So Many Names For God

Posted by admin on July 31st, 2009 | No Comments »

God, Jahova, Yahwah, Jesus, Allah, The Holy Ghost, The One, My Rock, Lord, Kali, Shiva, Shakti, Zeus, El, The Universe, Elohim, Adonai, The Blood of the Lamb, El Shaddai, Love, I AM, Brahma, The Father, The Mother, The Holy Spirit, The Great One, Buddha Nature, Saraswati, Nirvana, Peace, Forgiveness, Nature, Ganga, Almighty, Garuda, Bhuvaneshwari, The Creator, Energy, Hanuman, Enlightenment, Spirit, Jehovah-Jire, The Provider, Kurma, Jehovah Tsidkenu, Righteousness, Rohi, Shepherd, Mekaddishkem, Sanctifier, Shalom, Peace, El Elyon, The Most High, Ganesha, The Highest Being, Oneness, Acceptance, Uncoditional Love, Benevolence, Dhanwantari, My Higher Self, The Peace Within Me, Balarma, The Witness, Consciousness, Vamana, Durga, Perfect, Sita, The Joy Within Me, Joy, Love, El-Shaddai, Ram, Lilly of the Valley, Annapurna, Bright Morning Star, Indra, Sword and Sheild, Kartikay, Fuck, Ecstacy, Maya, Al-Ilaah, Ar-Rab, The Singular, Al-Wahib, Al-Ahad, As-Samad, Al-Hakeem, Al-Haleem, Light of Heaven and Earth, Vishnu, Heaven and Earth, Heaven, Noorus-Samaawaati Wal-Ardh, Dhumavati, The Ever Watching, Al-Muhayim, Mantagi, All-Powerful, All Knowing, All Able, All Benevolent, The Supreme, Krishna, The One Whose Praised, Buddha, Lakshmi, Amen, Advocate, Christ, Deliverer, Bread of Heaven, Savior, Gate, Glory, Immanuel, Wisdom, Word, Belief, The Unknowable, The Unknown, Friend, Soul, Divine, Connection, Divinity, Me, You, Us, All, Earth, The Beyond, Morality, Justice, Love.

“We Have The Truth”

Posted by admin on July 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »

I saw a very scary movie a couple weeks ago called “Jesus Camp.”  The movie is about an evangelical right wing Christian “bible” camp run by pastor Becky Fischer and her ministry.

Although the movie was scary from a sociological point of view on religious fanaticism, I was more sad than scared after watching it.

A couple of things about the movie….

The film starts off with Pastor Becky Fischer talking passionately to the camera about how terrorist families  teach their children such passion for their religion that kids are wiling to take up arms against non believers.  Fischer proceeds to praise the dedication and passion of these children and talks about her desire for Christian children in America to be equally as passionate and willing to take up arms because “they” have the ” real truth.”

How do you know when somebody has lost their mind?  When they tell you their religion is the only “truth” and has the only right way of understanding or reaching God.  Seriously.  Despite my anger for how this woman was trying to scare the crap out of innocent children, I eventually felt more sorry for her than I did angry.  She comes off as a closeted lesbian who is so scared of going to her idea of “hell,” totally unaware that God loves her regardless of her sexual preferences that she has “taken up arms” for the “army of God” and dedicated her life to being an extremist bible literalist.

To be honest I felt more anger towards the parents of the children in this movie than I did Becky Fischer.  Becky Fischer is clearly a crazy person, and what makes me angry is that these parents themselves are equally as crazy for not protecting their kids from her hellfire and brimstone message. In the beginning of the film we see a family of two kids being home schooled by a mother telling her children that Creationism is the ONLY way the earth came into existence and seemingly suggesting in her undertones that anybody who thinks otherwise is some kind of heathen.  Personally I don’t really care either way if somebody believes one or the other…what made the movie so sad/scary is the sheer amount of underlying hatred these people had for non-fanatics like themselves.  Later on in the film one of these boys is interviewed and expresses his dislike of being around non-christian people, that there is something very “off” about them.  The poor kid is around 12 years old and is a walking robot of his parents influence. They then go on to pledge the allegiance of the “christian” flag of the United States of America…

What is so sad about this movie are these deeply misunderstood children.  All of these crazy parents should hip themselves to a Child Psychology book and discover that children, despite their parents morality, will naturally copy their parents behavior and try to please their parents in whatever way they can.  Some children will continue this pattern throughout life and others will rebel in some form or another in search of their own voice.  I pray that these kids find within themselves some good old fashioned teenage rebellion!

However, these kids are nowhere near a developmental point in their lives where this is possible and truly are regurgitating the messages of their parents.  They are robots driven by the energy of an incredible amount of fear and are mistakenly believed to be authentically expressing their true selves. Their tears are the tears of scared children, and if they had been conditioned to cry and praise a Koallah bear to avoid the punishment of “hell” their whole upbringing…they would be doing just that as well.

This is the fundamental error of all religious fanatisicm:  foundations built upon mountains of fear, hatred and ruthless dogmatism all masked under the veil of love and knowing “the way.”   This fear is caused by a fear of dying and trying to be in control of life/the after life, as well as fear of expressing and honoring the full spectrum of what makes us human: sex, anger, deep passionate love, self-expression, rebellion, individuality, both darkness and light…all and everything in between.  These childrens brains are being pummeled with hellfire, hatred and brimstone and led to believe that their way of life is the ONLY acceptable way.  It’s very sad and not what God is about.  The closer you get to God…whatever God is…the more that fear disappears.  We will go in and out of conection with source, wtih God, with our “higher self,” with the “one,” with “christ consciousness” whatever it’s called…and the more deeply we connect the more love replaces fear.  Love for all humanity and love for the entirety of our own humanity as well.