wil, Namaskar!
(here's a wordy one for ya
)
Yeah, against better judgment this was the first post I made today, but I'm glad to see the response it's gotten, overall. I'm afraid I sufficiently derailed my own thread by getting somewhat lost in the gay angle on it ... since the part that jumped out at me was this guy actually PRAYING for anything alone the lines of ill will or the
removal of President Obama.
The significance and Purpose of Prayer has increasingly seemed to me to revolve around the idea that we ourselves can become channels (conscious, willing, cooperative conduits) for Divine Energy. This most certainly includes Love and Light, and with the New Revelation that Christ is to bring it will also increasingly involve a measure of
Power.
The disturbing aspect of what this self-righteous pri- ... umm, I mean, misguided person ... is doing is to invoke
Divine Energy(ies) with such a negative, focused, destructive end in mind. The presumptuousness is part of where he gets off track, since it is by no means the role of the clergy to impose their personal political views upon others, especially not their own congregations, let alone possible viewing/listening audiences at large. But that isn't the worst of it.
In the acknowledgment that our world is as yet an
imperfect world, wherein what we call
evil still finds too great a foothold, I think Christians rightly apprehend the basic holdup - the
disjunction or disconnect between Humanity and Deity - which prevented the accomplishment of more of the Divine Purpose for us 2100 years ago. This was indicated by the Christ in several ways, but none so evident as the fact His Ministry on earth was cut short to only 3 years before the backlash of the dark forces grew too great. The words,
"Father, please forgive them ..." also suggest that we really did not realize the magnitude of what kind of DIVINE IMPERATIVE we were holding up by attempting to put out the Light, and squelch the Love, of God's greatest Messenger yet.
We can practice forgiveness as we consider the case of a Steve Anderson, or any other
hate-spewing hypocrite who dares to call himself
`Christian,' though I wonder - just how is it that these self-appointed evangelists still manage to have an appeal? Is it 19th century mesmerism (known contemporarily as
hypnotism) resurfacing in a devilish guise? Is it some Divine Purpose which we do not yet quite understand, showing us that indeed, we must learn to
hate the sin, but love the sinner, by giving us a perfect example of the latter? After all, what an excellent opportunity! Or could it be that we are simply seeing part of the holdouts, an unfortunate pocket, here & there, of resistance to the practicing of Christ's message of Love, understanding and forgiveness?
I think it is a combination of all three. Fortunately, for folks like this wolf-in-sheep's clothing, time is running out. Not much longer will people turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to this kind of hate-spewing, because
no matter how you try to defend this as `free speech,' it is not at all far from the kind of focused and intentional
evil that prevailed for a time in Nazi Germany. It has been said that the only
sin of the New Era is separativeness. And attempting to invoke the Divine Will to further one's own narrow, misguided political agendas, besides the ostracism, stereotyping and outright persecution of homosexuals ... THIS is certainly separative, divisive, and clearly not without it's karmic consequences.
As ye sow ...
The energy of Divine Will, which we can witness beginning to reach Humanity more directly
from the Father's House, is best directed along the channels carefully prepared by Loving hearts and enLightend minds. The consequences of invoking this energy into an environment wherein negativity still holds sway ... are usually destructive, possibly even to the point of what we call
devastation. {Curiously enough this word even contains the Sanskrit word
`deva,' suggesting the very
Angels whom & which embody ALL spiritual energies, however they might manifest - although
`devastate' is actually from the Latin, etymologically ... meaning
`to lay waste'.}
The impact of untempered Spiritual Power in such circumstances where negativity rules the day are wide-reaching, affecting us all. As we are finally learning,
we are all in this TOGETHER. But the
Law of Cause and Effect (
Sowing and Reaping, as Christ taught it) - while impersonal - is not arbitrary. Hate-spewing individuals and groups must learn their lesson, preferably sooner rather than later, for their own benefit and for the good of the greater whole. To
dig in and
drag their proverbial heels only slows Spiritual progress for
everyone on our little planet, and on one level (albeit well beyond us), this means to interfere with God's Plan, and perhaps even the timetable for Christ's outward reappearance.
If this hatemongering preacherman wants to
pray for his own political agendas, let him take such misguided efforts into the privacy of his own home and his own
heart, for indeed, when teaching us how it is we should go about prayer, Christ is on record as saying,
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret" (Matthew 6:6). Esoteric implications aside, I think the instruction here is clear enough. And if Anderson gets lost while he's in there, and never again sees the light of day - well, all the better.
My own hope (not prayer) would be that he
finds the Light and Love he's missing, sees the error of his ways, and openly apologizes for his statements. That, however, is something for which
I will not hold my breath. There were those like him 2100 years ago, and they will probably be around in another 2100. Fortunately, they will by then have become a true endangered species ... and I doubt many
conservation groups will have much pity for their plight.
My own, fervent prayer, is that folks like Anderson will come back to the basics. Let them focus on the
Lord's Prayer, or Our Father. Let them teach the same Love and Forgiveness which were at the heart of Christ's message and Ministry. And above all, let them BE THE EXAMPLE which they so cherish in Christ Jesus ... let them strive to
embody -
Christ in (us all), the Hope of Glory (and surely, the promise of Peace).
Namaskar