Stop Complaining and Just Party!

Millions of people will be celebrating Christmas. Actually, celebrations around December 21st can be found in every major culture throughout history. There are also lots of complaints about Christians shoving this holiday into everyone's face. If you follow my blogs or have read any of my books, I am no fan of religious dogma. However, neither do I object to celebrations that, at least philosophically, encourage love and giving.

One doesn't have to be a Christian to party; to have a good time; to get together with friends; to share a feeling of love. The world needs more parties and less bitching about them. Let's celebrate more festivals and spend less time on hatred and war. Maybe if we did this, we'd come to see that there are many wonderful traditions that actually call for togetherness rather than separation. Get past what the institutions may do and get to the message. Let's all be reborn into the spirit of love and joy. Have a party for whatever reason and have a few moments of fun. Maybe it will go viral.

SOMETHING IS FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG!

Something is fundamentally wrong! After two millennia of organized Christianity the world is not a better place. The same can be said for Islam and all organized religions. Faiths that were established upon the teachings of love have become the pillars of hatred. Teachings that claimed we are all brothers and sisters have turned brothers and sisters against one another. Each religion rails against the other and within religions sectarianism will prove their undoing.

What went wrong? There is an award winning video called, “Church Outside The Walls” that has been produced by Family Room Media. One of the basic premises of the video is that there is no real biblical foundation for the concept of a physical church with its corporate styled power structure. Keep in mind, this video was produced largely by former ministers and pastors that spent on average twenty to thirty years as part of that structure. No longer able, in good conscious, to stand before a congregation and act as intermediary between the people and God, these men and women basically took the “church” and left the building. Citing the historical evolution of the modern church as a way for the few to dictate to the many that began with the Roman Emperor Constantine, the video illustrates how the organized religion has no basis in scripture and has, in fact, separated man from God.

Video host David Frederickson, author of the book, “When The Church Leaves The Building,” takes the viewer through a journey that exposes the myths that underlie religious institutions. Noting that versions of the Bible had been re-written to satisfy the needs of a growing church and political power structure, Frederickson sets up the interviews of a growing number of former clergy that, while maintaining their faith in Christ’s teachings, have abandoned the role of leading and dictating to an unsuspecting flock. Those interviewed indicated that since leaving the organized church structure with all of its manmade rules and corporate organization, they have actually developed a more personal relationship with God. Claiming that the “body of Christ” is really the people in a congregation and not the church, these former preachers of the “word’ have discovered that the stifling and divisive nature of organized religion.

The video shows that the early church was really just a casual get-together of like minded people in a community who shared their hopes, dreams, food and shelter to those in need. Rather than preaching, there was discussion and sharing with perhaps a “facilitator” to help those with the finer points of the Christ message. This facilitator evolved into bishops, popes, pastors and deacons who began to assume total authority over teachings and relegating the true congregation to on-lookers and mindless followers. This drastic turn of events began in the year 112 with rules issued by Ignatius and went down hill from there. Even the Protestant Reformation was exposed as a movement that only replaced one authoritarian religious hierarchy with another.

Churches built by Constantine and most since his time were actually designed to prevent the interaction of its members by focusing all eyes toward a podium and building ceilings so high that the focus was on the church leader and the rising arches put God symbolically out of reach from all but those in control. In essence, they built the precursor to the modern cinema where all attention is placed on the screen in front and everyone saying “shhh” if you try to talk. Whether built of simple materials of the most expensive stone and glass, the physical church, according to Frederickson, fosters separation and blind obedience.

The participants in the video, who seem to represent a growing phenomenon, claim that since leaving the church and all of its encumbrances and demands, they have actually moved closer to their families and their God. Rather than spending the typical one or two hours a week at a church service and many more hours performing corporate church functions, these former ministers have found that they actually have made God a more integral part of their lives. One participant said that rather than work for God, God has become his friend and that the relationship is based upon love and not on the number of hours punched in, the donations given, the church taxes prepared or groups created and controlled. Most said that their former “service” was an illusion and not based upon the realities of the teachings of Christ.

Indeed, something is fundamentally wrong with organized religion and the downhill slide began only twelve years after the last apostle’s death. History has witnessed the continuous bloodletting fostered by religious institutions. Sectarian violence has not been confined to Islam, as seen today in the Middle East, but has followed the trail of every major religion as they have struggled to gain theological dominance or world religious thought. As these institutions attempt to fight off their inevitable “green mile,” a growing sense of spirituality, one without walls, is emerging.

From the gifts of giving on the Oprah Show to those discovering how to use the Law of Attraction, a new non-institutionalized spirituality is spreading across the globe. People are waking to the God within and the “Secret” is becoming a household world. From the revelation that Jesus taught esoteric laws to the growing exodus from the confining walls of church steeples, humanity is on the cusp of a Great Awakening where the true congregation is found discussing spiritual principles rather than dictating religious dogma. Perhaps the fundamental flaw in organized religion has served its purpose by showing what not to do and the reaction to its failings will lead humanity into a clearer light of understanding.

CNN'S GOD'S WARRIORS

“God’s Warriors,” produced and recently aired by CNN should serve as a wake-up call to anyone wondering why the world is in such a state of political, social and religious turmoil. Based upon interviews conducted by Christiane Amanpour who traveled the globe to talk to Jewish, Muslim and Christian “warriors,” the documentary exposes why organized religions are one of the major divisive forces on the planet.

As the show stated, in their drive to save the world, these religions have caused deep divisions. While emphasis was placed upon the fundamentalist elements of these faiths, it is clear that even the mainstream is just as responsible for the great religious divide. According to Amanpour, fundamentalists in these various faiths have become a political force with the aim of re-making society in their own image and to bring God back into power over the affairs of man. With a campaign against the “evils’ modern secularism, their activities have created unprecedented fear and division.

The basic questions raised are obvious. If God does not impose its will upon humanity, what makes these people think they should do it for God? If each is acting according to some divine will, then why are they killing and condemning each other? Is there more than one divine will? In his review of the novel, “Waking God,” Christopher Friesen of BookPleasures.com asked, “What if every Truth you had ever been told was really a mosaic of falsehoods? What if every religious institution that preached salvation was actually an agent of oppression?” These topics are the focal point of that novel and they are the focal point of Amanpour’s reporting in “God’s Warriors.” It is taught that you cannot take heaven by force, yet, that is exactly what fundamentalists seem to be preaching.

What about the mainstream faithful? In each religion extremism is denounced by religious leaders. They say that they abhor the violence. While the words of denouncement come easy, you can certainly know them by their deeds. What are religious leaders doing to stop the violence and hatred? It would seem that very little is being done. If Muslim leaders condemned extremists’ actions and threatened to remove those guilty of such actions from the faith I would imagine we would see a great reduction in terrorism. If evangelical ministers proclaimed violent actions a sin and actively condemned such actions, perhaps there would be a little less hate. The problem is that both Christian and Muslim leaders are seeking to spread their ideas and impose their version of moral authority on the rest of the world. Judaism departs from the others in this category. In an essential elitist fashion, Jews do not seek to convert others or to spread their faith. They really just want to be left alone to live in peace in what they claim to be their Holy Land. Yes, they commit violent acts but not with the intent of converting the world to their faith.

In a book titled, “When the Church Leaves the Building,” by David Frederickson we see that there is a growing movement from those who are spiritually oriented to abandon the religions of their fathers. It is asked on their web site, familyroommedia.com “Is it possible that the Church Christ promised to build looks different than much of what we call 'church' today?” It is estimated that millions of former churchgoers have left the building in search of a more meaningful and personal relationship with their God. The growing disdain for the violence perpetuated by extremists and the lack of action to prevent such action by religious leaders may one day be their undoing.

Amanpour says that we must take note of the actions of religious extremists because they have infiltrated and in many cases control the political debate in many nations. In my mind, there is no question that she is right. These institutions are pitting brother against brother in a power struggle aimed at molding the world in their image. Their actions and words imply that Divine Intelligence is incapable of dealing with the affairs of man or that they are the arm of that Intelligence as “God’s Warriors.” What kind of God needs warriors? What kind of God would sanction car bombing women and children or blowing up health clinics? And, which God is right: the God of the Jews or the God of the Muslims? It makes no sense.

Bestselling author and inspirational speaker, Dr. John Demartini, in an interview printed in the new book, “Jesus Taught It, Too: The Early Roots of the Law of Attraction” had the following to say about religions: “When we subordinate ourselves to the religious system, we basically stop opening our religious heart. If there is a divine order, divine intelligence and divine love and divine wisdom and beauty in everything, then where is God not?” It is clear that “God’s Warriors” do not ascribe to this philosophy. Their passion for violence, hatred and contempt for those of differing opinions are typified in their actions and deeds. It is clear that we need to listen to the message that was contained in the CNN report. These people want and have power and will do anything to spread and impose their views on others. As a major character in the novel, “Waking God” says, “It is not about saving humanity and never has been.” What is required is a ‘great awakening’ where humanity begins to take responsibility for the world in which we live.