False Faith

Corporations are, by their very natures corrupt entities. The purpose of a corporation is to create an entity that is free from any personal accountability. This is antithetical to the basis of a moral society. Morality (my definition being responsible compassion) is dependent on personal conscience and accountability.

Our society began to collapse as soon as we stopped dealing with individuals and started dealing with corporate entities through lawyers. The goal of civil law is not justice, it is competition for who can best another with the most clever argument or the most political or financial pull. Might makes right in our legal system, but it does not lead to peace on earth.

The same goes for our criminal justice system; it is about who can best use fear to its advantage. It honors token amounts of money and an eye-for-an-eye in the form of years of one's life, as restitution for wrongdoing. this is decided by juries of strangers, rather than by the victims and the perpetrators. There is no reconciliation in that, only revenge, which leaves those wronged and their perpetrators less than whole.

Every time those claiming sacred authority hide behind the courts, they are denying their own profession of faith. Every time a religion is threatened by not becoming the law of the land, the religion is weakening the basis for belief. The true test of faith, in my opinion, is the ability to hold to one's beliefs without the protection of the legal system or consensus by one's neighbors.

Each family unit is a legal entity, a domestic corporation, if you will. It matters not how the family is constituted. Those living in a halfway house are, for that period of time, functionally a family. They share certain rules and responsibilities. Marriage has been robbed of the sacred by confusing it with domestic partnerships and allowing clergy to perform the legally binding contracts as if they were sacred bonds.

My marriage is a corporation of two adult entities, responsible individually and jointly for all decisions that are made by either of us. There are some things that were exempted before our legal contract of marriage by a legal pre-nuptial agreement, as Louisiana is a community property state. I insisted on this document to protect my husband's assets from members of my family.

We were married by a member of the clergy who knew nothing of either of us personally. This was allowed in both the state and the church. Most of the attendees were professed Christians, many of whom took some responsibility for helping us in our marriage journey. This time, I was blessed that the man I married was a truly moral man. This was not luck, or Divine intervention in the usually accepted sense. I had exposed our relationship to those with whom we had each shared The Sacred Spirit throughout our lives. This community embraced us as a couple, as they had embraced each of us individually. The commitment he made to me and to my community was a commitment of The Sacred Spirit that had been passed down from his parents, friends, and his religious upbringing.

We did marry each other for better and for worse, and both ends of the spectrum create their own sets of challenges to our commitment. Too many people don't realize that responsible compassion requires that we attempt always to offer our best, while knowing that we will often fall short. Too many people honor the letter of the law of marriage without ever having committed to The Sacred Spirit of a true marriage, not simply a domestic corporation.

Whoever said, "Love means never having to say you're sorry," was clearly not in a Sacred union. Forgiveness begins where willingness to ask for forgiveness begins. In corporations, and other areas of the legal system, admission of guilt and offering of restitution in the form of changed behavior is anathema. Long before the legal contracts, we had committed to each other, bodies and souls. Our joined souls are our sanctuary, and our home is our tabernacle for service to others, which the synergy of our marriage creates.

All of this in spite of sickness and health, in-laws, and stinky feet. We often have to say we're sorry to each other and to others. I am happy when given the opportunity to do so, as it means that the other continues to want a relationship with me.

Any religion that is married to a legal corporation is not acting in good faith; therefore, I believe it to be a false faith.  Religions, are you listening?

Matthew 6:2: "Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men."

Matthew 6:5: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men."

Matthew 6:16: "Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance ..."

Matthew 7:5: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. "

A Home of Holy Communion

It is a great insult and proof of the lack of understanding of family life for the Roman Catholic Church to call itself Holy Mother Church and the men who have probably never changed a baby's diaper our "fathers."  There is no mother on earth who can properly care for a "litter" of infants. In order to bring up a fully human individual being, one must have the time and resources to attend to each child personally, learning how to communicate through focused compassion.

Families are not armies, who should be scared into following a strict set of rules or suffer eternal expulsion. Families are breeding and training grounds for individuals to learn to work within respectful, cooperative, complimentary teams. The fallacy that the church should supersede the boundaries set by the individual family denies the sanctity of the first "religion," that of husband and wife.

The fact that so many "Christians" have been brought into the fold of "faith" as "soldiers of Christ" says all we need to know about the falsity of this pseudo-faith masquerading as "Christianity." If Jesus is The Christ, then there is no such thing as a "soldier" to bring about the conversion of others to his way. There is a set of guidelines laid down in the ten commandments for creating sacred family and community that was simplified to two commandments by this man that most religions, even today, consider holy.

Jesus was very emphatic that the concentration on only "God' without human compassion is immoral. Jesus spoke lovingly of the animals of the earth, as he did of humans, and yet we allow disrespect toward both that leads to abuse. Man and woman hold dominion over the gifts of the earth, and we have allowed the greater physical strength of the male to scare us into submission to the them, especially as we make our bodies vulnerable to carry their seed into full humanity. We have even been frightened into allowing them to have us kneel to them as representatives of "God" on earth.

Jesus came forth from a woman's body and lived in a real marriage and community. The "Holy Mother Church" has made a mockery of the marriage by insisting that sex would somehow diminish the sacred in the seed that became Jesus. The church has shamed men for wanting to be held by their women, as the women long to be held by their men. Children's souls learn to love by being embraced in the sacred bonds of marriage. The church cannot be a substitute for these very physical ways of passing on The Sacred Spirit.

It is anathema to deny that the family is the basis of the church and not the other way around. My body was split open to bear the children of a man who had no respect for the sacred of sex or my motherhood because his "Christian" religion had made a mockery of physical family by denying the authority of woman in the marriage of male and female. A mother was to be looked upon as separate from her sexual self. The father of my children was "married" to his mother and I was the breeder of their babies.

Our children were baptized in the waters of my womb that held the love of their father and mother for them  before they were even born. Their lives are the reconciliation of the spirits of their father and mother. Every day that we are in loving relationship is confirmation of our sacred bond to The Sacred Spirit that we share. When I am ill, the only anointing I want is the loving touch of those who share The Sacred Spirit of my life with me. Holy Orders are any acts of compassion for the earth and others to which we are led.

My mother was a breeder of "soldiers of Christ," having nine children for the effort, only two of which she had the strength to care for. Against the wishes of her husband and family, and against the advice of her physician, she was counselled by her priests to understand that "God," in the form of the church, would care for her children. My father submitted to his wife and the church, against his own better judgement. Why is there not a commandment to honor one's children's father and mother?

The young boys who were made priests before they were out of puberty had been taught that the church came before the family, and that they had the wisdom to lead the faithful in areas that they had no way to understand. The faithful accepted that these same young men had the ability to permanently deny reentry into the eternal family with a wave of a "wand" in a confessional.

The holy communion that I practice happens right at the dinner table where the efforts of  my husband's brain,  the sweat of the farmer's and grocer's brows, and my loving preparation to honor their efforts feed the bodies that house The Sacred Spirit, that makes a holy place of my home. And when my husband and I, who are long past child-bearing age touch each other, whether sexually or in simple friendship, we are filling each others spirits with the energy that we then impart to others. This multiplying of The Sacred Spirit through our connection is the sacrament of marriage in our home. This marriage enables us to continue going forth and being fruitful so others may magnify and share our love.

In my opinion, every home should be a place of celebration of The Sacred Spirit, where respect for ourselves and others is the religion and the only rule.

Home as Safe Harbor

If today, I can be of service to one person's life in filling a human need,
If today I can lighten the soul of just one, have I paid for the air that I breathe?
Many lives are lived in tiny steps, not in grand gestures and accomplishments;
Keeping positive air under others' sails is sometimes why we are sent.

There are so many who refuse to celebrate, choosing fear instead;
Faith is not the same as fear of the punishments that we dread.
Faith is absolute assurance that we'll never stand on our own
Without loving hearts, hands, and souls beaconing us home.

The greatest gift I was given from grandchildren to grandmother
Was their belief that I'd step in if they lost father and mother.
From the strong bonding to my children and to their young,
This absolute trust in my continued care had naturally sprung.

My husband and I created a home where we honored every spirit;
When defeatist thoughts were proposed, we didn't want to hear it.
We believed in building competent empowerment of each;
It continues to be our joy that we were allowed to, these souls, teach.

We've spent our lives attempting to protect childhood innocence;
Once innocence is destroyed, there can be no recompense.
We see the dangers outside our homes and hold them at bay
This is the only method by which The Sacred Spirit will stay.

We do not judge the right or wrong of what others do,
But we insist, in our homes, on values we hold as true.
Each person has a place in his or her own journey;
We provide a place where, our values, others can see.

I miss the days of little feet and innocent children's laughter;
Circumstances beyond our control, this life shattered.
I hope that we made some positive difference in the universe
Before our attempts at sharing our fortunes were reversed.

We had no children of our loins and love, but we were parents
To every child that, for any amount of time, we were sent.
We have lost touch with most of these, the children of our souls,
But their innocence that blessed our lives continues to make us whole.

The Sacred Spirit and Jewish Jesus

What if the bible is actually an analogy of the faith journey of all of humanity? What if different segments of humanity come to spiritual maturity at different times and places in the universe, and each person in each generation has to live out their destiny with an eye on becoming more spiritual with each succeeding generation? What if we stopped focusing on exclusion and began to focus on inclusion, with the goal being a return to a wholeness of The Sacred Spirit through universal unity?

What if, as cosmologists say, all matter in the universe, including humans is made up of star dust, which originated with one source of energy. What if, at the end of the earth, all The Sacred Spirits are all bound in one glowing ball of Eternal energy? Do you want to be part of the dark black holes that destroy energy or part of Eternal light?

It seems to me that Jesus was very clear on his feelings about all the competition for "God's" favorites, and the apostles voted to include gentiles in their mission of spreading the quest for unity of spirit. How did worldly religions manage to hijack The Sacred Spirit and invent rules for belonging to The Scared Spirit's tribe that even rejected the original leaders on the paths back to perfect peace?

Will humans ever fully grow up instead of beginning again and again rather than studying the elders before plowing ahead; or are we eternally doomed to be two year olds and teens who will always refuse guidance until we have self-destructed. Don't tell me what to do; simply give me the resources without any instructions or restrictions. Oh, but always be waiting in the wings to rescue me.

The real problem with our culture, as I see it, is competition for more than what we can ever enjoy and certainly don't need. Having spent four years with evil being explained to me in great detail, I know that I was much happier when I had less knowledge from the tree of good and evil. I also have more peace, the less I own and am responsible to keep alive.

I am so grateful for the great variety of skills that are employed to provide peace and prosperity in our ever- shrinking physical lives. The skills of others free up all the time I could possibly want to learn of the wonders of the universe, contemplate their places in the grand schemes of creation, and share love with the people most important to me.

Many mistake my positive passion for naivete or lack of intelligence. Suffice it to say that nothing could be farther from a description of what my life has exposed my poor brain and spirit to. I could say that I'm happy to be alive, but more accurately, I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to do my best to make a positive difference in at least one life while I've lived. I hope that, when I die, I will have left a legacy of a universe a tiny bit better because I lived in it.

I think this way because I stopped looking backward to ancient religious beliefs at a very early age, and have stayed focused on only The Sacred Spirit as perfectly exemplified by Jewish Jesus and his Jewish family with their many generations of growth in spirituality. I want to be part of The Eternal Light of The Sacred Spirit.

Seeing The Sacred Spirit

Let's say The Sacred Spirit is the energy of "God" with many manifestations. I awoke this morning at the home of one of my best friends; some of the greatest manifestations of The Sacred Spirit in my life being loving friends and family. She shared with me that she was spending the day walking with another friend enjoying the teeming life in the French Quarter. Sounds like a sacred way to spend a day to me.

Even though I looked forward to sharing some sacred time with my neighbor, practicing her English pronunciations, she was emotionally under the weather. When her husband called to communicate her situation, he and I had the opportunity to share our joy in my friendship with his wife. There is nothing that manifests The Sacred Spirit more than shared community.

The Sacred Spirit is bonding my daughter with me from five hundred miles away, as she sits on her backyard deck grading students' writing assignments. She must be enjoying the same weather as we are. She couldn't bear to contain her joy, so she posted the perfection of her evening's manifestation of the glory of The Sacred Spirit on her facebook page.

This evening, The Sacred Spirit on the water looks bright and sunny with gentle ripples instead of waves. The way I see The Sacred Spirit in this evening's sky is as a bright cloudless blue The seabirds are soaring with The Sacred Spirit's breezes under their wings, preparing for their safe, sacred, warm nighttime roosts.

There was a sunbather by the pool soaking up The Sacred Spirit's manifestation as sunlight, so welcome in the last days of winter. And the workman who had been sharing The Scared Spirit in his repair work headed off to, hopefully, an evening filled with The Sacred Spirit of a loving family and home. And my sacred husband returned home to me from his day of volunteer work, happy to have shared his manifestations of The Sacred Spirit.

Sacred water, sacred waves, sacred sea;

All of this glory, all of ours for free.

Sacred men and women serving others,

Sacred Spiritual sisters and brothers.

All I see in all of balanced creation

Is The Sacred Spirit's manifestations.

I know others see God as only a man;

This I've never been able to understand.

The negation of The Sacred Spirit is easy

When we limit the manifestations we see.

If we recognize The Sacred Spirit in all things

We'll look for it in all that life brings.

When I slow down and take the time

To know that what I need is already mine.

I love to share my sacred visions with others,

As children do with their fathers and mothers.

Is Unexamined Belief Worth Believing?

Today on facebook, a young woman that I've loved since her conception posted this quote from Harry Potter: “This boy will be famous. There won’t be a child in our world who doesn't know his name.” – Professor McGonagall. This young woman is a dedicated, devout, practicing Christian who has read the complete Harry Potter series over and over again. In seeing this post, I asked myself whether she had gotten the same messages from the Harry Potter series that I had gotten, a restating of a message of scripture in a world to which adults and teenagers can relate in modern times.

This may only be that I find scriptural connections in every book I read and conversation I have, always attempting to find some new avenue to universal truth. I can even talk about a recipe and find some biblical message to paraphrase. This often makes people very nervous, as if I'm attempting to ridicule their biblical "beliefs." But are unexamined interpretations by others really beliefs, or are they simply words that have been memorized? 

I know many women who have spent their lives studying the bible, and yet few of them reveal their interpretations of their studies. I have asked many to do so, and have usually been told, "My faith is a private affair, between me and god." I have attended bible studies led by clergy, and invariably, the group defers in their opinions to the "expert." Perhaps the only way to become familiar with what others glean from their reading is to have bible studies operate more like book reports, where the books are read in private and reported on in papers independently written by the readers. 

For this reason, I enjoy the blog by dear friend Gayle Nolan OneBirdWatching.blogspot.com, in which Gayle relates her everyday life to scriptures stamped on her heart. I also enjoy several blogs posted on Patheos.com, which hosts conversations on faith from every angle imaginable to my mind. What better way to open our souls to universal truth than by hearing The Sacred Spirit as heard by all ages in all religious traditions on earth?

Preparing for Peace

What if we all started creating peace while we're on earth?
Is it possible we could replace fear and hate with mirth?
What if we believed that any energy we pass along
Will return and remain with us in our eternal life's song?

Would we then spend our time singing of the good,
Trying to, in all we meet, create brotherhood?
Would we continue to fill our souls with greed,
Or would we help to fill each other's needs?

If we knew thought that salvation belongs to all or none,
Would we continue to, all who are different, shun?
Or would we, with joy, open wide our arms,
And celebrate The Sacred Spirit, in all its forms?

Those who share the negative and then seek more,
Seem to be those who, the thought of death, most abhor.
Perhaps if they sought and shared celebrations daily,
They wouldn't, their own last breaths, find so scary.

Singing songs of gratitude for all that crosses our paths
Is the only way The Sacred Spirit grows and lasts.
What we allow to feed our souls and others while we breathe
May be the seeds of eternity that we ourselves conceived.

When we destroy the peace in another, we destroy some sacred;
It is our own souls that we are eternally stripping naked.
Fear, instead of friendships, is how many protect their souls.
What if each part of the universe is eternally part of the whole?

If we believed this, would we, with each day, begin
Attempting to welcome new people and ideas in?
Or would we continue to diminish our own energy,
The energy we will pass into universal eternity?