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You Can’t Out-Give God

After nearly five years of trying and two miscarriages, I was pregnant. Our entire family was elated! But we already had two teen boys and money was tight. I prayed fervently that God would supply our needs.

Soon after I began praying, my parents came to visit. Mom held out an envelope and said, “Grandma sent this for you.”

My grandmother? The one who survived the depression and rarely gave me anything more than $1.00 bill in my birthday card? I opened the envelope and inside was a check for $500.00. My mother explained that “Oma” had helped one of my sisters with a down payment for her house and felt that she needed to be equitable in distributing funds to the rest of us. My mind raced, picturing the crib, clothes, and many baby supplies I could purchase!

I cashed the check and made one small purchase before my husband brought me to a halt. We were having an ultrasound soon that would hopefully reveal the baby’s gender. He wisely pointed out that unless we wanted to spend the next weeks returning items, we should hold off.

Much to our despair, at the ultrasound, our baby refused to cooperate. We left, thankful to know that our little he or she was healthy but no wiser about what color clothes to purchase.

The next morning, I awoke frustrated with God for the ultrasound disappointment. My prayers consisted of complaining to God that we weren’t able to go out and purchase the items we wanted for the baby. Then God answered me. He said, “That’s not your money. I gave it to you for Scott and Kathy.” Our good friends were leaving soon on a mission trip. God was telling me to give up our needs for our friends.

But I resisted. We needed that money for the baby! Wasn’t that just as important? I told myself I got it wrong or that maybe it was the devil’s voice I’d heard. I called my Pastor to ask his advice. Neither he nor his wife was available. I then frantically called my husband. I just knew he would say “no” to giving that money away. I was shocked when he told me that if God had prompted me to give it, I should give it.

I hung up the phone and flipped on the television. Joyce Meyer was speaking, and at that exact moment she delivered a word to me. “Why is it that when God tells us to do something we call all our friends and take a poll of what they think? Why don’t we just listen and obey God?” I didn’t even wait to hear the rest of the message. I was on the phone again, this time calling the church to find out how much was still owed on our friends’ trip. I was still reasoning to myself that the amount we had to give would probably not be enough anyway and wouldn’t make any difference. The receptionist didn’t have a total, but said she could get it for me. I told her I would be dropping by in a bit with a contribution.

When I arrived at the church, the receptionist gave me the total. My jaw dropped. The amount owed for both of our friends’ trip was the exact amount of cash I was holding in my envelope. I gave her the cash and took my receipt, hoping God knew what He was doing.

He did.

Because there was a 13 year gap between our youngest child and the expected baby, our church family blessed us with a baby shower, where we received all of the financial blessing back and then some. Every single small and large need was met for our dear son. On top of that, my husband’s office gave us a shower where we were again blessed beyond what the original amount was. Not long after that, my husband received a job offer that changed our life. Our income has expanded to support our three boys as well as the addition of yet a fourth child. I am also able to stay home with them.

I often wonder if God would have blessed us in the same way if we hadn’t obeyed and given that money away. I’m just thankful we did. He asked us to give out of our need. And when we obeyed, He proved His faithfulness by opening up the windows of heaven and pouring us out a blessing.

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Our Evolution And The Deeksha Oneness Blessing

There is a new phenomenon moving throughout the world on nearly every continent known as Oneness Deeksha or Oneness Blessing. It is a transfer of energy that pierces through the veils and illusions of the mind, bringing about deep stillness and peace. This Blessing is given by people who have undergone a 21-day process in India at the Oneness University (http://www.onenessuniversity.org) and have been initiated as Oneness Blessing Givers.

Oneness Blessings by themselves have varied forms; the transfer by touch, transfer through an intent, etc. Based on the evolution of the individual (giver and the receiver) the mode of Oneness Blessing undergoes a change.

Oneness Blessing thus given affects a neuro-biological change. There are 16 centers in the brain responsible for definitive experiences like sensory perception, emotions of jealousy, hatred, fear, compassion, love, joy, separation, connectedness, creativity, learning, etc. Oneness Blessing results in the activation of certain centers and the de-activation of certain centers bringing about a shift in the perception and experience of life. The process finally lands the seeker in a permanent, incredible state of consciousness. This is a transfer of Divine Grace, a blessing, that assists “awakening.”

The mind is constantly judging, commenting, and evaluating every experience, either moving into the past or the future or makes us look at the present through those frameworks. The Oneness Blessing de-clutches the mind and makes one experience reality without its interference.

Human beings are at a crucial time in our evolution and are being guided to move into a new awareness that shifts our lives and our perceptions. We are bing moved into a global consciousness of peace, and as the Oneness Blessing brings about the flowering of the heart, we are waking up from living the fear that has deadened our hearts to our true happiness and joy.

*See also http://www.onenessmovement.org for more information about the Oneness Blessing.

Chava LeBarton, Fine Artist, Certified ThetaHealer, initiated as a Oneness Deeksha Giver in India, volunteer at Terminal Island Prison meditation program. She currently teaches people how to generate cash from home http://www.HighwayToAbundance.com and http://art-lesson.blogspot.co

Physical Reality and Our Knowledge

We have decided that knowledge of the physical world is just the tested propositions achieved by the intelligent use of the data of observation. These propositions are referred to the physical world as their object of judgment. We come to the decision that physical things have size, exclude one another, are massive, have structure and organization, have capacities for action, and behave in certain describable ways.

In the most natural fashion, we make claims to a valid knowledge of this sort, and, so far as we can see, skepticism has no logical basis against it. The foundation of modern ideal

My Experience of Jainism, A Truly Fascinating and Inspiring Religion Worth Understanding!

It all started with me being assigned the task of interviewing some web designers for employment in our organization. One of the bio data was of Pradeep Shah. What I found fascinating was – he required his employers to be flexible to some of his religious chores! Some of these were:

1. He required an 8 day holiday during Paryushana – a very important festival of Jains. Since he regularly fasts during the festival and also performs Puja, Pratikraman, etc, there is little time left to do any work. So he shouldn’t be given projects that would overlap with his festival time that comes only once a year.

2. Being a pure Jain, he does not eat potatoes, carrot, onions, and other root vegetables; so he would not be sharing his lunch with others during the lunch break. This information should be made known to his colleagues so they don’t consider him a prude.

3. He would never do overtime in the office as he has to reach home and have his dinner before sunset. However, if there is some urgent work, he wouldn’t mind taking it home as he has a computer at his residence.

4. He shouldn’t be required to participate in parties as food choice is very limited – he does not eat cake, wafers, etc, neither does he drink. If his attendance is required, jain food should be arranged.

This was the first time I had read such requirements in a biodata! Pradeep’s design skills were excellent and it would be great to have him with us, so I discussed this with my seniors. While there was no problem in adjusting to most of his religious needs, the 8 day holiday was a little problematic. Projects always came up suddenly and they were quite unpredictable as far as target dates were concerned. We then decided to take him in and when a situation arises, we would see what could be done. Already we were over burdened with projects and were having a tough time finding the right people.

During my interaction with Pradeep, I learnt a lot about Jainism, its beliefs, its ethics and practices, etc. He explained how humans were genetically vegetarians because we have a long small intestine and a long large intestine like other naturally vegetarian animals. Whereas carnivorous animals have a much shorter small and large intestine as they do not require a long time to absorb the nutrients from meat. When humans eat meat, it stays for a longer time in the intestine which can putrefy and create toxins that can cause colon cancer and increase the burden in the liver.

According to Jainism, a person is richer, luckier, better looking, suffers less pain, and enjoys the best things in life because of his good karma. If his karma is bad, after death, he will suffer in hell for an amount of time equivalent to the bad karma he has done. If it is good karma, he will be reborn again as a human.

Jainism also preaches ahimsa, which means that you should stick to non violence and you should not harm and living thing, nor should you make someone else harm another living thing. In fact, even imagining harm to another living thing induces sin and results in bad karma. I also learnt that your earn more bad karma when you harm living beings with “more senses”. There are living things which have only one sense of touch (like trees, plants, seeds, etc); two senses of touch and taste (like worms and microbes); three senses of touch, taste and smell (like ants, lice, etc); four senses of touch, taste, smell and sight (like spiders, crickets, etc) and finally, five senses of touch, smell, taste, sight and hear (like humans and animals). This means that you will sin more by killing a 5 sensed living being than a 4 or lesser sensed living being.

I hope you found my article informative. I will write more on this subject as I learn from him; Jainism is very fascinating! You can check updates by visiting http://www.bharatbhasha.com/author.php/Nirjara%20Rustom which has most of my articles. I mostly write on subjects like IT, health, success, etc.

Nirjara Rustom moderates the religion section of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/religion.php

The Case Against Spirituality

You can’t turn on a television, read a magazine, or listen to a celebrity interview these days, without hearing it…”I like to consider myself a spiritual person.” Oprah has given the term to a generation of women, and California might as well adopt it as their state religion.

I get what people are trying to say: I don’t like organized religion, or necessarily agree with the concepts put forth by the major world religions. I consider myself a good person, and have a belief in a higher power. I try to take the best concepts from the religions of the world, and live them out in my daily life.

That’s all fine, I guess. Except for the fact that all of the world’s main religions speak of an afterlife. Whether we are speaking about Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, or Islam, you have to confront what happens after a dirt nap. (You could rank Atheism as a religion as well, as belief in nothing, and no afterlife still counts as a belief system.)

The big 3(Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) give you one shot at the afterlife. You get heaven or hell, one up or down vote. All of them claim to have a lock on who goes to heaven. Most people understand this, and most are willing to take a hard look at this life, and make a choice regarding which pool they’re jumping in.

The spiritual person has decided they are not jumping in. They’re going to take a select portion of water from each pool, and pour it into a pool of their own making. Usually, the spiritual person has adapted some form of reincarnation as their afterlife, so there is no hell to be avoided. There are only higher and lower levels of consciousness. If they do have a concept of heaven, the view is generally that everyone goes there. This idea is drawn from the “All rivers flow into the ocean.” argument.

Spirituality offers freedom from religous conflict, a peaceful coexistence with all religions, and a modernized view of morality. What’s not to like? It sounds nice. To that I would say “Plenty.”

Let’s start off with sin, error, misdeeds, stuff you definitely know you screwed up big time. The Qu’ran, Jewish Law, and Christian bible have much to say concerning all things. At the very least, the put forth the idea of flawed humanity. Spirituality believes the best in people. We are all ascending together. Sure, we have our flaws, but humanity is basically good.

The problem is that history has proven humanity is not basically good. It has even proven that people involved in major religions are not very good, in fact, sometimes they do really evil things. The Old Testament(or Law and Prophets, should you prescribe to Judaism’s paradigm) speaks of horrible attrocities committed by people God chose to lead. King David, venerated in Christianity and Judaism, committed adultery, killed the woman’s husband, and allowed troops to die as a result of his selfishness. Pretty awful.

God also forgives David, when he asks for it, but judges his family based on his sin. Sin and redemption are huge themes on the Judeo-Christian ethics. The only major disagreement they have is whether the Messiah is coming or has already been.

Those who subscribe to spirituality need no savior. There’s nothing to be saved from. The only person who you need to ask forgiveness of is yourself. You are your own redeemer. This is the problem. Everyone has a conscience, and instinctively knows what is right and wrong. Everyone always has the impulse to do the wrong thing. Sometimes those impulses are overcome, sometimes they are not. We all know they are there.

For the people who turn to spirituality, the quest for truth must be paradoxically paired with the denial thereof. Some people take up Spirituality as a way to avoid the stigma of more fundamentalist adherents of their religion of choice. Some just do it because it is popular. The main thing is that they avoid persecution for what little faith they have.

Back to the original issue: What do you do if you are wrong? What if you choose the reject the reward of heaven, or the punishment of hell as prescribed by the big 3. Even if you dismiss their concepts as an archetypal projection of some vast human consciousness, you have to admit that there is some solid concept from which they drew their “mythologies”.

You have to come to the conclusion that some deity you may, or may not know will judge you for your actions on the earth. Whether that justice is based on your allegiance to that Deity in this life, a la Islam, or the punishment has been taken for you by the Deity, vis-a-vis Christianity, the judgement is coming. If these religions are incorrect about sin and punishment, and all paths do lead to God, then their practioners lose nothing in the afterlife.

Those who believe in Spirituality are the ones who stand to lose eternally, after not standing for any belief system in this life.

Kurt Hartman is Head of Employee Training at Mobile Fleet Service, Inc. They sell earthmover and mining tires to the construction industries.

Overcoming Blocks and Hindrances to Hearing God’s Voice - Part 1: “Drawing Near to God”

For most of us in a 20th-century rational culture, the greatest miracle of all is to learn to hear God’s voice, clearly, plainly, and on an ongoing daily basis. Christians often debate whether this is even possible. However, those who have tasted communion with God know that not only is it possible, it satisfies the deepest longing of both the human heart and God’s heart. For this reason we were created, to fellowship and commune with our Creator. Therefore, it is with arms wide open and faces aglow with the joy of His Son’s light that we embrace the warmth of His companionship. Truly, the Morning Star has risen within our hearts and the prophetic word becomes clear to us (II Pet. 1:19).

However, some days we still experience strong, stormy gales that hinder our access to fellowship with the Father. In this article we want to talk about some of these storms, and discuss ways they can be tamed by the power of His Spirit and a knowledge of His ways. The original article posted on cluonline.org was too long for distribution. So, this version of the article was created for distribution. To read the more information about overcoming hindrances to hearing God’s voice, please go to:

http://www.cluonline.com/blockstoheargodsvoice.htm

Enter into His courts with Thanksgiving, clothing ourselves with Christ’s righteousness:

First of all, there is a basic approach laid out in the Bible for those who would draw near to God. It is found in the tabernacle experience. The one who wants to experience God in the Holy of Holies (one’s spirit) must learn to live this tabernacle experience, which begins with the gate of salvation. We enter this gate with thanksgiving, clothing ourselves with the white raiment of righteousness which Christ has provided for us (Ps. 100:4; Is. 61:10).

Offer our lives as a living sacrifice:

We then come immediately upon a brazen altar, where we offer our lives as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God (Rom. 12:1). We do this not only at the point of salvation, but also as a daily experience, as we awaken each morning.

Look intently upon the Word and cleanse our lives in Bible meditation:

Next, we come before the laver, where we are washed with the washing of the water of the Word (Eph. 5:26). As we look intently upon the Word, we allow it to cleanse our lives, purifying our actions. Therefore, the pattern of regular Bible meditation becomes a part of our daily approach to God.

Fellowship with Others:

Then we enter the holy place, the realm of our souls, and God deals with our minds, wills and emotions. First we go to the table of showbread, a place where the priests ate together around a table. This represents the fellowship we enjoy in the family of God as we partake together of God’s provision.

Examine the Word under the illumination of the Holy Spirit:

Next, we stop at the golden lampstand, made of beaten gold representing the cultivating of divine nature, and lit by oil, representing the illumination of the Holy Spirit. As we examine the Word under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we find revelation knowledge pouring into our souls, transforming our lives and taking us even deeper into the presence of God (II Cor. 3:18).

Offer Continuous Praise:

We then move to the altar of incense, where we learn to offer continuous praise and worship unto the Most High God, the Maker of heaven and earth. As a fragrant aroma ascended perpetually from this altar, so our praise and worship ascends perpetually before the nostrils of the Lord (Ps. 141:2).

Direct Fellowship

Now we are ready to ascend directly into His manifest presence, fixing our gaze upon His glory and speaking face-to-face and mouth-to-mouth with the Most High God. (Heb. 10:19,20).

It is in this manner that God has prepared a way for us to enter before Him and fellowship with His Holy Spirit. The way is clearly established in the Old Covenant and torn open for all to partake in the New Covenant. Now, when storms and gales hinder our access before the King of Kings, we can go back and re-walk the path which He has prepared for us.

If we have difficulty hearing God’s voice, we can ask:

1. Am I singing in thankfulness for the robe of righteousness which He has allowed me to put on? Do I see myself wearing it? Do I see myself cleansed and spotless before the King?

2. Have I laid down my will in all matters this day, and sought only the will and purposes of the Father in all areas?

3. Am I being washed daily by the constant application of the Word of God in my life?

4. Is my heart full of love for those in the body of Christ, with whom I live? Have I closed off my heart to any Christian brother? Have I allowed my will to be ground fine before my brothers?

5. Am I prayerfully pondering the Word and waiting before the Holy Spirit, allowing revelation knowledge to illumine my life?

6. Am I a constant worshiper? Has all grumbling been replaced with worshipping in my life? Do I dwell only on that which is pure, good, honest?

7. Do I stand, fixing my gaze on the manifest glory of Almighty God, receiving His spontaneous ideas, visions, and feelings?

In part two of this article, I will talk about how to we can continue to break down the barriers that hinder us from hearing God by fine tuning our hearts to God’s voice.

Watch for Part Two of this article:

“Overcoming Blocks and Hindrances to Hearing God’s Voice - Part 2: Fine Tuning Our Hearts”

Joshua Virkler is with Christian Leadership University. CLU is an Online Bible College offering Christian Education which includes listening to God

Buddhist Meditation in a Modern World

Buddhist meditation requires a strong discipline, commitment, and a will to block out all the distractions of everyday life. When the person is totally and utterly at peace form their surroundings nirvana can be achieved. Buddhists have practiced meditation for centuries to reach a higher being and learn the true meaning of life by sacrificing from oneself from material objects. Buddhists believe desire causes pain and suffering, so no desire and the will not to pursue material goods, enlightenment can be achieved. With meditation, this can be used as a “distraction” from the material and to stay purified.

There are two central kinds of Buddhist meditation which are Tranquility or Samantha meditation and Insight or Vispassana meditation.

Tranquility or Samantha meditation

The goal of tranquility or Samantha is to focus the mind and train it to concentrate. There are four stages to Samantha meditation which include detachment from the outside world, concentration, joy, and equanimity. Samantha can also be broken into forty different types of kammatthanas which a person should choose of his own inclination. Virtues like kindness, devices like light or colors, grotesque things like a dead body, and recollections like sayings of Buddha are just a few of the forty.

Insight or Vispassana meditation

Insight or Vispassana meditation goal is to focus on the Buddhists truths, to reflect inside. Unlike tranquility meditation which focuses on concentration, insight meditation focuses on mindfulness. Mindfulness is trying to understand the object and learn its meaning not just to focus on it. If one focuses on a pencil, focus on what the purpose and meaning is of the pencil, what is it made of, and why does it exist. There are also different stages of insight meditation which are walking and sitting meditation.

Walking meditation takes a very strong discipline to achieve. The practitioner must focus and relax in a quite place blocking out the surroundings and focusing on the movements of the walking. If one can achieve this and focus on nothing but the walking a blissfulness can occur.

Sitting meditation is more commonly practiced. Breathing is the central focus of the sitting meditation. Everything else should be out of ones mind and the focus is directly on the breathing, from in and out and again and again.

The goal here is to be applied to everyday life. Live in the moment and not think about the past or future when doing a specific task. When cooking focus on the cooking, when eating focus on the eating and enjoy the food, when sleeping focus on the sleeping and enjoy the sleep. Buddhist mediation is meant to enrich and enhance lives and to have a better understanding of the world we live in. Anyone can practice meditation, not just a Buddhist. Buddhist meditation is a form to find inner peace with oneself. While the average man may not find total nirvana and spiritual peace, meditation still provide a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in every day life.

Jane Michael is the head writer at the Center for Meditation. Meditation is her practice and her passion. Buddhist meditation is a great way to start your meditation practice.

How to Pray to Jesus

If you are new to the Christian faith, you may be unsure about just how to pray to Jesus. The first thing you need to understand is the God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one person in the trinity. This means that if you pray to Jesus, you are also praying to your Heavenly Father who created you and the rest of the heavens and the earth. It is also important to understand that while Jesus was here on earth, he gave us a model for how to pray. While you don’t always have to adhere to this specific formula, it can help give you the words you are looking for, especially when you are new to the process of talking to God.

The Lord’s Prayer

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray to God in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus taught them the Lord’s Prayer. While this prayer is regularly recited in many Christian churches today, you can also take the prayer and use it as a formula while you insert your own words. The first part of the prayer is to call on God, “Our Father who art in heaven.” The second part makes note of his holiness, “Hallowed be thy name.”

When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are acknowledging that one day, God’s kingdom will come to earth and Jesus will reign over all. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” reminds us to ask God for His divine will to be done rather than our own. While we may think we know what we want or need in life, God has the ability to know what is really best for us. We need to trust Him and His divine purpose for our lives.

“Give us this day, our daily bread,” reminds us that we need to rely on God for all of our physical as well as our spiritual needs. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” highlights the fact that God has forgiven us for our sins and we need to forgive others in the same manner. When you have trouble forgiving someone for something they have done to you, remember what Jesus had to endure to forgive both of you. Then ask God for help in forgiving.

“Lead us not into temptation,” means to ask God for strength and guidance to live the way He wants us to. The easiest way to stay out of trouble is to stay focused on God. “Deliver us from the evil one,” follows the temptation, because it is Satan who tries to tempt us away from our relationship with our Heavenly Father. God is the one who can always protect us from Satan’s evil plan.

“For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen!” What a wonderful way to end a prayer – by acknowledging God’s greatness once again and offering the praise that He desires and deserves! Praying to Jesus in no longer a mystery now that you know what he taught himself in the Bible about entering the throne room in prayer.

Nathan Martyn is webmaster of Christian Memorials, a place to create virtual memorials in memory of loved ones, grief support forums, articles and condolence guest books.

Online Resources For Christians

The age of technology has brought many wonderful resources right into our homes. Today you can shop, hunt for a job or chat with friends without ever having to leave the house. Christians can also find plenty of resources available to help them grow in their faith. Whether you are looking for the latest news in the Christian community, needing some help with your current bible study or simply want to meet some new friends who share your faith, you can find it all on websites that are devoted to Christians looking to make the most of their spiritual journey.

Get the News

Whether you want to keep up with what’s going on in the Christian community or simply want your world news from a Christian source, you can find what you are looking for online. There are plenty of good websites that will keep you up to date on happenings within the church, including missionary reports, local news about specific churches in your area and updates on all your favorite Christian celebrities. Others want to get their world news from Christian sources, instead of relying on the mainstream, often liberal, press for their information. There are many Christian news agencies online that can deliver up to the minute news from a Christian perspective.

Learn your Bible

Having a little trouble figuring out where Isaiah was coming from or how to decipher Revelations? There are plenty of great online sources for Christians that need a little help with their bible study homework. Some will give you scriptural references so that you can look up verses with just a phrase or a few keywords. Others will provide a full commentary of text so that you can figure out all of that confusing symbolism in the last book of the bible. Some of these sites are designed by people or groups that many have come to respect in the Christian community. While websites should never be a substitute for daily scripture reading, they can sure come in handy when you need to figure out what a specific piece of scripture is referring to.

Meet some Friends

Christians need other Christians to help build them up in their faith and stand by them when the going gets rough. The bible warns against being “unequally yoked” to those who do not share your belief system. But it can be hard to get out in the Christian community and meet people. Some churches are not conducive to relationship building and many who have come to faith as adults don’t have many Christian friends in their current social circle to lean on. The solution may be one of the many Christian friendship and dating social networks that are available. These sites will allow you to connect with other believers across the globe to share interests and your love of God.

Christians need online resources just like anyone else, and the good news is that now they can find them. Websites that provide everything from scripture commentary to meeting members of the opposite sex are now available to the virtual Christian community.

Nathan Martyn is webmaster of Christian MySpace Layouts, a site dedicated to Christian Myspace Graphics, layouts, banners and religous myspace icons.

Book Review: Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist – Understanding and Responding to Christian Absolutism by James C. Alexander

I have to admit that I was a little leery about this book, as a result it sat on the bottom of my pile. Problem was, eventually the pile dwindled, and only Stories Of A Recovering Fundamentalist remained. I was worried, having just moved into the very apex of the Bible Belt, I am sure that mere possession of a book with a title like this contravenes some arcane local by-law. It was with grim determination that I gritted my teeth, and launched into it!

Author James Alexander is a fascinating guy, an ordained minister, a PhD, and a thoroughly entertaining and educated writer. At under 200 pages this is not the weighty tome designed to replace sleeping pills, but a lively discussion that covers a huge spectrum concerning religion today, its roots, and maybe most interestingly the cause and effect on society, politics, education, and just about every other facet of life.

The problem with Fundamentalism James Alexander explains is the intransigence with which it is applied. To blindly obey and not to question makes no sense. Critical thinking is a hugely important part of human existence, yet Fundamentalism leaves no space for such ideas. What is written in the bible, or the Koran, is to be taken at face value, more importantly it is not to be questioned. When an interpretation is required it will be supplied by the ‘Adults’ of the church, the mere believer, only needs only to believe, not to think. Maybe this is the major reason that my trips to church only revolve around Births, Marriages, and (as I get older), an increasing number of deaths.

I suspect that James Alexander and I have quite a lot in common. I do not seek the truth, I seek the wisdom to make my own decision as to what that truth might be. I will not be bullied in this process.

James readily admits that when the going gets tough, even he has the urge to retreat into the safe cocoon that fundamental teachings offer. It is so much easier to take the well trodden path, than hack your way through the jungle. But it is that hacking process that offers the learning process, don’t be confused with this sentiment, this is not re-inventing the wheel. This is discovering the wheel that suits you best.

This is not your regular dry and insipid look at religion, this is new and fun. Early on in the book James talks a little about his life as a child. It was not the happiest of situations, but he found solace in the local children’s Bible club. It was the leader of this group that started to take James to church. As he describes it, the Bible Club Lady started taking him to church, but he could not understand why it was always the same church. Each time they traveled they passed by several other churches. In what has to one of the funniest dialogs I have read in a while, James asks her “What about THAT Church?” The answer apparently was always the same.

No. Not that one. They baptize babies.

No. That one doesn’t use the King James Bible.

That one? Not a chance! They speak in tongues.

That place!!! You must be kidding! Why, Jimmy, that’s a Catholic Church! They pray to statues, and the pope is the Antichrist. Don’t ever go in one of those churches!

You just have to love such dialog!

One of the concepts that the author establishes early on,is Logos and Mythos. Hardly new concepts, but ones that are often misunderstood, or not understood at all. In layman’s terms, logic and mythology. Both have a valid place in religion, and both have the same standing when it comes to belief. Both offer opportunities to be right, it is a question of how you use this information.

Alexander introduces a term that I had not heard before ‘The Flat Bible’. In a nutshell treating the Bible as flat, means giving the same level of importance to every section. This lends to many seeming contradictions in teaching. However if you treat the Bible as having hills and valleys a much more balanced text is revealed. In support of this notion the author includes an essay that he wrote some years ago, if you read nothing more than this essay out of the book you will gain much understanding.

Christian fundamentalism has been around as long as Christianity itself, however the modern version has its roots in the 1920’s and specifically the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, which pitted creationists against evolutionists. The light bulb flickered on again briefly in the 70’s, and now in the first decade of this century it is burning brightly. The movement has found a willing and able ally in segments of the government. As James Alexander points out, G. W. Bush’s approval ratings are at an all time low, and who are those that are sticking so doggedly to him? The Christian Right, during his time in office he has done much to further their agenda.

There are so many facets to Stories Of A Recovering Fundamentalist that I could indeed write a book about the book! Oops, looking at the length of this review, I just have!

Great book, and well worth the price of admission. You can get your copy from Amazon.

(Originally published by Blogger News Network and reprinted with permission from the author, Simon Barrett).

Simon Barrett is an adult educator in Calgary, Alberta. With the 11 months a year of winter, he reads a lot of books! He is also a contributing editor for Blogger News and maintains a personal blog at Simon B.

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