Evil.

The reason that we cannot see the evil in our world is because many religious people label innocent people they disagree with evil. 

And those who are truly evil are disguised as good.

Labelling innocent people evil leads us to believe that there is no real evil in the world.

While rock stars, celebrities, and sports people who have sold their souls for fame and fortune pose as heroes and saviors.

The modern disbelief in Satan protects them.

I do not believe in Satan as a fallen angel.

But I do believe that rock stars and others do believe in Satan and act accordingly.

The works that they do are evil and damage everyone.

So I do believe that there is evil in our world.

But it's not who you think.


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Coming Out.

The timely coming out of Finn Stannard - a 17 year old schoolboy at a prestigious Catholic College - gives us a human example of the debate about the right of religious schools to reject gay students and teachers.

Finn's speech was received by his peers with a standing ovation.

It also received the support of the Headmaster.

So we are presented with the reality of the debate.

We are talking about human beings.

Not some abstract moral conception.

Finn Stannard is a real person.

And his courageous coming out to the whole school anchors the debate in reality.

The fact that he is at a Catholic College has not gone without notice.

Pope Francis has hinted at acceptance of homosexuals in his Church.

But the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is yet to accept homosexuals as full members.

We cannot receive Communion.

Or serve in positions of leadership in the Catholic Church.

His Church still teaches that homosexuality is a sin.

So Finn Stannard's coming out is a step towards greater acceptance of homosexuals in the Catholic Church.

What I would say to him is this:

God loves you.

He does not discriminate.

You will go to Heaven when you die.

And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
 

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Reconstructed Hippies.

The Hippie Generation set out to change the world.

Peace and Love combined with Civil Rights to rise up against the powers of the world.

But we were betrayed by our rock stars into a life of drugs and degradation.

Sex and drugs and rock and roll wrecked a whole generation of idealists.

But it was not until the 1980s that our ideals were destroyed.

Ronald Reagan and Generation X attacked our ideals in a violent rebellion against our politics.

Psychic violence and political pressure reconstructed the Hippie Generation en mass.

Now we merely enjoy our pleasures and pursue distractions which feed the economy and the Status Quo.


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Community.

A community is more than just a group of people who barely know each other.

We are supposed to be brothers and sisters in Jesus not just acquaintances in Christ.

If we have nothing to do with each other outside of official Church functions then we are not a community at all.

As John Churcher said in his sermon on the Emmaus Road: "Community comes from sharing a sacred meal together."

And he did not just mean Communion.

He meant actually eating a meal together in our homes.

What we are doing is not good enough.

And that is why the Church is dying.


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Family.

Peace and love and non-violent non-cooperation.

This was the idealism of the 1960s.

And surprisingly they all derive from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

But sex and drugs and rock and roll wrecked a whole generation.

And turned them away from the Church.

But what is emerging now as Progressive Christianity is compatible with 1960s idealism.

And the objectives of the Religious Left are not dissimilar to those of the Religious Right.

But we differ in regard to how we will save the world.

But family values is equivalent to valuing love.

It is the love within the family that makes it different.

"'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'"  Matthew 25:40 (NRSV)

And if God is our Father then everyone is a member of His Family.

In Ezekiel 37 God joins the two sticks - the stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph - into one stick - Israel.

Could it be that God will joins the two sticks - the stick of Conservatism and the stick of Liberalism - into one stick - His Church?

And could it be that God will welcome all religions into One Family?


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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Dubia.

As the Dubia (Doubts) of the American Bishops emerge it is becoming clear that what they fear is not moral decay but loss of power and privilege.

What the Catholic Bishops are defending is the fear based control mechanism which keeps them on top.

Pope Francis has proposed a more open model of conscience which embraces the mercy and forgiveness of God.

The fact that the Bishops are objecting at all betrays the nature of their motivation.

This is Phariseism in the Church.

And we can do without it.


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The Printing Press.

The printing press, the gramophone, the movies, radio, television, the Internet.....

All these mass-media inventions have been used by evil people in our world to corrupt, torture, and control everyone.

So that now we barely know what we think at all.

Satanists working through the collective unconscious manipulate words and images which determine our thoughts and our behavior.

Mostly this is a subtle game of temptation and damnation.

But God will not damn us for something which is beyond our own control.

His mercy and forgiveness will prevail.

In the meantime we suffer.


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