A New Bar Mitzvah.

At the age of 13 Jewish people celebrate Bar Mitzvah (Bat Mitzvah for girls) which marks their coming of age.

Afterwards youths and girls are considered responsible for their own actions and participate in the life of the community.

The equivalent in Christianity is Confirmation which is something quite different.
Confirmation ties the individual into a false theology of belief - the Christology of which Jesus knew nothing.

I believe that we should return to the rite of passage that celebrates puberty as a natural and joyful part of life.

Instead of guilt, fear, and shame we should encourage joy, happiness, and delight.
The sexual development of the individual would then receive a blessing from God and would no longer be a thorn in the side of adults.
Young people would no longer feel that their sexual feelings had to be hidden from parents and society.
They would feel more comfortable with their own sexuality as part of adult life in community with others.

There could even be education and training in responsible sexual activity - including homosexual activity - which respects the wishes and rights of the loved one.

There would no longer be this unhealthy separation of body and spirit which has so blighted Christianity.
The individual would experience a synthesis of body, sexuality, and spirituality (which is love) in a loving response to others.

Sex is the consummation of love.
The heart mediates between the body and the spirit.

In Jewish practice circumcision is the mark of consecration to God.
This creates a link between sexuality and God (the Creator) which allows the individual to feel more relaxed about sexual feelings.
This takes place at a deep unconscious level.

The development of sexuality coincides with feelings of love for another.
If the desire that is experienced is tempered with respect for the other then there is no harm in sexuality - homosexual or heterosexual.

The difficulty for homosexual people is the minority status of their feelings.
The number of people who will respond positively to homosexual advances are considerably less than those for heterosexual people.
Therefore homosexuals experience greater levels of rejection which can lead to suicidal feelings.

This is why it is vital to have gay sex education in schools - or even churches.
This education would help with rejection and feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing.

The incidence of suicide in gay youth is about four times that of heterosexual youth for the above reasons.

A rite of passage with education and training would help greatly to alleviate sexual abuse in our society.

The Next Generation.

We forget, when we have learned things or regard the things which humanity has achieve during our lifetime, that people born after us may not have learned those things.

So it is important to put in place in advance education that will pass on to later generations what we have learned.

Otherwise humanity is doomed to repeat our mistakes.

This can take the form of legislation (eg: gay marriage legislation) or education (eg: gay sex education in schools) or custom (eg: gay bashing is gutless).

Of course any of these things can be reversed by counter-revolutionary forces.  But once they are in place they tend to stay there.

So if Churches teach that there is no devil then future generations will not sell their souls and the problem of Satanism will die out.

This is part of a complete overhaul of religious thinking in our world.

At present many Churches still preach the devil and his angels.
So it is a small step to believing this and embracing the dark side.

They tell people that rock stars practiced Satanism and it and them famous, rich, and sex gods (dogs).

Of course that's not what happened.
But how do you prove that?

Those things happen to all stars and celebrities whether they sell their souls or not.
But how do you prove that?

No devil is a start.

In the end there is no Satan only God's Love.

Deterrence.

The whole theory of deterrence is wrong.

Punishment is a deterrent to crime.
Divine punishment is a deterrent to sin.

God is not a punisher of men and women.

We judge God by human standards.
God judges no one.

But this does not mean that God condones violence or crime.
He understands the motives and the reasons for the crime.

He forgives us.

We assume that there is judgment and punishment because this is the way of the world.

But it is not God's way.

All are forgiven.

None will perish.

Steadfast Love.

At first we expect God to be a kaleidoscope of colors and flashing lights.

But God, when we encounter Him, is a gentle guiding light and full of love and mercy.

God is kind and trustworthy.

When we are little children we are innocent and trusting.
But in the playground we are attacked by bullies.
(Bullies are people who are afraid of being bullied.  They defend themselves by attacking others who are weaker than themselves in order to look tough and unassailable.)

Fear begets fear.

So when we encounter God we are surprised that He is not aggressive.
"Why doesn't He attack evil and destroy it?"  "Why doesn't He force them to stop?"

But God is non-violent.
He will persevere in a non-violent fashion until we give up and accept His Love.

We mistake gentleness for weakness.
We think violence makes us look strong.
But people who are really strong are gentle.

We have huge armies.
If we were really as peace-loving as we make out we would not need them.
But we keep them because we really think we must be more violent and ruthless than anyone else.

So our peace and our benevolence is a lie.

When the ancient prophets encountered God and He revealed His holy name, "'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness'"  Exodus 34:6b (NRSV)  They tacked on the end, "'yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation.'" Exodus 34:7b (NRSV)  This last statement was later repudiated in Ezekiel 8.

So people attack the weak in order to look strong and invulnerable.

Bullies are people who are full of fear.

Big, strong men will quake at the sight of a homosexual.  They will run and hide. They will not consort with him lest people call them poofters.  Their fear is so great.  The terror is too much for them.  They may even become violent.
What men fear is humiliation and rejection.  He won't be one of the boys.  He will be cast out and kept at arms length.

Of course this may not actually happen but his fear is so great that it makes no difference.

But God has no such fears.
He is gentle and supportive, steadfast in love.


[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.]

What to Encourage.

Classical music.

Sacred choral music.

Chanting.

Prayer.

Silence..

Blessings.

Gratitude.

Benevolence.

Charity.

Generosity.

Courage.

Integrity.

Discipline.

Faith.

Truth.

Angels.

Doves.

Rainbows.

White.

Flowers.

Light.

Life.

Love.

What to Avoid.

The sign of the devil (two fingers = horns).

Anything backwards or upside down.

Magical symbols or writing.

Hate, darkness, death (murder).

Skulls, snakes, spiders (webs).

Flames (hell).

Sex = death.

Apples (Garden of Eden = The Fall).

Fallen angels.

Devils or demons.

Sabotage :
taking the easy way out,
cutting corners,
shame, guilt,
ending faith,
drugs,
leaving love = divorce.

Love is sex.

Evil.

Hammers and nails (crucifixion).

Urine or excrement.

The toilet.

Knives or swords.

Broken hearts.

Korrupt (K = Scorpio = power)

Desecration.

Profanity.

Blasphemy.

Swearing or cursing.

Covenant.

The first version of the covenant between God and Moses would appear to be in Exodus 34 where the three festivals - the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of the Passover - are consecrated with the nation of Israel.

[Along with these not making idols, redeeming the first-born (animals and sons), and not boiling a kid in its mother's milk are recommended.]

So perhaps the legalistic language of the Ten Commandments was not Moses' but the mentality of the priests who wrote them 600 years later.

That being said the important part of the story is the covenant between God and the liberated Israelites.

The first covenant was the rainbow between God and Noah after the flood.

The second covenant was between God and Abraham and his descendants.

The third covenant was between God and Moses.

The fourth covenant would appear to be with King David.

The fifth covenant is through Jesus of Nazareth.

A sixth covenant could be said to be with Mohammed.

So God regularly renews His covenant not only with Israel but with all humankind.

Is it possible that there will be a new covenant between God and humanity through Aquarius?

They say that the darkest hour is just before the dawn.
It is certainly dark enough now.

The fertile ground is there with many Aquarian people on earth at this time.

God is certainly doing something new.
Nurturing our understanding and hinting at the direction.

After liberating theological thought from negative doctrines the rest is all about Love.

Love God and love your neighbor.