A Loving Heart.

A warm, loving heart.

A heart that is alive!


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(The image has been slightly modified.)

A Third Way.

                            

When we are young we think that there are only two alternatives:

To do what we want and seek pleasures.

Or.

To obey our elders and work hard for our masters.

But there is a Third Way:

To open our heart and give love to those around us.

This Third Way leads directly to God.

So love God and love your neighbor.

Then you will be Home.


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Gay Love.

                            

Homosexuality is love.

It is not some wicked act divorced from human feelings.

It is inspired by love as any heterosexual relationship is.

We are wired to engage with each other.

This is God's Love in action:

Bringing us out of ourselves and towards another.

Sex is not just for procreation.

Sex creates intimacy and love in a relationship.

All this is good.

There are many heterosexual couples who do not have children.
But no one is suggesting that they refrain from sex.

Gay people should be allowed to marry and have families as others do.


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Takers.

                            

Too many Church people are takers, not givers.

They leave it to God.

But they take the credit.

And when something goes wrong they are nowhere to be found.

They do little.

But they feel spiritually superior.

When they are called upon to act they do little to help.

And this is why the Church is dying.


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God.

                            

When we are young and we encounter the world we can mistake the way of the world for God.

Life seems tough, demanding, unsympathetic, and unforgiving.

But this is the influence of power and money which was once in league with the conservative Establishment but now represents the corporate plutocracy and its conservative political puppets.

But this is not the way of God despite what Fundamentalist Christians may tell you.

God is merciful, forgiving, gracious.
He will always give you another chance.

He is undemanding and considerate.

He loves you like a Father.

But the Churches traditionally sided with political conservatives and represented God as a harsh judge and moral wowser.

The reason for this is that the Church became entangled with power and money and adopted their carrot and stick approach to the masses in order to maintain their position of authority and privilege in society.

The result has been that the message of Jesus is severely compromised, even contradicted completely.

The traditional authorities of the Churches are the spiritual descendants of the Pharisees who were the enemies of Jesus.

Since the mass exodus from the Churches there have been some desperate attempts to bring people back but change is slow and reluctant.

There are some progressive Christians but the mainstream Churches are dragging their feet.

Even the most liberal Churches - the Episcopalian Church in America and the Uniting Church in Australia - sit on the fence when it comes to important decisions and refuse to speak up for minorities and outcasts.

So pray for courage and change.

Or the Church will die.


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The Establishment.

                                         

If you take Jesus' teachings seriously and put them into practice you will inevitably come up against the Establishment.

As Jesus did.

And it was the Establishment that murdered Jesus.


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State Religion.

                            

Were Progressive Christianity ever to become the State Religion it would be essential that we challenge any attempts to return to the carrot and stick religion of rewards and punishments with its heaven and hell.

These things are Machiavellian mass control techniques which are more in the interests of the State than God.

God does not punish us.

The State may punish us.

But God does not.

There is no devil.

There is no hell.

These things have developed from attempts to explain our experience.

They are based on outmoded dualistic thinking.

God is One.

And His nature is Love.


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