| Handbook for Spirituality in North America Part II |
[Sep. 26th, 2009|07:23 am] |
II. RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY
Beware of religious institutions in every form. Genuine experience of spirituality is often thwarted by religions and their institutions. An analogy of vaccination has sometimes been used as a way of understanding the most common relationship of religion to spirituality: When a person is vaccinated against a disease, a weakened or dead form of the disease is injected into the body, and the person’s system can develop resistance to the disease when exposed. Likewise, religion is often a weakened or dead form of spirituality, and people involved in religious activity often develop resistance to genuine spirituality whenever it appears. Yet spirituality is not a disease. It is a universal human need, as vital to the life of the human spirit as nourishment is vital to the life of the human body. Religious institutions are not evil in themselves, but they tend to thwart genuine spirituality because their first priority is always the promotion of their own programs and institutional systems, even if that promotion comes at the expense of the very experiences of spirituality that led to their founding.
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| Handbook for Spirituality in North America Part I |
[Sep. 26th, 2009|07:19 am] |
I. ONE GOD
There is only one God: our Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier and Lord. This One God is the One in Whom we trust, as we say in the motto of the United States of America, “In God we Trust.” Ethical monotheism stands near the heart of spirituality in North America. Because we trust in the One True God, we live together and relate to each other in ways that are informed by our faith. Our life of faith has sometimes gone terribly astray as we have misunderstood people whose faith is expressed differently from our own. Yet without our faith, our spiritual life has no foundation and is doomed to collapse.
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| Handbook for Spirituality in North America |
[Sep. 26th, 2009|07:14 am] |
INTRODUCTION
In discussions of faith and spiritual life, many people of our time are saying, “I’m not particularly religious, but I am trying to be spiritual.” Maybe you are one of those people. If so, this Handbook is written with you in mind. I, the author, can identify with the idea of spirituality apart from religion.
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| picture of Fred and Beth |
[Mar. 12th, 2007|12:34 pm] |
Here's a picture of Beth and me while walking with fur babies recently.
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| Ennis, Ellery, and Jack |
[Aug. 21st, 2006|08:40 am] |
On Sunday morning, August 20, 2006 about 3:00 a.m. I had some interesting conversations with Ennis Del Mar, Ellery Cantrell, and Jack Twist.
Ennis has been conversing with me for a while, Ellery and I have been talking more recently, and my inner Jack Twist is a combination of two people: One is a man I met in August, 1996; the other is Brokeback Mountain Jack, who resembles Jake Gyllenhaal.
Ennis gave me a big smile about something, and his smile lit up the room. Ellery told me that the light actually seems to increase in any room where Ennis smiles. One time he didn't realize that Ennis was smiling until he saw the ambient light increase around him. He looked, and there it was: Ennis had a great big grin on his face, the kind that seems to stretch from ear to ear. We tried to figure out how the light seems to increase when Ennis smiles. Even in my own inner universe, Ennis Del Mar cannot emanate light. It seems that myriads of guardian spirits always love to gather around Ennis. When he smiles, they somehow reflect light off of microscopic surfaces all around him. So his smile really does light up a room!
I have sensed that Jack Twist is a kind of Christ figure in the Brokeback Mountain story. His initials are JC, for goodness sake, and there are no accidents in the presentation of the canon story or movie. It hit me that Jack gave his life for Ennis, since his death was the catalyst that drew Ennis into life changes. I couldn't make sense of this: Jack's death was an accident, or it was murder. Then it hit me: Jack had made the decision before he was born. He agreed to give his life for the love of his life before he came into this world. Both my inner Jacks confirmed that this is true.
These guys seem to like to talk to me around three in the morning, bless them. |
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| My own Brokeback Mountain Story |
[Jun. 26th, 2006|04:23 pm] |
Ennis and Jack are real, and not just to us who love them. They are archetypes of men who love each other, and many of us meet them on our journeys through life. The following is my story, the day I met Ennis and Jack.
About ten years ago I was on my way back to the church I served in Texas from Idaho where I had led a marriage service for some friends of my son and daughter. Changing planes in the Phoenix airport, I met Ennis and Jack. Those are not their real names, but this story is true. They were on their way back to Texas, too, after spending some significant times together in the mountains of Utah. Jack was going through some agonies with his family, and we shared very deeply in conversation and prayer, right there in the airport. I anointed him with oil for healing. Especially after this experience I try to keep some sacred oil handy everywhere I go.
After we got to our respective homes, Ennis, Jack and I wrote each other to affirm how much the experience had meant to all of us.
Less than two weeks later Ennis called me to tell me that Jack had been murdered. The official story is that it was random, gang related violence, but it's possible that his own family had been involved, so we're faced with the same ambiguity as the movie. Ennis told me that he and Jack had loved each other, making clear that he meant that they were lovers. I told him that I had seen the sacred nature of their love, and that its form and expression were between them and God. (Ain't nobody's business but their own.) Ennis and I shared our belief that I had anointed Jack in preparation for his death, unbeknownst to any of us.
I will treasure this brief, deep friendship as long as I live, and I look forward to continuing it in Heaven. If you believe in prayer, please pray for Ennis with me, that when he sees Brokeback Mountain he will be emotionally and spiritually prepared, surrounded by people who will love, understand and care for him.
Peace be with y'all,
Fred |
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