God is being shut out and denied when our government denies our people health care, food stamps, and voting rights, and when it refuses to seriously face today's crushing income inequality.
God is being shut out and denied when corporations outsource their jobs and then refuse to care for or retrain the American employees whom they fired.
God is being shut out and denied when our culture is based on economics and not on people and the environment.
God is being shut out and denied when our citizens fail to vote in every election.
God is being shut out and denied when some American citizens deny the legitimate rights of the Federal government, and when some Americans openly carry assault rifles into coffee shops, restaurants and malls to "protect themselves" against the government, instead of working for a peaceful, respectful society.
God is being shut out and denied when radio and TV personalities and commentators create the atmosphere for anger, hatred and violence in our society, and particularly when they deny any connection between what they say and the acts of violence committed by people they help influence.
God is being shut out and denied in the ever more frequent school and work-place shootings that are now plaguing our society.
God is being shut out and denied when so many Christians misread the Bible, deny the legitimate findings of science, and stagnate their faith by refusing to take advantage of the progress in spiritual thinking and understanding that has taken place in the past 200 years.
In sum, shutting out and denying God is physically, economically, politically and environmentally dangerous. This danger represents a serious spiritual anemia in today's society--an anemia that leaves many of us living at a subhuman level. We can physically live without believing, thinking or caring. But if we do we are not living at a human level.
The dangers and spiritual anemia listed above arise particularly from the absence of any true and effective images or representations of God, and therefore of ourselves as human images of God. If we refer to God at all, we all too often refer to mistaken, harmful, or oversimplified representations of God.
Mistaken, harmful or oversimplified representations of God include:
1. A God who is "up there" in heaven. This is not the God of our faith.
2. A God who is masculine, or feminine. This is not the God of our faith.
3. A God who favors one gender or race over another, or one political party over another. This is not the God of our faith.
4. A God who heals one person but not another, who saves some people from earthquakes or floods but not others. This is not the God of our faith.
5. A God who sends earthquakes and hurricanes to punish us for our sins, or to punish homosexuals or atheists. This is not the God of our faith.
6. A God who tells us to disregard this world and our secular responsibilities, and pay attention only to saving our souls in the next world. This is not the God of our faith.
7. A God who pays more attentions to dogmas than to our serving one another in peace, love and charity, to the point of sacrificing something of ourselves for others. This is not the God of our faith.
8. A God who establishes a church in which the leaders have absolute power over the people. This is not the God of our faith.
9. A God who personally dictated the Bible, word for word. This is not the God of our faith.
10. A God whose Revelation is already fully understood and expressed by the church, and which therefore cannot be understood and expressed in today's terms--and onward to the terms of the future. This is not the God of our faith.
Clearly, we need to have correct and adult views and representations of the God of our faith, so that we do no harm, or permit others to do harm, to ourselves, our families, our neighbors and communities, our fellow citizens, and peoples throughout the world, or to the environment. I will discuss such views and representations in the next and following posts.
God is being shut out and denied when corporations outsource their jobs and then refuse to care for or retrain the American employees whom they fired.
God is being shut out and denied when our culture is based on economics and not on people and the environment.
God is being shut out and denied when our citizens fail to vote in every election.
God is being shut out and denied when some American citizens deny the legitimate rights of the Federal government, and when some Americans openly carry assault rifles into coffee shops, restaurants and malls to "protect themselves" against the government, instead of working for a peaceful, respectful society.
God is being shut out and denied when radio and TV personalities and commentators create the atmosphere for anger, hatred and violence in our society, and particularly when they deny any connection between what they say and the acts of violence committed by people they help influence.
God is being shut out and denied in the ever more frequent school and work-place shootings that are now plaguing our society.
God is being shut out and denied when so many Christians misread the Bible, deny the legitimate findings of science, and stagnate their faith by refusing to take advantage of the progress in spiritual thinking and understanding that has taken place in the past 200 years.
In sum, shutting out and denying God is physically, economically, politically and environmentally dangerous. This danger represents a serious spiritual anemia in today's society--an anemia that leaves many of us living at a subhuman level. We can physically live without believing, thinking or caring. But if we do we are not living at a human level.
The dangers and spiritual anemia listed above arise particularly from the absence of any true and effective images or representations of God, and therefore of ourselves as human images of God. If we refer to God at all, we all too often refer to mistaken, harmful, or oversimplified representations of God.
Mistaken, harmful or oversimplified representations of God include:
1. A God who is "up there" in heaven. This is not the God of our faith.
2. A God who is masculine, or feminine. This is not the God of our faith.
3. A God who favors one gender or race over another, or one political party over another. This is not the God of our faith.
4. A God who heals one person but not another, who saves some people from earthquakes or floods but not others. This is not the God of our faith.
5. A God who sends earthquakes and hurricanes to punish us for our sins, or to punish homosexuals or atheists. This is not the God of our faith.
6. A God who tells us to disregard this world and our secular responsibilities, and pay attention only to saving our souls in the next world. This is not the God of our faith.
7. A God who pays more attentions to dogmas than to our serving one another in peace, love and charity, to the point of sacrificing something of ourselves for others. This is not the God of our faith.
8. A God who establishes a church in which the leaders have absolute power over the people. This is not the God of our faith.
9. A God who personally dictated the Bible, word for word. This is not the God of our faith.
10. A God whose Revelation is already fully understood and expressed by the church, and which therefore cannot be understood and expressed in today's terms--and onward to the terms of the future. This is not the God of our faith.
Clearly, we need to have correct and adult views and representations of the God of our faith, so that we do no harm, or permit others to do harm, to ourselves, our families, our neighbors and communities, our fellow citizens, and peoples throughout the world, or to the environment. I will discuss such views and representations in the next and following posts.
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