American Christianity no longer resembles its Founder

Posted on 2016/11/11 by Bijbelvorsers

In the United States of America the last few months we could see that there is much division in the country, with lots of people who call themselves Christian took on not only a racist attitude, but also used many awful words against the different peoples living in their state and against those who show that they do not agree with their favoured politician and presidential candidate.

In the 16th century there was a time many who fled to the New World carried a Dutch crescent-shaped Geuzen medal at the time of the anti-Spanish Dutch Revolt, with the slogan “Liever Turks dan Paaps” (“Rather Turkish than Papist“), 1570, indicating to be better a Muslim than to be a Roman Catholic.

An American writer who considers himself reformed in his thinking and faith, considers himself a follower of Jesus and believing all Scriptures, though he looks like a papist (not in an offensive way) and does not seem to believe all words of Jesus and not to accept that God is only One, but that is not the issue in this writing. Today we want to look at what he wrote already in 2012.

In his article The Best Argument Against Christianity he looked at “Some Disturbing Statistics” and wrote

David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group (a research organization focusing on religious trends and information), asserts that the primary issue that today’s culture has with Christianity is that it no longer resembles its Founder. {David Kinnaman, Unchristian, 2007, pg. 25. + The Best Argument Against Christianity}

In his book Unchristian, Kinnaman studied the Mosaic (born between 1984 and 2002) and Busters (born between 1965 and 1983) generations of the United States, which currently comprise approximately 77% of America’s population. With respect to Christianity, Kinnaman notes a growing tide of hostility and resentment, a statistic which is trending downward from a positive study that was done by his Barna group only one decade before. {The Best Argument Against Christianity}

Barna also describes the Mosaic Generation as “comfortable with contradiction”, “post-modern” and exhibiting “non-linear” thinking. All the contradiction going on in the New World many wanting to screw back into the past, makes it very chaotic.

The criteria for human value, to the world at large, has shifted from that of someone who champions high ethical standards at work, has personal integrity in his dealings, and who is committed to doing the right thing no matter what, to someone who, at work, is willing to do whatever can ensure the greatest commercial viability and his own personal security, and get away with whatever s/he can in their personal dealings. The more noble qualities of human nature are unwittingly being sacrificed on the altar of commerce. Most do not realize the cost: ending up as two-dimensional beings, mere cogs in the wheel of commerce without a heart capable of compassion.{Millennials: Escape the Credit/Debt Matrix}

For the blogger “evangelical” relates to Christianity, though we do not hope he wants to give the impression to his readers that ‘Evangelism‘ are the norm and does not use ‘Christianity’ in the same way as it is often used in Belgium when they speak of Christianity or of Christendom they mean ‘Roman Catholicism‘.

Most important to notice is the reflection of the spirit of the age. We have come in a time where atheists speak publicly more often about God than their in God believing counterparts. By the majority of the population there is a bad co-notation to the word ‘Christian’. In 2012 nearly half had a bad impression, and four year later we may say nearly three quarter of the population has a bad idea by the word ‘Christian’ and lots of them do find religion the cause of all the problems and all the wars.

Many non-religious people in the States and in Europe look at the works of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and see the similarities with the crusaders. All those groups went killing and conquering territory, terrorising lots of people. Many non-religious people also hear the vile language of many who say they are Christian or are saying they are defending the Christian values. The 2016 American presidential election has been the example how the Christian manners shown to the world are not those of the master teacher, rabbi Jeshua, known in the States and many other countries as Jesus Christ.

In 2012 also

There were two things that Kinnaman’s study uncovered, and neither had anything to do with the theological teachings or doctrinal standards of the Church. First, unbelievers responded negatively to what they termed the Christian “swagger” – how Christians’ lives don’t match up to Christ’s, and the bark and bite that unbelievers say they see in Christians’ demeanor and action. {The Best Argument Against Christianity}

The immoral way of life by Christians, outsiders can see, is the most chocking to non-religious and other religious people. Muslims in particular are very disgruntled by the way Christian behave. Put out over their way of life no wonder several Muslim groups try to get Christians to their faith, trying to have them understand such a way of living is totally against the Will of God.

Lots of non-religious and non-Christian religious groups see as many respondents said that the charity and compassion of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels have been dismissed by Christians in favour of their selfish gain, combative and judgemental actions against what they believe to be threats against their moral positions.

In other words, as Christians, we have become famous for what we oppose and stand against rather than for what we are in favor of and champion. {The Best Argument Against Christianity}

But what are those American Christians are in favour for? What are their aims and what is their willingness to follow Jesus’ teachings and to have that same attitude as that master teacher? How peaceful do they want to be? In most instances we can see those American ‘Christians’ only considering their church or nomination to be allowed to have the label Christian. Very often they feel other denominations of Christendom are the false groups and consider that most of those people will land up in hell (for them a place of eternal torture). The exclusion of other people is the most problematic element the American population now encounters.

Many youngsters, particular the Millennials who had first difficulties in paying their studies and now have problems paying off the loan and need a place to live (besides with their parents), clothes on their back, food to eat and resources to care for their children, do not see any surplus a church or religion may give them. For them their focus is not at all on something which we cannot see or not fully understand. They are focussing on the material which might be in their reach if certain groups would not stand in their way. They want to have time and money for travel, doing fun things, but nobody standing in their way or confronting them with how they have to live or behave. At the moment they also have become very disappointed with the political system they are living in and want change. It is that carving for change what made many also to chose for Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States, which have become very divided now.

The neo-Nazis and the weapon lobby gladly backed Donald Trump, because in him they saw the man to clean up the country and to enable enough income by the promotion of weapons to determinate ‘the vermin’. Strangely enough lots of evangelist Americans and other so called Christians in those states do promote the carriage and use of weapons and do not seem to mind to shoot at an other creature of God.

When we do hear how those gun-lovers talk about them having to prepare against ‘the enemy’ and how they have to train their kids in shooting and defending themselves, we clearly can form a good idea how far away they have gone from the teaching of Christ. It has gone even so far that there are churches in America where in the service there are tombola’s for or weapons given to their members. There exist even crusader rifles of which so called Christians are very proud to have such gun, which has a cross engraved on it.

That is where the Americans have left the real faith and have also gone far away from the idea of defending and living in a free state.
Lots of American Christians have come to think their freedom is to limit the freedom of others and to oppress their way of thinking to others. For them all have to take on their ‘belief’ and their ‘faith’ and all people in the United States of America do have to live according to their religious rules. For sure that was not something the founding fathers of the New World had in mind. They just had escaped the tyrannising position of the churches in Europe. Today lots of Americans are trying to create that what the founding fathers of the United States of America had fled for and have no idea of their sayings.

It is getting time American Christian get back to reading the Bible and to listen what is written in it. They have to get back on track, finding the inner moral compass to resist unethical business practices, to show others they have a moral and ethical attitude according Judeo Christian values.

Once back on track they can give a good example how a Christian should live together with all sorts of people from all sorts of place and religions. than they can start to rebuild the shattered state they are living in now.

Preceding articles

Scepticals of the Bible

Islamophobia Must be Fought and Defeated

God Isn’t a Republican

Additional articles

+++

Beginning a Path toward Distributism: A Brief Definition

Posted on 2016/05/06 by Guestspeaker

Humanity may have made incredible progress in science and technology, it has made a big mess of the surroundings and of the social life, creating lots of inequality and creating lots of causes for battles for getting more power.

It is the imbalance in this world that is causing our relationships with creation and with God to break down and our hearts to become hardened to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
Many in this world have pointed their eyes to the material goods and are trying to enlarge their ‘belongings’ and power. Their egoism and greed has made many arrogant. Lots of people neglect creation, the people but also plants and animals around them.

Lots of people have forgotten what God has entrusted to our care.

We do not own the earth, but we are part of it and should create symbioses with it. With those around us we should come to live as brothers and sisters, living in unity, respecting each-other and wanting to be on equal terms, sharing all the good things of this earth.

*

To remember

distributism = different expressions + slightly different emphases with different people or groups = all share a core + an origin

Distributism = about distribution of property

papal encyclical Rerum novarum written by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891 = concerning woes of both capitalism + socialism

working classes desiring justice > ability to own land – to obtain property

receiving in return what is necessary for satisfaction of his needs > to acquire a right full + real

right to possess property = natural right

society exists = to help safeguard against mistreatment of working class, of family, + to help ensure that as many people as possible can become landowners

*

Day, Dorothy American journalist Nov. 8, 1897 New York, N.Y., U.S. Nov. 29, 1980 New York City American journalist and reformer, cofounder of the Catholic Worker newspaper, and an important lay leader in its associated activist movement.

G. K. Chesterton + Hilaire Belloc British men + Christians sought to put the pope’s ideas into practice in turn of the century England (and elsewhere, the Catholic Workers Movement in America founded by Dorothy Day is an American example of these same ideals).

not impose distributism on people => to live it = incrementally => begin with family

family, +/or church, ought to strive to live locally, to support local businesses, local farmers, + help local families get land on which to grow food

From family level move to local community, town or county encouraging locally owned businesses to come in and thrive, in general to encourage local-mindedness

+

Preceding article: What is Social Justice? My take on it.

++

Additional reading:

May, for many a month for mothers and many celebrations

Religious celebrations in May 2016

+++

Related articles

The West Dies With Its Gods

If God Is Dead…

If God Is Dead…

If God Is Dead…

If God Is Dead…

What’s Wrong With the World? I Am.

The Radically Distinct Kingdom of God

Onward.

Pope: Jesus came to make us God

Walk in Light…

Letters from the Edge of Elfland

David Russell Mosley

Eastertide
Ascension Day
The Edge of Elfland
City, State/County

Dear Friends and Family,

As various previous letters of mine have indicated, I am increasingly becoming swayed by the arguments of distributism. However, so many of you my friends and family don’t quite know what I mean when I say distributism. Now, it should be stated upfront that there is often not one definition of distributism, it has different expressions and slightly different emphases with different people or groups. Yet they all share a core and an origin and it is that I want to share with you now. Hopefully, I will do it justice and perhaps convince some of you to at least spend more time reading distributists as I have been doing when taking much needed mental breaks from my thesis (like right now).

Distributism, as the name would suggest, is about distribution, but distribution of…

View original post 1,342 more words

Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight

Posted on 2014/12/01 by Marcus Ampe

A few years ago I found that I had to share with more people my belief in the one true God that I behold my steep Rock and fortress, source of insight. My life had to endure a lot of storms and I certainly was not spared a few times to be beaten against the breakwater.

Through trial and error we have to learn things. I sometimes had more than once tried to get something from the ground, something successful, others less, and still another with failure.

I wanted to bring together people, interested in the Bible. My attempt to create an association of Bible students or for those interested in Bible and history, now also appears nothing. Therefore I stop with that company to focus my energy more on the preaching work itself. For in this time and age it has even become more important that we can find people preaching the Gospel of the Good News. On the Association of Bible Scholars there are a few texts which I find interesting and worthwhile to get more views. These texts are an important part of our preaching, and it may be worth that some texts of the Bijbelvorsers Webs website get preserved and are relocated to other websites, like this one and to the site of the Belgian Bible Students, the WordPress site of Bijbelvorsers (Biblescholars) and to the sites of the Brethren of Christ and the Free Belgian Christadelphians ecclesia.

Location of province Vlaams-Brabant, Flemish Brabant) in Belgium. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For readers of another tongue then Dutch or Flemish we apologized that most of our pages were in Dutch, because the association was founded in the Flemish part of Belgium (Vlaams-Brabant) and was intended to be an association for people in the region of the Low Countries. But we did hope the visitors (from other countries) could also be able to find some interesting English texts as well.

We also said that as Bible-researchers we know that it can take a lot of effort to remain on the narrow way! (Matthew 7:13, 14) Only together we can be strong and shall we be able to support each other so that we, together, will be able to persevere. Therefore it is important to follow suit, to go there forwards and to connect with serious Biblestudents.

The Word of God given to man

For those who are not sure how the world came to be and why they are here the Creator of all things has given His Words to give us knowledge and to guide us . Him we should trust and make Him to our rock, our fortress, our buckler and our deliverer. People should not fear as much the human beings but should fear that heavenly Creator. In Him should we trust and find our shield, the horn of our salvation.

The association of Bible Scholars wanted to make people aware of the importance of the Bible. Even for those who do not believe in a Creator God they wanted to show the value of those old books in which there can be found many wise words. The association also wanted to be a haven where Bible lovers could find each other to study the Word of God and to look at the historical and scientific facts. It also wanted to show it members that they could find a high tower, and refuge, and give them the assurance there was a saviour who was willing of save them from violence.

Together they wanted to call on the Most High, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah Who is worthy to be praised: so they’ll be saved from their enemies. Working together around the Holy Scriptures the association wanted to have like minded people finding each other to help each other our about text-material and questions. They hoped to have their people not put to confusion, but deliver them in God’s righteousness, Him inclining His ear unto them, and saving them.

It was in God they wanted to see their strong habitation, where-unto they could continually resort, in the knowledge that the One and Only One God has given commandment to save us.

We wanted to get more people dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, proclaiming to others that their God Jehovah is their refuge and their fortress and that they will trust in Him.

The association was also set up to give those people who felt called by God, to give them several utilities or help for the preaching work. The association wanted to be there for when for the time we ought to be teachers. We have need that one looks at each other and teach each other, helping to reach the goal, continuing stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The association also wanted to gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and the strangers that would come within our gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Most High Lord of heaven and earth, our God, and observe to do all the words of His Law, training up children in the way they should go, so that when they are old, will not depart from it.

°°°

Below, the second article in the series, a translated overview of what formed the opening speech (our first reprint) at the publication of Bible scholars on Webs.

Het openingswoord van de Webs site van Bijbelvorsers, Vereniging voor Bijbelstudie, in juni 2010 – The opening speech of the Webs site of Bijbelvorsers, Vereniging voor Bijbelstudie or Bible scholars , Association for Bible study, in June 2010

***

Jehovah steep rock and fortress,
source of insight

Quotes from Gods Word

2 He said:

“Jehovah is my crag and my stronghold+ and the One who rescues me.+

3 My God is my rock,+ in whom I take refuge,

My shield+ and my horn* of salvation,* my secure refuge*+

And my place to flee,+ my savior;+ you who save me from violence.

4 I call on Jehovah, who is worthy of praise,

And I will be saved from my enemies.

(2 Samuel 22:2-4)

2 Jehovah is my crag and my stronghold and the One who rescues me.+

My God is my rock,+ in whom I take refuge,

My shield and my horn* of salvation,* my secure refuge.*+

3 I call on Jehovah, who is worthy of praise,

And I will be saved from my enemies.+

(Psalm 18:2-3)

1 In you, O Jehovah, I have taken refuge.

May I never be put to shame.+

2 In your righteousness save me and rescue me.

Incline your ear* to me and save me.+

3 Become for me a rock fortress

Where I can always enter.

Give the command to save me,

For you are my crag and my stronghold.+

(Psalm 71:1-3)

Anyone dwelling in the secret place of the Most High+

Will lodge under the shadow of the Almighty.+

2 I will say to Jehovah: “You are my refuge and my stronghold,+

My God in whom I trust.”+

(Psalm 91:1-2)

11 We have much to say about him, and it is difficult to explain, because you have become dull in your hearing. 12 For although by now* you should be teachers, you again need someone to teach you from the beginning the elementary things+ of the sacred pronouncements of God, and you have gone back to needing milk, not solid food.

(Hebrews 5:11-12)

38 Peter said to them: “Repent,+ and let each one of you be baptized+ in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins,+ and you will receive the free gift of the holy spirit. 39 For the promise+ is to you and your children, and to all those who are far away, to all those whom Jehovah* our God may call to himself.”+ 40 And with many other words he gave a thorough witness and kept exhorting them, saying: “Get saved from this crooked generation.”+ 41 So those who gladly accepted his word were baptized,+ and on that day about 3,000 people* were added.+ 42 And they continued devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles, to associating together,* to the taking of meals,+ and to prayers.+

(Acts of the Apostles 2:38-42)

4 “Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.+ 5 You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul*+ and all your strength.*+ 6 These words that I am commanding you today must be on your heart, 7 and you must inculcate them in* your sons+ and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.+ 8 Tie them as a reminder on your hand, and they must be like a headband on your forehead.*+ 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

(Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

12 Gather the people together,+ the men, the women, the children,* and your foreign resident who is within your cities,* in order that they may listen and learn about and fear Jehovah your God and take care to carry out all the words of this Law.

(Deuteronomy 31:12)

6 Train a boy* in the way he should go;+

Even when he grows old he will not depart from it.+

(Proverbs 22:6)

The way of Jehovah is a stronghold for the flawless, but the downfall is for practitioners of what is harmful. (Proverbs 10:29) Therefore, it is important that people know what it is to follow the right path. Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah has shown us the way. God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth, His Word to the people, put on the record of the Holy Scriptures, by holy men. To us it is to look at these 66 books that make up the Bible, wanting to take them in our hands to immerse ourselves in God’s Word. In the Holy Scriptures counsel is given not to be lazy with respect to the study of God’s purposes and to acquire a deeper understanding of it, and not with respect not to loosen interest to participation in the Christian ministry. Jesus followers took their tutor his words to heart and continued after his death, the study of the Torah and met regularly to do this in community together to break bread and drink the wine to commemorate the death of the Lord.

When Pentecost 33 G. T. 3000 people were baptised, they were added.

“They continued devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles and share it with each other,”

Luke explains (Acts of the Apostles 2:41, 42).
In the New Testament, we noted in several places the study that the believers had to do with the Holy Scriptures. Yes, the early Christians gathered for Bible study and fellowship and were thus added to the Christian congregation. Early Christians attended regular meetings for spiritual education (Hebrews 10:25).

The apostle Paul admonished some Hebrew Christians who made no claims, saying to them:

“because although you really had to be teachers in view of the time, you have again need someone who can learn from the beginning the elementary things of the sacred pronouncements of God; and you become wide as those of milk, not solid food, need. “(Hebrews 5:11, 12)

He also gave the admonition now having different gifts, according to the favour which was given to us , to use them accordingly:

if prophecy, according to the proportion of belief; (7) if serving, in the serving; or he who is teaching, in the teaching; (8) or he who encourages, in the encouragement; or he who is sharing, in sincerity; he who is leading, in diligence; he who shows compassion, joyously. (9) Let love be without hypocrisy. Shrink from what is wicked, cling to what is good. (10) In brotherly love, tenderly loving towards one another, in appreciation, giving preference to each other; (11) not idle in duty, ardent in spirit, serving the Master; (12) rejoicing in the expectancy, enduring under pressure, continuing steadfastly in prayer; (13) imparting to the needs of the set-apart ones, pursuing kindness towards strangers. (Romans 12:6-13)

Realizing that The Way of Jehovah is a stronghold for the impeccable, (Proverbs 10:29) Bible scholars on the attempt to unite and to explore together the Word, honouring God, together want to say to Jehovah:

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of Shaddai. (2) I will say of Jehovah, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” (3) For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. (4) He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart. (5) You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day;
(Psalm 91:1-5 NHEBJE)

A steep rock to build on

For the sake of God’s name the Supreme will lead and guide us, for He is willing to be our steep rock and our fortress.

We must do our utmost to strengthen the truths of God in our minds and in those of others through Bible study and by regularly attending Christian meetings with other believers. (Deuteronomy 6: 5-9; 31:12; Proverbs 22: 6).

Of any kind of denomination you are, the bottom line is that you have to make your own choices and choose to study the Word of God or to leave it as something you do not want to be interested in. God is the one who can call you for this and can lead and provide insight. People like us can only be a tool in the hand of God. In this modern world of materialism, there may not be many people who are still interested in the Word of God, but over all the earth there are many who choose to go on the narrow road that leads to life now but even more interesting to a much better life later. They try to follow right road and to terminate the race successfully in order to enter the Kingdom of God.

We as Bible scholars know that it can cost some effort but that it is really worth to stay on the narrow road! (Matthew 7:13, 14) Together we can be strong and support each other so that we will endure together. Therefore it is important to dare to follow suit, to go for it and join serious Bible students.In the fight that we can perform better, together, the apostle Paul showed in his heartfelt exhortation:

“Fight the fine fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life firmly to which you were called.”

We have to fight this battle to “grasp firmly the real life” (1 Timothy 6:12, 19).

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. (7) For we brought nothing into the world, so neither can we carry anything out. (8) But having food and clothing, we will be content with that. (9) But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. (10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (11) But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. (12) Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:6-12 NHEBJE )

That life is not the present life of pain and sorrow and suffering brought upon us by Adam’s sin. No, it’s the life in God’s new world, the paradise, which soon will become a reality when, after the removal of this system of things, Christ’s ransom sacrifice is used for the benefit of all who love Jehovah God and his Son. We all must choose life – “the real life” – everlasting life in God’s glorious new world.

That we all dare proclaim together that there is only One True God to Whom we in close friendship as brothers and sisters in Christ we have taken refuge. Together united we should not have to be ashamed because we have chosen to incline our ear to the One Who saves us, because He too was willing to hear us and to be with us.

“In you, Jehovah, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed. (2) Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me. (3) Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.” (Psalm 71:1-3 NHEBJE )

A version on the same subject in Dutch / Een gelijkaardig artikel in het Nederlands: Jehovah steile rots en vesting, bron van inzicht

Articles by the closing down of the Biblescholars association:

In Dutch you also my find:

Additional reading:

+++

By the closing down of the Association for Biblestudy

Posted on 2014/11/29 by Marcus Ampe

Hand Study with Bible (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A person has to have lots of patience and often he can loose his or her patience. For me the interest by others is inadequate to continue the work for getting Bible scholars, Bible Students, researchers, archaeologists and interested people in the Word of God together.

When I created the Association for bible-study I hoped to create a platform where people could exchange ideas, make their efforts known to others and wanted to give an opportunity to make contacts with in the Bible interested people and institutions all over the world. Remarkable it is to notice, people are so bounded to their denomination, they do not want to have contacts or show that they have contacts with groups that could endanger their financial income because of the backing by certain denominational churches.

With Bijbelvorsers, Vereniging voor Bijbelstudie (Bible Scholars, association for Biblestudy) and with both lifestyle magazines Stepping Toes and From Guestwriters I also noticed that in this materialist capitalist society not many people are keen to do some work or to deliver services without payment or without receiving something to their advantage in return. It also looked that all the work that had to be done behind the screens always felt on the same persons, whilst others only wanted to enjoy the advantages for them.

As such, not willing to invest more time, energy and money into the association for Biblestudy the Belgian Christadelphians decided to close down that organisation. Because the website coming to its end of existence I decided to have the few resting articles to be transferred to the websites of the writers and to this platform for those article which do not fit on those sites.

The coming weeks you may find the re-placed articles divided on the following websites: here on Stepping Toes, Bible Students and on the WordPress websites of Bijbelvorsers. Hopefully you and many new readers may come to find the older articles and newer ones over there.

Enjoy the reading.

Please find more about this closure:

Dissolution of Bijbelvorsers (Bible scholars), Association for Bible study

and in Dutch:

Denken aan het ontbinden van de Vereniging voor Bijbelstudie: Bijbelvorsers

Bij de opheffing van de Vereniging voor Bijbelstudie

+++

How do you define religion?

Posted on 2014/08/29 by Guestspeaker

Without spirituality, the preparedness to use the mind to wonder and to form ideas, religiosity can not come to existence, but with all sorts of rites and repeated actions to bring an outer sign of a faith in something religion may find seed and fertilisation in the aim to belong to something or somewhat.

+

Today people may find themselves living in a world full of gadgets which promise them a lovely world to live in. They become more embedded in a wider world, full of tempting distraction from the real valuable things. Loosing all interest in the spiritual our world we live in has become more secularized.

.

As social welfare and general empathy increase, religiosity will also decline. Several people consider religion the opium of the people which will no longer be needed when they can get that “fix” from their government and community providing them with free health care, maternity and paternity leave, and help when they’re old or ill. Though we should know that only god’s foreseen Government shall bring the most complete and successful Kingdom.

.

When a person uses his mind to think and is prepared to do spiritual exercise, opening his mind to the creation, he probably shall come closer to the Person or Spirit behind that Creation. Then the open minded person shall be able to find the Divine Creator: Only One True God. With the knowledge gather the spiritual person shall come to understand he not only has to accept the existence of that Divine Creator. He shall also come to the insight he has to stick to a moral code written in “their respective holy scriptures”. Their ultimate goals should than become to worship and to serve God as well as they can in the way the Bible, Torah or Q’ uran has told them.

.

In Buddhism we also can find rites and also see that those followers of Buddha try to find enlightenment and escape the never-ending cycle of reincarnation, which is often considered to be a state suffering in the faith.

.

Yet there is an obvious similarity between the Abrahamic religions and Buddhism; the concept of reaching a spiritual goal.

We would say this link remains there with Hinduism and in other polytheist believes where the people try to take care of their gods, giving them clothes and food.

If Vishnu is part of everything in existence, then there is a spiritual link between everything.

.

Most religions have in common such spiritual awareness and goals, and people wanting to believe in something which can guide them through life, do not mind offering time of their life to show others that they want to belong to a group of people who believe in certain matters and want to use their body and spirit (soul) to take action for bringing those believes into life, by worshipping.

.

We remember:

It is therefore not belief in God that separates moral organisations from religions, but spirituality is what makes an organisation a religion.

++

Additional literature:

Religions and Mainliners

What is faith and is it the only thing required

Faith

Soul

Do not forget the important sign of belief

Living in faith

Science, belief, denial and visibility 1

Science, belief, denial and visibility 2

Ian Barbour connecting science and religion

Religion and spirituality

Looking for True Spirituality 1 Intro

Looking for True Spirituality 2 Not restricted to an elite

Looking for True Spirituality 3 Mind of Christ

Looking for True Spirituality 4 Getting to Know the Mind of Christ

Looking for True Spirituality 5 Fruitage of the Spirit

Looking for True Spirituality 6 Spirituality and Prayer

Looking for True Spirituality 7 Preaching of the Good News

Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up

Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality

Experiencing God

The Supreme Being God of gods

Cosmos creator and human destiny

Only One God

God is One

Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother

Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God

Preparedness to change

Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience

Being Religious and Spiritual 2 Religiosity and spiritual life

Being Religious and Spiritual 3 Philosophers, Avicennism and the spiritual

Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences

Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people

Fruits of the spirit will prevent you from being either inactive or unfruit

American atheists most religiously literate Americans

+++

Related articles

The continuing decline of American religiosity (whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com)
Grant’s post reports 61 years of measuring “religiosity” (the degree of religious belief) in the US, using statistics he developed in a 2008 paper (reference and free download below). In that paper, Grant combined 14 indices of religiosity into one, and developed a way to not only present that statistic in a way comparable among years, but to check its reliability. (You can read about the “validation” of his measure, the Aggregate Religiosity Index [ARI] in the paper at the bottom.

Moving away from formal religion – toward a one-to-one relationship with God. (findingtheinnerway.com)
You have a yearning to connect with something greater than yourself. So you fill that need with a hodgepodge of spiritually-related activities. You pray and/or meditate. You read spirituality books. You take yoga, engage in mindful exercise or go outdoors to find a spiritual connection with nature.
+
It’s all about staying “in tune with the rhythms of nature and the pulse of your life”. In following your own path, you discover, sometimes through trial and error, what activities work best for you. In time, you create a spiritual practice that is true to you, removing the veil of religion, until nothing separates you from God.

Religion vs Spirituality, Part One (mettahu.wordpress.com)
A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural practices and world views that codify the relationship between human beings and the spiritual entity commonly thought of as the Creator, regardless of what it is called in any particular language. In the various world religions, “God” is known by many names in the various languages, even by people who practice or consider themselves members of the same religion.Each religion has a slightly different understanding of the Divine Being, and a different understanding of the relationship of humans to the Being they worship. Religions provide a code of morality or code of conduct for their adherents. They spell out what humans must do in
+
Part of the problem is that there are some who seem to feel that their own religion is the only one favored by God. And yet these same people tend to ascribe to God the quality of omnipotence. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that if God wanted only one religion, human beings would not have been able to create so many systems of belief? And yet here we are, all 7 billion of us, with countless religions, some practiced worldwide, and others practiced by a few in local areas.

Science Vs. Religion: Beyond The Western Traditions (wnyc.org)
In the United States, the debate between science and religion seems to be powered by a perpetual motion machine. The claims that Neil deGrasse Tyson’s inspired Cosmos series was anti-religious stands as the latest salvo in a long battle that generates lots heat but very little light. Having been in many of these debates, both formally and informally, I’m often struck by how narrow the discussion remains. That’s because often people don’t want to talk about science and religion; they really want to talk about science and their religion. It’s exactly in that first step that the conversation goes down hill for all sides.

Buddhism & Humanism: Two Sides of the Same Coin, Part 1 (appliedsentience.com)
Buddhism and Humanism are two geographical sides of the same philosophical coin. They’re twins with the same DNA, separated at birth, and brought up by different parents. The same dish with spices added by different cultures. Buddhism is Eastern Humanism and Humanism is Western Buddhism.
+
Buddhism and Humanism share a deep common core unique to them compared to other religions and worldviews. To make this point I’ll start with Buddhism. Damien Keown in his pioneering work relating Buddhist and Western ethics makes this point for Buddhism explicitly.
+
All religions and worldviews prize Reason and Compassion, of course. However, all also have other ideals that they hold just as highly. My point is that Buddhism and Humanism are unique in holding these virtues up and only these virtues up. For instance, take the Abrahamic religions which put concepts like obedience, faith, and purity on the top of the list. This inevitably creates conflicts which Buddhism and Humanism don’t have, like how faith often trumps reason, e.g. Galileo and Darwin, or obedience trumps compassion, e.g. OT genocides.

Spiritual Experiences Vital for Black American Women’s Mental Health (madinamerica.com)
Spirituality and transcendental experiences are even more important than religion to the psychological well-being of many Black American women, according to a study in The Journal of Black Psychology. University of Illinois researchers noted that 84% of Black American women report that religion is very important to them; however, they hypothesized that previous studies had conflated spirituality and religion. “Where religiosity is typically defined in terms of participation in religious institutions and adherence to prescribed beliefs, spirituality is defined as one’s relationship with divinity and focuses primarily on subjective individual experiences of the transcendent,” wrote the researchers. They conducted surveys with 167 Black American women and found that experiences of the divine were the key contributing factors to mental health.

Does Record Number of Religious “Nones” Mean Decline of Religiosity? (religiondispatches.org)
Judging by the media excitement over the latest poll illustrating continued growth in the number of people who answer “none” when asked with what religion they are affiliated, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life seems to have pulled a similar trick for those interested in how religion is changing in America. “‘Nones’ On the Rise,” released on October 9 by Pew in affiliation with PBS’ Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, gives the sense that we can see what’s really going on across the American religious landscape and understand it.

Owning our Health: In an emergency, do you respond or react? (blogs.vancouversun.com)
+
“The active and constructive religious response to Japan’s 3/11 catastrophe caught some by surprise and it has received fairly scant attention. But what happened may well stand as an important landmark. It shows what one leader calls the unconscious religiosity of the Japanese: an amorphous sense of being connected to something transcending the self, a gratitude to the ancestors, divine beings, and people in general. It is alive, he says, even within those who say that they have no religion.”Marshall concludes, “this religious story shows an important if often obscured face of Japan. It is part of Japan’s remarkable response to the disaster, part of the fortitude, community solidarity, and determination to rebuild that we must admire.”

Can you be too religious? | Giles Fraser (theguardian.com)
There are Christians and Jews and Muslims and Hindus. No one practises religion, as such. And second, precisely because the word “religion” describes the common outward format through which these very different belief systems express themselves, it cannot describe each in its specificity. This is particularly tricky when it comes to Christianity, because at its heart is a figure who was thoroughly suspicious and condemnatory of religion.

Is Humanism a Religion? (appliedsentience.com)
Religion may be impossible to define, whether we ask ourselves what the word means or what specific things count as “religious.” In his classic text The Sociology of Religion, the famous sociologist Max Weber argued that “Definition can be attempted, if at all, only at the conclusion of the study” of religion. However, as Nicholas Wade points out, and does in his own book, The Faith Instinct, Weber never defines religion – even at the end!

thought of vg

My teacher for Philosphy and ethics recently asked me to do some extra essays and background reading after i didn’t quite get the grade i was expecting from a recent exam. I thought I might share a very short essay i have just done, as its quite an interesting topic. Before you carry on, this is my opinion on the matter and is open to dispute.

How do you define religion?

It is certainly difficult to explain what exactly the definition of religion is. If one attempts to describe it in terms of belief in God, Buddhism wouldn’t be considered a religion and comparatively, Any organisation or collective group would be labelled a religion if the definition of “a group in which all members have similar moral beliefs and goals” were used. A more accurate definition would perhaps be found by comparing the world religions and by discussing what…

View original post 271 more words

Faith Over Fear

Posted on 2014/04/17 by Guestspeaker

Today so many people are so much concerned about themselves, not interested at all in others living in this world.
Many are also more interested in the outer looks and in the wealth others can see. We live in a world where material wealth has become more important than spiritual wealth. the richness of the spiritual things is not seen by many. Many are blinded by materialism. But they also do not like others who might have other aspirations and aim for other things this world seems not to provide.
It is true that we might be living in a world where we can find many survivors of narcissistic abuse spread across the wasteland of the dysfunctional family landscape. The picture may look devastating with many people playing the victim and making you their scapegoat.

Lots of people shall look down on those who dare to dream and who dare to put their hopes in things unseen.
We may be the fools of the world who are passed by like we are not there. Maybe nobody would like to talk to you or the opposite would not stop trying you to get other ideas. They’ll spend their energy trying to convince the rest of your family that you are on the wrong path, even would say you might have evil in you. They would love to warn the others to be careful not to become infected by the evil you bear.
Those who have their dreams, have their believes, have their hopes and aspirations, on the things which outshine this earth, should not worry.
Those who look at nature and see the Master Hand in it, and are willing to look for the Creator of it all, may be sure they shall receive an answer of that Divine Maker.
He shall not leave them alone. They shall be able to trust Him.
So why should we wait before trusting the Most High Elohim,Creator of heaven and earth?

+++

A Seed from the Resurrected Christ!!! (audacityandsupposition.com)
A seed from the resurrected Christ encapsulates all the genetics of Jesus’ spiritual maturity and victory. Had Jesus not been crucified and raised again, these seeds would not exist. But with this spiritual seed, you can become all that he is. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
+
When your spirit acquires this life, spiritual conception occurs. Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. The new life that is formed inside you is a spiritually begotten Son of God. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Without this life, you will remain spiritually dead. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Fear Not (prophecynewsandviews.wordpress.com)
Fear is a demonic curse from the pits of hell and if you are not careful and keep your eyes on Jesus the deceptive practices of this fallen world can catch you off guard, and paralyze you with fear. In the Word of God, God says he will keep you in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon him. We must not let the news headlines disturb us so much that it instills fear. This is what some things are designed to do, to control you. Media is very guilty of rumors and some rumors are flat out lies that most of the time turn out to be untruths. Jesus called the enemy the father of lies, satan is also known as the prince of the power of the air. All kinds of things are over the TV and radio airwaves and they are lies, from the pit of hell. There are many things over the airwaves that are not good.
Makes No Sense At All (hosea808.wordpress.com)
Everyone fears something. I don’t believe anyone is without any fear. I also don’t believe that we should live in fear. I’ve learned and encourage others to face their fear, decreasing it or eradicating it in that particular area. I’ve also learned that a little fear is healthy as it makes you keenly aware in apprehensive situations.
+
its really not about being fearless, which isn’t possible. Its about being faithful, which is totally possible. One of the definitions of faithful is “reliable, trusted, believed.” The key with fear or faith, being fearless or faithful is what will you choose to trust/believe in that crucial moment. Will you trust/believe what your fear screams at you or will you trust/believe what your faith whispers to you?
Fighting Inside (lorirodeheaver.wordpress.com)
There’s really not much worse than being profusely angry at your Creator.
+
I don’t get close enough because I’m afraid. Closer means I’m in an even more compromised and vulnerable position if I falter. And I don’t have enough skill to not falter.
+
God chooses us. So often though, we chose gods. Gods that don’t save. Idols. People, material things, pleasure, status – just to name a few. We chose gods in place of the one true God. We fight outside, mad as hell when they fail to save us from the devastating blows of the Enemy. But God chooses us despite all that. He chooses us because he loves us. He wants us to get inside. He is the ark. He is the shelter. He is the protection, the provision, and the place where we will land our greatest punch at the prince of this world.
Fetching Faith (hackingagag.com)
Faith is not believing hard enough until God gives us what we want. Faith is trusting God that He is in control of all things and has our best interests in mind. Without faith, we are without hope. We have no access to the faithful promises of God, unless our faith in Christ is that of genuine stock. He alone knows all things, including the unseen circumstances that surround our situation. He will not hand us a snake when we ask for bread, but He will allow the serpents to come when they are needed. When that happens, let’s fall to our faces like Job and stand with the Apostles who begged, “Increase our faith!”
So It Continues (anointedplace.wordpress.com)
In the previous post, “So It Begins Here“, we looked at how our mindset can blind us from all that Jesus completes and gives us by grace through faith in His finished work. It also looked at how we can easily look at all that God promises and doubt that just having faith can bring such love into our lives. We all battle with the flesh in the war of faith and doubt. And our doubt actually works itself out in many different ways. The point of reintroducing the rich young ruler is to pull the covers off of some of these ways. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Week 16: Thursday (bolmdevotional.wordpress.com)
Like Paul, we too have been given a great trust. What stewardship has the Lord entrusted to you? What have you surrendered to God in order that you may give your all to Him today?

We must change our perspective in such a way as to acknowledge Him as the Source and Keeper of all things on a daily basis and not just occasionally when we feel like it. In the same way, we don’t just surrender our lives every now and then – it takes a daily commitment!

Not holding back and getting out of darkness

Posted on 2014/04/17 by Marcus Ampe

Even when times are tough, it’s always important to keep things in perspective. We may be thrown from one side to the other, hearing much thunder and seeing lots of lightning, trying to meet the ends and finding solutions for the many problems which may arise.

Italian Family Wedding 1927 1928 20s NYC (Photo credit: Whiskeygonebad)

Lots of people just take it that they are in this world and have to take it as it is. But is it so? Do we just have to let the world pass and leave it like it comes upon us?

These days it looks like many people are not satisfied or are angry with those around them and with themselves. some might find

… the majority of people you talk to on a daily basis are dicks. People push through you on the walk to work with no regard for anyone but themselves, they ash their cigarettes completely oblivious to the fact that you are walking behind them and don’t bother apologising. Get out da way! {The majority of the people you interact with are douchebags: 20 Things No One Tells You About Your 20s}

Lots of people had dreams which are chattered into thousand pieces. Many found that where they thought would end up has become a vastly different place where they did end up after lots of struggles or interferences by others.

Your first job will be an eye-opening experience that will really show you what you want to do for the rest of your life. In college, you always dreamed about having your first job, but when you finally get that job, it’s probably nada like you imagined. {20 Things No One Tells You About Your 20s}

Having found work persons may already be pleased they could get the money not feel miserable or to end up in the gutter.

Maybe it (the money) doesn’t necessarily bring you happiness, but it does surely prevent you from being miserable. If you want to move out of your parents’ house and experience what freedom truly is, well you better believe that money is your ticket out of there. {20 Things No One Tells You About Your 20s}

Virginea Beach, Va. (Oct. 24, 2007) – Rear Adm. Moira Flanders salutes as she walks through the side boys during the change of command ceremony for the Center for Personal and Professional Development on board Dam Neck Annex in Virginia Beach, Va. Capt. William Dewes relieved Capt. Jonathan Picker as commanding officer. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Seth Scarlett (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Soon, after they left school and their parents, people learn nothing comes cheap in the post grad world.

You are going to be faced with expenses you didn’t even know existed. Guess who’s responsible for paying for these things? If you think it’s your parents, you guessed wrong, it’s you! Remember how badly you wanted to grow up? Well this is what you had to look forward to — bills, bills and more bills, bitches. {20 Things No One Tells You About Your 20s}

Many people are realising how miserable the typical 9-5 career can be and are leaving for the world of entrepreneurship. Hopefully your family knows you well enough to realise your potential is better suited elsewhere. {20 Things No One Tells You About Your 20s}

Once in the world of business, it seems that economical world is been taking us in or has sup. Many do have to work to pay for the bills. They often dream of house of their own and engage to early on the mortgage market, making them live on the cutting edge. No time for personal development any more. Not time any more for spiritual issues.

When we face this life we sometimes need to build up the the courage to claim our spiritual identity in the midst of a world full of darkness. Some people even may be afraid to face the light which others might bring in front of them. It is like they are afraid of light.Lots of people are not sure for whom or what they have to live. They keep wondering why certain things are happening to them and not to others. Lots of people we find concentrating on those bad things that happen onto them, instead of concentrating on the good things they let pass and do not enjoy enough.

Worlds Apart (Photo credit: Sony200boy)

Lots of people are so taken by the materialism of this world and hope that will bring them luck. The spiritual is something which frightens them. They know they have to live day in day out, and look to reach a goal, which they call success. They measure it in finances and in things the world can see. But they forget to see the richness of the things unseen. They run past all the beauty nature has to offer humankind, that many do not mind destroying.

How many people are not trying to use most of their time to convince anyone else of their good reason to exist and to see their success. So many people get caught up and get lost on the path of convincing … when in reality they would be better off, by just trying to be their own.

So many people got chained by their desire to have success, they loose track of the beautiful site of the world. They work and work and forget to live, until they feel pushed in the corner and wonder what they are doing and for what.

Only when they begin to attempt to simplify their lives they realize that they are not exactly sure what it is they really want. Many even do not come to see what might be important for them and for the others around them. They want to let go of this absorbing world, but do not know how. They lost the clear view to see or understand what’s important to us,. They know that something is not working and that they or that we need to change.

And yes we all need to change before it is to late. This world is ‘going bonkers’ if we are not careful. The global warming may for many be a fairy tale, but than they would be surprised how serious it really is.

It is important that we all know that every single thing we’ve gone through in life, every high, every low, and everything in between, has led us to this moment right now. Everything that we allowed to go through or let pass, shall be of influence on our environment, on the world we live in. Too many people still think it would not make any difference when a small fish somewhere in the ocean changes something. But when all those little sardines would come together and join forces they would be seen from far away and not only be noticed but also heard.

Everybody has his mouthful of “freedom” but often only thinks about his own self, not being worried how the freedom of the other person can be guaranteed. Some might also say

One of the greatest freedoms is simply not caring what everyone else thinks of you.

There is truth in it for the own self-development. To feel at ease with yourself you need to be able to step aside now and then. You should be able to look at yourself. Sometimes it also may be taken literally, leaving the office, stepping outside, getting some air, looking at the grass and the trees. Taking time to see around you and to remind yourself of who you are and what you want to be.

The best thing you can do is follow your heart. Take risks. Don’t just accept the safe and easy choices because you’re afraid of what others will think, or afraid of what might happen. If you do, nothing will ever happen. Don’t let small minds convince you that your dreams are too big. They aren’t. {20 Things to Stop Letting People Do to You}

Lots of people got blinded by their own mistakes and can not see that others also make the same terrible mistakes. We should all keep in mind that we’ve all made mistakes, but we should all also allow ourselves and others to make mistakes. it is all to easy to do nothing. If you think by doing nothing you can not do anything wrong, you are mistaken. We all have a reason to be here on this earth and we all have our responsibility, not only for ourselves and our beloved ones, but also for those who come after us.

Lots of us let people take advantage of us, and we’ve accepted way less than we deserve.

And sometimes, we too have given others way less than they deserve. Sometimes we let our priorities and our boundaries get ravished by the chaos of the day. But if you think about it, we’ve learned a lot from our bad choices, and even though there are some things we can never recover, and people who will never be sorry, we now know better for next time. We now have more power to shape our future. {4 Good Reminders When You’ve Had a Bad Day}

When life gets stressful, we often forget the things we should remember, and remember the things we should forget. Then we loose track. Danger is also that we loose not only control over ourselves but also the believe in ourselves.

Don’t settle to simply be someone’s downtime, spare time, part time, or sometime. If they can’t reliably be there for you when you need them most, they’re not worth your time. {20 Things to Stop Letting People Do to You}

This moment is priceless, and it’s the only moment guaranteed to you. This moment is your ‘life.’ Don’t miss it. (Read The Power of Now.)

The tendency here is to let our emotional attachments to things, people, places, etc. overwhelm us and prevent us from making real, meaningful and lasting changes. Instead of taking hold of those who love us we endanger and isolate ourselves by taking distance or going into our own little cell or cocoon. Than is the time to take the outstretched hand of others. Than you should be not taken by those who bully you or want to get you down.

Don’t let the people who refuse to love you keep you from the people who do love you. Spend time with those who make your world a little brighter simply by being in it.

As Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” Regardless of how despicable another has acted, never let hate build in your heart. Fighting hatred with hatred only hurts you more. When you decide to hate someone you automatically begin digging two graves: one for your enemy and one for yourself. (Read The Four Agreements.) {20 Things to Stop Letting People Do to You}

health care (Photo credit: lu4unity)

Life is too short to tirelessly struggle with those who bring negative forces into live. We better get rid of all those negative influences and concentrate more on positive thoughts. to bring positive news into the world is not as easy as it may look at first sight. From Guestwriters would love to bring more writers together bringing good news and concentrating on the love and peace we should try to build up together. But like on this platform there are not many writers presenting them to share their thoughts and, with their writings, to help others

Life will test you to see how serious you are about pursuing a particular path. And sooner or later you may face negative feedback from others. When this happens, remember not to let anyone crush your spirit. If you are passionate about something, pursue it, no matter what anyone else thinks. That’s how dreams are achieved.

Those who love life and love the ones around them can spread that love by showing it to others, without wanting something in return. It are those who want to dream and share their dreams, who can bring some light in this world.

Anything worth achieving takes time and dedicated effort. Period. Honestly, I used to believe that making wishes and saying prayers changed things, but now I know that wishes and prayers change us, and We change things. (Angel and Marc Chernoff discuss this in detail in the “Goals and Success” chapter of 1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.) {20 Things to Stop Letting People Do to You}

We know that many people will laugh at those with ideals and dreams. We are aware and you too should know that some people cannot stand that you’re moving on with your life and so they will try to drag your past to catch up with you.

Do not help them by acknowledging their behaviour. Keep moving forward. Practice acceptance and forgiveness. Letting go of the past is your first step . {20 Things to Stop Letting People Do to You}

Things which happened in the past can be told, so that others can learn from it. The things happened in the past should be a lesson for us. We have to learn from history and therefore it is important that people tell about that history. But we do have to direct our eyes to the future and to look forward.
We do not have to go through the darkness alone. If everybody carries a tiny candle, the many little points of light will give a bigger light. Getting more lights together will make a brighter light.

On From Guestwriters as on this site, we do invite those who have something to share, to join us to bring positive news on From Guestwriters and to bring important things to be aware of or to think about, even when they may be shocking, or upsetting others, on this site, which for that reason is also called “Stepping Toes‘ because sometimes we do need to step on someone’s toes, before he comes to notice something.

We don’t need to flaunt our spirituality, argue about it, or attack anyone who does not see or agree with it; we just need to live it. The path of mastery does not require us to convince anyone else of anything; it simply asks us to remember who we are and be it. {Alan Cohen, Dare To Be Yourself}

May we look forward to meeting you as a regular reader or as a contributor or guest-author on one of the two sites?

You may join us on this site or on From Guestwriters
and become one of the Bloggers for peace

Click on the picture to get to know more about the Bloggers for piece

Kozo & Cheri also ask that you join Bloggers For Peace

Find also to read:

Find the sites and articles:

Sanket k

+++

Keeping the Darkness Out (arturo57.wordpress.com)
I was struck immediately by how angry everyone on the channel seemed. And how it seemed to permeate every word said. They sneered as they read the news. I guess they were sneering at Democrats in general and the president in particular. But I think they also were sneering at the audience.
What they were really doing, of course, was sneering at the truth as they fanned the flames of racism, homophobia, and every other form of hate they could think of. That’s what they really preach on that channel – unabashed hatred. Hatred for what you don’t have. Hatred for what you don’t want. Hatred for everyone and everything that doesn’t fit a narrowly defined agenda.
[Classic RPG Realms] What Do You Keep Coming Back To? (classicrpgrealms.blogspot.com)
Always coming back to something. He said that was a sure sign that something was really a part of you, something you couldn’t put down. Your life would be incomplete without it. He felt that way about horses. Obviously I didn’t, and neither did my daughters–we own no horses now.
Ready to Fly (sincerelyamie.wordpress.com)
I remained there, in the dark silence. I stayed there and almost drowned myself in all my tears. I hid there and let sadness strip me down. And in staying there, I slowly began to drift down the wrong path.
But then, He spoke to me. [He never fails.] He told me I was going to live. He told me I could do more than just survive. He told me to dream again. He told me to give my life for His, and I would know peace. And the darkness fell away, and my heart began to beat again, and I knew that I would really be okay.
Are You Afraid of the Dark? (writetolive7.wordpress.com)
So many of us hide the things that most need to be shared. Regrets. Mistakes. Shame. I’ve kept many of my memories, experiences that I fear to relive, hidden beneath a blanket of shadows. Over the months and years, they’ve gathered dust. Like a dark basement, I’ve been terrified to venture back there, afraid that they’d jump out at me when I wasn’t ready to see them again. I’ve always been afraid of the dark, afraid of being blind to what’s coming my way.
Who’s Afraid of Identity Access Management? (cloudentr.com)
IT managers, do you ever feel like you’re the Big Bad Wolf? When you try to rein in your users, even just to enforce good password policies, they sometimes act like you’re trying to blow their house down. When in fact you’re the one trying to convince them to move into a house made out of bricks.

You don’t have to be the bad guy. Using some gentle persuasion — and the right technology for Identity Access Management (IAM) — you can steer your users in a better direction. The key is to make it easy for them to do the right thing, even when their instincts tell them to huddle in their houses made out of straw and sticks.
‘The ocean captured us and allowed us to dream…’ (bigknickersandnursing.wordpress.com)
ou’ve never hidden the fact that life’s hurdles have been somewhat challenging over the last year or so… Getting to grips with life as an independent women… Managing your own finances (ensuring there is still enough cash left in the bank account after payday shopping spree which always leads to buying of essential new outfits for forthcoming social events, to pay for basic food items such as wine, milk and bread)…

Do Not Be Afraid From “Life’s Darkness” (globalpoets.wordpress.com)
Don’t be afraid about recent life’s dark / You are the one who govern your fate / As long you understand the “Law” / Marvelous times always will come in life / if you will act wisely as a creator God….
Don’t Let Growth Hacking Ruin the Customer Experience (helpscout.net)
tunnel vision can occur when this happens. Cops forget about big busts and focus on the arrests they can get, if the required metric becomes “X arrests per quarter.”
+
If you’re going to be aggressive with your growth, you should know this: growth hacking can end up being marketing on steroids—that is, it can create artificial growth that has disastrous effects for the long term health of your business.
Think BigG & Live The Life You Deserve! (thinkbrilliantly.com)
So many of us never manage to reach the level of accomplishments we could simply because we let thinking small define our lives.
We hold back on trying to realize our dreams because we are afraid of what others will think or say.
Still, if we´re serious about living the life we feel we´re meant to live, doing those great things we´re convinced we are capable of, then we need to step up to the challenge and learn to ignore the nay-sayers.

Faith Over Fear (cherilynclough.com)
When you decide to take the road less traveled, it often means voting against the family party line. Basically if you are dealing with a narcissist, you are playing a game you can never win, so you might as well give up and go home. Fear and rejection are the bottom lines for most ACONs—Adult Children of Narcissists. I was invited to join such a group this week and my mind is still reeling from the humanity.

Happy International Happiness Day!

Posted on 2014/03/20 by Marcus Ampe

Happiness does not come just like that. Having today Thursday March the 20th as the International Day of happiness we can look at the elements which can make happiness coming into being and having happiness being the drive to bring more happiness to all in the world.

Important in our life is that we come to understand that we will be able to do more in our own live and in the life of others when we share the Christian brotherly love and the message of the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God. Sharing the peace of Jeshua (Jesus Christ) with others we can give them a taste of happiness which can create more productivity. Happy people accomplish more.

The world has become so materialistic they think all their productivity and gains of money will bring them happiness. But perhaps they may gain temporary worldly success, it shall not be a guaranty for happiness in their own family.

Conventional wisdom may hold that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. Most people would like to hold on on that and would be happy having a great job. True without some good satisfying work it would be more difficult to build up the happiness. But it is not by winning that next promotion, being in physical good shape, belonging to those praised societies, that happiness will be fortified.

Recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. This isn’t just an empty mantra. This discovery has been repeatedly borne out by rigorous research in psychology and neuroscience, management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe.

+

Please find also to read:

Additional reading:

+++

Material-Immaterial, Physical-Spiritual — the whole of Humanity (geekborj.wordpress.com)
Humanity is BOTH physical and non-physical. Most of the “new age” philosophy forward either pure spiritual (idealist) or pure material (materialist).
Immaterialism and Spirituality (onemanversustheworld.wordpress.com)
As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
Jehovah Shalom (joanofarc77site.wordpress.com)
I will keep my eyes focused on You Jehova Shalom and nothing will shake me from my peace.
Laborers for the Harvest (viktoriaveigas.wordpress.com)
Sometimes Christians covet their fellowship with other believers and cluster together, blindly bypassing worldly seekers who are ripened for harvest. Perhaps not realizing their divine accountability for perishing souls, they busy themselves with church engagements, civic responsibilities, building maintenance, and other worthwhile projects dedicated to preserving the status quo. These are doubtless good things. Well-intentioned members sometimes question the value of evangelism or express this sentiment: Pastor, this evangelism stuff is all right, but don’t we need programs for people who are already in church?
7 signs your church could be backsliding (atwistedcrownofthorns.com)
Is your church following the Word and ways of the Lord and abhorring all that is otherwise? Is the fear of God, the love for truth and for God’s glory, and the desire to walk according to all God’s commandments prospering among the believers? When a church begins to slip it loses track of that which it must hold to firmly, it gradually and steadily drifts. Here are a few signs your church could be backsliding….
The Difference Between Psychology and Neuroscience (athoughtonthemind.wordpress.com)
Most people consider cognitive neuroscience a branch of psychology but some people (often neuroscientists) consider psychology a branch of neuroscience. So which is it? And what’s the difference anyways?

To address these questions, we need to start with some definitions. Lets start with psychology. According to the American Psychological Association (and also Wikipedia), psychology is the study of mind and behaviour. Neuroscience, on the other hand, is the study of the biological underpinnings of mind and behaviour.
Why are materialists less happy? (io9.com)
The latest word on how to be happy: be more appreciative of the things you have. Newly published research out of Baylor University finds materialistic people are less happy in large part because of their lack of gratitude.
How Happiness Directly Impacts Your Success (forbes.com)
I reached out to Shawn to learn more about how our brains in “positive” mode versus negative, neutral or stressed actually give us an enormous advantage in life and work, and how we can influence our minds to embrace more happiness through our daily actions. This Happiness Advantage as Shawn calls it can be the difference between leading a fulfilling, joyful and successful life and living far beneath our potential (see his book The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work for more).
+

What specifically impacts our happiness and how can we shift it?
The three greatest predictors of happiness are optimism (the belief your behavior will eventually matter), social connection, and how we perceive stress (as a challenge or as a threat). If we want to raise happiness we need to make both mindset and behavior shifts.

What are the five key steps that we can take each day to increase our experience of happiness?

1)      Bring gratitude to mind – Write down three NEW things that you are grateful for each day

2)      Journal – About a positive experience you’ve had recently for 2 minutes once a day

3)      Exercise – Engage in 15 minutes of mindful cardio activity

4)      Meditate – Watch your breath go in and out for 2 minutes a day and

5)      Engage in a random, conscious act of kindness – Write a 2-minute positive email thanking a friend or colleague, or compliment someone you admire on social media
Shannon Polly, MAPP, to Present at International Day of Happiness Conference Sponsored by en*theos (entheos.com) (virtual-strategy.com)
Positive Business DC today announced that co-founder Shannon Polly, MAPP was selected to present at the International Day of Happiness free conference sponsored by en*theos, coinciding with the United Nations’ International Day of Happiness. en*theos, a popular website with over 275,000 members, was launched to help people optimize their lives and actualize their potential through providing the best content and tools on “Optimal Living.”

The International Day of Happiness event is featuring 19 speakers with the respected Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) degree held by less than 300 people in the world. Those with a MAPP degree are considered experts in well-being and the application of positive psychology.

“I am honored to be part of en*theos’ International Day of Happiness virtual conference. Their focus on empowering people to embrace their personal strengths and recognize their larger purpose in the world around them is inspiring” said Shannon Polly, MAPP.

Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious

Posted on 2013/12/18 by Bijbelvorsers

Today lots of youngsters their understanding of their faith is the faith that was “once for all entrusted.” This makes that often the “spiritual but not religious” group can be the most difficult to work with, primarily because they believe they have found a personalized expression of faith. But their faith was not placed in a seed that could grow in fertilized ground.

Religious men and their actions because of their faith- Painting is on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) in Vienna, Austria (site). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Church should bring in the fertilisation for its members to grow, be it slow but strong.

Much has been made about the growth of “nones” in the past few years, the group who consistently checks “none” on surveys about religious faith. As with all surveys, how questions are shaped determines how good the data is. If a question is multiple choice, the answers must fit within the parameters of the possible responses. For example: What is your faith? a. Christian b. Buddhism c. Islam d. Judaism e. Hindu f. none.

Clearly, that’s a poor question. It assumes the five major faiths are the primary conduits for the transmission of religious frameworks. While I believe that is largely true, there are other factors at work culturally right now. What does none or spiritual but not religious really mean?

writes a teacher of a Teaching World Religions summer term. {Spiritual but not Religious, or A Disconnect on the Faith Divide}

In such courses about world religions or religion tous-court, you can see that lots of people want to restrict their idea about their god on others. They may say

I just believe in God

But then we should ask which God? Most people do take only a story from the four Gospels, one that is canonized by Church Councils, propagated by ministers and missionaries, and communicated to them through Christian denominational speakers. They are brought up with the religious concepts of their family idea and than they believe that their story is just one wherein they simply believe in God.

Vermeer The Allegory of the Faith (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The radical individualism and consumerism in our culture makes a personalized faith seem perfectly normal. In Belgium, which is considered to be a Roman Catholic Country (though only 6% of the population still go sometimes to mass whilst 25% of the population visits the mosque very regularly), when you would ask what they believe and whom they think Jesus or God is, you would find very individual interpretations of the person Jesus, which some Catholics say is the son of God and do not believe he is God, though the godhead of Jesus is part of the Trinitarian dogma of the Catholic Church. But most Belgians want to believe their own thing and do not bother what the church may say. Lots call themselves Catholic or Christian (meaning the same for them) but do not follow the rules of the Pope and their church, not bothering to use preservatives or having abortions, having sexual relations than the own ‘regular’ partner, etc. Their religious life is standing far away from a spiritual life and from church life. The church is mostly only used to have a child baptism, a first and second communion, a wedding service and a funeral. That is what church stands for in Belgium, when they are not talking about all the abuses in that church.

According to some

All the new Christian categories — Christ follower, Jesus follower, follower of the Way (hell, just pick one)—are all concepts that are used intentionally to avoid the unhappy conclusion that the follower is really a Christian, but a Christian who doesn’t like the Christian tradition or church or some doctrine. Better to own the word Christian than have me interrogate you only to discover that you are actually a Christian. At that point, I think you’re dishonest, disingenuous, ignorant, narcissistic, or confused. None of those are good. {Spiritual but not Religious, or A Disconnect on the Faith Divide}

Wherever you may look you shall see that many of your spiritual but not religious acquaintances have no genuine framework for their faith. Lots of the people who say they are religious or spiritual, are mostly enjoying some trend which is popular at the moment, and go from one fling into the other, but never stick to one ‘faith‘ for a long time.

The writer of The Parish believes that it’s a completely self-serving construct that allows them to believe, in the words of Christian Smith,

“God loves me and wants me to be happy.”

What that requires is no commitment to a larger tradition, and a radical internalizing of metaphysical assumptions, all of which are exempt from criticism.

Do you pray? Yes. Do you attend worship services? No. Do you have a sacred text? No. Will you go to heaven? Yes. What will it be like? It will be what I make it. How do you know there is a God? I just do. What’s he or she like? He loves me. He’s kind and forgiving and gracious. Why should he be those things and not angry, vengeful and capricious? He’s not. How can you know this? What tradition taught you this? I have no tradition. I just know this. I’m not a religious person, just spiritual.

Faith (Photo credit: sspantherss)

Often when you will present students of religion or people on the street and you

talk about all the Saturnalia and pagan syncretism you like, talk about substituting one pagan holiday for a Christian one, talk about borrowed symbols and commercialism, talk all you want about it; at its core, theologically (for Christians), Christmas is the coming of Messiah, and therefore, a religious high, holy day. It’s a celebration day, much like Easter (another holiday about which I’m weary of hearing stories of syncretism. One thing is clear, however it started, the Christian narrative won.), not a fast day like Good Friday. It is, by my estimation, the second most important day on the church calendar, following Easter, of course. {Christian Identity, or Can Baby Jesus Get Some Love?}

The great church institutions by the years have mixed their theology with philosophical and pagan teachings so that that more became “great pagan institutions” which allegedly “pickle” children’s brains by pouring “paganism” into them. We can see a society in decline where parents do not to set any more good religious examples for their children. It is time they will concern themselves with their offspring’s spiritual state, and again “plead God’s promises” to their children. We should long to do well by our children and grandchildren, striving to raise them well and encouraging other parents to do the same. Parents should come to teach their children spirituality again. That spirituality must also include empathy, humanity, and critical thinking. Piety without these elements can devolve into fanaticism, with unsettling results.

Lots of people may know that lots of elements in their celebrations are from pagan celebrations, but they do not want to change their similar manner of celebrating what they want to place on that day the heathen use for their celebration. It does not matter for them that Jesus was a Jew who is not born on the 25th of December (Christmas-day); It is just a lovely time for them to be together and have everybody having a good time, giving each other presents and enjoying some nice food. Why should they change the tradition of their forefathers? And why should churches abandon such a festivals when those are the few occasions that they can get some people in their churches and get some more money in the till?

Almost all American and European forms of Christianity are first cultural, traditional and secondly theological. In the capitalist countries the people are more concerned with their material wealth than their spiritual wealth. Europeans like

Americans are largely shaped by consumerism, individualism, and materialism, the three idols of the market that serve to make all of us mini-narcissists. {Christian Identity, or Can Baby Jesus Get Some Love?}

They want to enjoy their life with good food and lovely goods for their enjoyment. Fairy tales and mythical stories, ‘little lies for fun’ seem to be harmless for them and to create the mysterious atmosphere which attracts them and their children. The unknown and mysterious has always been an attraction.

The Knights of Columbus exhibiting their group identity in American society

In the United States some Christians do not want to know about the ‘unknown’ and do think the bible has to be take literally on all fronts. Their creationist and revisionist education might leave children ill-prepared to integrate into American society, and failed to grasp that some children might reject their fundamentalist upbringing altogether. For this reason it is important that God-loving people make it clear how we do have to interpret and follow the Bible. God loving people should be challenging historical revisionism. By remembering that history encompasses many narratives, not just one. By demanding accuracy in home school curricula. By reaching out to current and former home-schoolers and making accurate information available to them. And finally, by educating ourselves on the past and recognizing its impact on the present. Home-schooling and schooling at the church (Sunday school, Bible Study or Children’s Bible class) are powerful, useful tools. It represents a democratic approach to educational progress, innovation, and creativity. It allows a child’s learning environment to be tailored to individual and personal needs. When home-schooling or Sunday-school is done responsibly, it can be amazing. We should oppose irresponsible home-schooling or church training, where the educational method is used to create or hide abuse, isolation, and neglect, and where the child is not educated to go and search, to explore the world and to explore the Bible. They should train the children to read and study the Bible thoroughly and to go deeper into their own soul, learning them to meditate about everything they learn, be it in their daily school or at the church. The trainees at the church should make sure that social contact outside of church, family, and the home-school umbrella group is provided so that children do get to know the outside world and are aware of the world its ideas and way of living. Only by growing up in a church which is open to what is happening in the world the children would not become what we can call socially retarded to use the pedagogical technical term.

In certain developed countries we see a growing tendency to protect church life and to get the children away from what is really happening in the world. The religious sheltering of such a childhood in recent years has come more extreme and miserable by greater institutions and international homeschool conglomerate cults. Those groups not only present childish stories in which all do have to believe and activities everybody has to follow with the right dress-code, otherwise they are considered to be against the group. More attention is given to the outside appearance of the persons gathering than on the inner spirit. Often it is all about the creationist teaching and opposing scientists, not willing to see archaeologist their findings, which are all considered as contra-actions of the evil world.

They often try to drive home to their ‘trainees’ (typically 16-18 years old) that no matter what adversity or difficulty they are facing, either physical, mental, or spiritual, all they need to do is cry out to God and He will get them through it. But they forget that we did have received the responsibility to become resourceful fellows who should try to grow from the understanding of the Scriptural knowledge and use it in their daily life. To be able to stand strong in that daily life there should be a good relationship with the Supreme Being.

Most people are not interested in a good relation with their god, but with themselves. It has become already very difficult to build up a good relationship with one partner in this world which can be seen and touched. So who would try to have a good relationship with somebody who can not be seen nor touched, and who nobody has ever seen, or when it is Jesus who is already long ‘dead and forgotten’?

Dr. Tom Kennedy does find that correct religion, like bones, provides the proper structure for spirituality. Spirituality grows in distorted ways without religion.

Imagine reaching over and grabbing the child’s head. Then imagine lifting up the skeleton out of the imaginary child. What would happen? Spirituality would collapse to the floor. {Can You Be Spiritual and Not Religious?}

Religion, like bones, also provides much of the immune system for spirituality.

It helps to fight toxic influences that may corrupt one’s spirituality. Two of the most toxic influences are the individual’s own selfishness and the willingness to let other people control one’s spirituality. Of course, if religion itself becomes corrupt, one’s spirituality also becomes corrupt. {Can You Be Spiritual and Not Religious?}

Like the religion can be corrupted we should know that spirituality is not always so ‘clean’ as it may seem.

Many people think of spirituality as perfect and incorruptible. Unfortunately, that is not true. Non-religious spirituality emphasizes special experiences, something you feel. If there are no feelings to this kind of spirituality, people would not pursue it. I have heard of many strange experiences that were labeled ‘spiritual’ just because there was a burst of pleasant feeling involved. {Can You Be Spiritual and Not Religious?}

Faith in words from a Book of books (Photo credit: hannahclark)

Religion in the Bible is a catalyst for our relationship with God, to Whom we have to bring a spirit which is pure and not hiding things for God Who sees everything, so that would be useless to hide something for Him. Our state of mind we do have to build ourselves. Others may help us but they can not do it for us or make it work for us. We ourselves our responsible for the way we want to think and the way we want to use the knowledge we receive by the years.

Jesus died on the wooden stake to make God’s religion and spirituality alive, dynamic and interactive with each other. He opened the way for humankind to come directly to the Creator God. Today Jesus sits at the right hand of God to be the mediator between God and man. by the brothers and sisters in the church we should be exhorted therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made not only for ourselves but for all men. We should know we live in a world where there are kings, presidents and members of parliament who have to make decisions for the community. So we better also pray for them that they may make the right decisions. Yes we should have our thoughts also at all that are in high place and pray for them and for that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity.
Each of us should look to find in himself or herself the way to become acceptable in the eyes of God. He that provided the human Saviour, who could understand his fellow man, who wanted that all men should be saved, and will come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all; the testimony to be borne in its own times; where-unto several people like the apostles and religious men were and are appointed a preacher and a teacher of the Gentiles or those who are not in the faith in Christ Jesus, in faith and truth.

” I Beseech you, therefore, first of all to offer to God, petitions, prayers, supplications, and thanksgiving for all men, (2) For kings and for all in authority; that we may live a quiet and peaceable life, in all purity and Godliness. (3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: (4) Who desires all men to be saved and to return to the knowledge of the truth. (5) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (6) Who gave himself a ransom for all, a testimony which came in due time. (7) For that testimony I was appointed a preacher and an apostle; I tell the truth and I lie not; and I became the teacher of the Gentiles in a true faith. (8) I wish, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up their holy hands, without anger and doubting thoughts.” (1Ti 2:1-8 Lamsa NT)

Religion, Catholic Community having prayers and meditation together at a meeting (Photo credit: Parker Knight)

Lifting up the hands or going in prayer can be done on our own. But to come to a good prayer we better also do come close to ourselves. Be it also becoming in a more concrete relationship the world can offer. Away from the materialisation of things we can come in a transcendent form.

Where Transcendentalists assert their natural right to an individual relationship with God, defined only by one’s own will and a communing with nature, Puritans “sought both individual and corporate conformity to the teaching of the Bible, with moral purity pursued both down to the smallest detail, as well as ecclesiastical purity to the highest level. They believed that man existed for the glory of God, that his first concern in life was to do God’s Will and so to receive future happiness”. Puritans were largely responsible for amendments that mandated public education inspired by their belief that children could only conform properly to biblical and legal tenants if they could read them for themselves.

To come to the Truth, each person has to make the free choice to study the matter. Without reading the Bible and without the will to think about what is written a person shall not come to the Truth. No matter how he may be active in doing things for his church, how religious he or she may look for the outsiders, when their is no burning spirit in the soul of that person, no willingness to go deep in him or herself, there shall not come an opening to the real faith Jesus had in front of his eyes.

Jesus was also brought up in a world full of traditions. He was a boy living in a Jewish cult and learned from the Torah, which was his guide. He looked at the different religious groups and dared to question them. He looked at the way they interpreted the Holy Scriptures, how they lived their faith and how they were are were not prepared to go into the mystics of faith.

In most spiritual traditions, mysticism lies at the heart of spirituality. ‘‘Mysticism’’ refers to transcendent, contemplative experiences that enhance spiritual understanding. Mystical experiences can occur during intentional practices designed to create openings for transcendent experiences, such as Christian contemplative prayer, Zen meditation, movement or dance meditation or Sufi dance; or they can occur in the process of living a lifestyle that is conducive to transcendent experiences, as in contemplative gardening. In either case, contemplative or transcendent knowing is associated with spiritual experience.

‘‘Transcendence’’ refers to contemplative knowing that occurs outside the boundaries of verbal thought (Wilber). Although transcendence can refer to increasingly abstract thought, contemplative transcendence involves transcending thought itself. Mystical experiences of transcendence can be brought into thought, but they do not originate in thought or sensory perception.

The spiritual person can become a transcendental person, going into mystical contemplative experiences. He either may become religious with it or stay out of religion. But this kind of spirituality, set apart from religion would be weak and might be directionless, or worse, narcissistic. Jesus wanted us to have a vibrant faith that focuses on his Father and he wants us to use the teachings of the Bible to shape both our religion and our spiritual interactions with him and God. Our spirit has to become connected intimately with Jesus, God but also with our brethren and sisters in the community, plus feeling a love for the full creation of the Supreme Being, Jehovah God. This includes a good relationship with the animals, plants and all sorts of people, no matter which religion they may belong to. A good Christian should be a good follower of Christ, sharing the same love Jesus had for all people, no matter what they had done or how they felt about him. Jesus loved also his enemies, so we should do likewise.

Our religious and spiritual practices should focus on that relationship with creation. The spiritual practices should not merely be productive in a narrow sense but should be disciplined, creative and committed. The regularity of a spiritual discipline like meditation may give shape to what may otherwise be a fragmented life. as such it can enrich the religious life. Over time meditation may facilitate a growing freedom from destructive energies that inhibit healthy relationships. Such a growth in inner freedom makes us more available and effective as compassionate presences in the world.

As the great traditions emphasise, spirituality is actually concerned with cultivating a “spiritual life” rather than simply with undertaking practices isolated from commitment. It offers a “value-added” factor to personal and professional lives. So, for example, in a variety of social contexts spirituality is believed to add two vital things.

First, it saves us from being purely results-orientated. Thus, in health care it offers more than a medicalised, cure-focused model and in education it suggests that a holistic approach to intellectual, moral and social development is as vital as acquiring employable skills.
Second, spirituality expands ethical behaviour by moving it beyond right or wrong actions to a question of identity – we are to be ethical people rather than simply to “do” ethical things. Character formation and the cultivation of virtue then become central concerns.

Current evidence suggests a growing diversity of new forms of spirituality as well as creative reinventions of the great traditions. The language of spirituality continues to expand into ever more professional and social worlds – for example urban planning and architecture, the corporate world, sport and law. Most strikingly there are recent signs of its emergence in two contexts that have been especially open to public criticism – commerce and politics. Equally, the Internet is increasingly used to expand access to spiritual wisdom. So, on current evidence, spirituality appears to be less of a fad than an instinctive desire to find a deeper level of values to live by. As such, it seems likely not only to survive but to develop further into many new forms. {Is spirituality a passing trend?}

Church HDR (Photo credit: I_am_Allan)

The church community should not be afraid of those people who also want to be spiritual people. Every religious person in a way should be a spiritual person. Faith without works is dead. Each person believing in Jesus should know he should undertake efforts to understand those teachings, knowing the Torah and following the commandments of Christ and the commandments of God. Each follower of Christ should not only go out in the world on his own, no he should make efforts to meet regularly with other like minded people, considering them as his brothers and sisters in Christ. Gathering together they should ‘make church‘ and be united in the religion of the Body of Christ. In that Body or Church they should undertake actions, like reading the Bible, exhorting each other and Breaking bread with each other. This would mean they are have do do religious actions and to be religious in the tradition of the faith of Christ Jesus. But without their pure heart they would not be honest to the others in that community. So first of all each individual has to purify himself or herself, to which she or he can use meditation or spiritual exercise.

Religion and spirituality are complementary and should go together, uniting each of us in the name of Christ.

Christadelphian Bible school meeting.
United brethren and sisters in Christ.

Preceding articles:

Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience

Being Religious and Spiritual 2 Religiosity and spiritual life

Being Religious and Spiritual 3 Philosophers, Avicennism and the spiritual

Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people

Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences

Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists

Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one

Next: Points to remember of philosophy versus spirituality and religion

Find also to read:

+++

Additional reading:

+++

I am Spiritual but not Religious (passionistpartners.com)
“I am spiritual but not religious.” This is the mantra voiced by a number of people, Catholics included. It means that such people savor the inner qualities of their faith in Jesus Christ but not the outer framework in which those qualities are contained.

They respond warmly to the Christmas scene of Mary and Joseph kneeling close to Jesus as a newborn infant. They may resonate with the teaching of Jesus on the beatitudes, describing the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers. They may treasure His words on loving one another as he has loved us.

But when it comes to graphically depicting these sentiments in ritual, music, art, architecture, vestments, ceremonies, processions, incense—this is a different story. They find such a discrepancy between thoughts and feelings, and the attempt at giving tangible expression to them fails miserably in the opinion of some people. The sermons are boring, the collection is scandalous, the singing is outdated, the prayers formulaic and out of touch with people’s needs and desires.

The one religion that’s not part of my spiritual quest (roguepriest.net)
Jesus is central in one out of 16 or five out of 43 major religions practiced in the world today. (In the first list I’m excluding “no religion,” “new religions” and “other” for my count, and in the second list I’m pointing to Christianity, Christian Science, Jehova’s Witnesses, Mormonism, and Rastafari.) By that count less than 6 – 11% of religions consider Christ important. With nods from Baha’i, Islam and Unitarianism, the figure rises to a max of 25%.
Likewise, the majority of people in the world today do not follow any branch of Christianity.
Yet the teachings of Christ loom large.

Religions and Spirituality (allowinglove.wordpress.com)
diverse ethnicities and faiths from Passaic County gathered for one hour at Pa… SPARTA, NJ
Picking fights over religion and the separation of church and state (santamariatimes.com)
how this kind of free-floating rage differs from Bible-beating preachers who blame earthquakes and tornadoes on other people’s sexual sins escapes me. The main characteristic of the fundamentalist mind is an inability to refrain from expressing contempt for beliefs different from one’s own — whether one’s spiritual example is Pat Robertson or Christopher Hitchens.
Spiritual Well-Being (casapalmera.com)
piritual well-being is an integral part of mental, emotional and physical health. It is considered to be a primary coping resource on the journey of recovery and healing. This healing takes place in drug treatment centers, eating disorder residential programs and at trauma recovery. Spiritual well-being can be associated with a specific religion but does not have to be. This practice is merely one’s own journey to discover things of importance in life as well as one’s place among them. It can be practiced in numerous ways, with its main purpose being to find purpose and meaning in life. Spirituality and faith provide an opportunity to detach from circumstances and observe life with clarity and integrity. Spirituality can either be positive or negative. Spiritual well-being is a state is which the positive aspects of spirituality are shown. How the effects of spiritual well-being impact you is greatly determined by each individual.
My journey of faith (brynsthoughtsonfaith.wordpress.com)
What might have happened if I was baptized into the Church of England, for instance? Would my faith have been stronger as a teenager? Would I have still gone down the route to the Catholic Church, given the opportunity?My early upbringing was, as such, not massively religious one way or the other. We did not go to Church (Anglican or Catholic) on Sunday, so as not to sway me one way or the other.
From what I remember, my Primary School was Church of England in all but name, we had Assembly every morning, sang hymns and when Christmas and Easter came, we would sing in the local Anglican Church, St. Nicholas.

Obama Spiritual Advisor: President Very Religious (peacemoonbeam.typepad.com)
President Obama’s spiritual adviser says the leader of the free world is more religious than most people think.
Enriching Your Spirituality: Famous Christian Quotes (quotes.answers.com)
A poignant quote can have a profound effect. The simple truths contained in only a few lines have the power to inspire, calm, and encourage someone in need. This is especially true for Christian quotes. Whether you are struggling to find God’s purpose in your life or seeking comfort in a time a duress, these famous Christian quotes offer great help in times of need.
10 Religious Quotes to Make You Think (quotes.answers.com)
It seems that no matter what breakthroughs science makes in explaining the world, people will always have a need for spirituality and religion. Indeed, it seems that the only area with satisfying answers for many tough questions is religion. These religious quotes are collected from thinkers, writers, and lay people from a wide range of religious faiths and creeds. What they all have in common is that they are guaranteed to make you think.
Religious Rites: An Overview of Christian Funeral Services (christianity.answers.com)
Regardless of your religious persuasion, a funeral service is one of the more somber rites that you might attend. In the Christian faith, even though death is seen as a passage to eternal life, saying goodbye to a loved one is very sad. This article details the common elements of most Christian burial services.

Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists

Posted on 2013/12/16 by Bijbelvorsers

Hagia Sophia ; Empress Zoë mosaic : Christ Pantocrator; Istanbul, Turkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the previous chapter we have seen that already in the time of the apostles there where teachers who took the focus on Christ Jesus, the Messiah his offering and our personal relationship to our own person, the people around us, Jesus and the Father of Jesus, the Only One God, away. By concentrating more on the institute of the church and putting dogmatic teachings as the obligatory string for the community, the self-development and the role of free choice became a minor point to the acceptance and following of the church doctrines and ceremonials.

By the years there were many influences of several theologians who at their turn looked at different philosophers. More interested in the retrieving of power, the real spiritual matters were often put aside or forgotten. Though in that world of many fraternities there were also people who were greatly respected and widely sought after masters who went out into the hills to escape the hustle and bustle of society. some took refuge in a shed in the countryside, others took up residence in a cave, far away from the clergy their institutions.

Several devout people wanted to escape the authoritarian church and did find Christ had liberated us instead of bringing new chains in to the world.

There are many spiritual traditions, each of which has its own unique language and concepts concerning the nature of the ultimate, the path that must be followed to experience the ultimate, how spiritual realizations are confirmed, the nature of spiritual enlightenment, and the implications of spiritual understanding for ordinary human life.

Lots of people spend their whole lives trying to become an idealized version of themselves that they want to be or of that what their church pictures them that they should become. Not having a found foundation, this causes many to rebel against their natural chaotic states. Not finding enough background or trustworthy teaching they put endless amounts of energy into maintaining stability, and trying to mold their lives into an ordered state that they themselves find pleasing. In short, what we’re fighting against isn’t poverty, starvation, instability, unhappiness. Mostly they are fighting against entropy; the tendency for ordered systems to degrade into a chaotic state. They may have lots of energy but can not centralise it, not able to pattern it or organise it they seem to be lost in their own world of chaotic thinking. They may receive lots of information from their church, magazines, but do not manage to channel it in accordance with what they can find in the Bible or other sacred books.

Most people are taking their life, their very essence, for granted as though it’s some permanent guarantee and all others have to fit to their life. Having to adapt to others seem too awkward.

It are always the others who cause pain and make our experiences so difficult.

do think many who are confronted with the feelings of inadequacy, loss of perspective.
They also consider others talking to them as a nuisance. Many do find it an infringement on the privacy when other question their sayings or their actions. Certainly today lots of people consider it their right to say whatever awful words or to insult others who dare to come too close to their own personality. Not many do want to hear the voices of others, and the least of institutions or of those who seem to represent institutions or organisations. Luckily there might be others who are hearing the voices of the people who question their actions, but some might loose than the essence of what it is they are trying to do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Español: Ralph Waldo Emers...

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wondering what the self is doing demands the question what it would like to do and why it wants to do what. Whilst our society loves ego tripping the spiritual minded person just wants to strip himself or herself from his/her ego. Trying to get into the deeper self it should not be done from some sort of self passion or love for the ego, because then the person would turn round in circles staying in the dark. Like the American essayist, lecturer, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wanted to find himself outside the traditional religion that had coursed throughout his family for generations, many today are also looking for the self and a place of the self out of the classical or traditional church. This at a time were other just want to strengthen the feeling of being part of a church which wants to hold to tradition and to the old values they remember from their grand grand parents. They forget that perhaps their ancestors just reacted against the corrupted society and its institutions — particularly organized religion and political parties. Strangely enough are there people like Sarah Paling crying we should return to the values of the Pilgrims and the founders of the United States of America. As a trinitarian either she overlooks or she does not want to see that it were just those people who fled the European ties of corrupted and false religion. Those who came to settle in the United States tried to find new grounds to start all over again, afresh and liberated from all religious chains, but grounded on the teachings of the book they read regularly. Today there are not many people who really take every day time to read some chapters from the Bible. Some politicians do want to restrict other people and get them to believe the same as they believe. Often they already think that everybody believes in the same god and the same values as they do. Several people want to have their religion to become the state religion — ultimately corrupting the purity of the individual, and that is want the peoeple who fled Europe had felt and would be afraid of finding such a repeating system. The ones who fled Europe had faith that people are at their best when truly “self-reliant” and independent. Today, again as in the time of the gnostics and the church of the 4th and 5th century those who do not want to comply with their believes are considered not to be Christians. Those conservative Christians posing their idea of Christianity onto others are also against the spiritual individu, because that person could be a danger for the group.

But the real spiritual person just wants to become closer to the self and wants to liberate himself or herself from the mass or group. The person looking for spirituality often wants to liberate himself from the person looking for a religion. The spiritual person believes to become at his best when he can be truly “self-reliant” and independent. For them it is also clear that it is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed.

Sensations and perception not necessarily are the basic and most important form of true cognition. The ones who came into the New World had learned to struggle, to battle against all sorts of weather conditions, and got to walk on their own feet, working with their own hands but they also wanted now to speak their own minds.

“A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.” {1837 speech “The American Scholar}

Again there was a reaction against the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. Again people wanted, like some would love to see it again today as well, a form of live where the emotions are again of value in a liberated and radicalised environment. A real spiritual person would love to encounter the inner emotions, because they can be considered as an authentic source of aesthetic experience. In romanticism there was placed such new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe and now with transcendentalism liberal thinkers, “agreeing in nothing but their liberality” {Gura, Philip F. American Transcendentalism: A History. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 5. ISBN 0-8090-3477-8} could find unity of willing persons to exchange ideas without having to give up their freedom to think differently than the majority, but recognising where in the differences there were/are also like-minded men and women.

Along with Andrews Norton, William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century

Rooted in English and German Romanticism, the Biblical criticism of Herder and Schleiermacher, and the scepticism of Hume, and the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant (and of German Idealism more generally), the transcedentalists movement, intimately familiar with the English Romantics, might have been an American outgrowth of Romanticism. From Unitarianism the transcendentalists took a concern for self-culture, a sense of moral seriousness, a neo-Platonic concept of piety, a tendency toward individualism, a belief in the importance of literature, and an interest in moral reform. They looked to certain Unitarians as mentors, especially the great Boston preacher William Ellery Channing. Theology was in crisis during Channing’s prime. Almost from the beginning there were two warring parties in New England. The Calvinists believed in a jealous God, the depravity of mankind, and the absence of free will. The anti-Calvinists believed in a merciful God, the potential redemption of all mankind, and the existence of free will. As the 19th century proceeded, the fight between the parties sharpened. Channing, after much deliberation, sided with the anti-Calvinists. Channing’s religion and thought were among the chief influences on the New England Transcendentalists, though he never countenanced their views, which he saw as extreme. Transcendentalists came to reject key aspects of the Unitarian worldview, starting with their rational, historical Christian apologetic. Many prominent ministers, reformers, and writers of the 19th century were associated with it, including Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) who was considered the most thought-provoking American cultural leader of the mid-19th century. In Concord he met a prickly young Harvard graduate who became his disciple, friend, and occasional adversary, Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). Among his close friends were Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), George Ripley, and Theodore Parker (1810–1860). Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) and Orestes Brownson (1803–1876) also associated with him.

Emerson spoke out against materialism (the belief that material or physical things—not spiritual—are the most important), formal religion, and slavery. Emerson spoke of slavery in the context of the Fugitive Slave Law (1850), saying, in one of his rare bursts of obscenity (foul language), “I will not obey it, by God.”
He believed in a reality and a knowledge that rose above the everyday reality to which Americans were accustomed. He believed in the honesty of the person. He believed in a spiritual universe ruled by a spiritual Oversoul (the basis of all spiritual existence), with which each individual soul should try to connect.

A spiritual person should look for those values, trying to be honest to himself in the first place, choosing for those thing he really believes in because he does understands them; and not choosing for dogma’s because others accept them and by not accepting them he would not be able to be part of that group or community. Going to search in one self the person should also try to come over or to deal with human losses and failings. In such essays as “Compensation” and “Experience,” Emmerson tried to suggest how to deal with human losses and failings and in such pieces as “Self-reliance,” “Spiritual Laws,” “Nature,” “The Poet,” and “The Over-soul,” he explained the inborn goodness of man, the joys of nature and their spiritual significance, and a universal god (a god that exists everywhere and belongs to all).

A collage of photographs from K Street and Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary Schools in Fresno, CA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Various organizations and periodicals gave the Unitarian and transcendental movement shape. The earliest was the so-called “Transcendental Club” (1836–1840), an informal group that met to discuss intellectual and religious topics; also important was the “Saturday Club,” organized much later (1854). Many transcendentalists participated in the utopian communities of Brook Farm (1841–1848; located in West Roxbury, Massachusetts), founded by George Ripley (1802–1880) and his wife, Sophia Dana Ripley (1803–1861), and the short-lived Fruitlands (1843–1844; located in Harvard, Massachusetts), founded by Alcott. A number of transcendentalist ministers established experimental churches to give their religious ideas institutional form. The most important of these churches were three in Boston: Orestes Brownson’s Society for Christian Union and Progress (1836–1841); the Church of the Disciples (founded 1841), pastored by James Freeman Clarke (1810–1888); and Theodore Parker’s Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society (founded 1845–1846). The most famous transcendentalist magazine was the Dial (1840–1844), edited by Fuller and then by Emerson; other major periodicals associated with the movement included the Boston Quarterly Review (1838–1842), edited by Brownson, and the Massachusetts Quarterly Review (1847–1850), edited by Parker. {Dictionary of American History, 2003}

But also in Europe in the 21st century we still can see such a romantic movement going on, or should we perhaps say more an utopist movement like the one political or social reformer, visionary preacher and idealist Marcus Ampe is still dreaming of. He may not be influenced by Asian religions, but the thoughts and ideas he would love to realise are similar as in many of those and older traditions and religions, but very founded on the Torah, the Old and the New Testament, which he considers the most complete guide for the community. For him it is clear that without going into the inner-self, not being in the clear with the self, a person can not come into the clear with God. Those who have (moral)qualms or who did not yet have come to terms with themselves, loving themselves, shall not be able to love others and shall have it difficult to come in front of Christ, loving him and loving his Father, the only One God. Those who have not seen the light in themselves often want to find light in elements of nature and by doing so will create different gods. This can be clearly seen in the writings on many blogs about God and religion. To come to Biblical Truth, people should study the Bible, look at it from the way of thinking in the periods it was written and in the manner of speaking it was written.

The transcendentalists varied in their interpretations of the practical aims of will. Some among the group linked it with utopian social change; Brownson connected it with early socialism, while others considered it an exclusively individualist and idealist project. Emerson believed the latter. In his 1842 lecture “The Transcendentalist“, Emerson suggested that the goal of a purely transcendental outlook on life was impossible to attain in practice:

You will see by this sketch that there is no such thing as a transcendental party; that there is no pure transcendentalist; that we know of no one but prophets and heralds of such a philosophy; that all who by strong bias of nature have leaned to the spiritual side in doctrine, have stopped short of their goal. We have had many harbingers and forerunners; but of a purely spiritual life, history has afforded no example. I mean, we have yet no man who has leaned entirely on his character, and eaten angels’ food; who, trusting to his sentiments, found life made of miracles; who, working for universal aims, found himself fed, he knew not how; clothed, sheltered, and weaponed, he knew not how, and yet it was done by his own hands. …Shall we say, then, that transcendentalism is the Saturnalia or excess of Faith; the presentiment of a faith proper to man in his integrity, excessive only when his imperfect obedience hinders the satisfaction of his wish.

Many churches do not like to have their members to go to deep in their self and questioning the church or community, because this would be seen as a doubting the community and the church as institution. Many churches or religions impede on the individual coming to individual spiritual development. Any form of religious dogma should be abolished and church should be able to trust on the choice God makes, because it is Him Who calls. The traditional church got afraid that ordinary people could get a simple belief in human moral, in godly and brotherly love and according to the clergy and theologians the common person would not be able to understand the Bible, but that would mean they say God did not make His Words clear for everybody, so He would have not have given everybody the same chance to be saved. God, Who is a God of order and clarity made His Word clear enough for those who are willing to read it and to think about it. In each individual is enough potential and intuitive capacity for discovering spiritual truth. Divinity or having a Godlike character or the state of being divine, lays in man, who is created in the image of God, and nature, and so true religion means seeking the divine in oneself and one’s surroundings. Inward experience was seen as the ultimate path to spiritual satisfaction, and thus the Transcendentalists cultivated a lifestyle that encouraged contemplation, communing with nature, continuing education, and creative expression. Many kept regular journals, which they considered invaluable tools in the process of self-examination.

The spiritual minded person should seek to cultivate the capacity to do good in themselves and others.

Preceding articles:

Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience

Being Religious and Spiritual 2 Religiosity and spiritual life

Being Religious and Spiritual 3 Philosophers, Avicennism and the spiritual

Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people

Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences

Next: Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one

Please do read also:

+++

Also interesting to read:

+++

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1940 ssue-3c.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rewriting History – The History of America Mega-Conference: Part Three, “Religious Liberalism” And Those Magnificent Mathers (homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com)
Eidsmoe spoke warmly of early Americans who celebrated Christianity. The Constitutional Convention, he claimed, had mostly Christians in attendance and involved God in their work. He dismissed the deist Founding Fathers in attendance as “outliers”. He discussed the message of 18th century preacher George Whitfield, who did much to unite Americans under a common faith, he claimed.Eidsmoe also smiled upon Benjamin Franklin for praising Christian preaching and social endeavors, suggesting that the Founding Father appreciated Christianity. However, I found his portrait of Franklin to lack nuance. While Franklin did celebrate the Puritan virtues of his upbringing and respect preachers such as George Whitefield, he also referred to himself as a Deist in his 1771 autobiography, embraced Enlightenment ideas, endorsed religious pluralism, and spent time at a London Unitarian congregation.
Transcendentalism (womenshistory.answers.com)
Transcendentalists made a distinction between true reason and a merely analytic understanding. They believed that subjective intuition was at least as reliable a source of truth as empirical investigation. They wanted to base their religion and philosophy on principles that were not related to the physical senses. Transcendentalists were familiar with the ideas of the English Romantics. The movement is sometimes described as a slightly later, American version of Romanticism.
+
What is transcendentalism?
“Unitarian Universalism” and “Unity” Churches – similarities and differences (ironicschmoozer.wordpress.com)
Unitarian Universalism (UUism) has been more of an institution-based movement from the beginning, while Unity has been more of a message-based movement, with an extensive publishing outreach that touches people beyond its churches. Of note is Unity’s “Daily Word” devotional booklet.
+
Both UUism and Unity affirm goodness in everyone and divine love for all. Both have a diversity of concepts of the divine in their literature and in their congregations. However, there are very few UUs who like terms like Father or Lord, and Unity is often comfortable with it.
UUs include many self-describe Religious Humanists–who are atheists or agnostics and don’t respond to God language. Most UUs, especially Humanists, disagree with the idea that there is a soul separate from the body.
140/365: When “Spiritual but Not Religious” Is Not Enough (makethreesixtyfive.wordpress.com)
I had chosen not to be confirmed as a junior high student, and my relationship with the church was tentative, though it provided me with such a network of safety, joy, and service.
+
Lillian explain what I have always known: that faith might be personal, but the community of faith is the most important, valuable part of the church. She writes, “Church is a school for sinners, not a club for saints.” In the end, my sin has always been in my faith, in my disbelief. With all things that you are supposed to “just know”, I have struggled: love, faith, life choices. But Lillian says, “I pitch my tent in the field of mystery, and have yet to nail it down,” which I think is a perfect analogy for the journey I’m on now, in all parts of my life, but particularly with spirituality.
Spiritual Fathers (krclynn.org)
calling earthly men “spiritual fathers”. I hear these words from the mouths of so many carelessly and I always flinch at the sound of it. Are we to have mentors and people that we look up to in the church to point us to Christ? Absolutely! Do we need men and women of God to give us words of direction and minister to us when we face problems in different areas of our life? Absolutely! The problem is that the term “spiritual father” is not found in scripture nor is it supported.
+
Did we forget that Jesus is the head of the church and the chief apostle? Did we forget that God qualified Jesus as a perfect High Priest, and He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him – Hebrews 5:9. Although there are more mature Christians than us and have more knowledge of scripture than we do, No Person has no more holiness than the average Christian and is not entitled to be called “these exaggerated names.”
Pop culture and spirituality without religion (christiantoday.com)
Pop artists are fond of provocative religious imagery, but Ted Turnau says that should not be surprising for Christians and rather than getting offended, they should be looking for ways to come alongside today’s secularised pop stars to help them use such religious imagery appropriately.
Want to Argue About Creeds? I Don’t (theresauuco.wordpress.com)
Unitarian Universalists are fond of saying that we believe in “deeds not creeds.” Almost every Sunday I start the worship service by welcoming visitors telling them that we value diversity of all types. Our congregations include people who self-identify as Christians, Pagans, Humanists, Agnostics, Jews, Atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, Spiritualists, and pretty much everything else. I say that what matters most is how we treat other people and how we care for this planet of ours. That is another way of saying “deeds not creeds.” Our faith tradition has a long history of respect for the individual right of conscience. Believe whatever makes sense to you about God and what happens after we die, but let’s see if we can get together and try to make our own lives and this world a better place. We can discuss differing theological beliefs. I love hearing what others believe about the big issues, and I like to talk about my own, always evolving, sense of the universe and what this life of ours is all about. Arguing is pointless, however, and generally serves to increase the distance between people rather than bring them closer together.
+
Unitarian Universalism is changing and we will keep changing; change is in our DNA. We were formed from the merger of two Christian denominations, both of which date back to the 1700′s in this country. That history is still part of us, but I don’t think many of our religious ancestors would necessarily recognize us today. We brought in science and humanism, incorporated wisdom from other world religions and from the earth centered traditions. The Transcendentalist also had a huge impact. For those of us who believe in God, revelation is definitely not sealed. For those of us who believe in the human spirit, change is simply part of life.
Is Yoga New Agey? (elephantjournal.com)
Emerson, one of the foremost minds of 19th century America, was himself heavily influenced by Vedanta, the spiritual teachings of Hinduism, which originated in India. With regard to the concept of karma, for example, he wrote, “You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.”

Ralph Waldo was a transcendentalist who read the Bhagavad Gita and considered himself a yogi. (Albeit his lineage was more jnana than hatha; more about knowledge and wisdom than breath and movement.)

The “new” doesn’t refer to time but rather new as opposed to established Western societal beliefs. The “age” refers to the Aquarian Age (as in, ‘this is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.’)
Can You Be Spiritual and Not Religious? (drcindysimpson.com)
“I’m spiritual but not religious.” I hear and read this many times. What does this phrase mean? For people who do research in the area of religion and spirituality, however, separating the two is very difficult, if not impossible. For millennia the word religious had about the same meaning as the word spiritual.Today religion is popularly labeled as the doctrine and beliefs of a group. Spirituality, on the other hand, is individualized and only concerns itself with the relationship of that person to the sacred or transcendent (Koenig, 2005, pp. 44-45). Yet current research finds that at least 74% of people do not make a distinction between religion and spirituality. How then can we best define the relationship between the two?
Transcendentalism vs. Puritanism: The Enduring Relevance of Competing Ideologies in Modern American Society (theiridescentbubble.com)
Transcendentalism and Puritanism share an enduring relativity embedded in modern American individualism. Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau espoused the tenants of a quasi-religion governed by individuality and nature while Puritans like Jonathan Edwards, though influenced by the academics of free thinking, knelt at the altar of altruism governed by an angry God. While we indeed have deep roots within Puritanism as a nation, we are equally influenced by the individualism that is Transcendentalism. In reflecting upon the condition of modern American society, it seems clear that the divisions that separate these two distinct ideologies, their seeds planted during the time of our foundation, still frame the divisions we face as a collective people today.
+
the exploration of the core tenants of Transcendentalism sheds the greatest light on that which differentiates it from its Puritan opposition. It is a form of philosophical idealism that calls upon the individual to rise above the animalistic impulses in life, as well as the cultural restrictions imposed upon the individual. In Transcendentalism, God is a life force found in everything which negates the necessity of churches or holy places. God is found in both nature and human nature; he is a “light” in everyone. As a rule, one must ruminate over and nourish the inner light to keep it alive and healthy. Everyone is in possession of intuition or an inherent understanding of right and wrong but culture and society tend to corrupt the intuition. To actualize the authority of our intuition, we must learn, think, and reflect. Further, neither our past nor our future should limit the present. We must live close to nature because it is our greatest teacher and our connection to God. Individualism is that the very heart of Transcendentalism and self-empowerment is borne of the defiance of social conventions – even God is not the ultimate authority. To the Transcendentalist, evil is not the opposite of good, it is simply the absence of good, but good is thought to be more powerful. Finally, all things are encompassed and contained by the Oversoul, which has spiritual power.

	On to a baptismal ce… on Get Your Wonderful Disease-pro…
	Reden om kennis in u… on Fundamenten van het Geloof 13…
	What is expected of… on Lovers of God, seekers and lov…
	What is expected of… on Being in tune with God
	Wat wordt er van een… on Wettisch tegenover wet
	Wat wordt er van een… on Fundamenten van het Geloof: 7.…
	Intense conflict in… on A multi-front war between Isra…
	Wat betekent het om… on Kerkzijn in een ik-gerichte…
	What does it mean to… on Being Religious and Spiritual…
	What does it mean to… on Members of the ecclesia unitin…
	What does it mean to… on How do I know if I’m cal…
	What does it mean to… on The Pastor Theologian
	No necessity for fas… on 8 Reasons Christian Holidays S…
	How to find out that… on Lovers of God, seekers and lov…
	How to find out that… on Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Ch…

Stepping Toes

Things said on this site possibly can upset someone

Tag Archives: Materialism

American Christianity no longer resembles its Founder

Additional articles

Further reading

Jehovah steep rock and fortress,
source of insight

Additional reading:

By the closing down of the Association for Biblestudy

How do you define religion?

+

.

.

.

.

.

++

Additional literature:

+++

Faith Over Fear

Not holding back and getting out of darkness

Find also to read:

Happy International Happiness Day!

+

Please find also to read:

Additional reading:

Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious

Find also to read:

Additional reading:

Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists

Please do read also:

Also interesting to read:

Additional articles

Further reading

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Related articles

David Russell Mosley

Rate this:

Share this:

The Word of God given to man

Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight

Quotes from Gods Word

Additional reading:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

+

.

.

.

.

.

++

Additional literature:

+++

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Find also to read:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

+

Please find also to read:

Additional reading:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Find also to read:

Additional reading:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Please do read also:

Also interesting to read:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Jehovah steep rock and fortress,
source of insight