[AGL] The gospel according to Mark, Morford that is...

[Wayne Johnson]

Frances.

I once knew a young black "minister" who had once been in the Nation of Islam but didn't like it and returned to the more-or-less Baptist fold.  He wanted to have his own church.  Nice guy, really nice, but when I asked him how there could be an "ethical" system WITHOUT a Divine Being, he was totally stuck.   Seems he thought that the reason one was "nice" to people was that one would be "punished" if one wasn't.  If no God, then...evidentally, he thought there would be total moral anarchy!  He just couldn't envision an "ethical act" without accompanyng punishment for "failure"!  Yet, he considered himself a "christian".  Lucky the congregation that got him.  Maybe he grew up.

Not only sad, but ridiculous.  Christianity has a number of very strong features that would...should they actually be practiced....make the world a great place to live.  Of course, most other religions have very, very similar features.  What scares me about "modern Christianity"...especially the Protestant view...is that there seems to be so little room for Meditation or Personal Self-Examination.

It is all about Worship!  and God Rules!  and voting for The Right Kind of Politician (ie. He Who Has the Shallowest View of People.)  Or He Who Can Sanctify My Own Personal Bigotry and Prejudice.  Same goes for most "preachers" so far as I am concerned...with some genuine exeptions.

And it is, in the US..finally, all about money.  Mega-Churchs = Mega-Bucks!  Lots of money to be made these days by promoting "feel good religion".  Always has beed, always will.

The other side of THAT coin, of course, is....."feel bad religion".  Learn just to you can Hate and Kill without Fear of Judgment or Retribution.  We got our Pat Robertsons, the other guys have their Ayatollas.   But then again, these people are all about Power, Money and, most of all, Capital "C" Control....Spirituality is a convenient bit of make-up, like a wig or a false nose.  No real concern by either group.  Controlling people is where the rubber (Note: not talking condoms here) hits the road.

Bad News:  The Rev. Sloan Coffin died this week.  If there was ever a Christian that I thought deserved the association, it was Coffin.  But then, Coffin grew up in an environment of serious scholarship.  Read Martin Buber and Paul Tillich and much more.  Thought about Ethics as a real committment to Self, Community and to Church, but didn't get the importance of either confused with the other.  Will there be another Sloan Coffin?  I doubt it.  His passing didn't seem to have much impact on the news media.  I heard it on NPR the other morning.  I am sure the "media" will be jumping backward through fiery hoops when some old fascist like Kissinger FINALLY DIES...but Coffin.  Naww.  (Hope I am wrong about this, but I ain't seen nothing.)  Too bad Coffin wasn't on the "right" side of things...ie. the Viet Nam War.  Of course, moral courage is much easier to "observe" than to "practice".   I mean, like, there is golf and shopping and taking kids to soccer practice and getting the SUV new tires.  Golly.  Life is SO demanding.  

Gotta run.

My Escalade is parked on top of a Buddhist Monk and the neighbors are beginning to complain.

Rev. B

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