Chris Rock, on one hand, is trying to get a laugh, and on the other hand, Larry Elder is neither a friend, nor can he relate to non-whites.

And Larry Elder has a point too: black people tend to be more bigoted than white people.

It’d be unsporting to turn around and blame God for the resulting mess.

The joke is that white skin burns in the desert sun

so we are designed to be either too hot or
sunburned?

Comment by taisho

I find it incredible that any rational person accepts a theory that says human beings ultimate progenitor is pond scum.

There is a fairy tale that says a frog turns into a prince from the kiss of a princess. Science tells the same fairy tale, just replace the “kiss of a princess” with “billions of years of random mutations”.

I don’t want to get too much into what I have been experiencing over the past three years regarding Christianity, it would be very long and I think I should stick to the topic of this blogpost, which I feel your question about our conscience is pertinent. Suffice it to say that … no one or no thing hurt me or turned me off … no one threw verses at me and I don’t feel Christianity “let me down.” And I will not be sitting at the feet of Dattatreya Siva Baba any time too soon.

I have been doing alot of reading, of history, psychology and science, and thinking and soul-searching over the past 3 years and have come to some conclusions that surprised even myself.

“How has our conscience become so seared to where we put our ethnic and partisan and national identity before our Spiritual identity?”

I don’t think I would say a person’s conscience is “seared” when they put their ethnic and national and partisan identity before their Spiritual identity. I just don’t think they have grown up yet.

They are living by their Outward identity and not their Inward. To me, they are living by the “world” … and Jesus said “love not the world.”

The world gives you an outward identity, and we embrace it because we have not learned to be Whole, mature people yet. So our searching Ego fills in the gaps by looking for an “identity.” We identify with our nationality, our ethnicity, our culture, our political party, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, our hairstyles, the piercings and tatoos we have, the music we like, our belief-system and the way we worship, the TV shows we watch. Instead of using them, they use us. And these things seem to define our very Being, and we cannot let them go because we feel we would die, we would be giving up a “part of us.” “Whoever lays down their life [...] will find it; he who holds onto it shall lose it.” I was told the word “life” here in the Aramaic can be translated “psuche” or “soul” life or life in the soul.

Jesus seems at every juncture to say … YOU have a fountain of living water within yourself, YOU have the treasure in the earthen vessel, YOU will do greater things than this. There is no need to look outward or upward.

He talks to the woman at the well and says there will be a time when men won’t worship at this place or at that place, but in Spirit and in Truth. He gives the example of the man beaten by robbers, a priest walks by, a Levite walks by, and the despised Samaritan helps him. Race, class, culture, religion. Jesus speaks of spirit, of attitude, of heart.

We have to be born in some context … in some country, to some parents, speaking some language, with a certain way of doing things. And there are some very good, very useful aspects of culture. I love learning new ways of doing things. But the point is, don’t hold onto it as an Identity; grow beyond it. Everything grows, and changes. Learn to read beyond the buzz-words. This, to me, is spirit.

So to tie this into LaShawn’s question of why “God” created the races, I don’t believe God created races. The physical features of mankind evolved and adapted for survival purposes, and survival was of the fittest. There is no more Neanderthal. Homo sapiens (we) wiped them out (whether by violence or disease, one of many genocides). And because we are of nature and are animals (albeit extremely evolved animals), we try to wipe out each other all the time, fighting for power and resources and dominance. Jesus was a human being that grew beyond his culture and saw the truth about what it was: an ephemeral, changing thing. His concept of Love was also evolved. He was a seeker of truth, and cared about what was going on inside of people.

So I guess with all the horror and heartbreak that so-called “race” has brought us, it can be used to our advantage. We know in nature that the strongest genes survive. A mutt is the best dog. And it seems that the strongest “memes” will survive. The spirit of the words of Jesus (and others like him) have survived over 2000 years and more. Hopefully people of Conscience will keep them alive many millenia to come, the Light won’t go out, and the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus said was within us may one day be physically manifested in the societies we create here on earth.

I guess that’s my two-cents at the moment, for what it’s worth.

Olive

My experience and observations are not limited to LaShawn’s site.

Believe me when I say I will address any problems I have with you alone to you alone.

Many Christians fight over nomenclature. I find it a great waste of Christian energy and even verging on the sin of vanity.

But nonetheless, I 100% agree that something or someone, somewhere, has let our sister down, and that hurts. At one point she choose to walk with him and now she doesn’t. I wish it were not so.

And me throwing thunderbolt are a direct response to the unchecked political and ethnic prejudices that you and 4 other respondents eloquently relay, yet deny like abusers do with victims with “crazymaking” tactics.

If it weren’t obvious to me, then I would never had a cause to even reach into my Quiver for anything but an olive branch. I didn’t START out like that, and I was very gracious seeing as I watched and read my sister for a year before I ever responded here. The “making a brother out to be a troublemaker” is typical, but it doesn’t apply to me. I’m about promoting justice, not about promoting a partisan agenda whereby one can secretly hide your prejudices. That will NEVER be me.

But in all fairness, there are some very cool folks on this blog and they are not snide and funky acting either, and I dig that, as they dig the cool things I’ve have actually written, while you’re still stuck on my style.

You are completely mistaken that what I wrote was in reference to your remarks. I have, for the most part, by-passed your remarks because they cause more confusion than clarity in my mind.

I am not disposed to go about in conversion overdrive. I made that as a conscious choice in my life. I deal with many people who range from non-Christian all the way to anti-Christian. I have found ways to meet them on common ground. That is necessary for me to proceed in a Christian way.

I do not know why Olive has chosen her path and I will not pry into her choices.

Olive may very well have been driven away by zealots in overdrive. If you do not know what that means, then imagine this:

You, THEBIGDODDY, are called to bring the Russian Orthodox communion, the Greek Orthodox communion, the Roman Catholic Church, the Coptic communion, the Mormons, the Christian Scientists, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Unitarians, the Anglicans, the Episcopalians, the various conventions of Baptists, the Lutherans, the Congregationalists, the Methodists, the Quakers, the Amish, and on and on …… to bring all these together and work out an unambiguous and unified orthodoxy.

If enough sparks don’t fly to send the average Olive looking elsewhere, I will eat my hat.

We deceive ourselves if we believe our own behaviors in the name of God don’t sometimes drive people to seek peace and sanctuary elsewhere.

THEBIGDODDY, you in particular have come onto this site throwing thunderbolts like you have an endless supply. I have largely ignored this, because for the most part, I can not parse your meaning.

Have your say, but please do not imagine that I am addressing you. If you are an exemplar of what I mention, I take no responsibility for it. If and when I address you, I will do so directly, using your moniker.

It is not my mission to offend or be snide. I really understand Olive’s words. I am not at war with her. I mean it when I say that Christianity, as she has encountered it, has let her down.

Sorry that you have endured those things in your journey, sir. The good news is that you haven’t endure those things at MY hands, so why did you bring it up on the heels of my response?

Scripture has it’s place, and referencing certain tid-bits can bring clarity. You’re a teacher, and so I know you know this.

The sentiment about the sacred name was for Her and not you, Heliotrope. I’m not trying to convert her into any sort of orthodoxy that you may find “tiresome”.

And only ONCE have I even been INVOLVED in a discussion ABOUT the sacred names on this blog. I merely use them in my writing and keep it moving.

The point I was making was about her salvation (well, at least her current state, given her admission) using the illustration of the sacred names, and I did it in the context of her sentiments about “God” and her acknowledging that problems with mankind are spiritual problems.

She decided to go another path, but we SHOULD (at least I do) want her to return to the Messiah, through which she can reunited with the one true “God” she mentioned in her earlier response.

I want her back in the fold as soon as possible.

It would not be my choice to pry into Olive’s reasons for seeking a wider understanding of man and religion.

It is tiresome to have bits of scripture shot at you like a silver bullet. It is annoying to have to endure arguments over what letters to string together to “correctly” say His name. Much of the discourse between practitioners of the faith does boil down to a version of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

When I am in Rome, I always go by San Pietro in Vincoli near the Forum to view Michelangelo Buonarroti’s “Moses with horns.” It reminds me that one of God’s most talented children created a glorious sculpture in an act of spiritual praise and included horns because St. Jerome made a totally understandable error in the Vulgate translation.

Christianity is loaded with ambiguities. Some Christians are in disagreement with orthodox understandings, but still maintain their Christian identification. They may be called heterodox Christians and they are valued for their constructive skepticism. Largely, fundamentalists try to wall off heterodoxy.

When someone keeps the “spirit” of Christianity, but moves “beyond” Christianity, I feel that it is Christianity that has failed.

On the other hand, there is no cause rewrite orthodoxy in order to make the wandering pilgrim happy and fat.

I wish Olive well in her search. I just hope she doesn’t end up all “karma” ridden in “Beingness” at the feet of an Indian mystic.