All the commentaries I offer on this blog and in my award-winning work, The Christian Right… or Wrong?, are not designed to attack or offend, but Enlighten.
I wanted to express my viewpoint regarding President Bush’s recent State of the Union Address. Being an expert on the Spirit of the Law regarding Biblical Scriptures, I thought I would comment upon some of President Bush’s remarks and how they relate to Christ’s Message of the Spirit. Why? Because America is roughly 82% Christian and its military is over 90% Christian. We are nation built upon Christian principles, as we are often reminded by our leaders. So then let us have an understanding of what “Christian principles” really mean and how this wisdom might add to some of the President's statements.
President Bush:
To confront the great issues before us, we must act in a spirit of good will and respect for one another, and I will do my part.
Are we a nation whose government “acts in a spirit of good will” or “acts in a spirit of American democracy, corporation building, and financial opportunity?” As far as Christian scriptures are concerned, there is only One Spirit, the Spirit of Good Will, or God's Will.
God is an invisible Spirit who is the Source, or Selfless Giver of Love and all Good, having no darkness whatsoever. Living in the Spirit of God, or "in the spirit of good will" is the individual responsibility of personifying Selfless Love and the fruits thereof (kindness, compassion, peace, forgiveness, tolerance, patience, and all Goodness).
To “act in a spirit of good will” is to follow your Good (God) Conscience, or the Mind of God within you. God’s desire is that we tread His Way of Selfless Love instead of our ways of human selfishness, and that we do so of our own free will, joyfully. If America “must” act in a Spirit of Good Will, then we must be a collective beacon of the Selfless, Good Spirit and not selfishness, which is virtually an impossible task, as it would require all citizens to abide by the Good Spirit. There is no such Selfless nation on Earth. Nations and governments and groups do not have an individual soul, and are committed to a certain set of rules by which they do their business, so as to ensure business success, as that is the desired end-result of any business. No matter how any nation does its "business," its individual citizens have the power to conduct their lives by Selfless Love (God's Will) or selfishness (self-will). If any nation or group of souls desires alignment with God's Will, then the alignment must begin within the hearts and minds of each of its members.
President Bush:
Lacking the military strength to challenge us directly, the terrorists have chosen the weapon of fear.
Yes, the weapon of the terrorists is ultimately fear. Fear crafted from gross misinterpretations of the Koran. Fear born of religious separatism and superstition. The terrorists and their supporters are spiritually ignorant, rejecting that the One Way to eternal love, tolerance, and peace is by building love, tolerance, and peace in the here and now. They reject The Way of God's Selfless Spirit, as it would shatter their walls of religious separatism and fear. They are not about to let go of their separatism, as this is what makes them "holier" than all others and what fuels their cultist power. Let's face it... it is always the same with cultist mentalities. Their belief systems always fundamentally revolve around “us versus them." History continues to prove that one of the most effective ways for an elite few to wield power and control over the souls and pocketbooks of the masses is through religious separatism, fear, and superstition.
How is the religious separatism of fundamentalist Islam any different from the separatism of America's fundamentalist evangelicals? Just as fundamentalist Muslims teach that you must be a Muhammad-believer to get to Paradise and that all others are hellbound, so too do fundamentalist Christians (Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, etc.) teach that you must be a Christ-believer to get to Heaven and that all non-Christians are hellbound. It is precisely this religious separatism that seeks to blame the world’s problems upon “heretic” or “hellbound” unbelievers, which often leads to persecution and war against these perceived “enemies of God.”
The very reason why Bin Laden’s group seeks war is because they have used their scriptures to “sanctify” their holiness above all who are not in their exclusive group and to “sanctify” violence as a solution to their “troubles” with the world's "heretics," specifically the Americans and the Jews. We have seen how Christianity has used their scriptures to "sanctify" violence throughout its history. Consider the multitudes who were persecuted, tortured and slaughtered throughout the Crusades. And let's not forget the Inquisition, which lasted over six centuries! It was Christians who used their scriptures to justify the slavery of Africans in America, an issue that helped lead to the bloodiest of all wars, the American Civil War. The history of Christians persecuting "heretics" is seemingly endless and continues to this day, even in America. It was not too long ago that Jerry Falwell was pointing his finger at America's gays, lesbians and abortionists for helping to bring about the horrors of September 11th, using "holy" scripture to justify his false and unholy viewpoint.
America's foreign policy is naturally affected by Christian leaders and their religious mentalities. For example, the reason why American Christians and their politics are so pro-Israel is because the nation of Israel is a key player in the Bible and especially the Book of Revelation. That's the bottom-line truth of the matter. After all, Jerusalem is the site where Jesus will return, and Armageddon is located about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. Though American evangelicals and orthodox Jews do not advertise their desire to rid Israel of all Muslims, as that might appear unreasonably intolerant, they know that the Muslims must eventually be kicked out of Jerusalem in order for Biblical prophecy to be fulfilled. It is prophesied that the third incarnation of Solomon’s Temple must be built upon the site where Islam’s Dome of the Rock currently sits. The Muslims will never hand over that piece of property, as it is their second holiest site on Earth and also the very spot where they believe Muhammad will return. As long as there are Muslims in Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock cannot be destroyed and the Third Temple erected. Unrest and fighting will only increase in Israel until the Muslims have been removed, all because of selfish interpretations of "holy" scriptures.
The media and our government refuse to define the unending turmoil in the Middle East as a "religious war," though the fighting is directly fueled by religious separatism. These religious groups hate and fight and kill, yet all the while call themselves "holy," believing themselves holier than those outside their exclusionary group. How is it that God's "holy" children cannot find happiness and peace in all the blessings they possess, but must cause disputes and wars? It is because of false religion, specifically the false religion of "holier-than-thou" separatism.
President Bush:
Saudi Arabia has taken the first steps to reform. Now it can offer its people a better future by pressing forward with those efforts. Democracies in the Middle East will not look like our own, because they will reflect the traditions of their own citizens. Yet liberty is the future of every nation in the Middle East, because liberty is the right and hope of all humanity. The same is true of Iran, a nation now held hostage by a small, clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people. The regime in that country sponsor terrorists in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon, and that must come to an end.
We are informed that the nation of Iran is being “held hostage” by a small, clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people. But let us not forget that their elite "power" is born of and revolves around their religious separatism. You could easily make the argument that the world’s Catholics are being “held hostage” by a small, clerical elite (the Papacy) that is isolating and repressing them (through enslavement to religious separatism, superstition, and fear as being “The Way” to God’s Kingdom). You could also say this about Billy Graham’s fundamentalist, separatist, repressive teachings.
Though President Bush is specifically referring to the dissolution of terrorist groups, these groups are religious terrorists whose terrorism is "sanctified" by their religious separatism. They claim “holiness” above all others and believe they have the Allah-given right to do the heinous things they are doing. The short-term solution is to dissolve their particular, violent group, but the long-term solution is to dissolve religious separatism entirely! For where there is an undercurrent of religious separatism (or any separatism for that matter), there are souls poised to fight for their self-righteousness. The line between religious separatism and the persecution of “outsiders” is thin. It is the religious separatism that must be stopped if persecutions and wars over religion are ever to end.
Any “church” that teaches any “Way” to God other than the individual responsibility of personifying Selfless Love is a false church led by false leaders, per the Spirit of the Law of both the Bible and the Koran. If it is God you want eternally, than you must sow to His Selfless Spirit and not to selfishness (anti-Spirit). The truest definition of “jihad” is about the battle within your soul, a battle that is won only when you have learned to overcome your evil (selfishness) with good (Selfless Love; The Way and Spirit of God). As given in Romans 12:21: "Overcome evil with good."
If every Christian, Jew and Muslim rejected the false "holier-than-thou" mentality of religious separatism and simply lived to overcome their own evils with God’s Selfless Spirit, peace would reign among them, naturally.
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