Saturday, September 28, 2013

Do The Right Thing, Part II


Hi Tiffany, this is Uncle Ben from Cape Cod, he is an amateur theologian.

Usually, we do not air this type of information about each other in the churches. But your courage to share and your courage to seek help outside of your circumstances, is indeed an honourable trait. I respect you to share this information, and perhaps out of this difficult circumstances, it makes you a better person indeed. As an amateur theologian, I seek to discover and understand human nature with the sacred words of the holy Scriptures.

One of my major discoveries within the Christian communities, is that their have a claim that is false about their 'moral superiority.' This moral uprightness duping them into thinking that they are better than the rest of their community, since they have a 'new life' in Christ, and are 'covered in the precious blood of the LAMB' and therefore should act honourably and righteously in all circumstances. This, unfortunately is false. It is not true in a lot of cases, where the people inside the organization of faith, is just as bad, if not worse than outside the faith.

Accepting that people are no better in the Churches as it is in atheists or infidel organizations, is the first thing I would urge you. This humility to accept who we are, as simply human, who could do a great number of honorable things, as well as do a great deal of harm to each other, is the key.

Thus a minister, is just as morally corrupt as a taxi driver, or a greedy dentist, or a bank robber. I do not expect him to act righteously unless proven. In your predicament, your minister is both a thief and a liar, so call that as what you see. A thief and a liar comes from his own human moral failure, and the inability of those around him to call him that.

The second I would do, is that you do not lose faith in God. By that I mean the highest and most treasured notions we have in goodness. I do not mean the blind faith in the God they have painted for you, in a sermon, or by your own Sunday School teacher. I no longer affirm the personal deity that sits in the sky and judges and brings in judgement on those evil doers. Did not Jesus once taught, he causes the sun to shine on the good and the evil one? And that he allows all tares and wheat to grown until the harvest? No, I do not expect divine intervention in cases that he has already allowed, but do not lose hope in goodness of the human community, and I would urge you to be humble enough to look to the kindness where you usually do not look to. There is kindness in human community both inside and outside of the church. There is goodness that in all of us, that we need to discover. Even in this thief and liar, there is a trace of goodness and perhaps covered by much of his mud and sling of filth, do not lose hope that he too is a human being, perhaps he should take up honest work like picking a trade in construction, in farming, and perhaps he should return all the monies that he had cheated from the Church and liver honourably from now on. That is the sacred teaching of St Paul, for he says, "Let him that stole, steals no more, but rather work with his hands, the thing that which is good."

This goodness in all of us, in the birds of the air, fish of the sea, in this humble earth, collectively known as this world, or 'secula' is what I put my faith in. I turn myself to the earth, after all the world is greater than I, and most humble and patient than all of us, is where I turn. Maybe you should start a small garden, grow a few things, get closer to the earth, in order to feel the goodness that come from it. For me, this goodness is what makes the belief in God possible.

The last, since this is a sermon, and a small theological treatise, is to accept people for what they are, and who they are. In the final harvest, everything that is shaken and tested, will show their true state of being. As it is in a harvesting of seeds from my own garden. After all the pods are dried, we carefully crush them to allow seeds to come forth, and then separate seeds from chaff. It is simple, the chaff is lighter and it is blown away by the wind. So, everything that has been tested, will show their true state. For those who exhibited their fear, hate and anger, and their darkness that comes from this situation, stay away from such. Find those friends whose goodness has not been touched by such, and stay true to them. To have patience and lose not your faith in God, and goodness that comes from the earth and this human community. After all, as I was taught by Sir Lloyd Geering, that this world is greater than I, and if I were to ever lose my way, I would put my faith in the world, for me that is the ultimate.

There is life, there is joy, out of the mess you are in, when you are older, you will learn to appreciate this. If this church environment is too much, stop going for awhile, stay home on sundays and plant a garden, for this is therapeutic. Explain to your parents, that this emotional abuse has got to stop. It is human to merely just be. But we must stay away from harms way. Until it is a safe environment, protect what is most precious in you, the innocent ideal of love, goodness, and justice, and let no man trample on that. Ponder often the lessons we have, about the failed moral superiority complex we built and falsely maintained in the Christian community. Learn that is just being human, and exhort each of us to goodness (St Pauls' teaching), and learn from the founder, Jesus of Nazareth. For he has taught, to 'work while there is day light, for in the night, no one can work.' I take that literally, if you were to plant something in your garden, you must do so, during the day, for when night times approaches and the evil thereof comes, we cannot see well enough to work. In a church where the night falls upon it, we wait until there is day light. Then you may presume your service to a God, your own God. For me, I take that literally, and I grow a garden, farm in organic ways, teach my kids to appreciate the frailty of being human, while we 'pitch a tent' on the earth, to remember to be thankful, and to be. And to be, that is the question.

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