You and I are soul – living representatives of God’s kindness, wisdom, respect and empathy.
As spiritual beings on great human adventures we are charged by our creator with being ambassadors of love to help establish a positive world for ourselves, our children, and their children’s children. To accomplish our soul mission the Divine gave us simple direction – treat others as you want to be treated – which is the same fundamental spiritual assignment for ALL world religions.
Raised in a Christian home I strive to treat others as I want to be treated. However, I am only in control of my actions, thoughts, words, and principles. I cannot wave a magic wand and gain influence over anyone’s behavior or beliefs. The power I have, is to share my soul observations on what it means to treat others as we want to be treated. I do so now with the intent of inspiring respect, empathy and personal accountability to the Divine for our individual actions, motivations and beliefs.
The United States is home to people of all religious faiths. However, we seem to view ourselves as a Christian nation. Therefore, I ask, would Jesus condone the division, hate, fear, xenophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, lying, injustice, violence, attempting to control the rights of others, the blatant dismissal of quantifiable facts, suppression and vilification of media, greed, and the unjust abuse of power we are currently undergoing? Not when Christians are asked to “Love your neighbor as yourself!” This does not only apply when our neighbor looks like us, believes like us, and marries who we think they must.
Let’s fast forward two thousand years as the time has come to begin a new soul motivated conversation about what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus NEVER talked about homosexuality or abortion. Jesus did not say the way to make ourselves right in God’s eyes is by persecuting others. He did not condone a “holier than thou” egocentric attitude. He did not tolerate violence, bullying, hatred and oppression in God’s name. Jesus’ message was one of love. Therefore, we do not have a right to distort the loving, inclusive, peaceful messages of Jesus to justify inciting fear, hate and division over racial and religious difference. And, we cannot in God’s name support anyone with any title or in any position who does!
Religious superiority and arrogance was never condoned by a loving God who gave kind, wise and respectful soul equally to all human beings. Therefore, continued religious intolerance and persecution is not of soul but human ego and has no place within modern society no matter what is used to support this divisive position.
I believe an important personal judgment day has arrived as each of us must honestly question if we are living the peaceful messages of respect and empathy Jesus espoused. Or are we ignoring our actions, our relationship to God in favor of pointing the finger of blame outward to persecute those who are not found worthy under a judgmental set of beliefs? Are we using thousands of year old text, written in a time when women had no power, and when the investigative powers of science (to revel truth about us and the world) was non-existent, to justify non-loving actions?
God is always watching our heart. Therefore, it is with deep respect and empathy I ask all human beings who truly value the honorable character Jesus lived to begin a new conversation about what it means to truly follow Jesus. To be people Jesus would be proud to call friend, we must not allow ourselves to be seduced by the dark side of power, control, greed and domination over others that religious and political persecution inspires.
As true followers of Jesus our first and foremost devotion is to remain aligned with “Treat others as YOU want to be treated.” This simple direction does not mean waiting for others to go first. We must go first and lead with a heart filled with Jesus’ love. This must be our individual and collective focus because no matter what personal religious agenda we attempt to justify, as soul, we cannot under any circumstances excuse the persecution of others in the name of Jesus.
