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Sunday, October 14, 2001
"Every act is either an expression of
Love or a call for Love."
This
week I received a flyer for a Christian ministry that contained this
statement, "every human in the whole world has to suffer and die
because Eve disbelieved God." The leader of this ministry was
Jewish until the "Lord
supernaturally convinced me that I was a terrible sinner." These
are his words. The remainder of the eight page flyer was filled
with much of the same. This man's ministry obviously has support
because it takes money to have a web site and to print enough 8-page
flyers to put on car windshields all over Beverly Hills and beyond.
His ministry is located in Arkansas, but he is holding services in
Southern California.
I
was not offended by his material as I have read many such pieces of
literature before. What is amazing to me is that his
interpretations of Bible statements  are
no different than those of Elmer Gantry (starring Burt Lancaster, Jean
Simmons, Dean Jagger, Shirley Jones, Arthur Kennedy and Patti Page) in
the movie of the same name. Sinclair Lewis' trenchant novel about
religion and corruption was based on the religious evangelists and
religious values of the 1920's. The novel was quite extraordinary
and truly became an expose of many in evangelism. The novel and
the movie both portrayed the predominant religious values of the era and
the "fear based" theology of charlatans disguised as
"preachers."
A few weeks
ago I went to the Arrowhead Pond Theatre in Anaheim and witnessed the
work of another evangelist. This one was much more professional
and had a far better vocabulary than both Elmer Gantry and the man from
Arkansas, but his theology was much too similar to be anything but
disturbing. My question is why have people supported these type of
ministries, and still do, that teach a theology of fear and separation
from God and each other, with a place called hell, a god called the
Devil and the main character a sinner?
I am certain that
the people who follow the evangelists are looking for God.
For every act is either an expression of Love (God) or a call for Love
(God). We are
all looking for the Good that only God Is. And I am certain that
the evangelists are doing the best they are capable of doing. "We
are all doing what we do in the consciousness that we do it in,"
says Dr. O. C. Smith.
This is the truth. There is no judgment in this statement, but an
understanding that what is being taught by the evangelists is
"man's religion" not spiritual understanding. This is
not the religion
of Jesus but a
man-made invention based on a judgment of rights and wrongs and a false
belief in a sinner.
In truth, there is
no sinner, and man is never the sin, therefore man can never be
condemned. "Father,
forgive them for they know not what they do," spoke the Master
Teacher Jesus from the cross.
A person with spiritual understanding never sees a sinner, only
misunderstanding. As we understand the two great commandments to
"Love God and Love thy neighbor as thyself," we know that in
Truth, to Love God is to Love our neighbor for our neighbor is God made
visible. Can any of us imagine that God could be a sinner?
As
we free our neighbor from a judgment of sin, we free ourselves.
The man from Arkansas would have us believe that Eve brought suffering
(sin) into the world. But, what about Adam? Didn't he also
eat of the forbidden fruit? When we gain spiritual understanding
we realize that Adam and Eve are us, in our moments that we don't trust
God to give us our highest and greatest Good, and we begin to look to
something or someone other than God for our Good.
To
support an Elmer Gantry (consciousness) with a message heavy with
judgments of sin and a sinner is but another bite out of the forbidden
fruit. Let's understand that every act is either an expression of
Love, or a call for Love and let's know that this Love is within each of
us, waiting to be released.
And
So It Is!
Letting Love use me
in Its own Good Way,
Henry Lee
Bates
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