I want to bring up a point about religion and politics

[FirstLight]

(cross posted in religion but the thread was buried earlier...)
I have alot of eclectic beliefs, native american, wiccan, etc...recently became a Lutheran, not Born & Bred, but adopted by a very liberal Lutheran church in my mountain town. (It took a long time for me to reconcile with the church, and I can now see faith in a different way, and can understand the language used by the church in a more loving tone than before.)

MY God is not a judging God.
I believe that Jesus WAS a "tree-hugging, peace-mongering, long-haired hippie" and am really pissed that the Rethugs seem to have cornered the market on Him.

If they met Jesus on the street today, they would have him locked up for "conspiracy to incite a riot"

I enjoy listening to my Christian radio - for music in a spiritual light, but get so upset when the news comes on or any of the opinion segments, because they are just spewing RW fundie propaganda in the name of God.

I thought God was all about bout HELPING our fellow man, not punishing him for being out of a job, or a single mom who leaves her husband who needs a hand up and a hug instead of judgment about being poor and alone...or people who were left to drown in a cesspool while others "ate cake" etc...

How is it that the people who are the most violent, most anti-life and pro war can wrap themselves in a flag and pretend that they have the only clue as to how God works & thinks?

You know, what comes to mind is when the end comes and Jesus says there will be many who say "lord! lord! don't you recognize me? I did it all for you!" and He'll say "get away from me, I never knew you."

Man, would I LOVE to see that !!!
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and, my dear astrology, alternative spirituality group...

HOW do we deal with the darkness disguising itself as the bearers of the LIGHT????

[mysticalchick]

1. Good question, Journalgrrl ...

... I wonder that myself. I can really get wrapped up around that question and get all aggravated and angsty. One of my triggers would be blatant phoniness. When I get the inside "PING!" that it's around, I want to start slapping people. hehhe (I don't. Usually.)

Anyone have other thoughts?

[diddlysquat]

2. I once heard a different point of view about the "rapture".

It basically said that yes, those fundies might disappear from the face of the earth in the blink of an eye but not for the reasons they think. It would be because they are standing in the way of the serious lightworkers who are on earth to make it a better place. We would need to get rid of them so that the earth can do the progression it needed to do. And they weren't disappearing into heaven.

[conscious evolution]

3. quit feeding the beast

Like any blackhole,they will just continue to suck up any and all light of any one unlucky enough to get caught up in their gravity well.
Instead,merge your light with others light.Together you can outshine the darkest night.

[Proud_Lefty]

4. What great words of wisdom!

This has been a problem for me as well for a long time. I work with these born agains and even had one (our HR director) corner me in his office about having to acknowledge Jesus Christ as my savior. It was extremely upsetting. These people think they've got the truth, but they can't figure out why their so-called truth always seems to leave them high and dry. Actually, they don't even try to figure it out. Their convictions seem to have stopped their ability to reason. I continually pray for all of them to get out from underneath their occult that have them so brainwashed. That's about all we can do - then we have to turn our backs and continue our lives in the light. Wonderful words of advice!

[LWolf]

5. Religion and spirit/spirituality are not the same thing.

Religion is the organized system humans create to interpret, to understand, to teach, and to practice connection to spirit.

The structure, the rules, the dogma, the rituals, are human-made, according to the experience and understanding of those making them.

Like all human-made systems, they not only evolve, but they are easily corrupted. Those systems make such good political tools to control people, to control society and political systems. Religion goes wrong when it attempts to claim superiority over other systems, when it competes for "souls," and when the system is more about power than spirit.

I think we can find traces of spirit in every faith, if we look for it. I can find it in the words attributed to the Christ. I mostly don't interpret those words the way the faiths calling themselves by his name do, but I recognize spirit in them anyway.

That's what I do. I read, listen, seek. I meditate or pray (for me, a process that resembles both, but not exactly,) on what I hear. I seek enlightenment from spirit, take what I "get," and leave the rest. From all sources.

To be honest, I find organized christianity to be the most corrupt, and because of numbers and power, darkest, faith I've ever explored. Not that there aren't pastors and priests that follow the light; not that there aren't faithful that recognize and follow the light. There are. They aren't the political power-holders controlling dogma and direction, though.

I hope that more enlightened followers of the Christ, like yourself, will seek to topple the towers of corruption and return the established organizations to spiritual pursuits, away from political power.

I truly do believe in a deep, wide, unbreachable chasm between religion and politics. Not between spirit and politics. Spirit is everywhere. The organized political power-hungry structures, though, don't belong in the political sphere. They do too much damage there.

[FirstLight]

6. Amen! (no pun/sarcasm intended!)

:P

I agree with taking it ALL in and only keeping what matches my personal intergity meter. Richard Bach (great author, Illusions, my first metaphysical book in 8th grade!) says that he sees it like a Baleen Whale, taking in thousands of gallons of seawater, only to filter out the plankton of wisdom that he needs...the rest he just spits right back out!


I honestly try to just let it go usually when faced with the cultish dogmatic pactices of others, especially fundies...but it maters when these people have so much POWER nowadays, so much so that they could incite nuclear war and take over elections to bring about the rapture they all want SO dearly...

OTOH - here's another bit of mysitcal wisdom from an unlikely source. Have you ever seen the movie "Erik the Viking"...?
Tim Robbins in one of his first roles, very Monty Python-esque.
Anyway...the spiritual gist was that the Priest that came along to see this valhalla place for himself was unable to see anything, because he didn't believe in it, so it just wasn't real for him...the same for the Vkings. I like this idea that whatever you hold true is yours. I always thought that when the "rapture" or the second coming happens for these folks...many will be running around screaming and such, while others will be like "WTF?" I don't see anything!

Humor is my best tool for staying in the light... heehee "Lighten up!" lol!!

let's just hope we can transition as gently as we choose, without it getting messy like so many want to create!

[Cleita]

7. Maybe this is the true meaning of the anti-Christ.

In Christian lore, the anti-Christ comes in the guise of Jesus Christ, but he is the Devil instead, and it's said that he will lead many followers of Christ astray because people believe his message even though it stands for everything that Jesus Christ didn't because the Devil is the Prince of Lies. I don't believe in these things myself but the early followers of the Church of Christ especially the priests and thinkers knew that every great idea is going to be exploited by those who will use it for personal gain and power. So I believe they thought that one day the Devil himself would pretend that he is Jesus Christ in order to bring all those souls over to him by deceit that had been won over by Jesus. He would get them to commits sins in the name of Christ to insure they went to Hell.

[FirstLight]

8. yep-yep

I have suspected this since ** stole the election and was so vocal about his faith, and then using that ti help create the us vs. them mentality with regard to muslims, etc...

could be a scary time, though we are to see it as a welcome shift as well...

but I just have to remember to keep grounding and clearing my own spirit( and teaching my kids), and the rest will be what it is.