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Dennis was a 26 year pastor. Having experienced this reckless shift in how a Church chose to change itself, Dennis began to bring to the surface all the theological questions and biblical difficulties that had accumulated over the years of Pastoring. The results are found in his articles and ongoing questions about the part religion plays in our lives and the pious ignorance most sincere Christians and Pastors put up with in their own ... [More]

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Pious Conviction With Marginal Information is NOT Your Friend
[News-and-Society:Religion] Pastors and Preachers who use the radio to reach the masses are a special breed of human being. Piously convicted and yet very often, marginally informed, they use the airwaves to invade the mind and draw others unto mostly themselves. Radio preaching, or shall we just say, preaching is one of the only places where a normal human being can loose his mind, act out and both speak and reason in ways that would get him or her kicked out of every other work environment in the world.

Weather is Not God's Judgment - It's Weather
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Does God use weather to punish and get the attention of people's and nations? Many religions us disastrous weather as a theological club to warn people of the dangers of their "sins." Or is weather just weather?

Why Fundamentalists Make Me Want to Stay Home From Church and Save an Additional Ten Percent
[News-and-Society:Religion] As usual my experiences with Christian Fundamentalists come out of nowhere and leave me underwhelmed with Christian Fundamentalist thought processes. I knew this fellow from having taught him CPR in his work setting. He knew I used to be a Pastor, and when he came across me today working at the front desk of the local hospital, he boldly asked me if I had found a church yet and understood that Jesus was my personal savior and how important it was that I understand this.

Those Prosperous Pastors - When to Say No
[News-and-Society:Religion] Those Prospering Pastors There is little on the planet more disgusting and infuriating than the in your face prosperity of Televangelists, Christian College Executives, Healing Hedonists and Mega-Church Ministers. I see it locally here when a pastor type comes into visit the sick with a gold ring on each finger, gold watch, gold necklace and dressed to kill. Of course, they always carry a dog eared Bible to send the correct message when the lay it up on the counter for all to see.

The Lesson of Outgrowing Your Faith
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] You can't unring a bell. You can't unsee what you do see. How do you keep them home on the farm, once they have seen Paree? There's no turning back. Did I say you can't unring a bell?

Don't Ever Ask That Question Again - Israel Lives By Its Wits in This World
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] I was standing in a 15x15 archaeological dig square at Megiddo in Northern Israel when they flew over. Six beautifully painted and extremely intimidating gunships heading North. All the missiles were color coded in the brightest of colors for effect. They looked in real life better than the ones I might paint as a kid putting a model together. After a few passes over the dig site and friendly waves, they were off. But to where? So I asked...Big mistake. "I suggest you learn to curb your questions while you are here in Israel," I was told by and Israeli digger. "If I knew, I wouldn't tell you. We Israelis live by our wits in this world." Obviously, they were heading to Lebanon.

Do You Really Want To Live Under Religious Fundamentalist Control? Errrr, Um...No!
[News-and-Society:Religion] I'm not so sure I'd enjoy being ruled by the fundamentalist Christians I know. They just know that they, the true true saints, will rule the world under Jesus Christ. This makes me nervous and I'm not so sure it will be source of my never ending joy realized when Jesus returns to rule us all with a "rod of iron." Somehow the use of seminars, luncheons and field trips never seems to dawn on Jesus or God as a way to better teach us poor ignorant slobs.

A Bigger Secret Than The Secret
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Perhaps a better secret is that we are all here to learn as individuals what we, as an individual, need to learn. Can we better ourselves? Sure. Can we work hard for more stuff? Sure, if you think stuff is the key to happiness. Can we attract the perfect partner? Sure, or not depending on what one is looking for what one thinks is "perfect". I know many beautiful people who can't stand each other.

Lessons From the Beach
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] A crowded beach is a sight to behold. Bodies everywhere...prone and upright. Kids running between the blankets which protect oil slathered bodies from the grit and grind of the sand beneath them. There are is laughter and the indistinguishable sounds of conversations and yelling above the constant blowing of offshore winds. One thing is for sure...the place is alive with life and the energy of lives being lived. However, it's an early walk on the beach the next morning that informs us at a deeper level very well.

Pain Is Weakness Leaving The Body
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Pain comes in many forms. There is the pain of a headache and there are many kinds of headaches that produce various degrees and quality of pain. There is organ pain when something is wrong inside and muscle pain when they are pushed beyond the norm either by exercise or emergency. Pain can be mild and a mere annoyance, or brutal and debilitating. Let's take a look a better way to view pain.

Twenty One Ways Not to Lead the American People
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] It doesn't take a genius, life long politician, political scientist or theologian to come up with the rules that keep every other nation on the planet from hating you, wishing you'd go away and deserve everything that comes your way as a result of your behaviors. To spare future leaders of the American people, and Americans as well, further pain, fear and suffering, may I suggest the following Twenty One ways not to lead one of the potentially most generous, kind hearted and progressive governments on the planet.

Is It OK to Question the Bible? You Can't Unsee What You Do See
[News-and-Society:Religion] If you are a genuine seeker and you truly notice that the Bible has some real problems with what we truly know today about many topics, and even within itself, in the form of many contradictions and editing done by one to correct the problems of the other, it's ok to ask. A real seeker cannot not notice what they notice. You can't go back to the lame apologetics that many offer to explain away the problem as if there is no problem. It's just fine to ask and seek a truthful answer from those that profess to have all the answers. You can't unsee what you do see. You can't unring a bell.

Meeting The Monkey On Your Own Back
[Health-and-Fitness:Mental-Health] I have a friend. His name is Ubastard. I named him that because that's what he calls me when I let him. He lives in my head and is the monkey on my own back. I suspect I have befriended him by now and give him a comfy place to live in there, but I wish he would go away.

Born Right the First Time?
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The purpose of most religion is to make us "better" than we currently are. The Biblical premise is that all human beings are fatally flawed, not good enough and in need of vast improvements and control of their "human nature." Without this ongoing overcoming of the evil self, growing towards a better kind of person and change, one runs the risk of being so not good enough that they will spend eternity, for their inability to change over a rather short lifetime, in a punishing hell. This is not a spirituality that one need struggle with or be the monkey on one's own back over.

Make Peace or Move Over
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Sooner or later human beings on this beautiful blue and green planet are going to have to decide that peace is a function of one human mind at a time. Whether God is your Father, Allah, Jesus or Buddah, human minds, one after the other and in agreement have to change for the good and cooperate with a deeper knowing that if religion won't reveal it to you, quantum physics can. We are one in the same and we all belong to that same one thing.

Iceball Me Once...Shame on Me
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] When I was a kid, I always hated going by his house or even being on his street. He was older and bigger than me and for some reason, he enjoyed giving me a hard time in my young life. I had to go by his house to and from school and was always looking to see if he was leaving for school as I went by or was on the street somewhere on the way home. I didn't even know his name nor why seemed to be a favorite target of his. All I knew was that he was the bully. He had a need to push me around and due to his advanced age (he was probably a year older than me, but hey, I was a kid.) and my relative willingness to let him. Until one day...

Old Jesus - New Jesus: Changing of the Gods
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] In Church I learned to sing, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." I also learned to sing that "Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong." I also learned, over the years, that we were only talking about the Jesus of the New Testament, minus the Book of Revelation and a few other rather threatening comments by Apostles in the name of Jesus, towards humans contained in various books of the New Testament. Since most Christian churches teach that Jesus is God and "the God of the Old Testament," we do have wonder what brought about Jesus' own repentance over the hideous things that He, as God in the Old Testament, is recorded to have done.

The Two Witnesses of Revelation - They're Everywhere, They're Everywhere
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] In my 26-year experience as a Pastor, I had managed to meet 23 of the Two Witnesses of Revelation. I am tempted to say 11 pairs and one who thought he was both, but that’s not how it really was. Every one of these was a lone male, sometimes a pastor, sometimes a member, often times a lone religious renegade that no church would claim.

The Train Whistle... Source of Comfort - Source of Pain
[Health-and-Fitness:Mental-Health] I was visiting her a few months ago and when driving together in town started to come down a road with a railroad track crossing it up ahead. She was driving and I noticed the car speed up and we passed over it and were into town rather quickly. We all knew why. Trains and whistles in the day or night don't mean the same things to the mind of my sister as they do to me.

Never Wrong - No One Is Ever Wrong
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] I have met a lot of people who are never wrong. They never take back that which they spoke which proved to be either stupid, inane or simply wrong. They waffle, redefine and deny, but they are never wrong. These people are incapable of saying "oops," much less, "I'm sorry," You find them everywhere. They might be a pastor, a politician, a CEO or a President. They might be your mother- in-law, father-in-law, dad, mom, brother or sister. Of course, it could be you, but you won't notice that. One common thing they share is that they are NEVER wrong. Of course they are wrong, misinformed or just plain stupid in the way they view and filter their world, but they are never wrong in fact.

We Join and Believe What Serves Our Need.. Which is Why One Can Be Manipulated
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Humans tend to select the religious beliefs that suit their needs, not their beliefs. Beliefs are maintained to keep feeling that whatever need they have for that belief is fulfilled. Beliefs and practice are more often a function of personality than many would like to admit. We might think of God as being able to call, work with and maintain a group of "Chosen Personalities" easier than spiritually "Chosen People."

Blogger Victory ...Sorta. Church Edits Offensive Anti-Blogging Article
[News-and-Society:Religion] David C. Pack, self proclaimed Apostle of the Restored Church of God in Wadsworth, Ohio has been forced to edit an article in his Ambassador Youth Magazine about whether teens should or should not blog or have personal websites. The article went GLOBAL after bloggers got wind of it on WhatReallyHappened in an article entitled "An Open Letter to the Teens in the Restored Church of God."

"You Shall Not Kill" Has No Meaning In the Real World of Religion
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] One of the shortest and most simple of the Ten Commandments is "You shall not kill." Pretty simple. "You shall not kill." Any questions? Well of course there are questions. Even Dirty Harry said "some people need killin'." Killing is what the religions of "the Book" do best when push comes to shove. Both say "You shall not kill," and yet both kill, often and with great enthusiasm at times. Actually all religions that have exclusive ownership of the Deity's truth are killers when they just have to be to get the Gospel spread. What "You shall not kill," tends to mean is "each other," but that also proves, in fact, to be a joke.

When Was the Last Time Your Old Church Found Some New Truth?
[News-and-Society:Religion] I grew up in the Presbyterian Church and I don't believe I ever heard anyone use the words "the truth" when speaking of their beliefs. It was just beliefs. You know, the ones passed on from generation to generation and being Presbyterian, no one in the local church ever would think to question any of it. It didn't matter. Behind the scenes, one could believe what they wanted and it was all so generic and nice that I can honestly say I never remember one issue coming up that maybe needed to be looked at, or anyone uttering the words, "new truth." Old truth was just fine and who cared.

An Open Letter to the Teens in the Restored Church of God
[News-and-Society:Religion] This is an open letter to the teens, AND adults who are affiliated with the Restored Church of God under the leadership of David C Pack in Wadsworth, Ohio. I am writing in response to the following article and associated commands to teens AND adults in RCG to refrain from blogging on the internet or having a personal website, unless strickly for business, as now being forbidden by RCG, according to this article. This is from the Ambassador Youth Magazine, as written by Kevin D. Denee on behalf of the leadership of the Restored Church of God. While the magazine thinks, in this case, it is developing leaders for the World Tomorrow, this article is teaching them to be good followers in all the wrong ways, for all the wrong reasons and needs to be addressed as more and more churches are finding the Internet providing information to sincere people who in the past were told "you need to go ask the Pastor about that."

Counting Down to Christmas and the Birth of the SUN - Oops I mean SON
[News-and-Society:Religion] Those familiar with the Worldwide Church of God know that after many years of observing what most would call "Jewish Holidays" but with Christian significance, the Church has now switched to the more generically acceptable Christians holidays, such as Easter and Christmas. In the past, these Spring Equinox and Winter Solstice holidays were replaced by the recognition of Passover over Easter in the Spring and the Festival of Tabernacles in the Fall over Christmas. While no religious holy day springs from a vacuum, and the Jewish Holy Days, also sprang from the pagan agricultural holidays that preceded them, I wonder if the Worldwide Church of God, and all Christians would be intrigued and challenged to realize just exactly which "Son" was being born on Christmas and why?

I'm the Decider - Uniter not Divider - They Hate Our Freedoms - Watch This Drive
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] I'm a uniter, not a divider Dictator works, 'cause I'm the decider. Our children is learnin, and Bagdad's a burnin
Brownee you won't go much higher.
I'll put food on your family, three jobs come in handy
That's American now, and ain't it just dandy
While misunderestimated, and fooled once or twice
Them internets rumours of draft just aint nice.

Vengeance, Retaliation and Revenge - Anyone Got a Better Idea?
[News-and-Society:Religion] One of the less great "thus sayeth the Lord" moments in the Bible was the imposition of the very well know principle of "an eye for an eye and and a tooth for a tooth." I understand that an apologist can say it just means that people should be paid restitution for losses, but in practice, Governments and most Evangelicals, love the literal translation. The Old Testament reality is proof it was not taken in any other way than literally. The People of the Book still take it quite literally.

Pastors and Priests Say the Darndest Things
[News-and-Society:Religion] Every once in a while there comes one of those moments when, listening to a "Man of God," you can hardly believe the words, concepts, teachings and ideas that seem to flow so easily out of their mouths. Recently I was listening to a rather rabid radio preacher discuss the problem David was having on his own roof looking down at Bathsheba taking a bath on hers. He spoke of lust and murder, desire and sin but kept using the phrase "Bathsheba was taking a bath." It struck me that he was going to say something really stupid. He did. Finally he went Biblically Brain Dead, and said what I was hoping he would not. "In fact.." Uh oh, he's gonna say it. "In fact, that's why her name was BATHsheba...she was taking a bath." Idiot. I wrote him and asked if her taking a shower would have gotten her named "SHOWERSheba," but he didn't respond.

Neander-Thoughts - Ideas In Religion That Just Don't Serve Us Well Anymore
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] There are no Neanderthals on the earth today, but there are Neander-thoughts and thinkers. A Neander-thought is an idea, way of thinking or being, that no longer works. Its time has passed. Just as Neanderthals seemed incapable of insight and foresight, creative solutions and critical thinking, Neander-thoughts today are holding humans back from making any real progress and actually expose us all to being consigned to some trashheap of history for not recongnizing it.

Losing Faith in Faith - Going From Special to Normal
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Years ago I took a personality profile test found it so accurate, down to the kinds of gestures I use and why, that I suggest to Joe Tkach that all ministers and leader types take one. This, from my naive perspective, might just prevent sending the same, ill placed and probably not really called to serve anyone but themselves type ministers from going on and on and hurting one congregation after another. WCG had this very bad habit of transferring it's problem ministers rather than confronting them. They said no to testing. Now I know why. People hate the insecurity that comes from knowing they aren't as special as they think they are.

There Were Fine Homes In New Orleans (To the Tune of There is a House in New Orleans)
[News-and-Society:Politics] A little ditty to the tune of "There Is a House in New Orleans."

Projection, Distraction and Name Calling-I Know You Are But What Am I?
[News-and-Society:Politics] "Fascism is a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism." This seems to me to be a pretty darn good definition of what our current administration has done to this country in the wake of and name of 911. However, it seems that this administration, the best defense is a good offense and a whole bunch of projection to boot.

Ministerial Entitlements - Don't Let Your Preacher or Church Abuse Your Stewardship
[News-and-Society:Religion] I knew the moment I saw him come through the door of the hospital he was a minister. He had the right hair, the right suit and the right Bible pinched between his forefinger and thumb, hanging like a six shooter at his side. I could also sense he was gunning for me sitting at the front desk, and he had something he needed because he was "a minister."

MONO-Theism - It's Not Exactly a Kissing Disease
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Monotheism is divisive, warlike and ego inflating by nature. It pretends that someone is all right, and the rest are all wrong. It is us vs. them, me vs. you, we vs. they, the true people vs the false, God's people vs. the pagans, the chosen people vs. the unchosen, converted vs. unconverted, of God vs. of the Devil and on and on. It is the idea that one group of people can find the true God to the exclusion of others that is the basis for so much carnage and killing on the planet.

If a Good Muslim Can't Be a Good American, Neither Can a Good Fundamentalist Christian Be One
[News-and-Society:Religion] Recently someone came up with an explanation as to why someone of the Islamic faith cannot possible be a good American. This is in response to that ignorance. The writer asks.. "Can a good Muslim be a good American?" In doing so, he sets himself for a fall. "Consider the following:" Theologically - no. Because his allegiance is to Allah, the moon god of Arabia." It's all downhill from here

Psalm 83 - When The New Testament and the Teachings of Jesus Just Won't Do
[News-and-Society:Religion] Just down the street from where I have my office is a Lutheran Church with a sign outside on the lawn. "Pray for Israel-Psalm 83". That Psalm has come up a lot around here in the Bible Belt. So often Christian churches will seek out the Old Testament, Hebraic Psalms to reinforce a current insecurity that needs to be address in ways not necessarily spoken of by Jesus or encouraged in the New Testament. The Old Testament, for Christians, is where they go to discern the mind of God, when the love of Jesus just won't cut it, and there is work to be done.."In Him."

An Open Letter To the Good People of the Middle East From the We're Not that Stupid Americans
[News-and-Society:Politics] The extreme literalists in Christianity, fundamentalists as we call them too, do not speak for the average Christian. And many Christians do not speak for the average American. They are the God haunted Christians who see every turn of events in the Middle East as a sure sign that Jesus return is just around the corner, again, and we are all going to be forced into unspeakable joy with them at the helm of the Jesus Kingdom on earth...I am being sarcastic, I hope you know!

The Deity Does Not Really Need Your Income - But The Church Would Love You To Think So
[News-and-Society:Religion] Let's face it... God really doesn't need our literal money to make it in the world of humans. Ministers and Churches need our money, but God actually does just fine without it. Ministers need to be paid and churches need to be maintained, enlarged, adorned and air conditioned, but God simply does not personally need our money. He already "owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine," so He's all set.

What Offends You More...The Baby and the Boob or The Baby and the Bomb?
[News-and-Society] Perhaps some will post the contrasting images of the sweet baby nursing against those of mangled children let to rot on dangerous roads or scattered in pieces or crushed under fallen cement. Then we'll get the point. It is images that started to undo the Vietnam War and perhaps it can be images that can undo the folly of this one. Any gutsy takers out therez? How about it ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX or CBS? I dare you. Forget about the Baby and the Boob and show a few of the Baby and the Bombs.

Moses and the Burning Bush - Meeting the Great "None of Your Business What My Name Is"
[News-and-Society:Religion] "I am that I am," has evolved in Christian theology as a deeply profound statement as to the nature of the true God. It has been used to prove that God is the self-subsistant Being of a deeper theology. "Ebyeh asher ebyeh" - I am that I am. Funny thing is, is that this statement by the god is not deep theology, but a Hebrew pun - a joke of sorts on Moses.

The One Man Show-How and Why Mega and Mini Churches Go Wrong
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] Before the age of television and radio, a charismatic minister, one who by the power of his own personality, ego and even his mental quirkiness or illnesses, tended to influence a relatively few people overall. Since these inventions, times have changed of course. Now we can be bombarded with the ideas, opinions, inspirations, knowings and outright stupidity of the sincerely misguided. The problem is that they reach millions and are supported by people who buy into their ideas, but never meet the man, attend his church or know what might be going on behind the scenes of the organization he has created.

The Bible God -Trading Up - We Can Do Better
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] For the last 4000 years, our Western concept of God has been based on the God that evolved out of the Old Testament Theocracy of Ancient Israel. That God came into His own as an evolution from earlier gods, all of whose indivdual traits, the True God Most High was given. It is this God that we have come to "love" in some way, though it seems mostly a one way street in practical human experience. It is this one true God of the OT that we read is a jealous God, never thinking that in that context, He was jealous because there were still other gods a lingering and it was not, at that time, he was the only one, but just needed to be the top one. Therefore, "you shall have no other gods, BEFORE ME." The others are lesser types and don't forget it. "I am a jealous God." Even as a kid, I wondered why the only God was jealous of no other gods that existed, until I learned that when the Decalogue was given, they did exist. I guess they have since moved elsewhere.

Sometimes We Don't Need Rain Near as Much as We Need Luggage
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] I used to fast and pray for things. They seemed like important things at the time and somehow I was told that if we pray long and hard, and go without eating, God will hear us. I always wondered why God was so deaf in the first place. Rain is a pretty normal thing to expect, "in due season." Why does the Deity not keep it seasonal, predictable and convenient so the crops can grow normally and abundantly? One year it's on, one year it's off, two years it's off, one year it's back. Are these reflections of natual cycles or do humans tick God off on a seasonal basis?

God Told Me To and I Did And Now We Wish We Hadn't
[News-and-Society:Religion] Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication — after this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner; for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.

One Picture May Be Worth a Thousand Words...But You'll Never See Them
[News-and-Society:Religion] So, if you want to stop a war, just show a war. Punch in a few key words or find the sites on the net that are willing to show you just "what God hath wrought." You won't like it. You'll swear you can't look at "stuff like that." Some of you just might stare and wonder how it was in the final seconds of that persons life. Some of you will think about your own children and what if that happened to you. Most of you will simply say "oh my God." But you won't see it on the news or in the news in America. Too messy. Too honest. Too not helpful to whatever cause is being pushed at the moment and unhelpful in pushing the present truth.

Ideas Have Consequences... Being Fundamentally Wrong Can Only Lead to a Sanitation Problem
[News-and-Society:Religion] Ideas, whether about so called Bible prophecies, the role of the Church in world affairs or of men who for the most part are really self appointed, under educated in theology and origins, scientifically ignorant or resistant to new information, have consequences. We are seeing that unfold every hour on our televisions and will contine to do so as these few make poor decisions that affect the many. If these so called leaders are not careful they will get a huge sanitation problem for all their just knowing the mind of God, and of course charge us to clean it up.

You Might Be Dis-Empowered If
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Freedom and the ability to live one's life as one chooses is the highest, and most threatening, calling of human individuality and spirituality. We live in a world of conformity, and it is getting worse, not better. Someone always demands you see the world through their eyes and filter one's religious and political beliefs through their filters. Organizations can demand that one obey their set values or loose your status in that organization. Voters demand that one man be all things, which is impossible no matter what the Apostle Paul said, to all people. Anyone that can please everyone, or be whatever they need them to be so THEY are comfortable, is duplistic and inauthentic to the extreme. You could never trust a man or woman that literally practiced "being all things to all men."

God to Revoke Holy Land Status - All Agree It's Time to "Pull It"
[News-and-Society:Religion] This is Ian Jones of the BBC with breaking news. The lease that has been in place for thousands of years granting exclusive Holy Land Status to the area between Iran and the Mediterranean, is about to be pulled, or should we say revoked. And here in our studio are none other than God himself to fill us in on just what is up.

Tanks for the Memories - What Religious and Political Leadership Needs is a Good Enema
[News-and-Society] Well I have to say that the Israelis certainly know the principle of an eye for an eyelash and are busy throwing a tantrum that can only lead to worse everything as we know it. When I think of the current leaders and governments on the planet, the term sh-- for brains comes readily to mind.

"I'm of Larry...I'm of Curly...Well, I"m of Moe" - How My Way or the Highway rarely works
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Taking sides and acting out that everything is divided into me vs. you, us vs. them, good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, depending on just who gets to define these things is smothering the good people on the planet. Until we wake up and learn to leave people alone and repress the need that many have to convert, change, educate to their way of being, or demand it be so, we will be in deep doo doo for years to come. In the Christian religion the church multiplies by division and adds to itself by subtraction of members from other established churches. In other "faiths" they seem to recognize they can't add the zealots to their own form of zealotry, so they kill the competition off.

The Planet Venus is the Light Bringer and the Story Behind the Fall of "Satan" in Isaiah 14
[News-and-Society:Religion] Where does the story of the fall of Satan, thinking he could become God Most High, by storming heaven and throwing God off his throne, come from? Jesus said he saw Satan fall as lightening from heaven, which is why most say he must have been with God before he was Jesus. Did you know that you can see Lucifer fall from heaven too many mornings of the year before the Most High God ascends to the His throne?

What Is,IS
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] How often do we say, "What is, is." While we might say that, we so often don't really believe it and then, with hard work and determination, set out to change what is to what we need it to be, rather than what is. And yet, What is....still is.

Fleecing the Flock 101...They Actually Have Classes!
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] I have to say when I first saw the title, "There's Gold in them thar Pews," I thought it must be a parody on religion with regard to getting the faithful to part with their money. Certainly no one would actually promote a pastoral class on how to get more money out of a congregation with that title? If the average person in the pews, at least in the pews I am familiar with ever, for one moment even read such a title, they would give less not more just to show the Pastor they were not a pit to be mined for Jesus. Alas, the article was serious and I'd like to take a moment to give the meaning behind the message as my experience as a Pastor in a denomination that all too well fleeced the flock and mined the Gold in "them thar pews." The article begins..."Be encouraged: "There’s gold in them thar’ pews!

Necro-Evangelism-When Dead Men Do Tell Tales
[News-and-Society:Religion] There is a phenomenon in evangelism that is quite strange to me. I call it Necro-Evangelism and it is where local or even national radio evangelical and fundamentalist churches continue to play the sermons of long dead founders to convert the masses. There are at least three major churches in my area and one I know of nationally that practices Necro-Evangelism and I'd like to explore the pitfalls of this if I might.

Deity Passes Over Kansas and Nebraska This Year - New Religion on How to Avoid Smiting Breaks Out
[News-and-Society:Religion] Well, the people of Nebraska and Kansas must finally be towing the line...and we are all going to see the benefits! LINCOLN, Neb. -- Meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Hastings are feeling lucky this year. The 30-county area they serve in central Nebraska and north-central Kansas hasn't had a confirmed tornado for the first six months of this year. That hasn't happened since 1950 "It's quite unusual," said Steve Kisner, warning coordination meteorologist in the Hastings office. "We're glad Mother Nature is keeping everybody safe

Google Earthing the Ascension and Second Coming of Jesus...Try it...See What You Think!
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Just for fun the other day, I pretended to be Jesus in His Ascension and Second Coming. I Google Earthed my flights both from and to the Church of the Ascension, just East of the Temple Mount on the Mount of Olives. Interesting experience.

Can't We All Just Get Along? Evidently Not
[News-and-Society] One of the most profoundly simple statements ever uttered in the past 100 years was done so by Rodney King of Los Angeles standing behind a microphone a bit bewildered by the attention he was getting for having been beaten almost to death by "authorities." "Can't we all just get along?"

Nostradennis - Prophecy Comes Alive in Our Time
[News-and-Society:Religion] These recently discovered prophecies of the 14th Century monk and mystic, Nostradennis, are here presented for the first time. Their uncanny references to present day circumstances are just short of astrounding. Who says Prophecy does not come alive in our time!

Tis the Season to be Smitten
[News-and-Society] It is obvious to me why the Northeast U.S. is flooded. That part of the country is full of Democrats, gays, Amish and small children who sass their parents. God is punishing them. Oh I know what you are thinking. "Well Washington was flooded too." Yes, that's true, but did you notice that the only building that had to be closed down for a month was the IRS? In that case, it's a blessing and a gift to those in high places for "staying the course." One man's curse is another man's blessing.

Bible Times Children And We'll Keep the Flames of Molech on for Ya!
[News-and-Society:Religion] No, kids don't make out so good in the Bible. They are used, abused, disowned, fried, burnt, slapped, kicked, hit, beat, sacrificed, speared, sold, eaten and mauled. The famous ones that make it adulthood get delievered, Angelic choirs, Kingdoms and babes galore. They get visited by Wise Men, who survived their own childhoods intact but left home as soon as they could, which is why there were called Wise Men. Bible Times were something no kid in his right mind would ever wish to return to.

Forgiveness-Again and With a Bit More Understanding Than the Last Time
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Three years ago, our collective family lost a nephew, 13 years old, to a encounter with a train. Matt was walking along an active track wearing the headphones of his CD player, probably thinking about the loss of his grandmother that morning. The engineer, doing all he could to warn Matt, simply could not get his attention in time.

You Know I'm Gonna Get Ya
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] It has got to be difficult to surrender. If both sides are tired, it can be liberating. If one side is arrogant, it can be a massacre of the losers. It's also liberating when one can now direct all the energy of war, whether literally or mental in to more positive and productive present moment endeavors.

He Ain't Heavy...He's EN-LIGHTENED
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] I have always heard, and believe it is so, that you can't have an argument with an enlightened individual. For most, to be enlightened brings up the idea or image of a guru or devotee with a spacey, non caring look and demeanor. It strikes us as someone who might not be all there and isn't real. However, to be en-lightened is also a way of mind to be that is not detached, but less heavy, less burdened and less needful to be noticed. This leaves most Westerners out of the picture of course, since being full, burdened and noticed is what most minds need to feel good about themselves. What are a few traits that point towards an EN-Lightened mind?

Question Authority When that Feeling in Your Stomach is Stronger than the Thoughts in Your Head
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Growing up there was one thing one never did and that was to question authority. If someone was older, they were right. If they were an adult and I was just the kid, they were right. If they were elected or appointed by some group for some reason, they were right. If they were a minister, priest or even a preacher, by God then, they were really right. Problem is, they were often wrong and people suffered for it.

Letting Go of What You Used to Be- Part II
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Just think of all the things that have happened to others in their lives, or not happened, that has lead to your story. How much of that did you and I have control over? Thirty five thousand, two hundred and forty three years ago, I had a DNA ancestor who may have successfully, or not ducked the blow of a incoming stick or spearpoint and continued, or not. That even had a direct impact on what became "my" story.

News Until You Puke
[News-and-Society] I listen to way too much news. I feel if I don't, I'll miss the Second Coming, spreading Tsunami, in coming meteor, rising melt water from glaciers, a solar flare that might fry me, alien invasion or next terror attack that has been promised for the past four years. Since I don't want to miss these things, I listen to way too much news.

Letting Go of What You Used to Be
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] But whether as pastor, or a policeman, or an accountant, mom, friend or parent, what we used to be is not who we are. It might have been what we did, or a role that we had in life, but it never was who we are. Try this...without saying anything good or bad about yourself, who are you? Most will slip and say what they do for a living, or some educational credentials or even something negative about how they perceive themselves to be, but that breaks the rules. The implication of that kind of answer is that when one ceases to be the doctor, lawyer or Indian Chief, once ceases to be, which is ridiculous. Ultimately, the only answer there is turns out to be "myself". I am who I am. You know, the Popeye Mantra.

Of Kings and Wenches-Polygamy, Adultery and Relationships in the Bible.
[News-and-Society:Religion] The point is that relationships are more fluid in reality than they are in Church or in Bible Land. Men got off rather easily with many perks, while women paid and paid and paid for the sins of the men by having to be raped, thrown out and sent into the desert to teach the man a lesson. Go figure. Taliban Christianity is not much different today.

America... Lost in the Bushes and Looking Bad
[News-and-Society] The killings are emerging as the worst known American atrocity of the Iraq war. At least seven women and three children were among those killed. Witness accounts obtained by The Sunday Times suggest the toll of children may be as high as six. "This one is ugly," a US military official said...

Da Vinci Code -- The First of Many Invitations to Come and Question the UnQuestionable
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] You'd think that something so important to one's eternal future as to the who, where, when, how and why's of Jesus, would be more easily understood and clearly known. Some would say it is, as all you need to do is read the Bible and do what it says. Of course, millions do that and manage to come up with thousands of ways to be or not be, and things to do or not do based on the same text. Let's face it. Where two or three who want to do what Jesus wants' them to do are gathered together, there is confusion and arguments. It has been that way since Judas kissed Jesus in the Garden between those who speak for Jesus. One thing is sure. We will look back on the Da Vinci Code as a movie that was not really entertainment, but rather, an open door to question what so many suspect but dare not say or think. By the many, I mean the average church going seeker.

Christian Fundamentalists -- The High Cost of Being Sincerely Wrong
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Goodmorning...I used to be one of you. I know how you think and the Biblical brainwashing you have been through that makes you think the way you do about world events, Biblical prophecy, the Second Coming of Jesus and the Kingdom of God on earth. I know how ministers and pastors, most well meaning, but full of sanctified ignorance and misunderstanding of the intent, origins, errancy and the historical inaccuracies of much we read in the Bible, have filled your minds with misguided zeal. I know how your read and understand the prophecies of the four kingdoms of Daniel and the dreams of Nebuaccanezzar, King of Babylon. I doubt you know they were written after the fact and not prophetically.

They Retire Race Horses Don't They? What Could The Worldwide Church of God Possibly Learn from That
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] This is one of those rare occasions where the irony of something compels me to just write to process my own experience as a pastor now having moved on. The irony of life sometimes is overwhelming at times.

Good-Good-Gooood-Good Vibrations, or Bad, Determine Our Moods, Attitudes and Physical Health!
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] We live in a world of Dis-Ease. Aside from DNA, germs, viruses, bacteria and poor choices, what might be a more underlying cause of the many malfunctions of the human body we experience, often at a time in life where we should be experiencing the opposite? Let's look at the possible emotional and vibrational causes of some common ailments. If our biography can indeed affect our biology, then the vibrational environment we allow ourselves to be in, and by that I mean, the music we listen to, the people we hang around, the topics we wallow in and the anger we can't let go of, may be a major key to our literal survival at a cellular level.

Why Does the Gospel of Mark Have No Positive Ending and John Has Two?
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] One of the most interesting realities found in the Gospels is that the Gospel of Mark has no good ending to the story of Jesus crucifixion, while the Gospel of John has TWO. What's going on here and what might be the solution to the problem?

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate-Part Five
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Let's continue asking simple questions based on the Gospel accounts of the Jesus life, death and resurrection. We continue here with questions about what happened or did not happen at Jesus tomb after the crucifixion.

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate - Part Four
[News-and-Society:Religion] We continue with a few questions for the Pastor about the events of the actual crucifixiton, the burial and subsequent resurrection of Jesus and just who and what occurred among the disciples and the women who followed Jesus.

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate - Part Three
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The events leading up to Jesus crucifixion are full of contradictions and Gospel disagreements. Let's look at these events leading up to Jesus death.

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate - Part Two
[News-and-Society:Religion] Answers to Biblical questions are rather relative to the background and the perspectives of the one asked the question. There are answers of course. Often, many different answers given to the same questions. Obviously, a priest may answer much differently than a Baptist minister and a Lutheran pastor differently from an Adventist. A closed mind will answer differently from an open one.

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate - The Book - Part One
[News-and-Society:Religion] Pastors suffer credibility problems today as well due to the availability of information to the average person that was unheard of in past times. The Internet can easily give the many other sides of a Biblical question or provoke questions to be asked that most never dreamed of as the “I never thought of that” gets tweaked by new information. Had I had the internet to search out the answers to my questions, I seriously doubt I would have gone on to spend 26 years in the ministry myself. Internet is to knowledge for the masses as books were in times past.

Love Jesus or Burn Forever in Hell... You're Basic "Love Me or I will Kill You" Religion
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] "Love Jesus or Burn Forever in Hell." I first saw this wonderfully encouraging statement emblazoned on the roof of a barn in rural South Carolina. Actually just about where I would expect to find it. Boy, you gotta love a religion like this!

Proselytizing in Other Cultures - Gee, Why Do I Feel So Persecuted
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Why should Christians cry "persecution" whenever they find themselves harassed or even jailed in countries where the cultural mindset is not Christian? Much ado is being made about a Christian minister in this area who has been arrested for "publishing offensive material against the sensibilities of the people." Of course now, those who know this man define his predicament as pesecution. Is it really?

"Help, I've Died and I Can't Get Up"--An Easter Tale Known and Told Only By Matthew
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The account in Matthew of many saints rising from their graves after Jesus rose from his is a source of unending speculation and criticism. Only Matthew even mentions this dramatic tale and no one after the fact mentions it in proving Jesus own resurrection or the power of God. Seems only Matthew was privy to this tale.

Forgiving Yourself - How Dare One Even Think It!
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] I'd like to talk a bit about the one kind of forgiveness that seems the most difficult of all. That would be forgiving YOURSELF. But forgiving yourself feels almost impossible. Why? First of all, there is that funky part of our nature that feels our forgiving ourself is contingent on being forgiven FIRST by others for our offenses. Once they do that, then MAYBE, one can think of forgiving themselves. The problem is you might wait until hell freezes over before you are given permission of this kind to forgive yourself.

Everyone Wears Masks - Your Pastor and Priest, Your Mom, Dad, Family, and YOU!
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Every human being on the planet wears a mask. Most wear many masks. Some call it the dark side, but in fact it is just another side. Humans are more complicated and needful in their spirit than some would allow them to be and Churches go to great lengths to control this other side. As a result, people wear masks, including all members of all churches, their prophets, priests and pastors.

Da Vinci Code, the Movie..Why It Just May Drive Your Pastor or Priest Nuts
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The Da Vinci Code, the movie based on the best seller by Dan Brown, I predict will be one of the most successful movies of all time. If you have not read the book, or are unfamiliar with the perspective that Mr. Brown took on one of the many theories about Christian origins and Church politics, I suggest you do before the premier. Already the Church, in particular the Catholic Church, but it goes much further than that, has "truth squads" going out to churches and on the internet to counter what will no doubt be one of the greatest unleashing of questions from the faithful that ministers and priests have probably never been asked.

If the Bible Says It, I Believe It, That Does It For Me - With Permission, Animals Can Talk!
[News-and-Society:Religion] You gotta admit, the Bible has some great stories in it. As a child I thought a lot about these stories wondering how they could happen, but since it was the Bible and written by God himself over a long weekend, I never thought they might not have happened. From a talking snake in the Garden of Eden, to a guy named Jonah who spent three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, whew...it was all very cool stuff.

The Murder of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 -- Promoting Fear When Perfect Love Just Won't Do
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The story of the murder of Ananias and Sapphira for not giving all they had said they would give to the church, under Peter is not a story about lying to God. It's a story about this man called Peter, who neither Paul nor Luke cared much for. This Peter, this man who PROMISED Jesus that he would never leave him, only to deny him three times shortly after and flee has a history. This story of the Peter, who can't abide saying one thing and doing another from Ananias and Sapphira, who SAID he was in agreement with Paul about eating with Gentiles but then withdrew when the Jewish James showed up for dinner, just might be here to poke fun of Peter, whom Paul disliked. Luke is chiding Peter for his duplicity in saying one thing, like Ananias did, and doing another, as the couple is reported to have done. Peter can dish it out, but when push came to shove in his own life, he could not take it. This is a story meant to tell the Church that Peter was not the leader he was cracked up to be according to Paul.

The Church Member's Bill of Rights -- Basic Rights Any Member of a Church Should Expect to Enjoy
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] There is a lot of talk today about human rights and much controversey over giving up personal rights for the public good. There are also basic rights that members of Churches, congregations and religious institutions have that need consideration. These are absolute rights you have as a member of your Church, no matter how much a church or institution might wish to believe otherwise.

The Sun Has Risen--March 20th, 2006 at 1:26 PM--Easter has Passed and Most Missed It
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Yesterday, March 20th, someone said to me, "Hey, today is the first day of spring." I said yep, sure is and asked if he knew why today was the chosen day. He did not know but rather thought that someone just picked this date as the official start of the season. "No," I said. "Actually yesterday at 1:26 PM The Sun was crossified by finally landing smack at the interesecion of the Celestial Equator as projected from our earthly equator into space, and the Ecliptic, which is the line in the sky that the sun appears to follow in it's one year journery through the signs of the Zodiac." He just looked at me and said, "oh."

The Church and Ministry Should Treat the Wounded, NOT Inflict the Wounds
[News-and-Society:Religion] I have had to learn to deal with what I have come to call "a spinning mind" all my life. This trait of "thinking, thinking, thinking" as some would define it is just who I am. For some reason, asking questions, wanting to know the origins or way of this or that is how I think and process my world and experiences. Theology and a lifelong interest in the Bible has also caused more problems than it seems to have solved for me. This is my experience. If it is not yours, I am happy for you.

Dear God - Most of Us Need to Talk to You About the Few of Us Who are Scaring All of Us
[News-and-Society:Religion] Prayer is nice but sometimes you just have to go high tech and Email God with a a request for action and a return receipt. So please God, most of us would appreciate hearing from you about your view on how a few us can make all of us so nervous about more topics than I can keep straight.

The Maid is Not Coming in Today and Neither is Jesus - You'll Just Have to Work It Out Yourselves
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] "You can sure tell it's almost time for Jesus to return," is a phrase I have heard all my life. During the 1967 Arab Israeli war, when all the forces of Middle Eastern good and evil, depending on who you were rooting for, were coming together for the one big bang before Jesus returned to save us all, I just knew it was the endtimes. Well that one lasted six days and Jesus, I guess, was recalled. Israel had kicked some serious butt and there would be no need for a Second Coming at that time. In 1973, Egypt and Syria, Kings of the South and North by Bible prophecy buff standards, attacked Israel on Yom Kippur. Jesus, I was told, was in the building and about to come on stage. Alas,

Why Kids Don't Call Home and Should---It Was a Rainy Night in Hilversum and Titanic was Still Afloat
[Home-and-Family:Parenting] I'll tell you what. When my kids don't call me once in awhile, it makes me nuts! I gotta change my paradigm on this topic. It would be easy to come up with a list of reasons why I might personally like or need to hear from my offspring. We could dabble in the idea of feeling loved, or appreciated or that even something we had to say might be helpful or encouraging, but we won't. That's all the standard stuff. Let's try a new approach.

Rituals: Repetitive Gibberish or Evidence of Our Spiritual Awareness?
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] No, to say "Rituals offer only the need for their continual repetition." is to miss some very deep realities about how human consciousness thrives, experiences, and relates to the gods, God, the now here and the here after. Maybe the shedding of blood for "sins" offers only the need for repetition and I think we have shed just about enough blood on the planet in the name of washing away sin, but rituals are necessary to a healthy spirituality.

These Heels are Killin Me...Why It is So Difficult to Be True to Yourself
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] She came through the front door of the local hospital looking more like a person who was about to ask where the emergency room was than the visitor she turned out to be. She was middle age and walking like she felt 100 years old. Limping and listing side to side, I thought she was going to tip over right in the lobby before ever getting to the desk. She asked the room number of a friend she wanted to visit and we found out they had been discharged and gone home. What followed was comment that symbolized how so many live their lives on lots of topics.

What Was I Thinking...I Guess I Wasn't
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] It's a big leap to go from an almost mystical reverence for a physical book we call the Bible to being able to say that much of what is in that book is inaccurate, impossible and immoral. Of course, true believers can “oh me of little faith” me and I have no defense against that. But back to the original question. What was I thinking when I dismissed that niggly “uh oh” or “hmmm” when it came to me in studying the Bible for years in preparation for the ministry? Why did I THEN never question what I know NOW to be untrue or suspect in the extreme?

Friends...Where Did They All Go?
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] When churches implode, as they do, friendships explode. I can count on one hand the friendships that have stayed in tact since my being labeled a minister who “knew a lot about Jesus, but did not know Jesus” and then being terminated. And...I have fingers left over! It is reckless change and administration of policy that tears friendships apart when associated with churches. Local ministers, who can have their own dictatorial ways, can tear friendships apart as well by causing “friends” to make choices and take sides in endless and stupid disputes or personality cults.

You're Just Not Converted-Yep, That's Your Problem
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Occurring within all religions, the phenomenon called "conversion" is, in reality, nothing more than mind-control, programming, or brainwashing to achieve the desired compliance. All Christian organizations use the idea of conversion in one way or another to amass followers of a particular persuasion.

Death-Kicking the Bucket, Being a Goner, Biting the Dust, Checking Out and Feeling No Pain
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] It's very difficult for humans to say the words "He/she/they died." What a marvelous number of euphemisms for death we have. We pass on, croak, kick the bucket, go home, expire, succumb, leave, meet our maker, go to our reward, get wasted, check out, eternally rest, are a goner, end, bite the dust, get liquidated, terminated and annihilated. We give up the ghost, make the change, transition, get mertilized, go to to the other side, fall asleep, get taken, rubbed and snuffed out. We depart, transcend and buy the farm. We are feeling no pain, lose the race, cash in, cross Jordan and go with the angels. We get done in, translate into glory, return to the dust, wither away, give up, take the long sleep and a dirt bath. It can be curtains, a dropped body, six feet under and out of our misery. We find everlasting peace, new lives the great beyond, ride into the sunset and that's all we wrote. But in plain fact, we are dead.

Message from Jesus: Please No More Christian Soldiers Marching as to War
[News-and-Society:Religion] Ok, this is Jesus, we gotta talk! "ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Christian youths burned the corpses of Muslims on Thursday on the streets of Onitsha in southeastern Nigeria, the city worst hit by religious riots that have killed at least 146 people across the country in five days. Christian mobs, seeking revenge for the killings of Christians in the north, attacked Muslims with machetes, set fire to them, destroyed their houses and torched mosques in two days of violence in Onitsha, where 93 people died.

Our Father - The Day God Answered
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] "Lord, Teach us how to Pray" So I kneeled down, looked up with supplicant hands outstretched and oh mamma, it finally happened. "Our Father" "Yes?" "Yes? What the hell!" "You called me didn't you? It's me, the Father" "Holy Crap, your kidding!" "No, I'm not kidding, you said "Our Father" and you just happened to catch me in the area. How can I help you?"

Safe Touch - A Key to Good Mental Health and Relationships
[Health-and-Fitness:Mental-Health] I believe any educated and sensitive massage therapist will tell you that they tend to meet people who are more authentic in expressing themselves than perhaps one would just meet in an office setting. Even the same person is more authentic and gentle in a safe touch massage setting. Minimal clothing, lulling fountain sounds, the scent of lavendar, orange, sandalwood or other essential oils and music that doesn't destroy your soul just seems to do that. Everyone needs safe touch to be comforted and to feel free to be themselves without judgement.

National Geographic Genographic Project Reveals How Old Beliefs Die Hard.
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] When the National Geographic Genographic research team gently informed aboriginal Australians of their African origins, according to the DNA evidence, the Elders reacted with a simple "no, we originated here and maybe they came from us." Comforting and upholding of ancient aboriginal beliefs, but not scientifically true. You could feel the tension this new information brought into the cultural beliefs that for so long had encouraged and sustained them. I doubt they will change their understanding of themselves with this bit of information, but reaction to new information is typically unsettling to us, no matter what the topic.

Things Pastors, Preachers, and Priests Should Never Do
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] I know ministers. I spent a long time soaking in religion and ministers. I sat in meetings, seminars and sermons of ministers. I ate meals by the score and observed how men as ministers thought, reasoned and pastored their people. I was a minister and I have some advice for ministers.

Washed in the Water of Aquarius and Not the Blood of Aries - A New Paradigm
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Jesus is said to have stated that "lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age" and that might be more true than we can possibly believe. But the age meant is not the end of the world, or the time where all the bastards on the planet get their reward and the good guys win and go to heaven. It may be as simple as the demise of a Priesthood based on the sacrifice of the Lamb and the shedding of blood for human redemption and the rise of a Priesthood based on Water and some amazing truth about how it, like blood in the past is the mediator of an even better covenant, so to speak. It may be as simple as the astronomical procession of the equinoxes from Pices the Fish into Aquarius the Water Bearer.

Fool Me Once-Shame On
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] 'Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again' — George W. Bush. It was obvious the President could not get the line right and we ended up not knowing just exactly who was getting fooled and who should be ashamed. But at least we know you won't fool me again.

From Pastor to Bastard
[News-and-Society:Religion] ...Or at least that is what some would conclude is the result of the route my religious experience has taken me. But, of course, from my perspective, the trip through the Christian, organized and corporate church has brought me a freedom that those who speak of "freedom" and "grace" within the crazy world of disorganized religion could never know. Experience is the best teacher and may be the only one that leaves you with any depth of conviction.

Prophets, Priests, Kings and CEOs - Can the Problem Be Mental Illness?
[News-and-Society] The world is full of strange, intimidating and unfortunately powerful and influential people who just may be mentally ill. It seems that some of the very personal traits they possess to rise, on the backs of their peers, lead to one disaster after the another. They can build a business, company, organization and or become a powerful politician or charismatic Pastor, only to destroy it and others in the process. If they don't destroy it, they thrive on the drama they inflict upon those who simply can't understand what the hell is wrong with the boss, pastor, dad or politician, that they say and do the things they do? They use and abuse people for their own personal ends and the degree they do this can be both stunning and stupid.

Women of the World--Relax--The Apostle Paul was WRONG
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The following facts are not ones in which your husband, your fundamentalist pastor, nor your literalist Church will rejoice in. In fact, they may ask you to quietly leave if you are going to believe this rather than the inspired, inerrant and historically accurate "word of God." The primordial plan for both female and male fetuses in mammals is initially feminine....and that's just the beginning!

Daddy, Why Does the Preacher Talk So Funny?
[News-and-Society:Religion] When it comes to fundamentalist and many evangelical preachers, there is nothing quite like the way they choose to express themselves from the pulpit. What they say, and how they say it, can be quite amazing. Far too many preachers sacrifice accuracy and common sense on the alter of emotion and showmanship.

Who Really Chooses What You Believe...You or Them?
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] "Be sure to choose what you believe and know why you believe it, because if you don't choose your beliefs, you may be certain that some belief, and probably not a very creditable one, will choose you."

My Pastor is Nuts-Turning Heaven Into Hell For the Church
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Is your Pastor mentally stable? Does he create more problems for the congregation than he solves? Does he offend more people than he saves? Is he one of the most obnoxious humans beings you have ever met? There might be reasons for this the Pastor needs to face and knowing one's own mind goes a long way in understanding what's going wrong.

Nothing In This World Is What You Are Being Told - What's a Commoner to Do?
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Nothing in this world is what you are being told. That's one of life's bottom line statements if there ever was one. NOTHING IN THIS WORLD IS AS YOU ARE BEING TOLD. Let that sink in. If that is so, and I suspect it is, how can this help us go inside for a personal spirituality that works for us and does not need to be based on the illusions that others wish for us to believe.

How to Control a Woman-Stories with Consequences
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] If the story is not true, then the reason for using the story to make something else true is ....well...not true. Time to wake up.

Ya Might be a Preecher If
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Someone once approached me and said they had heard I was a Preacher. I said "No, I am a Church Pastor." They said, "Aw Pastor,Preacher..what's the difference?" I said, "I have an education and a heart for the people." He said, "oh."

Out of the Box
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] We all come in a box when we are born, and I don't mean the womb. Once we arrive, we are slipped into a box that we are generally expected to stay in for the rest of our life, depending on the topic.

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] When I was kid, I loved to ask my minister questions about things that, to my young mind, made no sense when I read them in the Bible or more likely heard them in Sunday school. His answers were always rather bland and not a little aloof since, after all, he was the pastor and I was just a kid.

Sheeple and Shepherds - Think for Yourself
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] At birth, we come in a nice box , constructed by others before us , full of beliefs, ideas, truths, perspectives and of course, the full true knowledge of who and what God is and what on earth he is doing. Now it may have a Catholic, Protestant, Adventist, Methodist, Lutheran, Mormon ....ad nauseam, twist , but it is what we are expected to follow. To not follow it is to endure the disapproval and guilt/shame tactics designed to bring us back into the box, so others feel good. How you feel is irrelevant.

Gut Feelings... Pay Attention
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] I remember the moment I had my first awareness that no matter, at any one time in life, one might respect a persons' teachings, perspectives or opinions, it is always good to reserve the right to keep looking for better facts, perspectives and conclusions. In my experience, it is ok to have the experience of both "Aha!" and "Uh oh."

Worldwide Church of God... Since You Don't Listen
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] By analogy, I came to a hockey game and at half time, someone came out, melted the ice, put up hoops and demanded I not only play, but coach Basketball, which if you remember... I don’t like.

Apostle Paul-His Cosmic Jesus
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Ask one of your Christian friends why the Apostle Paul NEVER quotes Jesus, tells a story about his life, his miracles, his teachings or his example and you generally will be met with a look that says...."that's not true." But alas it is.

Religious Dis-illusionment... A Growing Up
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] If you spend enough time on the planet, one of the great experiences we all will have is that of that of being disillusioned with persons, places or things. I personally hate it. It's annoying, takes way too much energy and makes my stomach hurt, or third chakra depending on your perspective. :)

Acceptance, Surrender, and Presence... a Sprituality that Works
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] There is a vast difference between being "happy" and finding a genuine inner peace that "passes all understanding" to quote the book. Happiness is often confused for inner peace. The two are not the same. One can be having a miserable experience and still be at the core "at peace." You can be suffering through the loss of a loved one, career, belief or be in a health crisis an still have an inner peace. When you meet these unusual people, you remember them.

The Second Coming-The Eternal Carrot
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Millions in Fundamentalist and Evangelical Churches have grown up with the idea that the return of Jesus, a return which will fix everything that is wrong with everything and reward the true saints, is always imminent. We read the above scriptures as if they were written for us, as it is we who are finally the ones "upon whom the end of the age has come." Unlike everyone before us, we really really are the ones who will see it and be changed, avoiding the reality of physical death.

Biblical Adam and Eve Laid to Rest by National Genome Project
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Today I received my DNA ancestral profile back from the National Geographic Genome Project. Six weeks ago I did a simple mouth swab for DNA and sent it to the project. I have good news and bad news. My Y chromosome results identify me as a member of halo group R1b, a lineage defined by a genetic marker called M343. This halo group is the final destination of a genetic journey that began some 60,000 years ago with the ancient y chromosome marker called 168 originating in Eastern Africa.

Truth: Far Different Than Mere Beliefs
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] What happens when one is faced with the reality that ones truth is not really true? What do Christians, of all types, do when their truth turns out to be merely a belief that has been found wanting?

Getting Sodom Straight:
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The Biblical story of Sodom is not the story of a town that happened to be 100% gay, men and boys, for this is a ludicrous assumption. This would have to be the conclusion if God, vowing to save it for ten righteous men, did not. It would also mean that "righteous" meant heterosexual, while unrighteous meant homosexual and, well, I doubt that alone qualifies men to be righteous.

The Original Sun of God
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The history of sun worship, so seemingly foreign to the Western mind has, in fact, manifested itself into Christianity in many ways as the story of Jesus in the Gospels.

Bible Readers... The Danger of Being Piously Convicted and Marginally Informed
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Many Christians are excellent Bible READERS. Minister types in this area excellent Bible READERS. They can jump from one scripture to the next with finesse. For any scholar you could quote, they would quote one that confirmed their perspective. However, in some areas of the country you really just have to quote the Bible and skip the scholar part too.

Exclusivism: A Mind Virus
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Exclusivism and just how to perpetuate that specialness is a hallmark mindset and goal of most religious faiths. It is a mind virus that seems to be rearing it's rather ugly head again. One way, one belief, easily defined rights and wrongs, one law, and one common acceptable mind virus will provide all the comfort and security we need. The Bible in our culture is often misread and misapplied to perpetuate more harm than good. It's what exclusivists do best.

More Questions Your Pastor and Apologists Will Hate
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] It's often hard to pin a Christian apologist down on those many embarassing questions and contradictions that are raised by just a simple reading of the Bible. Let's play "Yes" or "No". The following questions related to scripture are raised not by some complicated reading of the text, but by a simple reading of what is stated in the text in plain language. Try to answer with a simple yes or no. The ease you have in doing so will tell much about the grip a literalist mindset does or does not have on you.

Cain and Abel... Let's Not Take It Literally
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] We have all grown up with the story of Cain and Abel as literal truth. It really happened. These first two boy children of the real first humans on earth, Adam and Eve, had a falling out over what was appropriate sacrifice to "God." Cain kills his brother Abel in a rage of rejection. I remember thinking as a child how scary. I had a hard time imagining a brother killing an only brother in any circumstance, much less the killing by one brother of the only other brother on earth! Talk about a risk at loneliness! With only mom and dad left, on earth, it was going to be a strange life he had inflicted upon himself. Of course, the events never literally happened as the message of the mythology was bit deeper than this "charming" Sunday school lesson.

A Problem with Prophecy
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] One of the hallmark traits of most Fundamentalist Christians is their obsession with Bible Prophecy. Prophecy has a rather mystical draw to it and implies that the future is not so unknowable after all. Most humans spend their waking time either in the past feeling angry and guilty, or in speculation of the future feeling anxious. It goes with not having the ability to live the real day one is currently experience. Many Christians have raised knowing the future to an art form and have learned that it is also quit profitable for the church in keeping members in line with fear, anxiety and a perverse kind of hope. Bible prophecy and making it the center of one's life, reading the newspaper as one would the Bible, is a slippery slope and a very negative way to live one's life.

Adam, Eve , Original Sin, and Mythology
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Much of New Testament theology is based on ideas drawn from the literal creation and existence of Adam and Eve This common, seldom questioned, oft repeated, historical fallacy of a literal Adam and Eve in a literal garden, with a literal talking serpent antagonist, has been the foundational explanation of how mankind arrived on the scene and ultimately fell from grace. However, the story serves as more of a political statement of what Israelite culture was not to be. It is a clear placing of blame for sin, evil and disobedience clearly on women (matriarchy) and a societal shift to correct the damage (Patriarchy). In fact, we have no choice, as this one literal act was supposed to have condemned all future humanity to eternal death without recourse! But did it? If it never really happened in time and space, then perhaps we need another look

So Be it...The Art of Acceptance
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Someone recently was asked whether they were left wing, right or center in the spectrum of politics. Their reply was probably the best I have ever heard. "Why do we always have to be left or right... why can’t we go UP for a change." This article is about going UP in our thinking and processing this experience of religion. Eventually the only sane choice is to leave the Flatlands of two dimensional thinking, groups and movement and simply go UP. The first step in rising from this limited dimension in thinking and being is to experience, which is far beyond just learning, the Art of Acceptance of how things are and not how we wish them to be.

Prophets, Apostles, and Mental Illness
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] I have kidded for decades about the fact that in my ministerial years I have met at least 23 of the Two Witnesses. One felt he was both of them, thus the odd number. I have met people who had the Mark of the Beast invisibly tattooed on their foreheads and they thought it was a good thing. I have met those who hear the voice of God telling them special things and seeing things that no one else can see. Some feel most special and get very very angry when you disagree with them. I have sat with the men of God who were so kind to me until I questioned them and then I got chased down the stairs.

Giving Away Your Power
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] One of the problems one faces in belonging to and being a member of an organized Christian Church is that, either consciously, or subconsciously , one places themselves under the authority of others. We say we do it willingly. We believe that there are special people groups and leaders under whose supervision we need to be. It is others who tell you how to think, what to do, how to act and what to believe based on some criteria that they got from those "over" them, or those who came "before" them. For some, this works. For many, it is a formula for physical, psychological and emotional disaster.

Harry Potter vs The Bible...What's the Difference?
[News-and-Society:Religion] What's the difference between the tricks of Harry Potter in the movies that many fundamentalist Christians take great exception to, and the miracles of Moses and Jesus... none...