Christ Consciousness vs. The Jesus Cult

I love dogs. Anyone and everyone’s dogs. I regularly house-sit and care for the dog of a relative, who is devoutly christian. I do not caplitalize the word christian because I believe it is part of our collective unquestioning, unconscious and dangerous acceptance of the false superiority of one faith over others, and the same for the word ‘bible’. One day I arrived at the house and the radio station was playing christian music. As my relative was getting ready to leave, she turned off the radio saying, “I’m going to turn you into a christian yet.” I can’t speak to her motives, but the comment irritated me. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. I vowed that the next time she made any comment like that, I was going to ask, “What in your supremely arrogant assessment of me makes you think I’m not a christian?”

I don’t attend religious services and I’m no longer a practicing Catholic. Does that mean I don’t understand the message of a wandering Jewish teacher who fought against the kind of hypocrisy I see in so-called christians every damn day? I don’t “study” the bible because it’s irrelevant to my life. A document written by men, for men, thousands of years ago and warped and twisted to serve very evil purposes throughout history has nothing to offer me. I don’t believe it’s the “word of God”. I believe it’s the word of violent men who want to maintain power and control over the masses, and most especially the female masses. Many churches have Sunday services, Wednesday bible study (in case the weekly brainwashing is wearing off) self-study bible groups for women and bible camps for kids. This looks to me like fear-based process addiction, but in a supreme effort to not become what I’m criticizing here, I cannot speak to or about another’s faith and spiritual experience. It’s none of my business, unless they make it my business by attempting to shove it down my throat.

Nearly all of my family call themselves christian. A very close relative and many friends are ordained ministers of various sects of christianity. I’m also active in social justice initiatives and I walk a very fine line with how I carry myself in groups I’m working with. Historically in America, the christian church has been a safe haven for black and brown folks and they absolutely do not need a white woman disrespecting their gathering spaces. Ironically, as much as they talk and sing about Jesus and their faith, I’ve never felt the kind of forceful pressure to be other than who I am in a religious gathering of black people. I’ve never felt the same haughty judgement of the state of my Soul with the underlying emotional violence I feel from white christians.

What most people don’t know is that I’ve had a personal experience of Christ coming to me during one of the worst times of my life. I don’t talk about it much and I’m not going into detail here because I don’t want to cheapen my profoundly soulful experience by making it a “spectacle”. It was when my husband was near death in the ICU after a bad motorcycle accident. So I’ve experienced what I believe to be the Divine, or it could just be my very active imagination. I’ve had many awe-inspiring mystical experiences in my life. I’m in touch with Heaven on a daily basis and I don’t need a group to direct my faith and how I live my life. Do people actually believe that Jesus Christ has such a huge ego that you have to publicly and loudly kiss his ass until you die to be “saved”? Saved from what? Living on this planet with so many willfully ignorant and power hungry humans has been a living nightmare for me. Why would I want to spend eternity with them?

The bible quote attributed to Jesus of Nazareth, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one gets to the Father except through me,” sounds a lot like a fascist dictator. Did Jesus really say this and mean it in a literal egotistical way? I find it very hard to square with the man who said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” My interpretation is that we can never relate directly with the Creator without spiritual evolution, and I don’t care whether others agree with my interpretation. It’s for my spiritual path.

One of my favorite songs is “Jesus, Walk with Me” by Club 8. Here is a link to the lyrics if you are interested:

 https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858778855/

I don’t remember how I discovered it, but it was during the same timeframe as my ‘encounter’ with what I believe was Christ when my husband was in the ICU. I never listen to it in mixed company or talk about it because I do not want to invite that overpowering cultish fanaticism I witness in a lot of Jesusy people. It’s the same energy I experience when I’m around addicts of any stripe. And of course, it’s not all ‘christians, just like it’s “not all cops, white people, politicians, men…” causing problems for others, but the “bad apples” seem to be winning their war on whomever their irrational fears tell them to attack.

I have pictures of Christ all over my home, and my favorite is The Universal Christ by Android Jones. I also have Buddha statues, angel paintings and a statue of a meditating Christ alongside a statue of the Hindu God, Ganesh. I have a statue of Ganesh in every room of my home. I do not “worship” the statues. I do not “worship” God/dess. That is something literal-minded religious people do. If I worship any living thing, it’s the earth, the sun, the water because that’s where all life on this planet comes from. And this bizarre amputation of spirit and body is why we have allowed the destruction of the planet and are all just waiting for some better afterlife. I can’t think of a more disrespectful slap in the face to the Creator.

We’ve had door to door ‘christian missionaries attempt to destroy one of the Buddha statues in our yard and had a wooden cross made with surveyor stakes placed in our driveway because of my yard art. How is that behavior ‘christian? Do these followers of Jesus really believe that the creator of the universe is threatened by other spiritual beliefs and teachings or is that just a violent projection of their fears?

For people who want my friendship and company, one of my criteria for relationship is that you respect my personal autonomous spirituality. It’s a non-negotiable boundary. You know who has never threatened me with emotional violence? My atheist friends. It would probably be easier to be an atheist, but Heaven keeps finding me.

May Heaven’s Blessings Be upon You.

I Don't Want To Go Back To Normal

The past year has been horrifyingly tragic, whether we got sick, lost a loved one, or merely had to witness the suffering of others; it’s taken a huge collective toll, psychically and emotionally. That’s why it’s a little hard to write about the blessings of the past year. Many of us finally had the time and space to do some serious soul searching and life evaluation; a gift for which I am filled with gratitude daily. 

One of my intentions for the future is to hang onto my newly discovered resourcefulness. For those of us old enough to have been raised by Depression survivors, we absorbed a lot of these skills and the thinking that goes with them, even while we made fun of them growing up. As someone guilty of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing in my younger years, I realize that our throw away, Walmartized, get-it-cheaper mentality is a huge part of the destruction of our planet, and with that, ourselves.  

During my pandemic retreat, I had plenty of time to clean closets, organize craft and art supplies and actually finish some projects. I also learned to be much more frugal because of the uncertainty of the economy. I found myself shopping online for something, and realizing “Hey, I could use this (fill in the blank) instead!” It’s as if all the psychic space that used to be taken up by my social calendar, mindless Facebook scrolling (more on this in a later post), and how to navigate traffic at 8:00 am and 5:00 pm was cleared out and replaced with a truckload of ingenuity. I hope we never go back to “normal”! 

I also had lots of time to watch travel shows, many of which centered on food and cooking. I used to believe that I hated cooking. As it turns out, I just never had enough time and I had more than enough distractions. I tend to not follow recipes (at least after the first time) and I’ve surprised myself at being able to watch a television version of something being made and giving it my own spin. My couscous finally has some flavor! You can google Sicilian Couscous recipes and make your own. Sadly, getting fresh caught sardines for a true Sicilian couscous is probably not in the cards anytime soon.  

Another lesson from hours of watching home improvement shows is that no trend will keep you satisfied in your home for long. For me, decorating the home should come from what makes me happy and comfortable – and what I can comfortably afford.  I think we need to stop using the term “dated” when critiquing our interior spaces. There is an entire industry built on Mid-century modern homes, furniture and accessories. So, at what point does “dated” become “vintage and valuable”? It’s also become sadly apparent that pre-pandemic, we all spent most of our lives away from home – expensive homes that we rarely got to enjoy because we spent so much time at work, getting to work, or thinking about work. Again, I don’t want to go back to normal. 

Currently, the “Modern Farmhouse” is having a moment, and that’s great if that’s what you like. It’s not my style and I won’t let a “designer” push it on me. Right now, I am still updating our 27 year-old home, and at my age now, there are some things that just don’t need to be “high-end”. Not if it means giving up a trip to Europe soon. These are the choices that I finally had the quiet time to make with the pandemic opening up a whole new inner world and quieting all the noise from outside myself. Nope. Don’t wanna go back to normal. 

This past year I was able to get out in my yard and do a lot of manual labor which I would have had to pay for had I still been doing time in an outside office. Not only was it incredibly satisfying, I lost 10 lbs without giving up pasta. Again, the expanded awareness and consciousness born of this year of lock down and quarantine is a gift that I want to guard and cherish. If going back to normal means going back to auto-pilot and the low grade depression that comes from living by rote, no thanks.

 We need to remember that our financial and environmental health is every bit as a important as our physical, mental and emotional health. If we continue with our patterns of unbridled and often unconscious consumption, there will be no “normal” to which to go back.

Before

After

My $10.00 find at Consign Furniture Reno. The pillow was purchased at Grocery Outlet, Spanish Springs.

My favorite shows include: Huang’s World – on Vice, Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy on CNN, Escape to the Chateau – HGTV, Restaurants on the Edge – Netflix, 100 Day Dream Home – HGTV, World’s Most Extraordinary Homes – Netflix.