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.”

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.

Irrational Rationality

The other night one friend of mine asked another, “Do you not want for something more?”

The speaking friend had been explaining about how she had rejected Catholicism as a young adult and was now searching for spiritual fulfillment. She had spent some time considering herself as an atheist and found it terribly unfulfilling. She was unwilling to return to the religion she had left behind, and seemed to be spinning frantically in circles reaching out to the passing, flickering glimpses of something she couldn’t quite make out.

The friend she was speaking to is an atheist who rejected the Hinduism of his family after moving to the USA and dredging through academia. He had been told that a rational person can not believe in something which cannot be empirically evidenced. His courses convinced him that, while the scientific method has not yet discovered all that there is to know, it has certainly disproved the idea of a spiritual world.

His response was simply that he did long for there to be more, but since there was nothing more, it was a silly desire.

Oh, how far we’ve come as a society! We know so much! We are so advanced that we have abandoned reality in order to map our surroundings.

One man said, “It is only that which we do not yet understand that we call God.”
I say, “It is God that we do not yet understand. It is that which we do not understand that we call not God.”

God is in everything and yet he is superior. He is not “he” and he is both “he” and “she”. He is the scientific method and he is art. He is the answer and he is the question. He is our reality yet we do not realize him. He is found all around us yet he will not be discovered. he has been called many things; he is God, he is Spirit, he is Force, he is light, truth, existance, wind, breath, life, ultimate conciousness, abyss and reality. What do you call him?

Stigma and Stigmata

For those of you skimming for a thesis statement you’ll not find it until the final sentence. (thesis statements are stupid)

There are things in our culture that we have chosen to stigmatize as evil or generally negative. Many of us have lived our lives surrounded by the culture of quazi-Christian American conservativism. (that has nothing to do with politics)

This culture has many agendas but there are a few that bother me more than others. Certainly I think everyone is entitled to an opinion, I simply think it is best for that opinion to be well founded.

Generally these fall into the category of ethical scapegoats. The Hebrew people ceremonially placed their sins on a goat and sent it out to die. Likewise, we force our sins and shortcomings on things and send them out hoping they will die.

Blame the music industry – Most of the time Rap and Heavy Metal get blamed for youth violence. I am unable to stand up for rap because I am unfamiliar with it. I would like to point out that many of the bands that get blamed for encouraging violent acts do just the opposite.
Example:
Disturbed has been called “a major influence” on at least two the the televised School Shootings since 2000. Disturbed consistently writes anti hate and anti violence lyrics; “You are my mortal enemy, You try to say that you love life then find another way to kill life.” Social justice- “These are the hands we were given so so get up and make this a place worth living in.” Forgiveness – “all that I want is forgiveness one more time.”
For the sake of time I’ll stop there, although I’d be happy to email a long list to anyone interested.

Blame the video games- the Grand Theft Auto series has been controversial since its inception in 1997. Each edition increases that controversy as each edition more clearly depicts acts of violence and sexuality. In 2007 and 2008 several car jackings were called “GTA style” suggesting the game had influenced the criminals. While one cannot prove influence it would be worth pointing out that all but one of these car jackings were committed by teenagers under that age of 18 which is the minimum age to purchase the game. Yes, they card for the game just like cigarettes and alcohol because it is not intended for children. If one is going to point the figure at GTA then they must also point the figure at the parents who let the kids play it and whoever illegally bought it for them.

Blame the Movies and Blame TV also top the list but we don’t have time to fight them all.

The point is. Why do we so badly need to blame someone else? Our culture is all about us versus them. We pit our children against each other in everyday possible. We picket and riot all the time. Political parties argue viciously everyday. Religions declare war on one another. Denominations demonize each other and races and genders continue the ignorant hostility.

Why are we so afraid to look at ourselves and say that we are the problem? Because really, WE ARE THE PROBLEM!