"it is for freedom"

Reading my local paper this morning online, I found a story about a controversy that is occurring locally concerning prayer in the public forum. A neighboring city council has had different preachers praying "in the name of Jesus" during the invocation at city council meetings. Evidently a local person informed the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation group that this was happening. In turn the Freedom From Religion group sent a "terse letter" saying the city council had been violating recent court decisions regarding public prayers. The Council in turn asked all preachers to stop praying using the name of Jesus. But the preachers didn't stop.

Now we have people marching in the streets (mostly peaceably) demonstrating their differing points of view. Most "anti-Jesus' name" folks are fine with the praying part, they just want Jesus kept out of it. The atheists in the group want a moment of silence instead of a spoken prayer. Some Christians are insisting that the "in Jesus' name" words should be spoken.

IMHO, it seems that it would be acceptable to have a moment of silence as an invocation at each meeting. Everyone should be content with that, I think. Certainly the atheists would be. All other religions, as far as I know, allow for silent prayer. I think that stillness actually could make a person more aware of presence, whether it be the "presence of God" for Christians, or the presence of Allah for Muslims, or the presence of the multitudes of Hindu gods, or the undefinable god (who may or may not exist) for the Buddhists. Why the big hubbub?

Why push the "in Jesus' name" prayers even after the city council asked the preachers to stop? Me thinks there is a little too much "ego" going on here. The pushing of views by any group will undoubtedly offend others. Certainly no one appreciates another viewpoint pushed down their throat. The one pushing and the one protesting are both demonstrating how active the ego can become.

Did Jesus push his point of view? On the religious hypocrites for sure he did, but his message was one of love.

If people think that their God will somehow not hear their silent prayers then perhaps a new god is in order. It seems he might be a bit limited. If the belief is that God will punish us for not acknowledging him publicly, perhaps an understanding of "pray in your closet" would be in order.

And we already see what pushing onto others our viewpoints produces. How about obeying those in authority (city council asking for no "in Jesus' name" prayers)? Isn't "winning" people to Christ the main object of Christianity? Prohibiting the forcing of opinion and belief on others is exactly what the founding fathers of the United States had in mind when they clearly preferred separation of church and state. Freedom was the goal, not dictating religious preference.

The "in Jesus' name" group has become a little like King George it seems to me. Of course, in colonial times it was Christian groups/denominations that were seeking freedom to worship. We don't live in colonial times however. We live in a diverse nation whose best interest is to uphold the freedom of religion clause found in our Bill of Rights. Insisting that Christians are the majority and that their religion should trump all others is simply forcing a belief on those that don't believe... again, King George-ish. Seems clear to me.

All said, insisting on one's position over the position of others won't produce peace. Freedom needs to be the banner cry... not religious preference.

Say

Here's a video of John Mayer's song Say. When life is reduced to a few important things, reality and truth become very important. Time in this present earthly state will not continue on forever. By continually creating, rehearsing, and believing stories in my mind, awareness of the here and now is lost. Better to be real and offensive than to bottle up inside what should be said.

Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems
Better put them in quotations

Say what you need to say (8x)
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead
If you could only

Say what you need to say (8x)
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You better know that in the end
It’s better to say too much
Than never to say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to
Say what you need to

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
(Fade)
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

the real enemy

The following quote is adapted from True Self/False Self by Richard Rohr.

Conversion is a process of disenchantment with our small, separate self, recognizing how truly afraid and insecure it is. The only way people can ever be freed from this fear and this insecurity is to be freed from themselves. There is almost a complete correlation between the amount of fear in one’s life and the amount of attachment we have to ourselves and our own agenda.

The person who is beyond fear has given up the need to control or possess or be right. Their being is grounded in the Being of God. As St. Francis of Assisi said, “I am who I am in God's eyes—nothing more, but nothing less.” A truly converted/transformed person does not need to impress anyone because they know that they are not who you think they are anyway—or even who they themselves think they are! Thinking one way or another doesn’t make it so.

That's what St. Paul meant when he so shockingly said: “You have died, you're dead” (Romans 6:3-5) when you are truly baptized into the death of the false self—the self that you don’t need anyway. Conversion happens when you finally face the real enemy, and guess what? It's you!

shipwrecks

On a rocky seacoast where shipwrecks were frequent there was once a ramshackle little lifesaving station. It was no more than a hut and there was only one boat, but the few people who manned the station were a devoted lot who kept constant watch over the sea and, with little regard for themselves and their safety, went fearlessly out in a storm if they had any evidence that there had been a shipwreck somewhere. Many lives were thus saved and the station became famous.

As the fame of the station grew, so did the desire of people in the neighborhood to become associated with its excellent work. They generously offered of their time and money, so new members were enrolled, new boats bought, and new crews trained. The hut, too, was replaced by a comfortable building which could adequately handle the needs of those who had been saved from the sea and, of course, since shipwrecks do not occur every day, it became a popular gathering place -- a sort of local club.

As time passed the members became so engaged in socializing that they had little interest in lifesaving, though they duly supported the lifesaving motto on the badges they wore. As a matter of fact, when some people were actually rescued from the sea, it was always such a nuisance because they were dirty and sick and soiled the carpeting and the furniture.

Soon the social activities of the club became so numerous and the lifesaving activities so few that there was a showdown at a club meeting, with some members insisting that they return to their original purpose and activity. A vote was taken and these troublemakers, who proved to be a small minority, were invited to leave the club and start another.

Which is precisely what they did -- a little further down the coast, with such selflessness and daring that, after a while, their heroism made them famous. Whereupon their membership was enlarged, their hut was reconstructed -- and their idealism smothered. If you happen to visit that area today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs dotting the shoreline. Each one of them is justifiably proud of its origin and its tradition. Shipwrecks still occur in those parts, but nobody seems to care much.

(from Taking Flight -- Anthony de Mello)

"spiritual animal"

Another C.S. Lewis quote from A Grief Observed:

"Sometimes, Lord, one is tempted to say that if you wanted us to behave like the lilies of the field you might have given us an organization more like theirs. But that, I suppose, is just your grand experiment. Or no; not an experiment, for you have no need to find things out. Rather your grand enterprise. To make an organism which is also a spirit; to make that terrible oxymoron, a 'spiritual animal'. To take a poor primate, a beast with nerve-endings all over it, a creature with a stomach that wants to be filled, a breeding animal that wants its mate, and say, 'Now get on with it. Become a god'." (page 72)

We are so silly; so ill equipped it seems. Our mind machinations cause us so much unnecessary suffering. Lewis talks about us being a "spiritual animal". I think he's right. Becoming aware of this spiritual being in us is what's needed.

I'm convinced that the world we live in will continue in its lost condition if it does not come to this understanding. The systems by which it functions, whether political, economic, or religious, are destined to produce both good and evil. It all depends who's running them. Heart change is what's needed in order for evil to perish. We need love to come alive in the heart of this world creation.

How can this love be attained? We may demonstrate a semblance of love from time to time, but it usually doesn't take long before we are judging and condemning again. We somehow lose the love. Our focus goes back onto us. We seem to always be concerned about how we will be affected. We want control. We want to be in charge. We want to be important. We want significance. All these desires center in our ego which is constantly working for its own survival. This part of us, whatever you want to call it (ego, self, desires), it works against "what is". It works against reality.

What is reality? God is love. God is in us. The love we need is present in us. This is pretty simple. Why is it not obvious then? Because we don't believe it. We believe we are our history or our yet unrealized future. We believe our thinking. We believe our ego mind talking inside us. And it is talking all the time. Our mind has the ability to convince us of anything, whether real or unreal because survival is deemed necessary. Mind activity can hide who we really are. We are not our thoughts. Our ego thinks we are and has spent our whole life trying to convince us that it is what matters. We have covered our true selves over with blankets of cultural, societal, and religious thinking. We think we are these things that have influenced us. We are not. We are uniquely created spirit beings that live to show the light of the creation.

It might take some time to figure out what the ego claims as its possession. A daily reckoning of what is real and what is not begins to expose our true heart where love and light reside. This is God in us. This is our true self. I don't know how it happens but it does. This life/light begins to change the heart of judgment and condemnation into a heart of love. An aliveness comes. Rest takes work's place and the yoke becomes easy. By simply bringing awareness (recognition) to what does not belong, transformation commences. Simply observe the problem. We are not needed in the fixing of it other than observation. The shining of light accomplishes the fixing. I don't know how it works. I just know that it does.

reality

C.S. Lewis in A Grief Observed wrote about the shattering of his faith after his wife's death:

"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. (p. 22)

"Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. (p.23)

" ...if my house was a house of cards, the sooner it was knocked down the better. And only suffering could do it. (p.38)

"God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down. (p. 52)

"My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence? And most are 'offended' by the iconoclasm; and blessed are those who are not. (p.66)

"All reality is iconoclastic." (p.66)

If decision is needed between reality or a concept developed in the mind, take reality. Life is found in reality. Truth is found in reality.

places of the heart

For a New

Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~ John O'Donohue