It is Time to Kill God OffYou know we are living in interesting times when some obscure minister with a small mind and a silly idea can create international controversy. There is no doubt that the internet has shrunken the size of the planet and offered the ravenous media more fuel for its ever-expanding reach.There are so many great discussions being waged over this controversial clergyman and his small flock of followers. There are debates about the legality, the morality, and the wisdom of his proposed Koran burning. It is quite remarkable that in 13 seconds Google can return links to 48,300,000 sites which are referencing this issue.It is no wonder I have had a challenge trying to pick what I want to say about this subject. There are already so many quality conversations occurring about this on-again, off-again event that I have felt any personal contribution, to this debate, would be trite, and perhaps even clichéd.Then yesterday, thanks to ABC News, I found my topic when I heard Pastor Terry Jones state, “We just want to do what God wants us to do.”I have written a couple of times, already, about the fact that I do not believe in a God that has a will for my life. I do not believe in a God that wants me to do something. The whole concept is crazy to me. How can there be a God, who is reported to be all-knowing and all-powerful, yet still in need of my hands to burn Korans? Does that really make any sense at all?Last time I wrote about this I was inundated with angry letters which informed me that my concept of God was too small; that God definitely had a plan for these individual’s lives and that it was their purpose to discover and submit to this will. I believe, in my past, that I have even shared my ideas along the same lines; but that was then and this is now. Ideas evolve. Thoughts change. Sacred cows come and go.When I first saw the news coverage of Pastor Jones’ he remarked, “We are burning Korans to call for an end to radical Islamic fundamentalism.” When I heard Jones say, yesterday, that he was only “trying to do what God wanted him to do,” I thought to myself: “Isn’t this the same claim that every radical fundamentalist makes?” Don’t all Islamic terrorist groups claim to be serving Allah with their chosen acts? How is being a Christian fundamentalist superior to any other form of fundamentalism?My question today is this: Are there people who actually believe in a God that wants to use them to hurt other people, or is this just a convenient excuse for acting out their own hatreds? Aside from extreme fundamentalists, the only other time we hear this defense is by schizophrenics: “I heard the voice of God telling me to kill my mother.”Maybe it is a time to kill God off as an excuse for humanity’s refusal to get along with one another. Maybe it is time that people should just claim responsibility for their own fears, their own hatred, and their own narrow fundamentalism without seeking to place the blame on their chosen religious figurehead.As I stated earlier, I do not, personally, believe in a God that has a will for my life. The whole idea has never made any sense to me. If God is some type of all-knowing power and it has a will for my life, why would it need my compliance? Why not just impose its will on me? Surely such a being could not be all-powerful if it is dependent upon my will in order to express its own.While I know that thinking “the Universe has some will for our lives and it is our job to find and follow this will” is comforting for many, it really carries no weight. Why would some benevolent being want poverty for one person, great wealth for another; abundant health for one and disease and infirmity for another? My list of incongruities could go on endlessly. God, which I am identifying as the unifying Force from which everything arises; the Source of all that is, is always doing all that it will ever do. It is not directing, it is not wanting, it has no will separate from its expression. Everything is an expression of this “All That Is” and there is no separation between the will of that which is manifest and the Source from which everything arose.When you, I, or anyone else chooses to do something we are acting out our own will. It is not because of the will of some distant God. We may choose something because we are trying to please our idea of God, but “All That Is’’ does not care what we choose. The explanation for this is very complicated and this is not the venue for this discussion but I needed to spell this out in order to complete this piece.When I choose to do something hateful, it does not matter how the vision, to commit this act, came to me. It is my will that makes the choice to take the action.When I choose to do something the world calls kind, or that I may define as loving, it does not matter where I received my inspiration. It is my will that is exercised in taking the action.When I think I am doing something because it is the will of my God, it is still my will that makes the choice to do whatever it is.Choosing to blame God or to praise God for the choices I make is nothing but a refusal to take personal responsibility for my life.This is a very complicated issue and it is easy to find fault with these ideas, especially since I am not going to take the time here to explain, at depth, what I mean by all that I am trying to express.The bottom line is that we, as human expressions of the one Source, do not have opposing Gods; we only have opposing concepts of what God is, conflicting ideas around who and what we are, and differing concepts about why we are here. There is no God, out there somewhere, whom we need to please. When we choose some action in an attempt to please such a mythological god, we are exercising our will, only, and not the will of some made-up entity which wants good for me and bad for my brother.Does that make any sense?No terrorist serves Allah by strapping on a bomb and killing people. He strictly serves himself by following his idea of what Allah wants. He is only exercising his own will in accordance with his particular beliefs.No pastor is serving his God by burning another faith’s sacred text. He strictly serves himself by following his idea of what God wants. He is only exercising his will in alignment with his particular beliefs.In the end, what we do to please our God has nothing to do with the One Power of the Universe and everything to do with our own beliefs about that power. Our unique collections of _ism’s create the God to whom we pledge our loyalty. Then, we adopt, inherit, and create paradigms for serving this imaginary God. |
Why is it that we are so intent on making new laws?Nowadays, there is some new law being proposed, considered, or implemented nearly every week. It seems crazy to me that we want the state, local, and federal government, to be our parents, our watchdogs, and the big brother who will enforce that which we feel is moral, just, or religiously correct.Last night on the news I saw there was an effort in Missouri to enact a law which would require children, under a certain age, to wear a life jacket anytime they are at a public lake and within 15 feet of the water’s edge.Of course, the family pushing for this law is reacting to having lost a child by drowning. Their justification, for this ridiculous law, is that they want to help other families avoid the pain they have suffered.I wonder who would get the ticket, under this proposed law, the child who wandered too close to the water, while chasing their wind-blown beach ball, or the parent who was sunbathing with their eyes closed?I can see it going something like this:Park Ranger (PR): Hey kid where are your parents?
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| I am feeling really conflicted, inside today. This Secret is in part so late because I am being challenged by all the emotional churning I am attempting to release. I do not have thoughts, which are mine, battling against each other, but as an empath, I am feeling overwhelmed by the thoughts of my brothers and sisters, in the U.S. I was sitting at my temporary job, Tuesday night, and I was merely observing conversations. Fear and anxiety, about the direction this country is headed, was the strongest energetic in the conversation. I have felt this all over the internet, as well. People are genuinely, passionately afraid that this country is taking away their personal freedoms, is becoming a socialist country by taking from those who "have" and giving to those who "have not," and is destroying the planet in the process. In my fifty-five years, I have never felt so much fear and anxiety. Here is what concerns me about the state of our planetary consciousness, right now: We are so addicted to the direction of the Glenn Becks, the Rush Limbaughs, and the other hate mongers, on our airwaves, that we seldom take the time to form our own opinions on things. These prophets of fear tell their millions of followers that the government is going to ration death, or that it is going to destroy life as they want it in some other way, and they believe without even using their common sense, without doing any further investigation. It astounds me how many talking heads are exploiting people's fears and finding it hugely profitable to do so. Understand that I do not blame Rush, Glenn, and the other spin masters. I actually applaud them for finding a way to express their talents. They are very skilled at their crafts and appear to be following their passions by spewing forth their own hatreds and fears. If there were not a demand for the vitriol they are espousing, they would not have so many followers. What concerns me is the split that is encouraged between the supposed liberal thinkers and the conservative thinkers. Having balance between the two polar opposites is a healthy thing and has always been essential to maintaining the freedoms we enjoy in this great country. Most Americans have a difficult time choosing to fully align themselves with just one side or the other. Most find, as I do, that there are important values, in both perspectives, and would not want to be forced into acceptance of only one side of this ideological system. For example, I do not believe in abortion, especially as a means of birth control; but I believe even less that the Government should have legislation which tells an expectant mother whether or not it is "legal" for her to do what she feels she needs to do. It is not an issue the Government should have any part in. It is between the expectant mother and her Higher Power. It is not between her and any group of citizens, regardless of their agenda. Where does that place me, politically? I am somewhere in the middle. I suppose on this issue I would be called a Libertarian, because I think the Government has no "right" to be involved at any level. There are many of us who cannot identify ourselves with just one side or the other of the political spectrum. I believe, in fact, that most Americans who actually think for themselves find themselves in the middle in most areas. We want the government to be smaller, less intrusive, and to be fiscally conservative, yet we do not want the rights of the individual freedoms to be eroded. I could write, for the rest of my days about the complexity that I am feeling in the split between the American people. What concerns me is the anger and distrust which is being fueled by hate-filled rhetoric. These flames of separation have consequences which we are all feeling inside, even if we do not find ourselves directly involved in any of the debates. There is no escaping the fact that the emotions, we are expressing as individuals, impact the collective consciousness. It is time that we, as global citizens, take an honest look at what we value and then turn off all the garbage which seeks to exploit our fears, while purporting to be defendants of our values. It is absolutely impossible for me to Love God and hate my neighbor, even if he is in the country illegally. It is inconsistent with faith in a higher power for me to be so consumed with fear. We are in a time where special interests are spending billions of dollars to drive wedges between us. We, as conscious, awake individuals must ask why this is occurring. The truth is that many of these organizations only serve the Green God of the bottom line. If I can make you afraid of your neighbor, I can sell you more guns, gun training, bullets, fences, bars, alarm systems, tasers, self-defense classes, and on and on it goes. If I can keep you in fear, you will willingly give up all personal freedoms, so that you can feel some degree of safety. It is a time when we need to be tearing walls down, not erecting them in some hope of keeping that which we fear away from us. The truth is: our fears are gifts. They come up so that we may examine an area, in our lives, where we are not loving. They show up, in our awareness, so that we may heal them. When we allow them to move from unexamined emotion, into thoughtless words and actions, we miss the gift which was offered. Please consider these wise words: "If we do not like what is happening in the world, all we have to do is change our consciousness - and the world out there changes for us." - Lester Levenson We do not need to try and change each other. We do not need to write more legislation in an attempt to force people to act in a way we think they should. We only need to love more. Please hear this. Fears can become addictive. Seeking out people to distrust because they are different from me is a behavior which feeds my addiction to being afraid. I am so good at lying to myself, about this addiction, that I do not even think I am afraid. I believe I am justified. I believe I am right, and those who disagree are wrong. Hell, I have dozens of places I can go for confirmation of this inner truth. In some cases I can even hear this "truth" uttered from church leaders. We do not need to change others. If I can only learn to love more, that which my ego-mind resists loses its importance. That, which my ego-mind insists will harm me, loses its power. In giving up the ego-mind which fights to defend its truth, love opens possible avenues to reconciliation, where once fear forcefully held the door closed. We do not need to build more prisons to hold those we fear. We do not need to build more weapons to kill those who threaten the world we believe in. We only need to love more. We do not need to pledge allegiance to the party we think best represents our interests. We only need to love more. Love unites. Fear divides. In Unity, we have the opportunity to find ourselves in one another and recognize that the perceived separation has been and always will be imaginary. In fear, this ability is not only rejected, it is not even considered as a possibility. I will not ask you or tell you to stop listening to programs which insist that this group or that group is out to get you, or to disrupt your way of life. I only ask that you pay attention to how that is making you feel. Do you find yourself more loving, more kind, more joyous, more open after investing your time with these talk jocks, or do you find yourself angry and fearful (even if you are not yet willing or able to recognize it as fear?) I am not suggesting that you place your head in the sand. If you really passionately feel that there is an action you should take, and taking this action seems to be an expression of love, then by all means take the action. I am just calling for us all to be conscious of the fact that everything we think, everything we do either adds to a collective consciousness of Love or impacts the entire field in the opposite direction. We always know if the action we are taking, if the thought we are feeding, is loving or if it is not. Empower ONLY that which is loving. Our fears are being manipulated in service to the god of the Bottom Line. And this Green god has nothing to do with loving our environment. In all we do, we need to choose love. It is the only choice which honors the Truth of who we are and why we are here. Elliott Teters *****Sign up for "Secrets to Peace"*****-Free Inspirational Daily Newsletter http://etsblog.loveexpressing.com |
| Everywhere I turn, the message to "Love What Is" touches me. I hear it in my heart. I hear it from friends. I hear it from teachers, even the one's in disguise. Monday night I heard it from Michael Benard Beckwith as he was presented on PBS. Michael said there are three levels of gratitude:
Energy Medicine and Spiritual Counseling http://etsblog.loveexpressing.com |
| Yesterday morning I received this in an email: Let life come, without striving to force it. Let life come, and it will unfold with great abundance. The feeling you seek is already yours. If it was not, then how could you even know about it? Allow that feeling to live and breathe and grow and flow throughout your life. The life you wish to experience is yours when you let go and let it be. Listen to those little inspirations that quietly whisper. There is a reason why you hear them and feel their truth. Act in harmony with what you know is right and what you know is best. Instead of struggling against what is, ride joyously and successfully along with life's continuously unfolding possibilities. Let life come. And live the beauty as each new moment is born. -- Ralph Marston Beautiful, I think.The full post is on my blog: bit.ly/aW7k7GElliott Teters |
| Why, do you suppose, we are so suspicious about love? Recently, on Twitter, a woman signed up to follow me, and she sent me a nice warm welcome message. I wrote back, "I love you and appreciate you. I will carry you with me in my heart all day." I will grant you that I probably overuse the words I love you and appreciate you, because I do tell people that quite often. For whatever reason, the woman immediately un-followed me. I guess my words frightened her. One of the quickest ways to get people to give you that "You belong in a nuthouse" look is to tell them that you love them, when they know, in their own mind, that you could not possibly mean that. Why is this idea so frightening? I wrote the other day, I honestly believe that what we all crave most is to be loved. If this is true why would a confession of my love for another cause them so much distress? I think it is because we all carry a story around, and this story defines our world. If my story includes a chapter that says one should never utter the words, "I love you" unless they have met some set of (story-defined) requirements, it will be very unlikely I can believe such utterances. Our pop culture, movies, television, and magazines have all taught us that there is a difference between "real" love and love that is simply spoken but not meant. It is the theme in dozens of movies and magazine articles, annually. Consider these words from Saint Augustine: "What I needed most was to love and to be loved. I rushed headlong into love, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me; and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers of jealousy, by suspicions and fear, by bursts of anger and quarrels." - Saint Augustine We all do want to be loved, but we do not all understand how that desire can be fulfilled. So, we rush into the world anxious to find the love, we crave, in relationships. However, as Augustine discovered, people seldom are capable of meeting our needs. I have witnessed many people seeking love, from another, only to be disappointed when the object of their attention could not provide the comfort and assurance desired by the seeker. Faced with this disappointment, these searchers often added more conditions to their story, tweaking the parameters which defined love. Hoping not to be hurt, again, these individuals created tests for determining when love is real and when it is not. Note here that these stories are always altered because of fear. Having looked outside themselves for love and having failed to find that which they sought, they experienced hurt and disappointment. The fear of enduring that hurt, again, caused them to “learn” from their experience, promising themselves to be more cautious next time. Because this person’s well of love feels empty, they refuse love that is freely given from another. They compare any such offering to what they had previously defined as love. Because history has taught them that this can not be real love, they reject it. Sometimes they make statements like, “You couldn’t possibly love me. You don’t even know me.” Or “You have not known me long enough to love me.” Most of the time, however, they just label the person, offering the love, as either wanting something or as being some kind of nut case. Either way, their story, informs them to steer clear of this individual. As Saint Augustine, and most of us on this list have, discovered we fill our cups to overflowing by loving, not by receiving love. We find this abundance of Love within ourselves, through our connection to our Source, which is Love Itself. The only love which is ever real is the love we give away. As this love flows through us, it changes our ego-based story; in fact it changes everything in our world. When I looked for love, from other people; when I looked for confirmation of my worthiness in relationships, I was always disappointed. It is impossible to feel more love from another person than I am capable of feeling for myself and for others. The only definition of love, that contains any validity, has its basis in my love of self and others. When this inner-relationship is weak or non-existent, and I look to you to fill this emptiness, you will always fall short. It is a vicious cycle. I want to think that the problem is with you or with the whole idea of love, in general; when in fact the problem lies within me; because of my inability to realize my connection to the field of Unconditional Love, in which we are continuously immersed. When I am connected to God, Love, Source, or any other name I feel appropriate for this Divine Energy, and I am aware of this communion (because in Truth I can never be disconnected) I have no need of judging you, whether you say you love me or not; whether you show your love for me or not. From this place, where my cup truly runneth over with love, the only feeling I have toward you, is love. I admit I get over exuberant, sometimes, at my enthusiasm for this love I found inside. I try, to the best of my ability, to just show people I love them more than telling them I love them. In part, I do this because it does make some people very uncomfortable to be told they are loved. It is not a part of their paradigm, and they have attached so many personal meanings to this term, that hearing these words causes confusion, stress, and sometimes even anger. Oh, but if they could see themselves through my eyes. There is so much beauty in the souls of everyone I see. Even those who wander around, totally unaware of this Truth, possess the Light of Love inside themselves. Kids know this truth. Kids and I connect everywhere I go. Parents often get nervous when they see an infant and I connect, no words, no contact, just open hearts recognizing the Divine within each other. Someday, it is my dream that we will all be unafraid enough, to fully love one another, regardless of the stories which we have created to keep us safe. In Truth, there is nothing safer than Love. In Love there is nothing to fear. In fear, love is nearly impossible.Elliott Teters Energy Medicine and Spiritual Counseling From: Secrets to Peace http://etsblog.loveexpressing.com |
| Over the weekend I attended the Kansas City Regional Robotics Competition. As I have reported before it is the playoff's for the geeks and nerds. What an amazingly wonderful event.Dean Kamen and Woody Flowers are awesome individuals. Their promotion of these robotic challenges are quite the blessing for the children and the mentors involved. One of the best things they teach, our future technology leaders, is gracious professionalism. Watch this short video featuring Woody: http://www.usfirst.org/VideoPlayer.aspx?video=woodie_pro.flvSo thank you Dean and Woody. You both bless our planet!Check out First Robotics here: http://www.usfirst.org/Elliott Teters Energy Medicine and Spiritual Counseling "Everything I see Is but a reflection Of the LIGHT Passing through Me” -Elliott Teters 2009 *****Sign up for "Secrets to Peace"***** -Free Inspirational Daily Newsletter http://etsblog.loveexpressing.com |
