My Sunday Thought for 10232016: Good vs. Evil - Keep Our Eyes on the Target

Q: What do you consider yourself to be, spiritually? Wicca?

A: This is why I hate labels. I walk the path of my ancestors. I have a very wide multicultural line in my heritage. So it's hard to say; many times I say - I am just me. Yet, my father raised me to follow my ancestors and culture, including spiritual beliefs. 

This is how I sum it up: Do no intentional harm to others. To me the harm, many times, is done with intent, so do not intentionally harm others. Much like the Hippocratic oath, you do everything you can not to harm another. I am pagan, not passive, and if someone attacks me I have the right to defend myself and the innocent around me.

I do not believe in Satan. How could I worship someone, or thing, I don't believe in. Yet, I do believe that evil does exists and it is our job, as good people, to stop the evil around us and to be an example.

Yes, when you study the different, so called, pagan religions, there can be many, unsavory beliefs which fall under that label, that I would never have anything to do with.

Why is Christianity considered good?  Look at all the evil which Christianity has visited upon humanity.  History records little of it except for those events too large to ignore, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, slaughter of the Aztec people and culture, but the lesser crimes are more and more coming to light, and let us not be so ignorant as to think these "lesser" crimes were not being visited upon the innocent from time immemorial.  Priests diddling young boys, or taking the pick of virginal womanhood for their own carnal pleasures has been going on since Christ died on the cross, and we have the unmitigated gall to accuse pagans of darkness, evil, immorality, and sin?  How dare we?  But Christianity has come a long way from the belief that anyone who wasn't a Christian must be possessed of some evil for which torture was a remedy and death the only true cure, innocent or not.

It would seem that ignorance usually rears its ugly head the moment an otherwise good philosophy falls prey to personal agendas driven by cardinal sins, more commonly referred to as the seven deadly sins.  

Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God's gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.”

-- A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), pastor, author

Before we go slinging labels around like any of us have a right to, which none of us do, let us first take a moment and educate ourselves on those we dare to label, and then let's take it from the proper Christian perspective.  Just because someone does not follow one of the 33,000 plus interpretations of the Bible doesn't mean they are going to hell any more than the other 29,299 who don't follow the one interpretation which might be right... and probably isn't.  Mankind can truly screw up a wet dream with little or no effort.  So, who deserves a label more?

“It is one of the gifts of great spiritual teachers to make things simple. It is one of the gifts of their followers to complicate them again. Often we need to scrape away the accumulated complications of a master’s message in order to hear the kernel of what they said.”

-- Julia Cameron, author, poet, playwright

Christians believe the only way to gain entry to the Kingdom of Heaven is through the teachings, the philosophy, of Jesus Christ.  Anyone who does not follow their spiritual view is doomed not to gain entry into heaven, therefore Christians feel it is their duty, assigned to them by their God, to lead those worthy of saving into the light, and pray for those they cannot save.  How this is done, and the level of hell those that can't be saved are relegated to, differs by their particular interpretation (as a reminder, over 33,000 interpretations).  Christians have come a long way, baby.

Every spiritual philosophy plagued by followers, adherents, or those people who will not deign to accept any position except that of spiritual leader, have already been doomed to endless interpretations and, by extension, internal politics.  This is why when anyone tells me they're an adherent to a particular philosophy, that has a congregation and leadership, I sigh deeply and tell them I feel their pain.

“Spirituality is not adopting more beliefs and assumptions but uncovering the best in you.”

--Amit Ray, Indian author and spiritual master

A witch is a witch, cut and dry, and all witches are evil, right?  If the Wizard of Oz taught us anything, it would be that there exist good witches and bad witches.  As with everything in the universe, there exists an opposite.  The universe must have balance.  If we look at the four non-Christian spiritual philosophies I have listed here -  Shamanism, Wicca, Paganism, and Satanism, the only difference between them and Christianity would be the inclusion of Christ and God, and a priority of love for nature and self.  

Satanism is a stretch, even for me, though I think our mistrust of it comes from the name we identify with pure evil, more than with their core beliefs.  This is like damning everyone in the South because, after 156 years, people still need something to be offended by instead of putting that energy into something constructive instead of a piece of cloth. Education would offer that the North owned as many slaves.  Are we to ask the Federal Government to remove Old Glory to appease these same offended individuals?  I think not.  We have so much more to worry about in the world, and we waste our time with such nonsense. 

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”

-- Saint Teresa, aka Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

I'd like to give everyone a thought to ponder. I have joined two quotes I think are apropos to this conversation. The first is by author June Ahern, the second, and more important, is by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), a philosopher and Jesuit priest: “How hurtful it can be to deny one's true self and live a life of lies just to appease others." "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Interesting thought coming from a devout Christian, a Jesuit priest, isn't it?

“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.”

-- John Lennon (1940-1980), singer, songwriter

Note: To my dear friend for her statements in the beginning of this post.  With all of the issues plaguing her life, like the earth itself, she abides. She finds the time for others as she finds the time for my writer's block.  She has a habit of jumping in at the appropriate time, and that is usually when I need her most.  My continued admiration and constant thanks.