"why Do We Sometimes Act Without Love?"

[Jake]

I don't know that I have any input into why we sometimes act without love. I can only respond as to why I sometimes do. I don't have the education to state genetic causes, or to give psychological evidence. I wouldn't use the excuse for myself that it is a retained survival trait from early developement that it imprinted on the brain chemistry of modern man. I couldn't call it human nature and point to original sin, or the flawed nature of man in the eyes of God. To do so would be hypocrisy, since I do not ascribe to the concept of original sin, or the need for substitutiary attonment in my personal theology. For me, that view seems psychologically damaging at best. Imagine being born into the world, and being told throughout your entire childhood and upbringing that you are inherently bad and unworthy of exceptence into the family by your parents. It would be considered psychological abuse at best, and quite probably criminal. It would be severely damaging to a small child, yet this is precisely the message delivered by much church doctrine (however, that is a topic for another thread).

I sometimes act without love because I am at times a selfish, egocentric, and arrogant man. I do it because at times it is easier, and more immediately gratifying to put my needs in front of the needs of others. I do it because I am in a position to exsert my will over them, because power can be intoxicating, or because I simply want to. I do it because sometimes I cannot see past someone elses annoying character trait, or because I disagree with someone on some topic that I am passionately about, or because I didn't get enough sleep last night, drank to much, don't feel well, etc, etc, etc. I do it because the Christian path is not the easy path, and it requires constant vigilance and self awareness, and sometimes a lot of really deep breaths and rapid repitition of the serenity prayer, like a mantra, just to keep from loosing my temper in traffic, or over some minor annoyance in life.

Acting out on the immediate impulse for selfish behavior is easy. Acting out for the good of others first is sometimes very difficult. Sometimes the two are entirely related. I put the good of someone else before me so I can feel good about doing it, or reap the reward of making them feel good. This is not Christian behavior. The day to day challenge is to act and react to everyone else out of genuine love. The hard part is to keep my egocentric self centered so that the grace of God, the divine wind of the Holy Spirit works through me without my individual involvement or interpretation. The battle with myself is to surrender my will and become a conduit for the Spirit to flow and have a physical effect on this world. Those occasional moments when that can happen, that's when God is in me, not I in God, and that is my purpose on this plane of exsistence. Following the teachings of the Master, Jesus Christ is my method to achieving this. All the rest is just dogma, rhetoric, and human rationalization.

[minsocal]

I really do not know why so many Christians remain in the grips of the Paulinian triadic model of body (negative) - mind - soul. Paul was educated in both Hebrew and Greek thought and his triadic model comes from Greek thought. While many religious sects take a life negating view of human nature, particularly sexuality, it is not a universal perspective within any of the major religions. There has always been a counter-balance of life affirming religious sects, including Christianity. Progressive Christians tend towards a life affirming view of nature. This has been well researched. The life affirming perspective has enabled many groups, including Christians, to transcend prejudices against homosexulaity and sexism.

 

Progressive Christians need to be aware of trends taking place in science and secular humanism that seek to move, as Dr John Searle writes, "beyond atheism." Self self-identified atheists are now recognizing an innate "urge" to the spiritual that they find hard to explain even though objective science has turned up evidence that spiritualty is part of our nature. The same holds true for the foundations of a positive moral life, particularly altruism and compassion. Science, in other words, has become an ally of life affirming religious sects and not an enemy.

 

Our life is a paradox. We often express this paradox to each other in the form of "Dear Jane, I hate you. Love, John." Accepting and tolerating this paradox is a major step towards individuation and what David Schnarch calls Level 2 spiritualty. In addition, we can reject the life negating "monster in the groin" view of human sexuality with a positive life affirming perspective. We could, after all, take the Song of Solomon seriously and apply it to our own lives. On serious examination, you will find that this is not new. Shortly after Hebrew Christians broke away from Judiaism, the Rabbi that unified the fractured Jewish community declared the Song of Solomon "the Holiest book" in what we now call the Old Testament.

 

Is it the case that a life afirming and sex positive view has already permeated Progressive Christianity? The answer is "yes". Some 10-12 years ago my church voted to become an "open and affirming" church that accepted openly gay members. An elderly women, a long tome member of the church, was heard to say "well, if we can talk about sex, we can talk about anything."

 

I sincerely hope that the readers of this post take what I have said in the best, mature sense. Dr Schnarch (previously mentioned) often speaks to Progressive congregations on the subject of life affirming religious sects. Frankly, if science can speak objectively about about the future of religion and spiritualty, it amounts to something of a challenge to the "fallen" and "corrupt" view of human nature some find in the Pauline message. As for myself, about six years ago I adopted a neutral view of human nature, it is what it is. Since that time I have experienced a resurgance of spiritual life that continues today. Yes, of course I experience negative emotions. We all do. But, well regulated negative emotions pass quickly, as nature intended. In addition, I am learning how to switch from negative to positve emotions while keeping both in their proper perspective. It is a work in progress.

 

P.S.

 

Before leaving this post, I should state that I am NOT rejecting the body - spirit - mind model. I am challenging the notion that the body (the material world) is somehow corrupt. As to our human nature, it would be absurd for evolution to produce a self-destructive species. It takes 21 years for our offspring to fully mature. In that time they need guidance while they learn to regulate or modulate their positive and negative emotions. As for adults, we can learn these same skills even though it might be a bit more difficult if we have been indoctrinated into a life negating view of nature.

 

Weel, it's time to step down from the soapbox, peace to all.

[tariki]

I don't know that I have any input into why we sometimes act without love. I can only respond as to why I sometimes do. I don't have the education to state genetic causes, or to give psychological evidence. I wouldn't use the excuse for myself that it is a retained survival trait from early developement that it imprinted on the brain chemistry of modern man. I couldn't call it human nature and point to original sin, or the flawed nature of man in the eyes of God. To do so would be hypocrisy, since I do not ascribe to the concept of original sin, or the need for substitutiary attonment in my personal theology. For me, that view seems psychologically damaging at best. Imagine being born into the world, and being told throughout your entire childhood and upbringing that you are inherently bad and unworthy of exceptence into the family by your parents. It would be considered psychological abuse at best, and quite probably criminal. It would be severely damaging to a small child, yet this is precisely the message delivered by much church doctrine (however, that is a topic for another thread).

I sometimes act without love because I am at times a selfish, egocentric, and arrogant man. I do it because at times it is easier, and more immediately gratifying to put my needs in front of the needs of others. I do it because I am in a position to exsert my will over them, because power can be intoxicating, or because I simply want to. I do it because sometimes I cannot see past someone elses annoying character trait, or because I disagree with someone on some topic that I am passionately about, or because I didn't get enough sleep last night, drank to much, don't feel well, etc, etc, etc. I do it because the Christian path is not the easy path, and it requires constant vigilance and self awareness, and sometimes a lot of really deep breaths and rapid repitition of the serenity prayer, like a mantra, just to keep from loosing my temper in traffic, or over some minor annoyance in life.

Acting out on the immediate impulse for selfish behavior is easy. Acting out for the good of others first is sometimes very difficult. Sometimes the two are entirely related. I put the good of someone else before me so I can feel good about doing it, or reap the reward of making them feel good. This is not Christian behavior. The day to day challenge is to act and react to everyone else out of genuine love. The hard part is to keep my egocentric self centered so that the grace of God, the divine wind of the Holy Spirit works through me without my individual involvement or interpretation. The battle with myself is to surrender my will and become a conduit for the Spirit to flow and have a physical effect on this world. Those occasional moments when that can happen, that's when God is in me, not I in God, and that is my purpose on this plane of exsistence. Following the teachings of the Master, Jesus Christ is my method to achieving this. All the rest is just dogma, rhetoric, and human rationalization.

 

Jake,

 

Once again, I liked reading through your post. I like what I would call your existential approach rather than one based explicitly on interpretation of texts

 

The hard part is to keep my egocentric self centered so that the grace of God........can work through me without my individual involvement or interpretation

 

And a great deal in that sentence that corresponds to Pure Land Buddhism as I understand and seek to live it.

 

Best wishes

Derek