Showing posts with label sin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sin. Show all posts

Monday, October 21, 2019

Is obedience to Sovereign Masculinity A Sin?


New York Times 10/19/19

The aspiration to sovereign masculinity expresses itself most exuberantly in hyperbolic displays of power. Why are we still talking about Trump coming down the escalator and calling Mexicans rapists and murderers? Why are we still repeating his claim that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose support? Why do we keep reminding one another that he bragged about grabbing women by the “pussy,” proclaiming “when you’re a star they let you do it”?

There may be a few Trump supporters who believe cognitively, literally, that Mexicans are rapists and murderers and that the appropriate way to interact with women is to grab them between the legs, but these statements aren’t doing their work at the level of belief. Whether we wince or cheer, we remain spellbound by these statements because they are displays of omnipotence.

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Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Today is Yom Kippur the day of forgiveness

In the Jewish tradition, today is Yom Kippur, the day we ask God for forgiveness for our sins. There is nothing similar to this in the Unitarian Universalist tradition and it is a shame. We all are defective and inadequate in some way because we have separated ourselves from the Divine to create our own ego, our own false self apart from God.

It is this separation at our birth which caused all the problems. Would it have been better if we had never been born? Life is suffering the Buddha teaches and we are here to learn how to become consciously aware of shedding our egos and uplifting our Divine nature.

The popular word these days seems to be "asshole." It appears in the title of many books. It seems to attract people because of the smile of recognition and use of the word seems to sell books. Even if the word "asshole" is vulgar, it seems to sell books and be used on a regular basis to curse people who irritate us and disgust us.

What's the opposite of being an asshole? It is being a mensch, a wise person.

Yom Kippur is the day that we pray to God to assist us in giving up our asshole ways and to move toward the ways of wisdom, which is to say, to become One with the Will of God.


Thursday, March 8, 2018

UUs believe in the God of second chances

We all make mistakes. In many theological models, mistakes are called sins, but the word "sin" is laden with judgment, condemnation, guilt, punishment, shame, and fear.

Existentially, human beings, unconsciously, feel guilty for having separated themselves from God. We are told in religious texts that human beings have sinned and triggered the wrath of God who will punish them sometimes eternally in a hell. These myths are projections of the human mind which is making God in the ego's own mistaken image.

The Universalists tell us that their God loves us unconditionally and would never consign God's creations to hell. The Universalists prefer the word "mistake" to "sin." We are told that in the story of the adulterous woman, Jesus, tells the woman and go and don't make the same mistake again. Unfortunately, the Aramaic word gets translated in English as "sin" when the meaning of the Aramaic is actually "mistake." There is a big difference in the meaning of the word "sin" and "mistake" in English.

It is written in A Course Of Miracles "In every difficulty, all distress, and perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, "My brother, choose again."

It is written in ACIM a little further on, "The images you make cannot prevail against what God Himself would have you be. Be never fearful of temptation, then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ's strength prevail in every circumstance and every place you raise an image of yourself before. For what appears to hide the face of Christ is powerless before His majesty, and disappears before His holy sight."

The true God is a God of second chances, and third chances, and fourth chances, whatever number it takes until God's human creation gets it right.

The only question is "how quick will we learn?"
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