Spin Doctors of the RC Church – K-Lo Quotes Bobbie Barron Quoting King George of Chicago

the wealthy need the poor to stay out of spiritual poverty -- @FrRobertBarron, citing Cardinal George
— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) September 22, 2013

Tea Party Spin Doctress K-Lo Cites Cardinal George's Spin Doctor Bobbie Barron – “the wealthy need the poor to stay out of spiritual poverty” – What the Hell Does That Mean???

The Poor should stay poor or jeopardize the salvation (or wealth) of the Rich???

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Search and Success with your Second Half

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An interesting article. 


Priest pens spiritual survival guide for recession

“…Maybe you’ve been laid off from a job you held for years. Perhaps you’ve experienced a nasty divorce. Or maybe the crisis is more subtle: You suddenly realized that you’ll never have the life you dreamed of living.

Any life-changing moment can knock a person down. But it can also open doors if, as Rohr puts it, a person learns how to “fall upward.”

Rohr, a 68-year-old Roman Catholic author and internationally known speaker, says older Americans face a problem: Religious leaders aren’t paying much attention to them.

Much of contemporary religion is geared toward teaching people how to navigate the first half of their lives, when they’re building careers and families. Rohr calls it a “goal-oriented” spirituality.

Yet there’s less help for people dealing with the challenges of aging: the loss of health, the death of friends, and coming to terms with mistakes that cannot be undone, he says.

Rohr’s new book, “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life,” is his attempt to fill that void. It also functions as a spiritual survival guide for hard times as millions of Americans young and old struggle to cope with “falling”: losing their homes, careers and status….”

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Search for Spirituality - Peter Kennedy

Brian O’Hanlon – SMX – Homily March 26-27

Again, down under, an interesting homily from the St. Mary’s in Exile (SMX) community in Brisbane, Australia.

Faith community versus belief community is mentioned as well as the future of the faith in terms of a community living the word (God) through justice, compassion and love…

Brian O’Hanlon – SMX – Homily March 26-27

I was fortunate enough through the enthusiasm of my wife, Angela, to discover this community a long time ago – 1988 I think, and I have been a fairly regular attendee ever since.  Certainly I have been a constant attendee since, to borrow a term from the Irish, “since the troubles”, the troubles of exile. 

Peter in a homily towards the end of 2010 when restating his vision of this community, emphasised that we are a faith community not a belief community. A faith community is one developing a spiritually of Justice Compassion and Love. More recently he restated the value of the mystical contemplative tradition in Christianity traditionally suppressed throughout history. This implies  a letting go of, a freeing up from,  much if not all of our classical conditioning of religious tradition,( Recently at a friends wedding-a nuptial mass, I was sitting next to a women , who at the end of the ceremony commented “ that was scary- I have not been inside a catholic church for 25 years, yet I just knew how to do everything), or there could be a shifting of the core of our traditional stories and belief systems; if this is so what do we have left, what do we replace it with? What do we develop as the core of our own practice. According to Fr Richard Rohr OSM the oppositional mindset that was set in place after the reformation of the 16^th century, and after the enlightment of the 17^th and 18^th centuries meant that the ancient tradition of gaining spiritually through meditation was lost. We lost the older tradition of praying beyond words. I want to propose that this is what we can develop, praying beyond words, meditation-a vehicle for our spiritual pathway.

For a long time I have thought that the Book of James was the most useful, social and practical of the gospel writings; James warned against taking the Pauline view of Christianity to an extreme where Paul urged his followers to put their faith in Christ (i.e. what to believe, one who would deliver them).  James called his listeners to action, “Faith without works is dead, be doers of the word and not hearers only.  Religion that is pure and undefiled is this – to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep ones-self unstained from the world” – to keep ones-self unstained from the world – what is this? Christians are very good at relieving the struggling and suffering of others-there are helping missions in every part of the world, just look at the community support provided during our natural disasters, out of this faith community Micha arose, and I am sure that nearly all of us are caring for family, relatives or friends; visiting the widow in her affliction, and as well there does seem in our community a growing interest in the spiritual/contemplative tradition, through the transformative experience of meditation, a way of remaining unstained from the world, our pastors refer to it in various ways, the Eckhart Tolle CD’s are taken home each week, and many books referring to the subject are sold, at  the drop in shop, the existing meditation groups are regularly attended. 

Jesus, it now seems, was primarily a teacher, a sage who bequeathed to his followers principles by which to live, not a body of eternally fixed doctrine that he expected people to believe. 

The teachings that Jesus bequeathed to us focused not on believing but on doing.  Even before the term ‘Christian’ (originally with a derogatory meaning)  came into use, the first Jesus-followers were attempting to practise the kind of life he taught.  They called it ‘The Way’. 

An ancient book called ‘The Didache’ (a Greek word meaning ‘teaching’) throws considerable light on this. 

It is interesting to find that the Didache has preserved the primitive label, ‘The Way’.  This is how it starts off: ‘There are two ways , one of life and one of death, but there is a great difference between the two ways’.  In its short description of the Way of Death we find listed all the commonly acknowledged human crimes and misdemeanours that are condemned in almost every culture.  But the emphasis of the Didache is on the Way of Life.  Listen to how it continues:

The way of life is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbour as yourself, and not do to another what you would not want done to you...

The Wealth of People

While the Americans were plotting a revolution with England in 1776, a Brit, Adam Smith was publishing his book The Wealth of Nations. That book is a first of sorts and the basis of all economics since. It dealt with forces of free enterprise, supply, demand and production.

Little has changed in economics since then except that the forces of a market can be manipulated by the juggernaut of computers and their undue influence on markets by a handful of market hedge fund speculators. Only numbers matter and not people.

The point of this is to point out that fact and to remark that Mr. Smith did not seem to value humanity in his equations because the book should have been called The Wealth of People – taking into account the true value of human life within nations.

People are not commodities. But …

People produce wealth. People have talent. People have experience. People work creating wealth. That is, when they are allowed to work. The formula these days is for big banks to make big loans to big companies and for big paper profits reported on big electronic spreadsheets. And the big media reports the big economic news. Smoke and mirrors.

More than the value of wealth produced by labor is the wealth of the individual soul that will live passed this grubby economic state of affairs called life.

There seems to be a great dividing line in the media these days between perceived PowerPoint reality and the everyday reality of us the people – and our economic and spiritual well being.

Valuing people is Christian. Not valuing people is anti-people, anti-Christian or at least as some post modern definitions of Christianity go.

Deepak Chopra on Cultural Christianity

Anne Rice’s few lines in Facebook has done a lot to make people think. Also, left many searching for new definitions in Spirituality.

Real belief is personal search for truth

Faith lingers, one way or another, in every society. For those who have given up on Christianity, there's a newly coined term, "cultural Christian," to describe the half-hearted believer or the timid atheist who doesn't want to be labeled as such. Unlike being pregnant or dead, which holds no middle ground, fence-sitting about God is so common that it might even be the majority position.

The question is whether being a cultural Christian, accepting the trappings of faith without the substance, is viable. Or must a person take stronger, more positive steps toward a different kind of spirituality?...

The teachings of Jesus are staggeringly difficult to carry out in practice, as anyone knows who has tried to turn the other cheek or loved his enemies. But if you approach Jesus as a guide to higher states of consciousness, which is what he meant by saying that the Kingdom of heaven is within, then being a cultural Christian could open the door to true transformation in body, mind, and soul.

James Martin S.J. and The Colbert Report on Spirituality

CNN, which can’t get much ratings lately because it reads the news it prints on the Internet and the novelty of that has worn off, is trying something different in an articles about the so – called new SBNR (spiritual but not religious) movement taking shape globally and independent of any organized religion groups.

Like any news group aimed at a mainstream ratings approach, they start by quoting head up his ass Jesuit James Martin S.J.(society of Jesus) about all this personal blending of what fits personally and spiritually as “egotism”. Martin’s only claim to fame are a few books, talking on catholic radio and making a few appearances on Stephen Colbert’s faux news program.

But the article like the whole of spirituality and religiosity is not about him (thank God).

Are there dangers in being 'spiritual but not religious'?

"God and the devil were walking down a path one day when God spotted something sparkling by the side of the path. He picked it up and held it in the palm of his hand.

"Ah, Truth," he said.

"Here, give it to me," the devil said. "I'll organize it."

The above quote is from a Huffington Post blogger, BJ Gallagher, the Huffington Post for Christ’s sake, and wants to label this new movement of personal spirituality as “Burger King Spirituality” (have it your way). Everyone wants a piece of the action and to get credit for naming a movement with clichés they had nothing to do with including that of their own spirituality or lack of it.

I started this blog as the result of the insult of Joe the Pope’s visit to New York City in 2008 and his spin doctors throwing out their favorite insults to the masses such as “Cultural Catholic” or “Cafeteria Catholic”. Of course then, 2008, the Vatican and their PR spin doctors were still in control of the Pedophiles hidden under the Carpet deal.

What have you or your church done lately Joe to hug the average Christian???  Hugs are important to humanity believe it or not.  Jesus never mentioned hugs or did he?

Many people, of all recognizable faiths past, are searching and gleaning other faiths and beliefs, and picking the best things and merging them together in individual personal belief systems under the umbrealla concept of Spiritual and not Religious. Isn’t life and freedom and the new age dawning great!

Fundamentalists will wear the ink off the pages of the bible, their idol, rather than look up and live their lives in accordance with simple principles set out by Jesus. This hemming and hawing and wanting every period and comma to mean something puts too much nothing out of nothing into the world.

Father Martin ends in the last paragraph quoting with one word about how all the deep, sincere, prolonged search for spirituality is worthless and just basic “Laziness”. Only meal ticket religion and vested perks interest the Father Martins of this world and the hard work to get and horde those perks minus the human factor I fear.

When Catholic clerics waste eight years in the seminary worshiping their idol of the Catechism as a substitute for real living, real mistakes and real redemption, they miss the point and miss the boat in most critical junctions of life thereafter and into the hereafter.

Somewhere in the pea soup of Christianity is a cloudiness that defies present explanation and few should try to label it for the sake of a daily blog headline.

The future of spiritual man will reveal itself in time and purpose along the global timeline.

Billy and Diana - Philly Mascots

Something strange happened to me last week. I had been looking though some old research and I came across one of my favorite art objects in a photo.

There is the Augustus Saint Gaudens statue of the Roman goddess Diana that decorates the main hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I am of course aware of all the trials and triumphs of this statue as art and its ability to survive. It started out as a weathervane on the second of four Madison Square Gardens. The second Garden was actually right off Madison Square in Manhattan.

To make a long story short, this one time symbol and “goddess of Manhattan” got ditched when they tore the building down and it survived to become art in Philly. There is even an O. Henry short story, rather dated in language and understanding, The Lady Higher Up, in conversation between “Miss Diana” and “Aunt Liberty” in the New York harbor.

More boring details I will not talk about. But the strange thing is that when I looked at this statue, this work of art, and its setting in a treasure house of human culture, a museum I have many times visited, I slipped into the transcendent and felt spiritual and close to the Divine.

Art, and not pagan idol, touched something in me. The feminine road to the Divine was more pronounced in ancient, primitive, obsolete pagan cultures. Maybe that pathway should consider being reopened in the traffic jam of today’s uncertain global common culture.

I have to wonder how the world progresses that if some art might be a true pathway to the divine.

Speaking of superstition, there is the local Philly myth of the Curse of Billy Penn.

Curse of Billy Penn

The Curse of Billy Penn was an alleged curse used to explain the failure of major professional sports teams based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to win championships since the March 1987 construction of the One Liberty Place skyscraper, which exceeded the height of William Penn's statue atop Philadelphia City Hall.

The curse was supposedly overturned by placing a small statue of William Penn on the top of the tallest building in Philly, the Comcast center at 975 feet, in 2007 just in time for the World Series Title in 2008.

Superstition, myth, religion – many times wishful thinking and self fulfilling prophesy.

In any case, in an ancient sense and in honorable titles, Statues, Art, are mascots, honorary gods, in a vaguely pagan parameter, at Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, the Quaker City.

Privacy - Spirituality - Tiger - Oprah

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Here goes my connect the dots sort of thing. With things in the news.

I ran into the following Christian Science Monitor article that was commenting on Tiger Wood’s brief vacation from the shadows to make a public apology of sorts for his public and private life. No specifics and no questions. Tiger is still clinging tight to his privacy. In fact probably only the extreme rich, such as someone as Tiger, can even dream of privacy in that old fashioned sense of it these days.

Beyond Buddhism, Tiger Woods has converted to another religion

It is true that we witnessed the conversion of Tiger Woods last Friday, but it was no voluntary conversion to an old religion. Rather, this was a forced conversion to the new Oprahite religion of emotional openness and making public one’s miseries and failings.

The article implies that Tiger’s short edited appearance on Friday was a conversion of sorts to the new global Oprah Sofa Religion of confessing everything in public for the sake of ratings and the new standards of 24/7 Media demands. Only after public confession in America can someone start all over again. Tiger until this point on Friday was a heretic of sorts to this new Oprah Media Religion. I invite you to read the article in its’ well thought out opinions regarding this matter.

Has Tiger now lost the spirituality of his Buddhism, his privacy of sorts, in embracing the Oprah Corporate Religion or Media Methodology even for a brief time?

Regarding Privacy in America at least, there was the filing of a federal group action law suit against contrived spying against children in the Privacy of their homes – in the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania. There it is, that Privacy thing, floating around the air.

Prosecutors, FBI join school laptop spying probe

Seems that a young man using one of the school's laptop computers at home was eating cinnamon Mike & Ikes. The secret webcam/spycam on the computer snapped a picture and the student was accused of “improper behavior” in his own home by school authorities. No doubt the perv watching children at home thought that his “reds” of the sixties and seventies were also being taken by this child. Semantics at this point whether drugs or candy were on board here.

The young man’s sister at the same school realized that she used her school computer in the bathroom to listen to music while taking a shower everyday. The thought creeped her out. She obviously still has an old fashioned sense of the obsolete concept of privacy in this new Global Big Brother Age. Word spread to other children in the school to beware. The sister has not yet been accused of “improper behavior” in her home at school yet.

The school claims, lamely, that the secret webcam was a security device to locate lost or stolen laptops. Haven’t lame brains ever heard of Lojack, global positioning locked into an automobile or laptop to locate a stolen object?

The real bottom line in all this is that these spying on children laptops probably came of one of the last Bush/Cheney budgets.

And lastly to more boring modern scientific stats. An article about how a higher percentage of young people 18 to 29, seek spirituality rather than organized religion.

Spirit Quest

She told me that she had gone from religious to nonbeliever, and then to spiritual...

Many young adults seem to be moving away from organized religion while simultaneously trying desperately to connect with their spirituality.

In fact, two recently released reports seem to buttress this observation.

My point in connecting these dots - centers around the words Privacy and Spirituality.

The corporate state, the new Corporatocracy, since it leaves humanity out of most of its bottom line equations, now directly or indirectly must dismantle privacy, an entitlement of the obsolete human factor.

Spirituality is no doubt a private thing. I have to think of the early Christians who lived in the Roman Fascist State and how only the spirituality within, in search of a divine connection to a divine spark, was something the Fascist Corportocracy of the Roman Empire could not touch or ever conquer.

Spirituality as a New Drug?

I just encountered a half dozen large screen flat TV sets today. About five of them were on a wall opposite each check out clerk in a supermarket I had not been in before – and playing the same cable program. I then encountered one of the behemoth screens in the waiting room of a doctor’s office.

I had to wonder where people are today on their cell phones or watching TV shows on iPods or the like. The background noise of our civilization is noise and not necessarily communication. I don’t use much of that. I have problems trying to get messages off my cell phone.

Surround yourself in a bubble. Surround your bubble into a larger bubble etc. In terms of technology it seems like we are only a decade or two away from computers like on the Star Trek TV show from the late sixties. Talk to the computer. Ask a question. It talks back. It gives you an answer. My grandparents were born and lived the early parts of their lives in houses without running water. Bizarre.

So too, here is an odd article that I encountered on a forum where it was listed with a thread title as something like “Spirituality is a disease” – not quite in my opinion.

What do you make of this?

Links to Spirituality Found in the Brain

Scientists have identified areas of the brain that, when damaged, lead to greater spirituality. The findings hint at the roots of spiritual and religious attitudes, the researchers say.

The study, published in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Neuron, involves a personality trait called self-transcendence, which is a somewhat vague measure of spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors. Self-transcendence "reflects a decreased sense of self and an ability to identify one's self as an integral part of the universe as a whole," the researchers explain. …

Selective damage to the left and right posterior parietal regions of the brain induced a specific increase in self-transcendence, or ST, the surveys showed. …

One study, reported in 2008, suggested that the brain's right parietal lobe defines "Me," and people with less active Me-Definers are more likely to lead spiritual lives. …

It’s pop science if it is only Yahoo and the Internet but wow. You see these movies where saints have visions and then they become prayful and “spiritual”. Makes you wonder if they fell on their heads as babies.

Makes you wonder what they could do with drugs to make everyone “spiritual”. Whatever.

And to round off this oddball assortment of pieces of a puzzle about the human condition, I caught what I thought was an odd obit about someone on Staten Island.

Howard Lotsof Dies at 66; Found Drug Treatment in an African Plant

Howard Lotsof was 19, addicted to heroin and searching for a new high in 1962 when he swallowed a bitter-tasting white powder taken from an exotic West African shrub.

“The next thing I knew,” he told The New York Times in 1994, “I was straight.”

The substance was ibogaine, an extract of Tabernanthe iboga, a perennial rain-forest plant found primarily in Gabon. In the Bwiti religion it is used in puberty initiation rites, inducing a powerful altered state for at least 48 hours during which young people are said to come into contact with a universal ancestor.

By Mr. Lotsof’s account, when he and six friends who were also addicted tried ibogaine, five of them immediately quit, saying their desire for heroin had been extinguished.

I have heard this at various times about how primitive societies with secret spiritual rites use chemicals to expand the mind. That once a certain level of understanding outside the “Me” thing, the individuals never touch the drug again. They are not addicted to substances in the Western Cultural sense that would be addictive.

There must be something missing in the equation of the spiritual formula. Western or modern society does not culturally connect the dots. Perhaps some once thought to be harmful drugs and their use as in the case of Marijuana would not be so harmful to society. Not harmful if society teaches its children up front the proper use of it. That doesn’t really work with alcohol though, does it? Some things are do doubt addictive to some and not so addictive to others.

Individuals are just that, unique from that individuality. The mindset toward Spirituality using spirits or drugs or falling on your head is not yet an exact science and probably will never likely be either.

How Goes Maine So Goes The Nation ?

The political saying above was about Presidential Elections that saw the State of Maine voting for the winner 90% of the time in the past century. Maine in the past seemed to be right in the middle but on the fine winning edge of how to judge the mood and course of the nation.

Gay marriage has come to Maine. There is obviously something going on out there in the world. Being the flaming liberal that I am, I believe in equal rights and opportunities for everyone. The liberal in me is also still a little bit homophobic. That is what I was taught in the American Culture that I grew up in. The American Culture I will die in someday in the future will have Gay Marriage almost everywhere. Theory is one thing. The facts staring at you in the face is quite a different thing. It will take some getting used to (for me at least).

I have known and socialized with Gay people in the past. Having lived on and off in NYC for close to a quarter century, it is impossible not to know any gay people. Live and let live has always been the common attitude for the most part. Hate crimes can happen just as easily here in NYC as they do in Wyoming. Social mores can change. Human nature remains the same.

This is where the paradigm shift happens in our Global Culture. This is where there are no real roadmaps. What was described in the Bible as a no-no is now getting mainstream secular attention. Without a Constitutional amendment supporting rights to gay marriage I would guesstimate this status will be a permanent civil function of a dozen to half the fifty states in the next decade. Once the novelty, fear and bias wears off, perhaps all or almost all states will recognize this as a legal status.

Isn’t it odd how so much of what the common culture now wants comes from the culture itself and not from tradition and not from sacred texts anymore? The secular state has arrived even with all the right wing evangelists screaming and kicking and spouting ancient words every step of the way.

What I first thought of as a Global Town Square and as perhaps a variation of the old concept of the “global village” is nothing quite as I imagined it to be – today.

We all not in a physical town square anymore. We are in a virtual town square and it is the same in Iowa as it is in New York City. We cling to our homes, our worlds and we wrap ourselves in a bubble with cell phones, iPods, earphones, laptops and centered around the virtual Yellow Pages, Webster’s Dictionary and Sears Catalogue of the new age – the Internet. We reinforce our own view of the world instead of the other way around as it has been for centuries.

My need to be spiritual depends on me. I do not trust the moral authority of the Christian or Catholic Church that I have seen reshape itself into its own financial and survival mode self interests and at the expense I think of the people who once sat in the pews of churches. Even the intimacy of being in a small church or chapel to pray or meditate is dwarfed by Mega churches designed more for rock concerts than spirituality that I feel comfortable with.

Part of my reason for writing this blog has been to keep an ongoing interest and observation of the day to day lives of people in the domestic end of my street and all the way to the national culture generated from Hollywood, NYC or Wash. D.C.. The view I see today is a remarkable but twisted view through a prism.

What I see through that prism I sometimes do not grasp easily or understand but stand by in cautious curiosity and feel that no matter what I see or feel does not matter much. The world and the culture is evolving all around us. I only hope that the end results or the discernible results down the road somehow match what is now, has been and will hopefully remain a human culture.

The future has arrived! (and we all remain pilgrims in search of something)

Oodgeroo St. Mary's Treaty Brisbane

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There are circles that radiate out from Father Kennedy’s modern approach to Catholic liturgy and Social Awareness. St. Mary’s Parish in South Brisbane appears to be an affluent parish. It’s members are no doubt educated, socially aware and well healed.

A local Aboriginal Group has stepped in and accused Archbishop John Bathersby of racial discrimination regarding an announced mediation between the Archdiocese, St. Mary’s and Father Kennedy. That the judge/arbitrator hand picked by the Archbishop is known and has been accused of bias against Aboriginal Rights in the past.

The Archbishop would appear to already have stacked the deck against the good flow of positive energy at St. Mary’s on the way to turning it into a deserted, hack run, shambles ready made for a quick sale on the real estate market.

Brisbane Catholic Archbishop accused of racial discrimination

The St. Mary’s Treaty was signed during a well-attended mass with the congregation of St. Mary’s and members of the local Aboriginal community witnessing it. The treaty was celebrated in coroborree in accordance with Aboriginal customary law and written on paper in accordance with non-Aboriginal law. It is real.”

“The Archbishop has appointed Ian Callinan to mediate between himself and St. Mary’s. When Ian Callinan was a high court judge he had to be forced off the Hindmarsh Island case because of his bias against Aboriginal claims of rights and interests. The Archbishop’s choice of mediator is an example of the contempt of Aboriginal law, culture and rights that he appears to hold. His blanket refusal to discuss the treaty is another.”

“The Oodgeroo Treaty Circles are asking the Archbishop and the Brisbane Archdiocese to confirm and support the St. Mary’s treaty which involves innovative Aboriginal welfare and social justice programs such as dry camps, a cultural heritage education program and the facilitation of Aboriginal men’s, women’s and elders business. The treaty process provides non-Aboriginal Australians a direct relationship with Aboriginal culture and programs. This path of healing is being obstructed by the Archbishop’s refusal to even acknowledge Aboriginal rights and interests, let alone work pro-actively with them.”

I do no know if this is a nuisance lawsuit to give some weight and or support to Father’s Kennedy and his wanting to possibly retire and leave his life’s work in good hands and not to some clerical hack - not wanting to hand it all over into the uncaring hands of someone who will destroy the work of so many good, faithful and enthusiastic people's work through the years.

The lawsuit is a way of expressing great thoughts, solidarity and continued awareness regarding a racial tension and situation that appears to still exist in the front lines of society in Australia. It is situation that St. Mary’s in its own limited way has tried to address.

Apparently Father Kennedy had entered into some sort of treaty with the Aboriginal group that his parish also serves.

Father Kennedy is no Saint Oscar Romero but without trying to totally diss the Archbishop of Brisbane, I can see where he let this thing go on too long and he can’t find a suitable replacement for Father Kennedy and his progressive RC congregation. You just don’t get it! Do you John?

Or has it always been planned this way. In the bowels of the Vatican, Progressive Churches like Saint Mary's in South Brisbane and like Vatican II itself, they were always planned to be temporary successes and long term failures?

I do not see the parish or the priest or the Aborigines in any win-win with the RC hierarchy in Rome pushing hard for a quick and immediate end to thoughts and radical Christian ideas from people with serious hearts and serious faith.

I may or may not have understood or properly or fairly presented this to you if you are reading this. I am an outsider. I think the basic plot is universal.

Good luck you to all down under. My prayers are with you all.

OMG Are you a Wal-Mart Christian?

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OMG Are you a Christian? What kind of a Christian? How about a Wal-Mart Christian?

I mentioned earlier in one of my articles about how Christianity is assembling in a number of abandoned department store buildings in malls or in obsolete sports stadiums. Something about bigness in the American way of thinking that spells success. I don’t know how fundamentalism is spread around in other countries but I cannot but feel that the secular nature of American culture presently dictates some of its spiritual culture.

Looking at a TV evangelist in an auditorium of 15,000 souls, I am struck by the fact that Jesus in his entire lifetime probably did not preach to 15,000 souls. That Size and Success are the basic factors in the new Evangelism. Not enough to be a big church but we must build a medical center or a university in the name of our success. I mean in the name of Jesus and God. Whatever.

I listen to the telly and wait to hear the preacher’s words of wisdom since he has an audience the size of Jesus and his first century marketing capacity. I listen and all I hear is Pop Psychology. I don’t think psychology comes out of the spiritual side of any equation as much as it comes out of the secular side.

You are successful because you are successful and God would not dare to keep you from more success. Come again? Where are the thee-s and the thou-s and the Jesus part and the soul and the reward in heaven thingy?

Like I said, what passes for spirituality these days is a Sunday morning at Big-Mart, a cathedral of materialism and commerce. The old church buildings of the nineteenth century are being converting into condos and fitness spas and mini grocery marts. In the comfort of seclusion and the bubble of my home and armed with a channel changer as my only defense against evil, I listen and must turn off the preacher in wolf’s clothing.

Jesus’ message is simple and understandable and not something automatically discounted hour per hour. The secular nature of America is closer to the myth of Satan these days with it’s greed, envy, covet ness, and empty material non-spiritual success.

I sound a bit pompous but forgive me. I grew up in another age and have my own set feelings about God and spirituality. New is not better. Repackaged is not better. Big is definitely not necessarily a better thing.

Where ever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am also.
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A Cultural Christian

Cafeteria Catholics - Free - All You Can Eat - The Grace of God

I have spent many, many years in the pursuit of what might be called spirituality.

Along the journey I have examined my religious upbringing among other things. In this corner of the universe I wish to share my thoughts about many things sacred and or profane, where I have been, am and possibly going to.

We are entering a new world. Technology and culture are merging and sometimes clashing on a global level. The adage that all politics is local seems more true than ever.

Some of us have our feet in the old world of paper, pencils, manual typewriters and traditional western logic. The younger generation is playing with virtual and abstract ways of seeing things.

Perception is in many ways reality now more than ever before. I try to sort out the things of everyday life, work, play, leisure and without knowing it I am being transported along with the rest of humanity to the future.

This new land, this new global culture, is a strange and perhaps for some a mysterious place. I think about the European discovery of America in 1492. Some of us are explorers and some of us are left behind to read about the accounts of exploration.

As a practicing but non-church going Christian, I could be labeled as a Cultural Christian. Rather than fight pundit style journalism and Madison Avenue labels, I do not resist the title.

I was taken aback by the use of a similar term "Cultural Catholic" in the New York Times in connection with the recent visit of the Bishop of Rome to that fair city.

These days, labels besides being labels, connote what the speaker of labels want them to do - to put you down somehow.

Having started my life journey with twelve years of Roman Catholic education, I was mildly insulted by the term "Cultural Catholic" having seen it in black and white for the first time. This put me on the Internet to do further research.

Other put down labels from the church hierarchy are terms like "recovering Catholic" or "cafeteria Catholic" to label people who dare to disagree with management or who have merely fallen away or been swept away in the new global culture.

I might have found these Catholic labels insulting if I was still a full or partial, "lapsed" member of that particular Christian sect.

Jesus said to turn the other cheek. This I do here. Always Jesus. Always.

Because so much of me is rooted in the R.C. tradition, my present Christianity has not label. Rather than put wasted effort into establishing a new sect, I accept what I am - a Cultural Christian.