Light.

When new revelations bless us with new ideas the temptation is to force these ideas onto other people.

But a new approach should not be about forcing progressive ideas onto conservative people.

What we must do is maintain our own position and pray for others to see more clearly.

Then when God shines the light of truth upon them we may both be more enlightened.


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Satanists.

So what of the Satanists themselves?

Those in rock music and entertainment and sports who have sold their souls to the devil will not be damned.

God will show mercy and forgiveness even to them.

He will call out their souls from the darkness and lies which have engulfed them.

And He will forgive their massive debts.

They too will enter into Heaven - which is God's Love.


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Mental.

In fact the effects of Satanism are not so much spiritual as mental.

By manipulating subliminal images and triggers in their music and videos rock musicians control what we think and do.

They think that by corrupting us they can get us into hell.
This is the devil's work.

But God will not judge us .

In fact Satanists are the least likely to see God clearly.
Saturated as they are in darkness and lies.

God will not punish us.

He will forgive.

He will show mercy.

Whatever we may have done as a result of Satanic manipulation will be forgiven.

And God will grant us Heaven.


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Betrayed.

The attitude of those who have betrayed us is that the image put out by the Churches that God is a harsh, judgemental, anti-sex, vindictive, insane, dictator who intends to torture us all forever is the true image of God.

They believe that this originates from God Himself.

Therefore, they reason, Satan's contract to give them whatever they want in return for their souls is a good deal.

What they don't realize is that if Satanists tell you to lie to everyone the chances are that they are lying to you in the first place.

And the negative image they have of God is not the truth about God at all.

Jesus said that the world did not know God.

And it still does not know Him.

So their commitment to evil and darkness is a false deal.
And all their treachery and malice is misplaced.

They believe that Satan will reward them for their dirty deeds.

So they tempt everyone and betray everyone.

In the hope that we will all burn in hell.

But there is no Satan in reality.

And there is no hell either.

But their malice and sabotage cause untold damage and suffering.

How much suffering derives from drugs and divorce alone.

This evil is hidden in the rock music and videos which play constantly in dance venues and pubs.

Subliminal messages make us bad, filthy, wicked sinners who deserve to be punished.

If anyone questions it it is passed off as a joke.

Hell forever - very funny.

So be aware.

Not everything around you is benevolent.


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Homophobia.

Homophobia is a bigger problem than most people think.

Even liberal people who consider themselves enlightened can still harbor unconscious homophobic feelings.

And many religious people are severely homophobic.

The idea that homosexuals are somehow more sexual than others is a homophobic stereotype.

Homosexual people are the same as heterosexual people.

In fact homophobia can actually cause negative behavior.

So look at your reactions when dealing with homosexual people.

You may be harboring unconscious homophobia.


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Hope.

God makes us clean.

Jesus forgives.

God is good.

Heaven is merciful.

The Buddha teaches compassion.

We take the middle path.

With the Holy Spirit comes discipline.

Love God and love your neighbor.

Because

God is Love.


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Men of Color.

Recently there has been a reversion to the 1980s fashion of wearing all black.

This spread through our community like a plague.

Black represents: death, darkness, depression, suicide, and evil.

But we are men of color.

We reject the nullifying influence of black.

And embrace the spectrum of the rainbow.


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Conservatism.

There is a school of thought which suggests that if you just embrace political conservatism and adhere strictly to religious orthodoxy all will be well and you will be right with God.

Unfortunately this is not true.

Jesus said that the world did not know God.

And it still does not.

The political conservatism of the established religions owes more to the Pharisees than God.

It was the conservative religious authorities in league with the dominant power of the world which killed Jesus.

So the idea that we should conform to the expectations of the Church and the corporate plutocrats is bankrupt.

God does not punish us.

He nurtures us like a loving Father.

Hell is out of character for a loving God.

Rewards and punishments, heaven and hell are control techniques used by the conservative establishment.

They have been corrupted by the ways of the world.

God's ways are different:

Mercy, forgiveness, compassion, goodness, love.

All these things come from God.

And this is good news for us all.


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Legacy.

The Beatles made us drug addicts.

Stairway to Heaven made us anti-Christ.

Madonna made us materialistic.

Michael Jackson made us bad.

Show no Mercy made us destroy.

Generation X made us pure evil.

Black made us hate.

Generation Y made us sin.

Grunge made us filthy.

Harry Potter made us wicked.

Twilight made us evil.


This is the legacy of Satanism in rock music and popular culture.


So Beware!


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Jubilee.

It was God's Will that after 7 times 7 years - i.e. in the 50th year - everything should be restored to its original fair distribution.

The land would revert to its original owners.

God realized that we would profit from others' misfortunes and some would become rich while others would be disinherited.

But this way of the world is not God's will.

So He stipulated in the Law that in the 50th year everything would revert to to its original state.

What does this tell us about God?

It shows us God's Will - all people are equal - and it shows us His forgiveness and mercy.

He writes off debts.

And He blots out our transgressions.

We can give thanks for that.


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Deborah and Barak.

Today in church we had a reading from Judges in which Deborah summoned Barak to battle.

The reading began with the assumption that Israels military defeat by the Canaanite King Jabin was punishment on Israel for worshipping foreign gods.

And that the Judge Deborah's faithfulness would assure Israel's victory.

This is not true.

The outcome of battles is not decided by God.

Those with superior military strength win battles.

Losing a battle is not God's punishment.

And winning a battle is not God's favor.

We have seen these false perspectives used by both sides in modern wars.

"God is on our side" they say.

But God is not a god of war or violence.

He does not make war or punish anyone.

Jesus was the Prince of Peace.

He said, "'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.'"  Matthew 5:9 (NRSV)

Children of God means that they are like God.

So God must be a peacemaker not a warmaker.

In the East there is a spiritual principle called Ahimsa which means non-violence or harmlessness.

Why would God tell people to be non-violent if He was violent Himself?

So God must be non-violent.

So there can be no hell.

Make Peace.

Like the Holy Dove.


[Scripture quotation (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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Truth and Reconciliation.

Before there can be forgiveness there must be truth.

We cannot just pretend we never did anything wrong.

We must admit what we have done.

Only then can we receive forgiveness.

And experience reconciliation with God.


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Want.

We think that if we can only get what we want we will be happy.

But gratification of our desires does not bring happiness.

Rather it brings a frenzy of wanting which never ends.

Oscar Wilde said, "The cigarette is the perfect example of the perfect desire - after you've had it you're still not satisfied."

And this is how it is with all our desires.

But this is not to say that pleasure is bad or banned.

Moderation is the key to pleasure.

But pleasure does not guarantee happiness.

Happiness only comes from love.


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Right Problem/Wrong Answer.

During the 1980s right-wing Evangelical Christians told us that all rock music was Satanism.

And while this has turned out to be the truth the answer which they were offering - conservatism, literalism, judgement, and hate - was wrong.

They even preached a kind of materialism.

So they may have had the right problem but  they had the wrong answer.

And the fact that they used this information for their own political and material advantage guaranteed its failure.

They did not treat the Hippies and Baby-Boomers as victims but blamed them and all left-wing philosophies for the world's problems.

This is scapegoating.

It is political abuse.

And that is why their message has failed.


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Dwarf Planet.

On the 24th of August 2006 Pluto was officially demoted to the status of Dwarf Planet.

This was because recent observations had discovered larger objects in the Kuiper Belt outside the orbit of Neptune which were designated Dwarf Planets.

This coincided with a diminishing of the power of Pluto in human consciousness.

And because Pluto's irregular orbit has also seen it return outside the orbit of Neptune this diminishing has doubled.

Pluto was at its most intense during its transit of its own sign of Scorpio (1985-1995) when it was at its closest to the Sun - i.e. inside the orbit of Neptune (1979-1999).

So the influence of Pluto and Scorpio is seriously diminished in our experience.

I can only say that this is a good thing.


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Same-Sex Marriage.

The results of the Australian same-sex marriage postal survey are in.

61.6% of Australians who participated* voted YES!

The Prime Minister has promised to get a bill legalizing same-sex marriage though parliament before Christmas.

And once we have legal marriage for gay people it is up to the Churches to decide whether we add God's blessing to that right.

This issue has been widely debated already and there are many in the Churches who are ready to bless same-sex marriages.

It is unlikely that any legislation would ban religious celebrations of same-sex marriage.

So, although we may retain the right to refuse, we must also retain the right to bless gay marriages in our churches.


* There was close to 80% participation.

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Goodness and Evil.

At the end of each episode of a famous 1960s comedy show the leading actor would say, "If only they had used their talents for goodness instead of evil."

This was a standard joke but it was more true than we realized.

The world-wide market of popular music was used to spread evil.

The multi-media network has been used by famous individuals for evil.

The Internet has been used to spread lies and evil.

If only they had used these things for goodness instead of evil.

If only Generation X had used their high-powered psychic energy source for goodness instead of evil.

But they have not.

Our only chance is to try to turn these things around so that the world's technology and psychic systems are used for good.

This is a massive task.

Because most people do not even know that what they are consuming is evil.

They think it's a joke.

A rebellious lifestyle.

An alternative (backwards) philosophy.

But Satanism is real.

It is hell, and excrement, and suicide.

So look more closely at what you are watching and listening to.

It is not as harmless as you think.


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The Damage Done.

When we look at the changes since rock music was invented in the 1960s we can see a lot of damage done.

The drug problem did not exist before 1960.
Now millions are hooked and suffering.

Divorce was not a problem.
Now everyone is divorced.
And this has caused untold suffering.

Bad and sin, wicked and filthy, we are corrupted and perverted.

Dark entertainment, even dark science, has taken over.

Sex has replaced love as the motivation for relationships.

Idealism is dead.

Religion is gone.

We are in darkness.

The blind lead the blind.

Pray!


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Beast.

If you take up the sword to fight the Beast
   
You become a Beast yourself.


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A New Approach.

We are seeing the beginnings of a new approach to religion in our world.

What is being called Progressive Religion is first of all a new way of interpreting scripture.

Modern scholarship has revolutionized how we read scripture.

It takes into account the context in which the text was written and also the worldview and understanding of each individual writer.

"The color of water is that of its container."  14th Century Sufi Al Junayd.

"Things known are in the knower according to the mode of the knower."  Thomas Aquinas.

Religious experience is molded by the conceptual apparatus of the experiencer.

Jesus said that the world did not know God.

This is because religion has always been closely associated with authority.  And the Machiavellian carrot and stick approach of worldly authorities has infected the world's religions.

But the new revelations suggest that God is beyond our worldly understanding of authority.

He is our loving Father.

And a loving Father does not condemn his children.

So there can be no hell.

Progressive Christianity also returns to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

The sophisticated Christology which grew up around the figure of Jesus after his crucifixion has been put to one side as we search for the historical Jesus.

And Jesus' core teachings are to love God, love your neighbor, and love your enemies.

This is vital as we look for common ground between the world's religions.

Any attempt to return to the rigid orthodoxy of the past is doomed to failure.

We must embrace the new approach. 


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Absolute Power.

By threatening to sue governments and activist groups for loss of profits the corporations are making a play for absolute power.

And absolute power corrupts absolutely.


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Fear.

Because fear is at the root of the greed which drives our corporate masters any threat that triggers their fears will result in violence.

As Jesus discovered.

All violence is driven by fear.

So merely threatening to remove people from power will only result in violence.

We must look beneath the tough guy exterior to find the fear, probably from childhood, which drives their greed.

I have an aunt who grew up during the Depression.
She has millions of dollars but says she never feels that she has enough.

This is the fear that drives corporate greed.

It is thinly disguised as working for the shareholders.

So pray for our corporate masters to overcome their fear and provide as God provides.


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The Middle Way.

When we say that the Middle Way - the path of moderation - is the correct path.

I can hear you say that it's too easy.

This is the false assumption that the path has to be difficult - the path of asceticism or self-denial.

This of course means sex.

We have to give up sex to be spiritual.

But this is not true.

The way is the way of the heart.

And the heart is closer to sex than self-denial.

We do not have to give up sex to be spiritual.

We have to open our hearts.

Love God and love humanity.

Let the rest take care of itself.


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(The image has been slightly modified.)

Sex.

By making sex a sin the religious authorities ensured that everyone was in debt.

Machiavelli said in his book The Prince  that the way to keep the masses under control was to impose suffering and then to stipulate conditions for the removal of that suffering.

And this is exactly what the Church has done - impose universal condemnation (for the sin of Adam), linked it to sex, and then dictated to everyone how they will behave and what they will do - from what they wear and who they marry to how they vote.

This is thinly disguised as good.

And it is backed up by hell.

But abstinence from sex and negative attitudes to homosexuality have borne bad fruit - as we have seen from the sex abuse scandals in the Churches.

So be aware that guilt and fear in regard to sex are tools used to control you.

They have nothing to do with God.


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Peace.

If you love only those who love you what more are you doing than others?  Even Satanists do that.

If you greet only your friends what more are you doing than others?  Even rock stars do that.

If you espouse virtue but do nothing what more are you doing than others?  Even the Mafia do that.

We must love everyone, even our enemies.

And make peace with them.


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Tongues.

What does this mean?


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Different Strokes.

People are at different stages of their journey.

When you first experience a revelation from God you expect everyone to jump at it.

But many are not ready.
And many will reject the message outright.

People must find God in their own way.

We must accept this.

And pray for them to see.


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Last Chance.

                   

This is the last week of the postal survey on same-sex marriage in Australia.

It is our last chance to vote yes to this important change.

If anyone is still in doubt about the wisdom of legalising same-sex marriages I can state categorically that there is no moral basis to any objections.

The Bible is ambivalent on the subject of homosexuality.

Old Testament purity laws have been questioned by many.

And New Testament objections derive exclusively from the letters of St. Paul which were never intended to be used as sacred scripture.

The love story of David and Jonathan is evidence of sacred enfranchisement.

And the art works of Michelangelo are among the greatest of all time.

So religious objections to same-sex marriage would appear to be groundless.

Vote yes to same-sex marriage.


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The Biggest Loser.

If you are alone, rejected, isolated, unsuccessful, overweight, or unattractive people will call you a loser.

They will shun you and tell you to get a life.

But God is with the rejected, the isolated, the marginalized.
He is a friend to the friendless and a Father to the fatherless.

In fact God Himself is the Biggest Loser.


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Heaven.

If there is no hell then what happens to bad people when they die.

To answer this question we must look at what makes people bad.

Most bad behavior is driven by fear.

And this fear is a reaction to abuse.

So perhaps bad people are the most abused.

This would be consistent with God's forgiveness.

And when we get to Heaven and find that the bad people are there as well we must practise forgiveness.

God is able to call out their souls - the child within - who was innocent before the abuse.

God's Love will transform them.

They will become the people they were intended to be.

And God will welcome them Home.


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