Intro, And My Interest In The Forum

[acdc]

Hello! I've been a "progressive Christian" since high school, despite growing up in a more fundamentalist church.

 

During this last (US) election season, I've come to realize just how out-of-the-norm I am compared to how the majority of Christians voted. Simultaneously, due to the Black Lives Matter movement, I've been doing a lot of reading about what white people (me ) should understand about racism in the US, how I'm unknowingly or knowingly contributing to it, etc.

 

So my main interests in joining this forum are:

 

1) Racial Justice: I've done some reading/listening to what white people in general can do on the topic of racism. I'd love to learn what white Christians can and should be doing as well. I'd love to learn about local events, hear how people discuss these topics with other Christians (both progressive and not), etc.

 

2) I think there's currently a huge opportunity to love and serve others who are afraid after the election, and I just haven't seen a Christian movement to do that. I'd love to hear about it if there is one.

 

If you have pointers to any threads I should follow here, I'd love them! Otherwise I'll be making use of search a lot .

 

Thanks.

[PaulS]

Welcome acdc,

 

I'm in Australia myself (and well acquainted with the Australian band named similarly to you). We have our own share of racism issues here too so I will be interested in what you may have to share further down the track.

 

I was astounded at the reported figures of Christians who supported Trump over there, but it doesn't seem like you were offered much of a choice when it came to integrity and ideas. I thought I would have preferred Hillary over Trump but I am somewhat cautiously thinking that maybe Trump won't be as divisive as he made out he would be during his campaign. But I could be wrong - I guess time will tell.

 

I hope you enjoy participating here.

 

Cheers

Paul

[Burl]

Welcome, acdc.

[thormas]

Welcome!

[JosephM]

Acdc

Don't have any answers for you or threads to point to. Perhaps you could start a thread on the subject?

[soma]

Acdc, Welcome and it is nice to see an activist. We live in tumultuous times, but it is a good time to know our self and what we are capable of in times of need. It is sad to observe our Christian society falling further and further away from basic morality and that it is lead by the church in some cases. The first commandment is “I am the Lord thy God and thou shall not have strange Gods before Me.” This is the basis for the conviction that there is only one God, a belief that leads to the knowledge of unity, which once accomplished influences and helps us in our daily lives. We are all children of One God or energy and Jesus said that we should love our neighbor as our self, but the church through its leaders push that our God is better than others. This is the spark to racism, "We are better." No we are not, we all are made in the image of God, there is no need to judge because unity provides an effective answer to the many problems of modern life. Love tells us that we are united and that no other person is separate or apart in God’s spiritual consciousness so recognizing that we are all one in God’s consciousness integrates our individual life with the world around us and providing a basic harmony and equilibrium in our heart and mind. This is a kind of insurance from the flood of negativity surrounding us because a relaxed mind and body is positive, priceless and an indestructible way to receive successful ideas and results. When one is open and receptive, one receives ideas that guide us in morality because positive ideas attract while negativity repels. Leading with rules, laws, fear and hate is the same manipulation dictators use to control the masses and sad to say the church uses them to control its congregations.

 

I feel as a white Christian I need to ground myself in the unity of the universe and act from this point to balance the injustice that is perpetuated today without adding to it. We all have special needs and talents so individually one first communes and balances in the One Consciousness, which is not functional, but it helps one to focus like a laser on the physical plane when applied to racial injustice embedded in our economy, institutions and churches. We all can't be involved in a policy agenda that reconnects economic growth with a shared prosperity, but for now, each one of us has to do what we are driven to do to stop the money-driven politics that block a unity agenda while demagogic candidates stir up more hatred. Some will do social service helping the downtrodden, others will try to stop people from trod-ding on others, some will educate, but we need to be grounded individually in the unity so not to be manipulated with fake morals, laws and rules made by people, not God.