Sex is Love.

The energy which we experience as sexual desire is none other than love.

The love that we feel for the beloved is expressed through sexual desire.

This comes from God.

God is Love.

The rest is fear.

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love."  1 John 4:18 (NRSV)


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]


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Backwards.

Why do those who worship Satan practice religion backwards?

The answer is simple: Sex.

Because they believe that the Church (and therefore God) are anti-sex they reject God and the Church and sell their souls to the devil in order to get sex.

They believe that practicing religion backwards is rewarded by Satan with whatever they want.

But because sex is love their ultimate motivation is love.

The other thing that they are interested in is money.

It can be noted that most of them come from poor backgrounds and the fear of poverty drives them.  They are so afraid of poverty that they are prepared to sell their souls to avoid it.

So their motivation is fear.

These two motivations: love and fear are ultimately forgivable.

So we can pray for them to be forgiven and reconciled to God.


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Angels.

Agents of Love

with good within,

beneficent,

generous,

open-hearted;

come to us now

with living water;

revive us,

strengthen us,

lift us up;

show us your light

and touch our hearts.

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Pillars.

You would have them monsters,

demons of the dark side,

hell-raisers,

and followers of Satan.


I would have them angels,

agents of the light,

rocks of faith,

and pillars of the Aquarian Temple.


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Musclemen.

Hewn from rock

like Michelangelo's Giants,

they form the pillars

of the Aquarian Temple.

The rock of faith

in their Heavenly Father,

through hearts

like jars of living water,

their bodies temples

of the spirit,

they embody the substance

of the Mountain of God.  


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Bedrock.

I had a dream in which I was in a large cathedral full of worshipers of all kinds.

In the center of this cathedral was an excavation which was digging down into the rock below the floor.

On these rocks were beautiful carvings which seemed to me to be very old even though they were being carved as I watched.

My interpretation of this dream is that the ideas and dreams of Progressive Christianity are older than the doctrines of Christianity as we know it.

The basic ideas which Progressive Christians seem to agree on are that the bedrock of Jesus' teachings is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and to love your neighbor as yourself.

So the edifice of Progressive Christianity is being established with a cornerstone of unconditional love.


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Clouds.

In the water

that rises

from the sea

we can see

the firmament

of heaven.


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The Popular Culture.

So what happened to peace and love?

We were betrayed by our rock legends.

From the early 1960s  onwards rock musicians have been selling their souls to the devil and practicing covert Satanism and black magic in their music.

I know this sounds incredible but their practices are well disguised.

Peace and love became sex and drugs and rock and roll.
This was thought to lead to death - the death to God that St. Paul called the wages of sin.

We were all steered in the direction of hell.

This combined with the counter-revolutionary events of the 1980s to see the end of peace and love.

But it has re-appeared in the form of Progressive Christianity.
The Gospel of Love as taught by the historical Jesus has re-emerged as the cornerstone of the New Temple - the home of the New Paradigm.

It is not rock music that will save us but the teachings of the historical Jesus.


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The Sea.

From the top of the hill

you can see,

like lapis-lazuli,

the shimmering sea.


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Expectations.

In a world that is increasingly secular and atheist what idea of God is relevant?

Firstly it must be intelligible.
It must satisfy our intellect.

Secondly it must answer the questions.
The big questions about life, the universe, and everything.

Thirdly it must be real.
It must be something we can experience.

We are trained from childhood to use our intellect.
We are encouraged to ask questions.

But purely scientific thinking leaves a gaping hole in our lives.

This hole is filled by God.

And what does God expect of us?

To treat those around us with loving kindness and mercy, to be honest and truthful, to act with justice, and to show gratitude and respect.

But most of all to love.


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Daisies.

I nurture

in my garden

the humble daisies.


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Free.

In his book God is not a Christian Desmond Tutu says that once a people has decided that they will become free, then nothing, absolutely nothing, in the world will stop them.

Gay people have decided that they will be free.

And nothing, not any setback, not any hateful placard, not any adverse court decision, not any hell-fire preacher will stop them.


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The Time 2.

Progressive.

Activist.

Reform.

Equality.

Challenge.

Communicate.

Light.

Enlightenment.

Water.

Compassion.

Unconditional Love.


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The Time 1.

Post - Modern.

Post - Colonial.

Post - Revolution.

Post - Counter-Revolution.

Post - Christian.

Post - AIDS.

Post - Millennium.

Post - 9/11.

Post - War.

Post - Material.

Post - Literal.


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Brown and Pink.

After reading Desmond Tutu's book God is not a Christian, in which he talks about black theology, I came to the conclusion that rather than talking about black people and white people it was preferable  to use the reference which was given to me by an Indian yogi: that we are brown and pink.

By doing this we sidestep the negative associations with black and white which have so plagued race relations in our world.

In fact people come in a variety of colors: brown, pink, yellow, red.....
Some brown people are so dark they are almost blue.

I see this as a good thing.

Each color of this spectrum has equal value.

By calling ourselves pink instead of white we circumvent the logic of white supremacy

Much better to be equal.

And say that we are brown and pink.


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Jacarandas.

December.

And my path

leads

through an avenue

of violet

Jacarandas.


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Afternoon.

Yellow sunlight

slanting through the trees

dapples my room

in the afternoon.


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Young Gays.

My greatest concern is for young gays who only ever hear negative messages from the Church.

Whenever the issue of gay rights comes up the media set up a conflict between gays on the one hand and Christians on the other.

This means that the only message that young gays hear from the Church is condemnation and damnation.

There are Churches which accept gays and affirm their rights but unfortunately they will not speak up in the public domain.  They are never invited to air their views in the media.

I have also written several letters to the gay press outlining my message of acceptance and love from God, but none of the publications involved would publish them

It is as if they don't want them to know.

So to any young gays who may read this post - know that you are loved by God and accepted as you are, and that you will enter into heaven when you die.


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Tears.

As the day dawns

in subtle splendor,

I remember

your tears.


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Inhumanity.

What is the cause of man's inhumanity to man?

Rather than ascribing this to some kind of evil, I believe that the cause is fear.

This may not be immediately apparent, but the ultimate motive of violence and oppression is fear.

This is the kind of fear which hides behind a mask of toughness and strength.

It is the fear of being dominated which makes people dominate others.

It is the fear of violence which makes people violent.

It is the fear of being humiliated which makes people humiliate others.

This is the law of the schoolyard.
It is the playing field of bullies.

And it extends into the realm of international politics.


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Iris.

God's art

can be seen

in the flowering Iris.


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Good and Evil.

The problem with categorizing things (or people) as good or evil is that one immediately has to win out against the other.

No good person is entirely good and no evil person is entirely evil.

So to begin a war between good and evil is to condemn us to perpetual battle.

This is the cause of much of the violence in our world.

Better to say that those we call evil are motivated by fears that have been learned or inherited.

Those who choose evil are usually those who have internalized the violent, vindictive God of the Old Testament and rejected God on false grounds.

These ideas about God are projected fears.

So, rather than battling against them, we should seek to liberate them from these fears.

And offer them the true image of a loving God.

There are only two things in the world - Love and Fear.

Where we find evil if we do the calculus we will find fear.

What motivates them?
Who told them?
And why did they tell them?

Blind guides motivated by fear.
Beginning and ending with the fear of God.

But we have nothing to fear from God.
God punishes no one.
He wishes the best for everyone.

Only good comes from God.


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The Collective.

In nature everything is interconnected.

Humans were not meant to live within walls.

Humans are tribal.

We live in an extended family.

So little wonder that we are connected

at a deeper level

in the collective unconscious.


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The Standards of the World..

From the time of our birth we are taught to aspire to success.

This, however, is to judge life by the standards of the world.

We watch sports to see the winners and read books about high achievers.

We watch T.V. and read newspapers which constantly tell us to get more an better things

We praise the winners and abuse the losers.

But God's way is different.

God is on the side of the losers - the nobodies, the weak, the poor.....

No one teaches us to value these.

But God values them.

They are equal in His sight to the rich and powerful.

Cry out to God!

And He will deliver you.


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Walls (2).

Walls were invented by human beings

to separate what's mine from what's yours.

There are no walls in nature,

everything is interconnected.


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Walls (1).

There are no walls in nature.


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Hearts.

In the Bible and other religious texts you will often find references to good and evil hearts.

For example the New Testament talks about good or evil treasure in the heart.

But my contention is that the heart is for love alone.
Evil comes about because of fears which lock up the love in our hearts.

These fears are mostly located in the subconscious mind and may have been learned or placed there by others acting according to their own inherited fears.

So to overcome our deepest fears is to set free the love that dwells in our hearts.

To love God is to be set free from fear.

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love."  1 John 4:18 (NRSV)


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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A Pool.

"In my heart there is a garden

and in that garden there is a pool

where I come with you to drink....."

- Ankhesenpaaten
(Wife of Tutankhamun)



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Do You Love Me?

On that last night Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?" three times.

Peter replied that he did then Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times before dawn.

The significance of this passage cannot be overlooked.
For it was love that Jesus taught them.

But it is one thing to hear the message and another to put it into practice.

Jesus knew that people accepted the message and then did not put it into practice.

So he asked Peter, "Do you love me?" three times.
As if to query whether he had heard the message to love one another and was putting it into practice.  Because if he could not love Jesus how could he love others?

Do you love me?


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Turtle Doves.

In my garden

each morning

the coo-ing of turtle doves.


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Up.

Have you ever noticed that church steeples, temples, and pagodas all point up?

I suppose this has something to do with heaven being the sky.

This tiered worldview is now obsolete.
But we still have the structures pointing up.

Eastern pagodas have successive roofs representing higher and higher states of consciousness.

Western churches have towering steeples reaching for the heavens.

But to go up is to miss the point.

God dwells in the heart.

So to reach the divine we must go deeper within.

In the end life is not so much about the state of our minds as the condition of our hearts.


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God's Temple.

The silence of the towering trees,

God's spirit exhales stillness.

The arching green high above,

the canopy of God's temple.

The pure air,

God's breath.


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Sinners.

Contrary to popular opinion God's attitude towards sinners is not one of condemnation.

God wishes to redeem us, even to the very last one.

For God knows the reasons for our sins, even of those who have turned against Him.

We may be forgiven little, but those who are forgiven much will love much.

As for those who have turned against God the reasons are to do with a false image of God which has been given to them by blind guides.

This is a misunderstanding of God's nature.

They turn against an angry, vengeful God who does not exist.

So they can be reconciled to the God of Love.

Who is the only God in reality.


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Wisteria.

From

wintry branches

sprout

clusters of

weeping wisteria.


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Cover Up.

If Satanism is so rife in the music industry how come nobody knows about it?

The answer is quite simple.

They cover it up.

When suspicion grows the suspected artist brings out an album (usually with a white cover) which paints them as good, even saintly.

They bring out material which is forwards.

But don't be deceived.
They will revert to their black, backwards songs as soon as the coast is clear.

And as everybody takes things at face value, everyone is fooled.

So be warned.

Rock musicians practice black magic and Satanism.


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God of Love.

A loving God

through love unveiled

opens our hearts

to love the world.


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What of Evil?

As for evil, the only evil that exists in the world is that which is deliberately chosen as an alternative to good.

This is usually because life is unsatisfactory, even hateful, and God is seen as the cause of this.

It is usually accompanied by a harsh image of God.

But such people are not to be blamed.

They have been led astray by blind guides and misguided magicians; they are reacting dramatically to their life-long experience.

When Jesus said to love your enemies it was these people he was talking about.

They are not to be hated or damned, they are to be loved and redeemed, reconciled with the God of Love whom they have never known.

So we can stop battling evil and pursuing it with the sword.

They are to be loved and reconciled to God.


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Jerusalem.

As the bombers fly out

over Jerusalem,

we remember

the tears of Jesus.


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Life is not a Game.

When I was growing up we had a board game called "Life".

This game was about getting a job, making money, and buying cars and houses.

No wonder we sang along to "Is that all there is?"

Life is not about accumulating money and possessions.

Life is about Love.

And people who turn to alcohol and drugs are doing so because they don't experience enough love in their lives.

When Jesus says to love God, our neighbor, and our enemies he is not merely obeying a commandment, he is teaching us the very essence of life.

Love is an essential, like food or water.

We cannot live without it.

And this is what you will find in a relationship with God.


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The Water of Life.

What is the mysterious water of life?

What is it without which life is like a desert?

What is it that revives us?

What is it we are searching for?

It is Love.

Unconditional Love.


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Young Gays.

My greatest concern is for young gays who only ever hear negative messages from the Church.

Whenever the issue of gay rights comes up the media set up a conflict between gays on the one hand and Christians on the other.

This means that the only message that young gays hear from the Church is condemnation and damnation.

There are Churches which accept gays and affirm their rights but unfortunately they will not speak up in the public domain.  They are never invited to air their views in the media.

I have also written several letters to the gay press outlining my message of acceptance and love from God, but none of the publications involved would publish them.

It is as if they don't want them to know.

So to any yonng gays who may read this post - know that you are loved by God and accepted as you are, and that you will enter into heaven when you die.


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The Water Jar.

A pottery jar

of pink terracotta

opens our hearts

to the water of life.


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The White Garden.

I walk with God

in the tranquil garden,

and all the flowers

are white.


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Inverse.

Satanism is the inverse of Orthodox Christianity.

Therefore the errors that mar Orthodox Christianity also affect modern Satanism.

The doctrines of Original Sin, Substitutionary Atonement, Judgement, Damnation, Hell, and Death all infect modern Satanism.

But the fact that these are theological fictions does not altogether cancel the damage done.

Curses, temptations, negative ideation, misery, sabotage, and violence all affect us through rock music and movies, books and sport.....

The harm remains.

So we must be careful what we watch and listen to.

It may not be as harmless as we think.


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Blame.

It may seem that I am taking sides and blaming Conservative Christians.

But Progressive Christianity is for everyone.

Conservative Christians may be the agents of negative doctrines but they are not evil.  They are acting out of fear.

This fear has been handed down from generation to generation as tradition and discipline.

Their fear of God comes from their fear of their own fathers' discipline.

So they are not to be blamed or damned for what they have done.

They are to be helped to overcome their fear.


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Morning Light.

Through my doorway

a white shaft

of morning light.


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God Comes Last.

Quite contrary to our expectation that God will beat everybody and rule alone, God is with the losers and the outcast, the neglected and the marginalized of this world.

God does not win

God comes last.


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Rainbow.

In the late afternoon

a leisurely walk,

and over my path

a rainbow.


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A Healthy Attitude Towards Sex.

What is needed in the Church today is not the traditional phobias and taboos about sex but a healthy acceptance of what is a natural part of life.

I include homosexual activity in this acceptance because apart from procreation sex creates intimacy, trust, and love in a relationship.

For far too long the Church has hidden its head in the sand and enforced silence about sexuality.
This has created fear and repression.
It is the cause of the sex abuse scandals.

It is time for the Church to realize that it has been mistaken about this and to teach congregations to have a healthy attitude towards sex.


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Moderation.

From the left I am assailed by excess.

From the right by self-denial.

Between the two extremes

I choose the middle path.

And conduct myself with moderation.


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