All Comments (107)

Both “isms” are entrenched in not only America, but in every country on the planet. People feel the “ism” that targets them individually. The reason the world is entrenched in sexism and racism is because its ruler is both sexist and racist.
● Revelation 12:9
● 2 Corinthian 4:3,4
● John 8:44

True religion addresses both racism and sexism. A mark of true religion is that its members have a deep respect for the Bible. They accept it as the Word of God and believe what it says. (John 17:17; 2Timothy 3:16, 17) They treat God's Word as being more important than human ideas or customs. (Matthew 15:1-3, 7-9) They try to live by the Bible in their everyday life. So they do not preach one thing and then practice another.—Titus 1:15,16.

The most outstanding mark of true Christians is that they have real love among themselves. (John 13:34,35)

They are not taught to think that they are better than people of other races or skin color. Neither are they taught to hate people from other countries.
(Acts 10:34, 35)

True Christians do not share in wars. They treat one another as brothers and sisters.
(1 John 4:20,21)

Jesus' disciples are no part of this wicked world. (John 17:16)
They do not get involved in the world's political affairs and social controversies.

In the near future, Satan and his followers will be removed from earth by Christ Jesus. (John 12:31)
Very soon now, Jesus will manifest his rulership over our troubled earth.
Using symbolic language, Revelation 19:11-16 describes Jesus Christ as a king seated upon a white horse and coming to judge and carry on war in righteousness. He will use his great power to destroy the wicked. Jesus and his Father will preserve those, who strive to follow the example Jesus set while on earth, through the upcoming “war of the great day of God the Almighty”—often called Armageddon—so that they can live forever as earthly subjects of God’s heavenly Kingdom.—Revelation 7:9, 14; 16:14, 16; 21:3,4.

Thank the Universe for clarity. Divorced of preconceptions and religious and political loyalties the Truth is so accessible. Those that have eyes let them see. In the meantime, the papers and other media stumble around in darkness. 'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed are kings', but for one person with two eyes who observes the folly.

I can't believe I am about to say this but, you seem to be a racist pig deepak. I would say Mr. Wrights statements are akin to a Jew speaking ill of Germans. True it is stupid since "Germans" like "Whites" should not be used as a label since not all Germans are Nazis and not all Whites are racist. Why don’t you address the racist cast system in India, and stay away from subjects you don’t understand.

Spoken like a true politician.

The truth is the truth. What's your problem with the truth of what I said? I made no attempt to heal anything other than your ignorance of religious reality. The statement is all but a direct quote from Hailey's Handbook of the Bible. Read it some time. You could stand as could all of us to increase your knowledge of religion if you are going to continue to discuss it.

GaryD, GaryD, GaryD,

Your description of "voodooers of hoodoo" looks like something very familiar i.e. GaryD without the healing aspect.

And any practitioner of Voodoo will tell you otherwise and an anthropologist who knows something about religion can quickly tell you that for the most part western Paganism was sucked into the Roman Catholic Church, much as Eastern Mystcism was sucked into the Greek Orthodox faith.And further that Voodoo is an amalgamation of West African Mysticism and Roman Catholicism. Almost None of them have disappeared there just in disguise.

And none of it has anything to do with wisdom. Some of the most illogical self serving foolish (as in the opposite of wise) hypocrites I know are atheist.
And yeah there are some grossly ignnorant Christians out there as well.

Hoodoo = magic healing

Voodoo = deceptive or delusional practices

"Voodooers of the hoodoo" = delusional healing practitioners e.g. Jesus and his "healing" miracles.

Gee whiz, JJ,
Apparently the staff at whatever Home for the Bewildered you are at have failed to keep up with your meds. Please tell us where that institution is, and we will gladly complain to them for you.

Hey, JJ, if you keep making the bigotry against my people look *that* bad, maybe sometime soon I *can* go away. That'd be nice.

You, on the other hand, might wanna look to what's coming out of your mouth. That can't be good for ya. :)

"So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war,
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here...

Running over the same old ground.
What have we found
The same old fears.
Wish you were here."

Yes, that's Pink Floyd. :)

And, yeah, sorry about letting you dig that hole all week, but you seemed to be getting so much out of the shoveling. I didn't have the heart. :)

Actually, Concerned, any Pagan with occasion to be educated on the point will tell you that Voudoun and 'hoodoo' are two separate traditions, but why split hairs when you're so ignorant about all three?

GaryD, GaryD, GaryD,

Hmmm, 4000 years ago we had many "voodooers of the hoodo". Today we have very few. And any pagan will tell you voodoo is not a religion.

How about some proof that human beings are wiser now than they were even 4000 years ago. Belief or lack of belief in religion is scarcely proof of sagacity in either case.

GaryD, GaryD, GaryD,

Au contraire!! We are evolving towards the reality of it all and away from the mumbo jumbo of physical resurrections, "pretty/ugly wingie thingies et al. Unfortunantely some are still stuck in the dark ages of superstitions, myths, ghosts and goblins.

Or, as I like to say of people who want to deny evolutionary theory, 'They flip out and throw verbal, err, poop at people who say we're apes, cause they're terrified someone will notice the resemblance.' :)

Better at *what?* ;)

Actually, that's kind of the point, people seem to put much more effort into trying to blinker themselves about our animal natures and wondering what mysterious evil force makes us somehow not naturally act in accordance with the 'letter' of specific Bronze Age texts...

Than they do paying attention to and *using* this 'Consciousness' which is supposed to make us so much 'better' than our 'fallen' 'animal' selves.

And the funny thing is, the more people scream our superiority, the more they act out their worst imaginings of the 'animal' nature they want to proclaim themselves 'above.'

We could do worse than realize we're the animals who learned to look up and ask, 'OK, wait a minute, what's all this, then?' :)

Pagan - We are better and seperate from animals if we use our intellect and emotions "consciously" :) if not, then we are the same. Today, more and more humans do not use both those faculties "consciously" and hence they seem no different from animals.

Darshana

And yet wisdom and intellectual acuity aren't always directly related. Educate a thief and he becomes a better thief, educate a doctor and he becomes better able to heal.

There is little evidence that the human mind has advanced much beyond where it was 400 years ago.

To be sure we know vastly more than we ever did but we are not one whit wiser.

"For "Jungle law" is best suited for the jungle, not for a civilized society."

And, you know, Darshanna, I don't think we have so many problems in civilization because we somehow don't distance ourselves *enough* from our 'jungle' instincts, but in fact because we try to deny them and pretend they are something else, instead of really learning how to live with and through them in the best ....dare I say, most enlightened, ways we can choose to work out.

We are not 'above' or separate from animals, we are animals who can, if we choose to, understand ourselves and choose what to do with that. :)

Hey, wait a minute, Hira Biswas

"Paganplace above wrote among other things, “ that no one gets to the father (and heaven/paradise therefore) except through him. My way or the highway."

I most certainly did *not.* I quoted someone saying that to *me,* and in fact retorted:

"Don't mind driving. Why you so mean about it?"

Just so we're clear on that. :)

This is so true. In fact lack of evolution of the human mind is the root cause of many of the world's problems today. I might add that "survival of the fittest" is one more ... For "Jungle law" is best suited for the jungle, not for a civilized society.

"The flaws in them all!!!! " yet once again.

1. Abraham founder/father of three major religions was either the embellishment of the lives of three different men or a mythical character as was Moses, the "Tablet-Man" who talked to burning bushes and made much magic in Egypt.

1.5 million Conservative Jews and their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT. http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/ConservativeTorah.htm

2. Jesus, the illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter/simple preacher man suffering from hallucinations, has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus). Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.

The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".

3. Mohammed, an illiterate, womanizing, lust and greed-driven,warmongering, hallucinating Arab, also had embellishing/hallucinating/plagiarizing scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.

This agenda continues as shown by the assassination of Bhutto, the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the Islamic bombers of the trains in the UK and Spain, the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani “koranics”, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases, the Taliban nut jobs, and the Filipino “koranics”.

And who funds these acts of terror? The warmongering, Islamic, Shiite terror and torture theocracy of Iran aka the Third Axis of Evil and also the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

4. Luther, Calvin, Joe Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley et al, founders of Christian-based religions, also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingy talking flying fictional thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).

5. Hinduism (from an online Hindu site) - "Hinduism cannot be described as an organized religion. It is not founded by any individual. Hinduism is God centered and therefore one can call Hinduism as founded by God, because the answer to the question ‘Who is behind the eternal principles and who makes them work?’ will have to be ‘Cosmic power, Divine power, God’."
The caste/laborer system and cow worship are problems when saying a fair and rational God founded Hinduism."

6. Buddhism- "Buddhism began in India about 500 years before the birth of Christ. The people living at that time had become disillusioned with certain beliefs of Hinduism including the caste system, which had grown extremely complex. The number of outcasts (those who did not belong to any particular caste) was continuing to grow."
"However, in Buddhism, like so many other religions, fanciful stories arose concerning events in the life of the founder, Siddhartha Gautama (fifth century B.C.):"

Archaeological discoveries have proved, beyond a doubt, his historical character, but apart from the legends we know very little about the circumstances of his life. e.g. Buddha by one legend was supposedly talking when he came out of his mother's womb.

Apply the Five F rule: "First Find the Flaws, then Fix the Foundations". And finally there will be religious peace in the world!!!!!

Simon:

Frankly, Christians wield a disproportionate amount of power in the US. We have a president who wanted the Republican Party "reborn in Jesus Christ," and declared one summer day "Christ Day." We have the Christian House of Representatives, the Christian (majority Catholic) Senate, the Christian Exxon, the Christian British Patroleum, the Christion Microsoft, etc.

For Christian oil, hundreds of thousands have died in Iraq. As for Israel, for Christian oil, during the Gulf War, the Israelis had to allow themselves to be "protected" by none other than the Christian US, with the result that hundreds died. Since the US Christians are so fond of oil and can't ship an appropriate number of weapons to their homies in the Middle East, they have forced Israel to do so. These same weapons then show up in the hands of terrorists who kill their great pal, Israel. With friends like you...

Meanwhile, back at the Palestinian homefront, your co-religionist Christians are continuing to flee, and guess where they go? Israel, which, idiotically takes them in.

So, Obama has as his minister a man who teamed up with a thug named Farakhan financed by the Lybian government and the suffering of disenfranchised people. Rev. Wright gave this man a lifetime achievement award and then accompanied him to Lybia to meet Gadaffi. And then Farakhan endorses Obama.

I don't think Obama is suffering too much from Jewish pressure. Some kind of Christianism has gotten to him, though.

I wonder what the 100,000 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel would say to Rev. Wright. In terms of AmeriChristian thinking, these people would be black. To us, they're just Jews. And African American Jews? Also to us, just Jews. What are they to you?

Think about it Simon. That is, if it won't be too taxing for you.

It isn't the forest that imparts greenness to the individual trees, it's the reverse.

All changes most of us desire to see "out there" must start with the individual. When individuals live with greater integrity, and become more peaceful, caring, tolerant, loving and courageous as required, such will the larger world reflect automatically.

I agree with Deepak. It is an individual's basic consciousness that determines all of these qualities and the degree they manifest in his or her life.

Ultimately, everything gets back to consciousness. Change that in the individual and the world changes in concert.

Changing consciousness as a practical matter however is easier said than done. It changes through intention and will. Most it seems are still finding the discipline to engage in meaningful self-correction. And projection is of course so easy. I'm certainly guilty.

Time will take care of it I believe.

It didn't if one stops as one should with Christianity. Christianity is but the logical offshoot of Judaism. Islam is a corruption of Both.

The relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism is similar in certain respects to the relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism

As usual Deepak's ruminations are utter drivel. I always ask my believer friends especially of Judea-Christian-islamic variety why did it take god so many iterations to get it right? From OT - to NT - to Koran, etc etc. If god is all knowing and perfect, why did she have to revise so many times. So much for absolute values and absolute rights. Folks I firmly believe that, the present times are the best of times and the most moral era mankind has ever seen. I will have you know that Sears towers or Empire state building were built more ethically and honestly than any of the cathedrals of Rome, for that matter any of the wonders of the world from antiquity. I think this "On Faith" section of WaPO panders to the folks who want to cling on to the stone age myths.

Where on earth did you get the notion that I thought Christian were always right? We aren't we're Human beings like everyone else and all to many of us tend to use scripture, which is more often than not to serve as a mirror for self examination, as a periscope for examining others slantwise and then wondering how come our view seems to be skewed.

My point was that Christians have not always been wrong as you and others tend to portray.

Of course the West has it's problems, chiefest amongst them being that intellectually lazy way of dealing with disparities in wealth called socialism, but so does every other culture on earth. No culture is any better than any other culture save to the extent that it meets the needs of it current population and allows it's member -all of them male and female regardless of skin color or sex to have a chance at prosperity, and liberty.

Simon: "Simply calling Pastor Wright a racist won't solve the problem anymore than it would to tell a rape victim that they should not harbor anger towards their attacker because the rape happened a long time ago, mark my words, America will be dealing with it's deeds for a looooooooong time.

I believe Anti-Semitism has largely been a response to the belief that the Jewish community weilds a disproportionate amount of political power. I myself was irritated that in the political debates Obama had to basically swear allegiance to protecting Israel."
-----------------------------------
Simon: your own bigotry and ignorance are showing. First, you are stereotyping all white people alive today as "attackers" of black people. You do this on the basis of a minority of white people in America's past owning slaves. This is racial stereotyping at its most blatant. I, for one, never enslaved anyone, and I DO take responsibility for doing something to alleviate the legacies of slavery - economic, political and otherwise. Don't you dare stereotype me!

Second, you mistakenly think Jews wield political power in the U.S. out of proportion to their numbers, and you cite the U.S. support of Israel as the reason. Jews are underrepresented in politics in the U.S., not overrepresented, when you look at their education and interest in political affairs. Many Jews are still shy about running for office and being active in politics, because we are self-conscious about fostering the bigoted stereotype about "pushy Jews." Moreover, equating Judiasm with Zionism is dihonest. Many Jews in the U.S. are unhappy with the U.S. and Israel for what we perceive as bias toward Palestinians and other Arabs. Many Jews are not Zionists. And all Jews are regularly stereotyped and murdered around the world because of the worldwide bigotry toward them as a group.

Finally, no fair analysis of the U.S. support of Israel should exclude an admission that non-Jews in the U.S. are a major force behind the pro-Israel sentiment in the country as a whole. Conservative Christians are now the among the most vocal pro-Israel lobbies. Jewish people in the U.S. overwhelmingly want a peaceful two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, and are against expansion of settlements. Personally, I am not in favor of religiously biased governments, and I would not have supported carving a Jewish state out of the region where it is now, but I realize that I have not lived through the Jewish holocaust.

Mr. CHopra makes a highly unevolved confusion of religion with the religion's adherents. People evolve by making a consider effort to live up to the ideals their faith sets forth. It is not more evolved to gain those ideals from non theologic sources than from theology. If Catholics can be sexist or Baptists racist (and I do not admit either premise as true) it is not from an express teaching of either faith but of a failure to which the progeny of Adam are all prey. Religious people call it sin.

Further, those who oppose abortion do not do so out of a desire to relegate women to second class status, but out of an exaltation of life. Even if one does not agree that a fetus is a life, one must not assume that those who believe it so are doing it to supress women.

We will evolve when we stop leaping to conclusions about other's motives and assume the best in people while we understand that sometimes they will fail to live up to our hopes.

Hmmm. Seems that's what God does with us. How evloved an attitude in Him/Her.

Part 3 - Sexism in Corporations

a) the overwhelming number of male corporate executives and board members.

b) the forever present "glass ceiling".

c) unequal pay for equal work.

What should religions do about it? Insist these inequalities are eliminated by sermons, by forcing the issue via proxy statements and by proxy voting for only female board members.

I disagree with Deepak. While I do think that we as human beings need to raise our "consciousness", I don't believe the issues we struggle with today derive themselves from such a deep metaphysical issue. Many of the issues we have today seem to derive from the simple issue of resource allocation. I once heard politics defined as who gets what, when and how.

American slavery and racism allowed whites to limit the competitve abilities of blacks and therefore allowed the white majority to horde resources uncontested for centuries. Many of the survival tactics used by blacks during that era remain in the black community in mutated forms and continue to restrain black progress. That's like telling a victim of childhood molestation that they should just get over the trauma because it happened a long time ago. When trauma happens to a cultural group, the trauma persists loooooong after the initial victims have passed on. Slavery was traumatic enough without the second cultural-earthquake of entrenched racism and terrorism by American terrorists like the KKK, Neo-Nazis, etc. I would assert that the majority of whites are TOTALLY oblivious to what is truly happening in the black community. Remember, it wasn't merely one generation of people who were traumatized, it was the culture of the people that was molested, and culture is passed on to the next generation over and over and.... Simply calling Pastor Wright a racist won't solve the problem anymore than it would to tell a rape victim that they should not harbor anger towards their attacker because the rape happened a long time ago, mark my words, America will be dealing with it's deeds for a looooooooong time.

I believe Anti-Semitism has largely been a response to the belief that the Jewish community weilds a disproportionate amount of political power. I myself was irritated that in the political debates Obama had to basically swear allegiance to protecting Israel. Why? Last I checked Obama was an American citizen, why does he have to swear to protect Israel? What makes Israel so special? Israel has their own army, they even have nuclear weapons so why are MY tax dollars going to protect them? Now, I would definitely not call myself an anti-anyone but I am angry that Obama is being tested on his allegiance to Israel but not to Darfur, or Brazil, or the people of Iraq or anyone other than Israel. Is Israel more special than every other country in the world? Telling me to "raise my consciousness" isn't going to answer that question and that question makes me angry.

Fairness is the issue at hand, I as an American citizen believe completely in my heart that the leadership of America knew for a FACT that Iraq had no WMD's. Sure Saddam was a bad guy but so are many leaders around the world, what about N.Korea's leader? Well the difference is that Saddam can't fight back and N.Korea possibly can but N.Korea has nothing of value so Iraq it was. I believe that we have yet to truly see the blowback from what we're doing in Iraq as those children grow up into true haters of America. What are we going to tell them as they think of their murdered mothers and fathers? That they need to raise their consciousness? Where was American enlightenment 4 years ago when we attacked them?

Fairness, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If we as Americans have been doing to other groups of people what we want them to do to us then we have lot to be afraid of in the coming years.

Just my 2cents...

While I understand how Reverend Wright got to the place he is in, I can only hope the good Reverend, as a Christian, can get to a place of forgiveness for those people whose bigotry hurt him so deeply.

The concept of separate "races" has always been promoted by those who benefit economically from it. Biologically, the concept is meaningless.

There are a lot of southern churches that are now devoted to changing the memory of the Confederacy. They feel the history books misrepresent the facts and their god indeed with topple any god who says otherwise. Somehow racism is not vindicated by historical righteousness.

Lots of wars have been fought on the grounds of moral righteous because god is on my side and the only way to prove that is to win. For the majority of religious people the dividing line is not the death of every other faith, it is the right to practice your own. What I have notice when I speak to blacks or whites or immigrants is that they feel the government is failing their children. The church, home schoolers, and a community centered social life is evolving around the choices of people.

I think that addressing the problems of education would probably have a deflating effect on church authority. When the schools attempt to impose a global secular faith on the public, the reaction is a loss of identity. Regardless of the historical facts, ancestral identity will be the flag that the masses raise when their children are failed. It distorts problems, by raising non-issues and fanning the flames of fear. It is not reflecting the goodness or fairness of people, but the cry that every person has a right to their existence. If we want to appeal to the reasoning person get the union out of the schools, and the kids off the numbers treadmill. Teach the teachers to teach math and science so our nation can move forward.

PaganPlace, gotcha.

Hira Biswas, yes, I suppose the Gnostic read would be one way to deal with that.

Another way would be to simply choose to believe the things that you like and refuse to believe the things that you don't.

I wonder which happens most often.

Everyone needs to understand the definition of the word "religion". It comes from the Latin root meaning "to connect". It is about our connection to the universe and everything in it, not some building or dogma of a particular sect.
Everyday millions of people are waking up to the fact that coldness, heartlessness, and commercialism are simply impractical and only that which gives the opportunity for the expression of love and ideality are the truly worthwhile pursuits.

i enjoyed reading your thoughtful words thank you..what most people dont realize is they themselves are just as much of creator of change as anyone else by simply doing what it is they believe in.

Paganplace above wrote among other things, “ that no one gets to the father (and heaven/paradise therefore) except through him. My way or the highway."

This a much misunderstood part of some of the most important teachings of Jesus. Jesus practiced solitary prayer and meditations in the desert and mountain to realize His inner light or consciousness which He considered to be indispensable to go to His Heavenly Father. Remember, He told us in simple language, “The kingdom is God within you”, not out there in the cosmos.

In His numerous conversations with his disciples, Jesus always insisted that no one can realize inner light of consciousness without following His way of solitary prayer and meditations. He derided the public practice of prayer in Jewish temples. He was all about inner light (you are the light of the world, Gospel of John) as opposed to the then practice of empty rituals and open prayer in Jewish temples.

During the first several hundred years of Christianity, there were huge controversies between the orthodox (Catholics) and the Gnostics about the rituals of Church Christianity and the inner light of the Gnostics (the spiritualists). This is one reason why the inclusion of the Gospel of John into the Bible was so controversial.

Jesus’ insistence of His way of inner light did not mean you will have to be a Catholic, a Protestant or even a Christian to self-realize the inner light or consciousness although that is the message the church Christianity conveys through many billboards on our Highways. On the other hand, slogan of Gnostics during the first few centuries was "You will have to practice His way to be the light of the world". That is quite an inversion of the teaching of this great Master.

Paganplace above wrote among other things, “ that no one gets to the father (and heaven/paradise therefore) except through him. My way or the highway."

This a much misunderstood part of some of the most important teachings of Jesus. Jesus practiced solitary prayer and meditations in the desert and mountain to realize His inner light or consciousness which He considered to be indispensable to go to His Heavenly Father. Remember, He told us in simple language, “The kingdom is God within you”, not out there in the cosmos.

In His numerous conversations with his disciples, Jesus always insisted that no one can realize inner light of consciousness without following His way of solitary prayer and meditations. He derided the public practice of prayer in Jewish temples. He was all about inner light (you are the light of the world, Gospel of John) as opposed to the then practice of empty rituals and open prayer in Jewish temples.

During the first several hundred years of Christianity, there were huge controversies between the orthodox (Catholics) and the Gnostics about the rituals of Church Christianity and the inner light of the Gnostics (the spiritualists). This is one reason why the inclusion of the Gospel of John into the Bible was so controversial.

Jesus’ insistence of His way of inner light did not mean you will have to be a Catholic, a Protestant or even a Christian to self-realize the inner light or consciousness although that is the message the church Christianity conveys through many billboards on our Highways. On the other hand, slogan of Gnostics during the first few centuries was "You will have to practice His way to be the light of the world". That is quite an inversion of the teaching of this great Master.

WHAT ARE OUR POTENTIALS? We are not doomed to be racists. Hidden within all of us, male or female, are three divine qualities: Will, Intelligence and Feeling. If we are born and raised in a culture or environment that is free of prejudices, the Will within is naturally bloom into service, Intelligence into wisdom, and Feeling into unconditional love just as a bud is bloomed into a flower naturally and effortlessly. Primarily because we are neither born nor raised in a family or culture that is free of prejudices, we human beings miss out these huge triple potentials that are naturally within us, although, they were and are our birth rights.

ARE WE DOOMED? No, heaven on earth is our goal and we are definitely moving in that direction. We human beings are not doomed to perpetuate our prejudices from generation to generation? . Each society consists of individuals, male and female. We need to work on our problems in personal levels, one person at a time. To achieve success in this area, we need above all to be conscious of our highest potentials. Also, we must be conscious of the nature of prejudices we human beings are capable of practicing consciously or unconsciously in every part of our planet. Look around, you cannot miss noticing those prejudices which come from our acceptance of duality such as rich/poor, black/white, male/female, upper caste/lower caste, Protestants/Catholics, tall Africans vs. short Africans. You cannot miss noticing because all human beings everywhere are born with an inner intuitive diagnostic faculty that can distinguish right from wrong. We are blessed and lucky.

IS THRE A WAY OUT? Yes. As a nation, let's concentrate in our childhood education.
The rate of success of keeping our adult behavior free of prejudices will be higher, if we are lucky enough to develop the knowledge and consciousness of those triple potentials in our early education just as many childhood immunizations keep us physically healthy in our adult life.

ARE RELIGIONS CURSES OR BLESSINGS? Truly, all religions have been blessings to the human race. Let's not blame any religion for our current situation. All the ingredients for our salvation and liberation are already there in all religions. All we need to do is to use our inner faculty to use them properly. Misuse of religions can be as fatal as the misuse of life-saving drugs. Religions will not have to be destroyed, however, from time to time, they need to be fulfilled.

Dear Dr Chopra:
Namaste. You are so eloquent in expressing the enlightenment attained through your special gifts and awareness, yet you have cooked up a title like "New Humanity". How is that possible? What was the old humanity? it does not make sense.

Another title you used extensively was Anti Aging. I went to a conference of Anti Aging more than a year ago. Contrary to my expectations, those who had started on the Anti Aging program 10 years ago were indeed 10 years older, i.e., they had aged normally. Shouldn't they be 10 years younger?

Ok, has America not paid their sarcasm bill this month?

This shouldn't be that hard. :)

you never looked up unzipped but can figure it out. What a genius! what do you when you have to pee? Use your unevolved consciousness I guess.

Did Hopra mean that sexism and racism are inherent or endemic? Or instinctual? Heck why not say so?

"This is typical of Chopra's consummate BS. Says nothing and means nothing -- "unevolved consciousness" - even the spell check program doesn't recognize "unevolved" as a word"

Is 'Unzipped' in the dictionary? I never looked. But somehow I figured it out.

Call it a rise in consciousness, maybe.

Or something I coulda learned on Reading Rainbow.

""PaganPlace asks: "You *do* realize that's not the rest of the world's fault, right?""

"Do you have specific questions you would like to ask me? I'm unsure of what you're driving at."

Rhetorical question, that. Point being, just cause someone says 'Absolute and exclusive authority over everyone is the only way my religion makes sense to me,' ...doesn't give em the right to act like the world owes them obeisance.

Dig?

DC writes:
"Sexism and racism are rooted in unevolved consciousness, and both will be solved when consciousness rises."

This is typical of Chopra's consummate BS. Says nothing and means nothing -- "unevolved consciousness" - even the spell check program doesn't recognize "unevolved" as a word - and what do we mean by "consciousness rises?"

Chopra, for once, seems to transcend his own total BS when he says:

"They aren't going to be solved from the pulpit, however. ... Religion was one of the chief bulwarks of this world view, so turning to it for a remedy seems ironic."

Of course, being a salesman, he says:
"I'd put much more trust in the growing spiritual movement outside the church."

Meaning, of course, his brand of BS.

The fact is that for centuries people have turned to religion to justify all sorts of nonsense. So they turn to religion to justify sexism and racism and also turn to it to justify the solutions for sexism and racism.

And along comes Chopra with his brand of pseudo religious BS and says there's a different religion outside the church and it is a S-P-I-R-I-T-U-A-L movement ... i.e., I can millions by pretending to be some sort of latter day guru.

Total rubbish.

PaganPlace asks: "You *do* realize that's not the rest of the world's fault, right?"

Do you have specific questions you would like to ask me? I'm unsure of what you're driving at.

"Thanks for responding. It's my opinion that Jesus' clear statement of being the only way is a core teaching. It's a central component and, without it, the tale becomes even more nonsensical that it is already."

You *do* realize that's not the rest of the world's fault, right?

TJ,

We will agree to disagree. I'm fine with that. Thanks.

Arminius

Arminius,

Thanks for responding. It's my opinion that Jesus' clear statement of being the only way is a core teaching. It's a central component and, without it, the tale becomes even more nonsensical that it is already.

We'll have to agree to disagree.

"In the end, giving women and minorities true equality begins with the individual."

I agree with this statement. As we realize that our individual belief's have power within themselves to affect change, we realize we don't have to fight or force legislation, we just must act individually and the changes will be reflected in the outer, in the right and perfect time.

Paganplace, you said,

"Don't mind driving. Why you so mean about it? :)"

You have a way with words, dear friend! I'm still laughing!

Arminius

TJ,

When I said that the tribal mentality defeats us, I was defending the core teachings of Jesus: God is love. Yes, I am aware of the other stuff. I don't buy into it. The tribalism shown by the crass statement 'my way or the highway' is the tribal chant of 'you are with us or against us'. It preaches fear, not love, and results in bigotry and hatred of those who don't buy into the tribalism. It automatically implies that the tribe has all the answers, and will not, as Paul said, realize that they are looking through a glass darkly. It preaches power, not compassion.

I do not worry about heaven or hell. I will try my best to live now by the core teachings of our risen Lord. If or when the time comes for some kind of reckoning, I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I am not afraid. Not in the least.

Arminius

"Jesus was aware that his teachings were divisive and said so. I think that to claim that the Jesus character only taught love, puppies, and sunshine only describes a portion of the message. The other part is pertinent to our topic: Namely, that no one gets to the father (and heaven/paradise therefore) except through him. My way or the highway."

Don't mind driving. Why you so mean about it? :)

Arminius writes: "It is the 'us vs them' mindset that defeats us"

Henry James writes: "The problem isn't the teachings of, say, Jesus."

Jesus was aware that his teachings were divisive and said so. I think that to claim that the Jesus character only taught love, puppies, and sunshine only describes a portion of the message. The other part is pertinent to our topic: Namely, that no one gets to the father (and heaven/paradise therefore) except through him. My way or the highway.

I agree that churches are bent to the will of men, power corrupts, and etc., but the us-vs-them mindset is overtly present in the central core of Christianity, Jesus' words. It's not subtle.

So, my question.. why does Jesus get the get-out-of-this-free pass?