It's an ugly white history

It is an ugly white history and the history of every conquering Empire has been ugly. The thing that sets apart European conquest is that it was done in the name of the Prince of Peace. Jesus didn't have anything good to say about Caesar but he didn't seem shocked by Caesar acting like the tyrant he was. The pharisees and rulers of the Jewish community got a major condemnation from the King of acceptance. The question isn't how could dominators act that way, but; how could they think they are Christ followers? Were they all insincere hypocrites? Was the problem found in the Western Christian religion itself? This wasn't the first taste of domination/evangelism for Western Christendom, it was involved from the early centuries. I am asking myself; was the product developed under Constantine the Church of Jesus or the cult of Rome? Was it the culmination of apologetic debates bringing longed for orthodoxy and unity to persecuted believers or the Imperial absolver of the genocidal tendencies of the sword of Gods wrath (you know the governing authorities of Romans 13 Constantine's favorite chapter)? Was it both? I think I'm supposed to say I think it's both in order to remain conciliatory. But if the hijacked faith of Jesus was responsible for this much misery, then the true followers of Jesus in united outrage with indigenous victims of this travesty should join our voices in protest and declare a true reformation of the Jesus way, rebuilding in a way that reflects the nature of our savior. I guess that would mean not letting the outrage remain our motivation while firmly not conceding the definition of "the Jesus way" back to the institutions of dominating empire.

Ecstatic joy!

Ecstatic Joy!

In thirty plus years in the western model of Christianity my encounters with joy have been sadly few and far between. What I have tasted has been so exquisite that it has been a major factor in me hanging on. The tragic thing is that I’ve always known that joy should be the normative state for one in communion with God. The message I got from leaders who often had less joy than me was to define it as something deep that you can’t always feel. Yeah. Right. Sure. I buy that.

I think that joy and all the fruits begin with acceptance. They emerge from right where you are in the moment. You don’t work it up and it isn’t waiting for you out there somewhere. It is found by becoming acquainted with yourself on the inside and cultivating the maintenance of your spirit. To put it heretically you likely won’t become a joyful Christian until you learn how to pray like a Buddhist or Hindu. Until we learn to come to God holistically, our spirit will remain a mystery to us. Real prayer pays deep attention to self as well as God. It is arrogance disguised, as humility when we think that ignoring our state of being will connect us with God. Prayer pays attention to our bodies, our aches and pains our stresses and draws upon His energy in us to those needs. Real prayer embraces our sexuality that gains it’s huge role in our lives not because of hormonal drive, but because the physical is a dim image of our intimate union with God and creation. The real thing has no stain of shame and is marked by its immense beauty rather than just pleasure. A maintained spirit is a natural conduit for joy that can be fairly consistent through many circumstances, if we keep it flowing as we relate to people and creation with deep compassion. Being self aware and soft-hearted allows us to be aware of the heart condition of others giving us the ability to meet them with compassion hearing the cry of their hearts rather the protective outer shell.

Love your mother

 

It's good now and then, to reflect and consider that the American dream has a long and inglorious tradition of being built on someone else's nightmare.

Our "superior" Western cultures have always been the pillars of trinitarian monotheism.... Empire, greed and self. Most indigenous cultures in the Americas had a profound and respectful concept of creator. Some of the pre-contact cultures were much more Godly and honorable than their brutal colonizers. Propositional faith condemns us to blindness. When I see the character of Jesus I honor that character regardless of creed.

Col. 3:5 says that covetousness is idolatry among a few other sins. So how devout does a capitalist have to be before they are justified before creator. It's never been about the form. It's always been about the heart. People who have been consumed by the fire of creators compassion know this but institutional religion tends to pour water on our passion in it's quest for conformity. Hebrew tradition is full of the splendor of creations glory. Your defense is of stoic Greek dualism and to some degree gnostic thought that dismisses the spirituality of creation. Western theology is a vehicle of Greek paradigms and the Western church is the priesthood of conquering Empire. Every atrocity done in the name of progress and expansion was done so with the sanction of the church both Catholic and Protestant. There were edicts and whole doctrines provided for everything from genocide to slavery. Jesus never has needed an organized religion to express the Kingdom. Caesar on the other hand may have played the cleverest game of all time when he seduced the early Jesus movement into the bed of Empire.

Power flows through a completed circuit. The power from Creator finds completion as we connect to our roots in creation.