lead to thousands of cults throughout history. A favorite example of mine is Christopher Columbus; He was educated to know that the Earth was flat, good thing for us he decided to escape the system of education and find out for himself. He learned that they were wrong, and that this inbred synthetic knowledge was false. Galileo did the same, too bad for him they killed him for it.

I would like to suggest that formal education traps the mind into the box of which so many say we should be thinking out side. Our perception of reality is shaped by our surroundings and our thoughts. Would you like to be told what life is like? Or would you like to discover what life is like? In America we educate our young people for the first 18 to 30 years of their lives about what life is. We have decided that it is better to be told what life is than to actually live it. We are educated to be able to function in our society, living under the rule of popular opinion and cooperate thought. After we spend 25% to 50% of our lives learning what the box is we are released to explore inside it. If you leave the box, you are a crazy fanatic. If history has taught us anything, it is that we kill people who discover truth outside the box.