mystictrek

I have devoted a lot of time and energy in recent years toward promoting "the new church for the new age." My website is devoted to this mission. But the last thing I want to do is start a new denomination, or a new earthly empire for Jesus. So I am staying a Presbyterian even though it is flawed in many ways. The Presbyterian motto is wonderful: "Reformed and always being reformed." The Holy Spirit is at work in all human beings and human organizations. Changes are happening around the world. Just think: In the Presbyterian Church. women could not be ordained as Elders until 1930 and as Ministers until 1955. Now most Elders are women and the numbers of women serving as Pastors is approaching half of the total. The institutional church is a flawed human organization but the amazing grace of God is at work and we are making progress. Find the nearest church most open to reform and renewal and help it progress. "The new church for the new age" is the spirit-led movement of people around the world to keep progressing toward more and more love in each and every local situation. Bloom where you are planted!

The propaganda we have heard incessantly for generations has made us all quite immune to the truth. Even those who are critical of Israel tend to dismiss the Arab point of view because we hardly ever hear it and when we do it is usually distorted beyond comprehension. We hear and see the anger but never grasp the context of that anger. Even here on this forum a critic of Israel said that it would be OK to exterminate Hezbollah. That was the word used. How about an effort to understand the legitimate grievances of Arabs even if we don't approve of their use of violence. Should the Israeli military be exterminated? I would rather have us talk to the people who think violence is necessary on both sides, hear them out, work at seeking justice, work at reconciliation. Hezbollah is a response to Israeli aggression in Lebanon which is nothing new. IT has been going on ver since 1948. Did you know that? So many Americans are totally ignorant that Bush & Blair & Ohlmert can get away with murder again and again and again. The US & the UK & Israel are rightly blamed for much of the violence in the Middle East. No I don't think the Arab point of view is totally right. But it's not totally wrong either. We should actually try to listen to Arabs. Wouldn't that be something? What happened in 1917 is relevant. What happened in 1947 & 1948 is relevant. In 1917, Great Britain decided it could tell the Arabs that they would no longer have control of a certain part of Palestine. This was the Balfour Declaration. In 1948 Israel came into being through violence. The case can be made with great authority that the Jewish armies of the 40s stole a lot of land and resources from the native Arabs and killed a lot of people and destroyed a lot of homes and farms too. The land which became Israel was far bigger than the United Nations plan of 1947 had offered. This is relevant. Realizing the mistreatment of the native Arab population, known even then as the Palestinians, which began even before 1948 but really escalated at that time is very important. It is shocking that few Americans know or care. Ever since 1948 the land and resources stolen has grown by leaps and bounds and is still going on. The 2000 peace plan seen as such a generous offer was not generous at all. The Palestinian state Israel would allow was divided into bandustans with highways running between them open only to citizens of Israel. There would be no Palestinian military allowed and no border with an Arab nation. It wouldn't come close to the UN plan of 1947 or even the West Bank & Gaza of 1948 to 1967. The conventional response of the pro-Israel propaganda is to note that the Arabs rejected the 1947 partition plan. Well, of course they did. The plan gave the Jews 50 per cent of Palestine's land even though they had only ten per cent of the population. Then the propagandists tell you that it was the Arabs who told the native Arabs to leave their cities and villages. The Jews never forced anybody to leave. This is such a fiction. Maybe the wrongs of 1947 and 1948 can never be corrected fully but we can now at least call off the illegal settlements and the illegal wall and the illegal annexation of Arab land into "Greater Israel" and the killing of innocents and destroying of homes and farms and schools and livelihoods. I don't approve of the violence of Hezbollah & Hamas but I can understand it. The injustices done by Israel to Arabs has been and continues to be massive. Americans need to learn the truth and bring sense to the politicians on both sides of the aisle. When it comes to Israel, Democrats are worse than Republicans in their blind support for tyranny and repression.

Maybe you could teach and maybe even be surprised to find support. It's possible anyway.

That's for sure. Here is what I posted on my blog today about the latest Israeli over-response: + WHEN WILL THEY (ISRAEL) EVER LEARN ... AND US TOO: As Israel strikes Lebanon with overwhelming force I am thinking about the overall situation in that part of the world. Israel has the fourth largest military in the world. This is mostly a gift provided by the United States of America. So, Israel believes it can always overwhelm any Arab attempt to strike at Israel. So far, they have been able to do this. Ever since 1948 and even before when some Jews were already moving into Arab land by force. There are about 6 million Jewish citizens in Israel today and about 4 million Arabs in Israel and in Gaza and the West Bank. Beyond Israel and Gaza & the West Bank are about 200 million Arabs in many countries. Israel believes that it can gradually take over the West Bank forcing out the entire Arab population and then some day live at peace with its Arab neighbors. But the West Bank and particularly Jerusalem is considered Holy Land by Muslims. The chances of a long term Arab acceptance of a Jewish West Bank is extremely low. A much better approach would be the long overdue acceptance by Israel of an Arab (Palestinian) West Bank and a shared Jerusalem either by partition or making it an international city. I believe Muslims would accept this and live at peace with Israel as long as reparations were made by Israel to the Palestinians for lost land and lost lives going back 60 years and a total withdrawal from all the illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Every Muslim knows that it is the United States which makes the Israel military second to none in the region. Most Muslims make the connection and consider the United States a legitimate target since they know that they are all targets of the Israeli military as long as the US is there to support Israel. We -- the United States -- need to tell Israel to withdraw from the illegal settlements, withdraw completely from the West Bank, find a way to share Jerusalem and agree to reparations for 60 years of illegal death and destruction and occupation. The sooner the better.

A portion of my post today at an interfaith forum where many Muslims and Christians claim that they have the only true religion seems pertinent here: +++ Without very specific references to exactly what the Prophet Muhammad said, this (a post by a Muslim on the forum listing many fulfilled prophecies which he believes demonstrates the superiority of Islam) is not very compelling. There are many prophecies in all spiritual traditions which can be manipulated to look more specific than they really are. I get so frustrated with this game of "My Religion is Better than Your Religion" which is a lot like "My Nation is Better than Your Nation" and "My School is Better than Your School" and "My Race is better than Your Race" and on and on and on. Yes, Islam is a great spiritual tradition. So is Christianity. So is Judaism. So is Buddhism. So is Hinduism. So is Native American Spirituality. And on and on and on. How about WIN/WIN rather than WIN/LOSE? We can all win when we all learn to respect each other and value the wisdom of other traditions. +++

I believe that there is a strong connection between progressive theology and progressive politics but that doesn't mean that we insist that people vote Democratic or Socialist or anything like that. Repubicans have a progressive tradition which, unfortunately, has been missing in action for the past generation or so. I would love to see it reappear. I post regularly at a conservative-liberal debate forum where I often contend that the best political approach is pragmatism and compromise. We have often been blessed with a great spirit of compromise working for the common good. Lately we have not seen much of that and the consequences of the growing polarization could be catastrophic. We had better learn how to respect each other again. There are great ideas on both sides of the political fence and we need to apply what works and discard what doesn't work. For example. many people on the Right sincerely believe that the free market system benefits every one. But the gap between rich and poor and even between the rich and the middle class has been growing enormously in recent years. What can be done to remedy this malady? I do see many people on the Right in serious denial about many of the problems facing our planet. But a bigger problem is the apathy and indifference of people who don't get involved at all in the political conversation. Democracy requires an educated and active populace and we are seeing far too little of that. The growing monopoly power of a few huge media corporations is perhaps the biggest problem our country has right now. Americans are not well informed and many don't even realize it.

+ Since Americans hear the story of the Palestinian plight so rarely, I thought I would post this letter from an anonymous European (I think) spending time in Palestine even though it is quite long. I don't agree with the belief expressed here that violence is justified but I do understand the rage and bitterness and I think all Americans need to deal with this. I would certainly love to see the Palestinians use the non-violent methods of Gandhi & King but just because many have turned to violence does not mean that we should ignore their legitimate grievances. Sorry that some of the interview material is not formatted as well as it could be. +++ Letter from Palestine Written by : anonymous Last modified 2006-07-02 03:43 Somewhere in Palestine, July 1 — Morning came and we found that 90 of the nation's best men were captured by Israel from their homes in the night. Our mayor, who was released from four years in prison just a month ago. Someone for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration, as do his people here, political allies and opponents alike. And our vice mayor, too. The last time I talked with him, earlier this week, he was struggling a lot with chronic back pain. I wonder where they are now. If they have been fed today, or tortured. If they will sleep on beds tonight, or not at all. If they will be home tomorrow. If we will never see some of them again alive. It's the first time Palestinians have captured an Israeli soldier in a long time; families of prisoners have begged the resistance not to release him until there is a prisoner exchange no matter what the consequences to the community—being well acquainted with the suffering that implies. Everyone went about their business today, wedding processions in the streets, families eating icecream and watermelon in the sticky heat. Some with the heavy numb shock of loved ones vanished suddenly, shock without surprise; they expected that the price that has been paid, and paid, and paid, for keeping one's spirit from being broken, must be paid again. Myself, I couldn't keep from crying from time to time, although for me it is just a very small taste of the shock, seeing two good men that I know a little, powerful in their community with the power the community has entrusted them with, suddenly made helpless, pieces of meat for Israeli intelligence officers somewhere to enjoy, and knowing that if I knew them more, if I knew others, the sense of anger and sorrow and disbelief would be multiplied. I know that for the people around me these tears formed years and years ago. The anger and sorrow and loss and disbelief have happened too many times to count, but it does not diminish, to the world it is one more added to a large number, for each mother and sister and wife it is an unconsolable agony, an irreplaceable loss, an unimaginable theft, a violation of a family, a marriage, that might never be able to recover from the traumas and abuses that are being suffered, will be suffered in the days ahead. Israel has over 10,000 Palestinian hostages, hundreds of them children, and slaughters Palestinians of any age on a daily basis. When Palestinians take 2 Israeli hostages and kill two soldiers, Israeli bombs Gaza. Bombs out the power stations, the water reticulation; no electricity, no water, bridges blasted severing cities from each other. Gaza Strip, the most densely populated area on earth on account of Israel using it as a specially designed human garbage can where refugees are disposed off and hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world. Brilliant, but unsuccessful. If you treat humans as garbage and they know that they are humans and not garbage, they will not quietly disappear. You will never sleep safe at night. You will never have the right to sleep safe at night. May you never sleep safe at night. A young woman in my neighborhood asked, can you believe Israel kidnapped most of our government last night? Imagine waking up to hear that Palestinian forces had kidnapped 90 Israeli government leaders. It's hard to imagine that Israel would leave one house standing, one person uninjured. Imagine if Palestinians had the military capacity to punish Israel on a comparable scale for every two hostages it takes and two it kills. Imagine if Americans, and Europeans, valued the blood of Palestinians and Iraqis as much as their own blood. Imagine if the nations of the world used their armies to protect the lives of the innocent and bring to justice thieving, raping, murdering states. A couple days ago I sat with someone I know, who was taken hostage last night. He explained part of Hamas' interpretation of the Qur'an as follows: there are three kinds of people that Muslims have to deal with. 1) Those who treat you with respect. In this case, it is a crime against God to treat them with anything but respect, kindness, and hospitality. In other words, if a Jew wanted to immigrate to Palestine with full respect for the people here, wishing to become a member of Palestinian society, he should be welcomed. 2) Then there are those who do not respect you, and oppose you. You have no obligation to extend hospitality to them. 3) Then there are those who have no respect for your humanity, your property or your religion, they take power over your land and your lives, destroy your land and kill your people. In this case you have an obligation to fight against them to protect your land and your people. If they kill your people, you can kill their people. Today I visited with another friend who thinks he may be captured tonight; so many of his friends were captured last night. He said, Israel doesn't care too much about the lives of the Israeli hostages, in the past there were cases of them killing the hostages themselves by indiscriminate bombing of communities. But Israel has been waiting since Hamas' election for Hamas' first military operation, and so they knew this massive attack on the community would come, sooner or later. Even though different groups have participated in the Palestinian military operations in the past few days, all of Israel's targets are Hamas leaders. Israel wants to see Hamas destroyed, Europe and America want to see Hamas destroyed, and Abu Mazen seems to be trying his best to join them. Many of those arrested were among the Hamas members that Israel exiled to the no mans land between Israel and Lebanon, a decade ago. He told me some of his friend's stories from those three terrible years, living in tents through snowy winters. He talked about the warm spirit that thrived in the tents during freezing months. He told of how hungry men went to an apricot orchard and couldn't find the owner, so they took some fruit and then tied some money in a handkerchief to the tree. When the owner found it, he tracked them down, and said to them, with tears coming down his face, what kind of men are you, starving and rejected by the world, who have such principles that you will not even take fruit that you find on a tree. I give you my fruit, I give you my orchards! I felt the poverty of being from the West, where the media can say nothing about these men except to endlessly regurgitate simpleminded slander… of those captured I know just a few names, and little of their stories. For anyone here, each of these names represents a rich story, decades of struggles, of suffering, heroism, years of prison, of pain, of courage, of trying again, of hopes betrayed, of disappointment and endurance that continues forward to find new hope. We had this conversation over lunch in his daughter's home. She and her husband were active with Hamas and he was seized by Israel and killed in prison, leaving her with their three small children. Don't forget, it is America that gives Israel everything it needs to do this to us, she said. When we left, she and her three boys kissed him over and over, not knowing if tomorrow they will wake up to hear that her dad, their grandpa, has become a prisoner. This week I spent with a French student, an orphan of war in Bangladesh, who is doing research on women's views of dignity. Dignity is a word thrown around a lot in international law but without definition; people have a "right to dignity" but since no one knows what it is, when it comes right down to it violations of this right cannot be prosecuted. I helped her interview dozens of women this week, from Fatah, Hamas, PFLP, poor and wealthy, educated and illiterate, young and old. We would sit down with strangers and as soon as dignity, al karame, was mentioned, the room burst into life with passionate opinions, terrible stories, and incredibly brave and inspiring statements. Here are some of the things I heard about dignity. There is no dignity in Palestine; we face humiliation at checkpoints, restriction from visiting our families or going to school, soldiers in our homes during the night, prison… Israel's war is first of all against our dignity which Israel attacks from every angle and with every means possible, because if it can succeed in destroying our dignity, we will not be able to resist anymore. There is tremendous dignity in Palestine; perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, because the occupation with all its mechanisms for humiliation makes us aware of our dignity; the more they try to destroy our dignity the stronger our dignity becomes; they are getting the opposite results that they want. There are two kinds of dignity: one that you get from others, when you are treated with dignity, the other comes from inside of you, from what you know about who you really are before God, and no one has the power to take this away from you unless you let them. Even if as women we are captured by Israel, stripped naked and raped in the prisons, if we resist every attack upon our dignity it will not be lost. A woman was told at a checkpoint to remove her scarf. She refused, and the soldier showed her a metal rod and said he would drive it through her eyes if she did not take it off. You can have your eyes, or you can have your dignity. She refused. He drove it through her eyes. She survived, but she is blind. And she did not lose her dignity. A friend of the Prophet Mohammad, a woman, was tied to the ground by a man who made her choose between her dignity or her life. The only thing she was able to do was to spit in his face, and she did. He killed her. But he did not destroy her dignity. Arab people have a great source of dignity from the rich and deep history of our culture. But now all Arab lands are captive and only in Iraq and Palestine are we free within ourselves, because we do not accept the enslavement that is forced upon us; our resistance gives us great dignity. We get our dignity from our land. It is our life. As long as we are in our land, no matter how much we suffer, we will have our dignity. If they succeed in expelling us to Jordan, our dignity will be lost forever. I have my family's olive trees. Every year I used to have precious olive oil from my own trees that I could give generously to my friends and neighbors. Now Israel has killed half of my trees and imprisoned the rest. These trees are like my own children. It is a terrible, terrible sorrow and shame for me each day to know that I am powerless to help them. Now, when we need olive oil for ourselves, we have to go to the store and buy it. But I was one who could generously give olive oil to my friends and relatives. We get our dignity from Islam, as women, and as human beings. In our culture, before Islam, women were just seen as property, baby girls could be buried alive. We see women in many parts of the world who have no dignity. Islam has given us our full rights as women in every sense, and full equality with every other human being. In the Qur'an God says that he has given the same dignity to every human being—it does not depend on whether you are male or female, or whether you are Muslim or from another religion, each of us has the same worth. What do you expect and hope for in the future? Things will get much, much worse. It is written that we will suffer like this until near the end. Our hope comes from knowing that Jesus will come back and will remove all injustice from the earth, and at last the race of mankind will be free to live in peace and equality. What do you believe should be the political outcome for Palestine? If only they would all go back where they came from, we could live in peace in our homes and land again. We can never live with them; if someone has killed your children, can you accept them as a neighbor? We already live with them, of course we can in the future. We cannot live with them, we must have a state, and they must have a state. About all the refugees who have their homes and lands in Israel, I don't know…….. We can live with them in one state, the refugees must be given back their homes and their land. If we have an Islamic state on all of Palestine, it is the only way we will be able to live together, us and them, because Islam is the only system where equality between people of different religions is protected. Do you think negotiations or armed struggle is the best strategy at this time? Of course, if we could get our rights back without violence, that would be the best way. If negotiations ever worked, then we should use that instead of armed struggle, but they have never produced anything. We have to keep fighting to protect our land and our community. How could it be right to do nothing when daily they are attacking our lives and our land? As a woman would you participate in armed struggle? I admire women who do, but I myself don't think I'm capable of it. My contribution is to study and be a good mother to my children. No, I don't think women should carry weapons. Yes! It would be a great honor to fight for my country! Yes! How I wish we had the chance to be trained as soldiers like all the Israeli women are. I am not married yet, but I hope that one day I will have a son who will give his life for our country to be free. The Americans, Europeans and Israelis place more value on the blood of their dogs and cats than they do on the blood of Palestinians. None of us can ever forget the sight of little Huda screaming for her father on the beach of Gaza, throwing herself on the sand next to his dead body over and over. No one in the world has expressed their outrage, or even sorrow, to us about these atrocities against us. They care deeply about the Mundial, and Huda's agony is an interruption, a distraction, from the soccer score. Our blood is so, so cheap to the world, and Israeli blood is so valuable. They do not see our humanity at all. How do you find your sense of your own humanity, when all the world is telling you your life, your death, your blood is worthless? When it comes down to that, we know that God sees us, even if we are suffering in an Israeli torture chamber and no one in our family knows if where we are or if we are alive or dead, we know that God sees us and knows our value, our humanity. We belong to him, and in that is our worth, and our hope, our fates are in his hands and our lives are very precious to him, no matter how worthless they are to our brothers and sisters in the human race, and in the end, that is what matters. We know who we are. Our lives, our deaths, our suffering, our hopes, our disappointment, are not insignificant. Yesterday I met a new appointee from the German government in Jerusalem, a young guy with an American accent. He was happy that Hamas and Fatah had agreed on the Prisoners' Document. Great, we've gotten Hamas to recognize Israel, he said. Now we just have to get them to renounce armed struggle, and then get rid of these ideas of an Islamic state. The problem is when we bring democracy to the middle east, we always have to deal with the challenge of making sure there is a secular state when so many people want an Islamic state. (Jewish states, apparently, are just dandy.) What these Palestinians just don't understand, he said, is that armed struggle won't get them anywhere. Haven't they learned anything, after all these years? It's really hurting their image in the international community. Well, I said sarcastically, since you understand this so well, and none of the Palestinians have been able to grasp it, maybe you should explain it to them then. Oh, I am, every Palestinian I meet, he said with sincerity. And what is that dazzling offer that Europe will extend, if Palestinians promise to sit on their hands and open their mouths? In exchange for your dignity, what? Maybe longlife, lifelong food rations? Maybe the chance to clean toilets in Israel, and the dream that your grandchildren could do the same? I have not been here too long, but it is long enough to be sure of one thing: It is the Europeans, the Israelis, and the Americans who fail to grasp the central truth, after all these decades of trying to finetune the catastrophe they have engineered in Palestine: these women and men and children, who carry their heads so high, know who they are. They are prepared to sacrifice their lives, but they are not prepared to sacrifice their dignity. While the world discusses the moral or strategic aspects of armed resistance, there is no confusion about these issues here. Undefended, dignity—and the land—would be lost, and death would be better. With or without your permission, they will continue to fight. (This letter was received by NECDP, New England Committee to Defend Palestine)

I'm back as the effects of jet lag are diminishing and as I get most of my photos and reflections on our great trip organized and uploaded and shared. I invite you to visit my travel blog > http://www.abundancetrek.com/travelblog2006 I am reading Michener's long book on his many and lengthy Spanish travels called IBERIA. It is fascinating and helps me understand why Spain has been such a mystery to me over the years. Mary, my wife, can speak some Spanish and that sure helped. We really enjoyed tapa bar hopping in Madrid, flamenco in Sevilla, great train rides, Holy Toledo's fantastic cathedral and walls and gates and narrow streets, the amazing Prado Museum in Madrid and the fascinating treasures of the Moors' era: Granada's LaHambra & Cordoba's Mestizzo. In Norway, I got to explore Trondheim and meet a second cousin and his family. Svein, my second cousin, is a Lutheran Minister now teaching Ethics and Mathematics at a Trondheim college. He is a train enthusiast and arranged a tour of the Trondheim Yard for me. His deck overlooks the broad and beautiful Trondheimfjord and the railroad going East toward Sweden and North toward Bodo. We had dinner on the deck as the sun began to set in the North! It set around 11pm. Trondheim has a famous cathedral with lots of connections to Norway's millenium long Christian history. It is traditionally the fourth most important pilgrimage destination in Western Christianity. We also visited Andalsnes and Molde and Alseund and several gorgeous fjords by train and bus and ferry. We stayed one night at Geiranger with a balcony overlooking the Geirangerfjord. We got to see a cruise ship depart. The Geirangerfjord is truly one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The bus handled the eleven switchbacks of the Eagle Way with precision both going down to the fjord and back up again. The waterfalls with lots of gushing water are everywhere.

+ As I watch Americans tolerate the use of torture, the unjustified war, the support of the brutal & illegal occupation in Palestine, the growing gap between rich and poor, the increasing destruction of the environment, the tolerance of homelessness and poverty, the many addictions keeping so many of us enslaved and weak, the use of the death penalty, the easy access to guns and many other abuses against creation and life, I wonder if we will survive. Oh, we probably will survive in some form but somehow, some day, we are going to be humbled and it may be a very painful humbling. Israel of ancient times was so humbled. Many starved to death or were violently killed. Many of those who lived lost everything. It was horrible. Americans have a false sense of security believing that our military and our economy are invincible. And God is on our side. That’s what the ancient Israelites believed. Many prophets of ancient Israel including Isaiah and Amos and Jeremiah pointed out that Israel was in denial and that “the Day of the Lord” would come and would be a dark day indeed. Their warnings are a major part of the Bible. But they were ignored when they were doing the warning. The rich and privileged of ancient Israel were smug and self-assured. The rest fell victim to the entertainment offerings or were kept silent through the usual intimidation methods of the empire. Israel before its fall was still an empire although its land and wealth was nothing like it had been under Solomon centuries before. The United States today appears to be at the top of its game in many ways but the cries of the tortured and abused and neglected and oppressed and impoverished can not be ignored forever. God hears them. God is always listening to the victims of the planet and is always acting on their behalf. This message is found throughout the Bible and throughout history. Moses was empowered by God to liberate the Israelites from slavery because God heard their cries and acted to end their suffering. That’s what God does. God blessed Israel and made it a model nation. But when it stopped acting like the model nation it was supposed to be, God blessed other nations and allowed Israel to be brought down. God has most certainly blessed the United States and made us a model nation. But we now seem to be repeating the mistakes of history, believing God will protect us no matter what. The Bible makes it clear that God doesn’t work that way. History teaches us again and again that God does not work that way. Will we ever learn this lesson? I wonder. I think we can learn this lesson. I hope we can learn this lesson. I love my country and I long for the day that we will reclaim the mission of being a model nation for the planet. I hope we can learn the lesson without a lot of pain. The signs, however, are ominous. For many, the pain has already begun and few who do not yet feel the pain seem to care. This indifference and apathy is what the prophets of ancient Israel condemned as do prophets of every age. The seeds of our potential destruction were planted even before our formation as a separate nation 230 years ago. Many Americans were already determined to force out the Indians from all land east of the Mississippi. It didn’t take long before many Americans believed we had a “manifest destiny” to reach the Pacific and eliminate or repress any Indians or Spaniards or Mexicans or anybody else who stood in our way. Then, we laid claim to control of the entire Western Hemisphere. Then we laid claim to control of the whole planet and this has now become a reality. No nation has ever gained so much control of the planet. For many, this is exhilarating and a good thing for us and maybe even for the planet. Others, including me, believe this is a big mistake. We have a mission to be a model nation, not a controlling nation. Controllers use intimidation and propaganda and violence and denial. Modelers use cooperation, compassion, tolerance, education, awareness, gentleness and humility. Let’s return to our God-given mission to be a light to the world as a nation of gentle and humble and compassionate and determined peacemakers rather than killers and intimidators and torturers and repressors.

I have often thought about ww2, the big one, and I have come to the conclusion that there would probably have been less death and destruction and suffering if we did not engage militarily. Hitler may have stayed in power over most of Europe for a much longer time but I do believe he would not have killed as many people. The war brought out the worst in him and his co-conspirators. It also brought about the worst in us. The bombing of German & Japanese cities and the destruction of so much was as wrong as anything the Germans & Japanese did. Gandhi showed us that resistance to oppression need not be violent to be effective. Mass movements work but non-violent resistors will die just as in war. That is true courage, true heroism. I hope more than I am sure that the path of non-violence leads to less death and destruction than taking up arms. I don't know if I have that kind of courage, either to take up arms or be a non-violent resister. I am far too comfortable with all my American privileges even knowing that it is often bought by our violent policies whether done by our military or our proxies. I like to think we can gradually move toward a world based on tolerance and compromise and negotiation and forgiveness and kindness and gentleness and reconciliation and understanding and wisdom and knowledge and compassion. I don't know. I hope. Being against the death penalty is a no-brainer. I simply can't understand how any one can support it. It is only when we get serious about all killing being wrong that we will move beyond war and all kinds of violence.

I think it is a weakness of progressive Christianity that we haven't been able to answer this reasonable question with a good resource. I can't think of any. Maybe I need to write such a book!! Or someone!!

I do not believe there is much difference between the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels and the teachings of Jesus in the Pauline epistles. Both sources reflect the needs of a community of faith seeking to spread these teachings in new contexts. The genius of both Paul and the Gospel Writers is their ability to adapt and synthesize and integrate and create a new and powerful narrative for a new age. We need to do this again and again and again. The teachings of Jesus are *always* the teachings of a faith community trying to discern the will of God in ever new and changing situations. If the message of "God is Love" and "Love One Another" is not the main theme, then the Good News is not there and we need to look elsewhere. I find every book or letter in the New Testament is full of this main theme and that's good enough for me. Each book and letter also has a filter working which makes the message change for different contexts. Sometimes we simply need to disregard teachings which are culturally-conditioned and clearly do not stand the test of time.

Fascinating! The first post in this string that is. I will have to read some Crossan. Borg is good but I have missed Crossan so far.

ditto

VISIT > http://www.theriversidechurchny.org/ WSC was pastor of the very progressive, activist, courageous Riverside Church for quite a while.

Fred & Maryann Brussat who do such an incredible job of reviewing spiritually oriented movies and books etc. have moved their very comprehensive web pages from S&H > http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/it...e/item_216.html to S&P > http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ They have listed and reviewed all the great spiritual movies for many years. I consider their website the peak of the WWW! Even better than mine!

NORTH COUNTRY is really good. It deals with women being harrassed at a northern Minnesota mine and it deals with family reconciliation. 2 tissue boxes!

Mary & I travelled around Switzerland for a few days in 2004 and I took a few photos which I just uploaded at > http://www.pbase.com/abundancetrek/swizerland_2004 I uploaded a lot of photos of England back in 2003 > http://www.pbase.com/abundancetrek/england_2003 Travel blogs fro these 2 trips are at > http://www.abundancetrek.com/europe2004blog.html http://www.abundancetrek.com/uk2003.html Travel blog for upcoming trip to Spain & Norway is at > http://www.abundancetrek.com/travelblog2006.html

Hi Friends, Where have I been? Busy working on cleaning and scaraping and painting our garage floor (yuk) and busy planning a trip to Spain & Norway (yum). I have a comprehensive travel blog > http://www.abundancetrek.com/travelblog2006.html And even my local church and my Presbytery are making me work for a change!

A progressive appreciates the following quote: "There are three truths: my truth, your truth and the truth.” -- Chinese Proverb I found that at "384 Peace Quotes" (quote #79) offered by the San Antonio Peace Center > http://www.salsa.net/peace/quotes.html

My answer is: I don't know! I believe the resurrection happened bu I don't know how it happened. I think A COURSE IN MIRACLES has helped me understand miracles in a very new and mystical way. I recommend it highly. One of the main principles is that miracles happen in a different state of being than our normal ego-bound state. That makes a lot of sense to me. Was the tomb empty? I acknowledge the possibility that it was because miracles do happen. OTOH I am also a fan of the Jesus Seminar and the many scholars who make the case that the Gospel stories of Holy Week and Easter are fiction and not fact. But I am still open to the other possibility. I believe that we are always intimately and intricately connected to our creator and everything ever created. So, life is always a miracle of resurrection and abundant life beyond our ordinary knowing and understanding. Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Welcome to one of the best forums on the internet! I hope you stay. There is a lot of wisdom here and a lot of respect and kindness and compassion. Namaste!

I believe that a consistent and widespread Progressive Christian belief is that the cross is as much a metaphor of radical discipleship as it is a symbol for salvation and redemption. Jesus was killed because he defied the powers and principalities (described powerfully and profoundly as the Domination System by Walter Wink) which have so much control in this world. They still do. We still need to defy the principalities and powers until they are finally overcome. Wink says the principalities and powers maintain their strength through the myth of redemptive violence invented most likely by the Babylonians about 4000 years ago. Wink says that belief in this myth is still the main religion of the world. A brief and good summary of Wink's thoughts based on years of distinguished biblical scholarship can be found at > http://www.bridges-across.org/ba/powers/index.html

I have often thought that the lack of any knowledge of the life of Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30 is a gift to us because it allows us to project all kinds of life experiences on to him. Maybe he was like the pilgrim of Russia who lost his wife and children and then went on to learn the ways of mysticism in the Russian Orthodox tradition. He travelled through Russia saying the Jesus Prayer over and over again with the idea that he could learn how to pray unceasingly. He met many wonderful people and had many holy experiences which he recorded in THE WAY OF THE PILGRIM. Maybe Jesus had similar life tragedies and became holy as he learned how to detach from it all. Maybe. Who knows?

This forum is fantastic and wonderful and I welcome you to it, Wayfarer. You are afantastic and wonderful person! Thanks for sharing so much of your journey. Meaning and joy are always found in our responses to the events of our lives day after day after day. You are certainly one who is seeking and finding. I am inspired and moved by your story.