"The Bible was made for man, not Man for the Bible." SL

"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." CJ

"The Church was made for man, not man for the Church."  SL

"The Bible was made for man, not Man for the Bible."  SL

Quiet time with Jesus today. OMG. OMG.

I'm building a new blog, working toward that end at least - a "red word"
version of Jesus' words in the bible.  His words are all I've been interested
in within the Bible for a decade or so, yet I find it extremely difficult or
impossible to find just his words anywhere.

Sooooooo, I'm making a site JesusTheFirstChrist.blogspot.com . 
Step one I've found a word doc version
of the New American Bible (Catholic - good anyway! :-)   ) and I'm red lining
His words.  Listening to magnificent Christ-mass music at the same time.
Only problem is all the crying that wafts over me.

Step 2 I'll add his words to the blog.  No idea how fast it will progress.

Love you all.  Much.

Start

The Bible is like an Inkblot test. Jesus' Teachings alone are Salvation - Universal Love

The Bible is like an Inkblot test.  Jesus' Teachings alone are Salvation - Universal Love

Truth is, I "get" Jesus; and currently I've got a powerful pulpit (in front of the White House)

Well, if I don't "get" Jesus it is time to lock me away. 

But I've no shred of a doubt that I do "get" Jesus.  It is just so obvious to me because my understanding of what he taught and how he lived is the perfect-fitting cornerstone integrating seamlessly with all I've studied and learned these many years now in the realms of psychology, literature, cinema, sociology, neuro-biology, religion, philosophy... and PERSONAL MINUTE BY MINUTE LIFE PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE for decades now.  I was a world-class skiier in my youth.  Not so much because others said so, which they did.  But because the Truth said so - the Truth of how my understanding and action interracted with the Mountain and Snow.  Undeniably I had become an Authority.

Last night was not atypical at the White House ( prop1.org ).  A crowd of high school age students from around the country with a group called Close Up came by.  Somewhat uncharacteristically the conversation was turned by them from the topics of nuclear disarmament and climate change that I stressed, to the crosses on my head, and Jesus.  As typically happens one of the students took the role of asking me questions and commenting.  In this case she was from a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint.  Obviously she was honestly concerned / disturbed as my beliefs unfolded before her in our dialog:

*  The man, not some mysticism is what I am inspired by, as was the Hindu Gandhi;
*  Jesus concern was Heaven IN THIS LIFE for us, not some later life.
*  Of course the Bible is fallible - a hazy window at best back through 2000 years and thousands of authors with who knows what agendas.
*  Jesus is the most perfect model we have of Universal Love.
*  Yes we are born with an evil spirit (conditional love), AND the Spirit of Universal Love.
*  Jesus died that he might save us from the evil spirit, and win us for Universal Love.
*  And if there is a Heaven after this life, that's not my business.  My business is to "do unto the least of these (NOT the Lesser of these),"  "lay down my life for my brother," "do unto others ALL that I would have them do unto me"....

My interrogator was not upset, and even was moved somewhat by my views.  But the crowd with her was deeply encouraged by and grateful for the views I shared, as they made an impassioned and aggressive effort to communicate their agreement to me as they were departing.  "Oh, I sssooooo agree with everything you said!"

What did Jesus say about being the "salt;" the "levin?"

A friend I used to have said, "Start, why don't you become a priest?"

I'll settle for Appostle / Disciple,
at the gates of the Global Empire,
at the dicisionpoint for the future of all Humanity.

:-)

GOD IS TRUTH. GOD IS NOT THE BIBLE. DUH.

"The Kingdom of God is within you.
Be like a child and enter in."

Noam Chomsky Quotes / Quotations

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.

Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media.

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.

Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune.

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.

Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world.

I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system.

If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.

If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival.

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.

States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.

The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history.

The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it I'd be ashamed of myself.

The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.

The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.

The people who were honored in the Bible were the false prophets. It was the ones we call the prophets who were jailed and driven into the desert.

The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.

The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control - "indoctrination," we might say - exercised through the mass media.

To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public.

Unlimited economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege, a fact that has not gone unnoticed among liberal economists.

We can, for example, be fairly confident that either there will be a world without war or there won't be a world - at least, a world inhabited by creatures other than bacteria and beetles, with some scattering of others.

You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.

EMPIRE IS THE SERPENT

No, who cares about Biblical compliance except as it informs a Humane life? Not me.

But, as it informs Humane life, as the Bible does contain some awesome wisdom -

EMPIRE IS THE SERPENT
(OR THEY SURE DO THE SAME THING!
COINCIDENCE?)

What did the serpent in the Garden of Eden accomplish? The serpent succeeded in separating Man from God.

Empire suceeds in
separating Man from Her HUMANITY!

SAINT WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW

William Stringfellow 1928 - 1985

"Can the pope speak infallibly?", Stringfellow was asked at an ecumenical gathering. He reply was swift and sure. "Any Christian who speaks in conformity to the gospel speaks infallibly." It was typical of the pithy pronouncements which would endear him to many. Yet he was ever as profound as he was precise. When Karl Barth visited the United States in 1962 he pointed past the seminary professors to the diminutive lawyer and remarked, "This is the man America should be listening to."

William Stringfellow was born in Johnston, Rhode Island. His father was a knitter in a stocking factory. Needing money for a university education, he held three jobs in his last year of high school, yet managed to gain several scholarships and find himself at Bates College by age fifteen. Another scholarship took him to the London School of Economics. It was here, he was to write later, that he learned the difference between vocation and career. Military service followed with the Second Armored Division of the U.S. Army. When other soldiers complained that they were deprived of an identity in the armed forces and couldn't "be themselves", he disagreed. He knew that it is the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, which gives us our identity and frees us to "own" ourselves, cherish ourselves, profoundly be ourselves, anywhere.

Next was Harvard Law School. While a degree from this prestigious institution was a key which unlocked many doors, the door on which he knocked belonged to a slum tenement in Harlem, New York City. He had decided to work among poor blacks and Hispanics, the most marginalized of the metropolis. The move from Harvard to Harlem was jarring. His apartment measured twenty-five feet by twelve feet. Earlier five children and three adults had lived in it. The kitchen contained a tiny sink and an old refrigerator (neither of which worked), an old gas stove, a bathtub, and a seatless toilet bowl. Thousands of cockroaches were on hand to greet him. "Then I remembered that this is the sort of place in which most people live, in most of the world, for most of the time. Then I was home......"

His frustration with seminaries was inconsolable. Liberal schools of theology, having disdained the bible, offered little more than "poetic recitations...social analysis, gimmicks, solicitations, sentimentalities, and corn." Fundamentalist institutions, on the other hand, had yet to learn that "...if they actually took the bible seriously they would inevitably love the world more readily...because the Word of God is free and active in the world."

!!!! GOD IS THE LOVING TRUTH OF LIFE !!!!

We will NEVER know more than that.

I have never written a more important post. And as usual, I'm the messenger, not the source. The source? The Hebrew Bible on which the life lived by Jesus, and the Corruption we know today as the Bible and New Testament are based.

Jehovah within the Hebrew Bible of Jesus' time was - the divine forces that we all feel, but will NEVER BE ABLE TO NAME.

ALL WE CAN EVER KNOW ABOUT GOD FOR SURE:

GOD IS:
LOVING-ABSOLUTE-TRUTH-ABOUT-SECURING-ABUNDANT-LIFE-FOR-THE-INDIVIDUAL-AND-OF-ALL-HUMANITY.

FATHER? MOTHER? SENTIENT? COGNIZANT? ALIEN? INFINITE? WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO NAME ANY OF THIS FOR SURE. WE ARE MAD NOT TO IMAGINE ABOUT "FATHER," "MOTHER," ETC. BUT WE MURDER WHEN WE LIVE AS THOUGH OUR IMAGININGS ARE "TRUTH."

My source on this about Jehovah? Saint David Dellinger. God help the person that doubts Dave Dellinger as a source without God Damn good reason and authority to do so.

"STATE IS A PUBLIC... REBELLION AGAINST GOD." PHIL BERRIGAN

MUST READ: FOREWORD AS IS EVERYTHING AT THE JONAH HOUSE SITE by Philip Berrigan.

Some quotations from Phil Berrigan on Law:

• the Bible gave human law ample treatment. 1st Samuel 8th chapter, for example, exposes the State as a public, bureaucratic rebellion against God.
• the law, like the State is inherently flawed and violent -- its function to legalize a rebellious State.
• Paul's Letter to the Galatians -- his most sustained indictment of human law.
• The genesis of the State then, ancient or modern, is rejection of God, rebellion against God. "They have not rejected you [Samuel], they have rejected me as their King." (1 Sam. 8:7)
• As the ruling hierarchy told Pilate: "We have no King but Caesar." (John 19:15)
• Paul equates the law with sin and death -- sin because law has nothing to say to sins of omission, and death because most will draw their morality from the law.
• The morality of most Americans is legalized. To become "law abiding" is to fear the penalties of the law, to become house-broken, domesticated.
• Morality limited by the boundaries of the law is spiritual death.

"ISM" = THE 3RD OF THE 3 DEADLIEST SINS

[Maybe later I can return and share this point more clearly. For now please help me by a patient and thoughtful reading.]

"ISM" - THE ULTIMATE
DISPLACEMENT OF THE
ALMIGHTY GOOD

ISM, of the 3 deadliest sins
(The other two being
RECREATIONAL SEX AND
"IMMEDIATE FAMILY"),
SEEMS
THE MOST LIKELY TO
MURDER THE NEAR SAINTS
THAT I HAVE ENCOUNTERED.
THESE NEAR SAINTS SEEM
NOT TO SEE THAT
THEY HAVE ELEVATED THEIR ISM,
PROTESTANTISM, CATHOLICISM,
ANTI-NUCLEARISM, ANTI-ZIONISM...
ABOVE THE ALMIGHTY GOD.

"ISM" = THE 3RD OF
THE 3 DEADLIEST SINS:
Anti-Nuclearism, Abortion-Rights-ism, Anti-Zionism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Christianityism, Communism, COMMUNITYISM, Corporatism, Democratism, Evangelicalism, Free-Palesitineism, Pacifism, Hinduism, Islamism, Judaism, Militarism, "MY-CHILD"-ISM, "MY-FAMILY"-ISM, Nationalism, Patriotism, Protestantism, Right-To-Lifeism...

HOW CAN THIS BE!?!?!?

"Thou shalt have
no God before Me!"
Bible

"Thou shalt have
no value as high or higher than
CONSCIENCE / HUMANITY /
LOVE / KINDNESS."
Start Loving

It is not that any
of the above "isms"
are per-se bad.
It is that they
have been elevated
ABOVE
the Humanity /
Conscience / Love / Kindness /
ALMIGHTY POWERS -
LIFE, LOVE, TRUTH
which they were
CREATED TO SERVE!!!

Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

1.A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.
2.You must do the things you think you cannot do.
3.You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.
4.You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'
5.You can't move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it. That doesn't mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority.
6.You can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you've become yourself.
7.Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!
8.With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.
9.When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
10.When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?
11.When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.
12.When all is said and done, and statesmen discuss the future of the world, the fact remains that people fight these wars.
13.What you don't do can be a destructive force.
14.What one has to do usually can be done.
15.What is to give light must endure the burning.
16.We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.
17.We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.
18.We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.
19.Understanding is a two-way street.
20.Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.
21.There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands.
22.The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why.
23.The only advantage of not being too good a housekeeper is that your guests are so pleased to feel how very much better they are.
24.The giving of love is an education in itself.
25.The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. 26.The Bible illustrated by Dore occupied many of my hours - and I think probably gave me many nightmares.
27.The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.
28.Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.
29.Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.
30.Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.
31.Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.
32.Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.
33.People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.
34.Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.
35.One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.
36.Old age has deformities enough of its own. It should never add to them the deformity of vice.
37.No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
38.Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes.
39.My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.
40.Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
41.Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.
42.It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
43.It was a wife's duty to be interested in whatever interested her husband, whether it was politics, books, or a particular dish for dinner.
44.It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.
45.It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.
46.It is not more vacation we need - it is more vocation.
47.It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.
48.It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.
49.It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.
50.It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
51.In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
52.In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.
53.If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
54.I'm so glad I never feel important, it does complicate life!
55.I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me 'understand' something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.
56.I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.
57.I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.
58.I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.
59.I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role.
60.I can not believe that war is the best solution. No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.
61.I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.
62.Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.
63.Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it.
64.Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.
65.Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
66.Friendship with oneself is all important because without it one cannot be friends with anybody else in the world.
67.Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
68.Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect.
69.For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.
70.Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
71.Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president.
72.Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something that you may find useful in your own journey through life.
73.As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along.
74.Anyone who thinks must think of the next war as they would of suicide.
75.Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.
76.Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.
77.Actors are one family over the entire world.
78.Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Desmond Tutu Quotes

A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.


Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.


Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.


Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.


Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.


For goodness sake, will they hear, will white people hear what we are trying to say? Please, all we are asking you to do is to recognize that we are humans, too.


I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.


I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.


If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.


In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute - a white skin.


My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.


Niger is not an isolated island of desperation. It lies within a sea of problems across Africa - particularly the 'forgotten emergencies' in poor countries or regions with little strategic or material appeal.


Those who invest in South Africa should not think they are doing us a favor; they are here for what they get out of our cheap and abundant labor, and they should know that they are buttressing one of the most vicious systems.


We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.


We would like to see you departing peacefully.


What is black empowerment when it seems to benefit not the vast majority but an elite that tends to be recycled?


When a pile of cups is tottering on the edge of the table and you warn that they will crash to the ground, in South Africa you are blamed when that happens.


When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.


Without forgiveness, there's no future.


You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.


You must show the world that you abhor fighting.

Misc. Quotes

1. "Dissent without resistance is consent." Henry David Thoreau
2. "When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint, but when I ask why people should be hungry, they call me a communist." Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Camara
3. "It is not how much you give, but how much you have left over after giving that God counts" Godwin Penrhyn-Lowe
4. States are not moral agents; people are, and they can impose moral standards on powerful institutions. If they do not, the fine words will remain weapons. - Noam Chomsky, Rogue State.
5. Generosity is not measured by how much you give. It's measured by how much you have left. - Bishop Fulton Sheen
6. All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
   - Bertrand Russell
7. "What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life." - Henry Nouwen-In the Name of Jesus, 1989
8. "The giving of love is an education in itself." Eleanor Roosevelt
9. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Edmund Burke
10. There is but one unconditional commandment, which is that we should seek incessantly, with fear and trembling, so to vote and to act as to bring about the very largest total of good which we can see.
    -William James
    The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life
11. "Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give." Eleanor Roosevelt
12. "The mere sense of living is joy enough." Emily Dickinson
13. "Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!" Friedrich Nietzsche
14. "Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value." Albert Einstein
15. "During [these] periods of relaxation after concentrated intellectual activity, the intuitive mind seems to take over and can produce the sudden clarifying insights which give so much joy and delight." Fritjof Capra, physicist
16. "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy." George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Man and Superman, Epistle Dedicatory
17. "The joy in life is to be used for a purpose. I want to be used up when I die." George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
18. Be absolutely determined to enjoy what you do. Gerry Sikorski
19. If your capacity to acquire has outstripped your capacity to enjoy, you are on the way to the scrap-heap. Glen Buck
20. While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole. That is why I dance. Hans Bos
21. We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)
22. The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy. Henry Ward Beecher
23. I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778)
24. People who enjoy what they are doing invariably do it well. Joe Gibbs
    A joy that's shared is a joy made double. John Ray
25. Sacred space and sacred time and something joyous to do is all we need. Almost anything then becomes a continuous and increasing joy. What you have to do, you do with play. I think a good way to conceive of sacred space is as a playground. If what you're doing seems like play, you are in it. But you can't play with my toys, you have to have your own. Your life should have yielded some. Older people play with life experiences and realizations or with thoughts they like to entertain. In my case, I have books I like to read that don't lead anywhere. Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion - Reflections on the Art of Living; selected and edited by Diane K. Osborn
26. I've grown to realize the joy that comes from little victories is preferable to the fun that comes from ease and the pursuit of pleasure. Lawana Blackwell, The Courtship of the Vicar's Daughter, 1998
27. Joy fills the body and expands beyond its bounds.The intellect is quieted by joy.The body bridges to the spirit via joy.It's good stuff is joy! Leah Klein
28. When people ponder 'the big questions' like 'who am I?' and 'what's the meaning of life' the answer rarely seems to be about joy. I know love seems to be the usual answer but that gets interpreted, misinterpreted, reinterpreted endlessly whereas joy seems a less confused feeling - pure essence, laughter, lightness, richness, playful, expansive, encompassing, boundless. Leah Klein
29. Such is human psychology that if we don't express our joy, we soon cease to feel it. Lin Yutang
30. I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy! Louise Bogan
31. It is essential to our well-being, and to our lives, that we play and enjoy life. Marcia Wieder
32. Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
    The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
33. May your walls know joy; May every room hold laughter and every window open to great possibility. Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey, 1995
34. Enjoy the journey, enjoy ever moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing. Matt Biondi
    The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it. Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592)
35. Never let anyone steal your joy. Mike Richards
    Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)
36. The joy of a spirit is the measure of its power. Ninon de Lenclos (1620 - 1705)
    I define joy as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace - a connection to what matters. Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine
37. There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness. Pearl Buck (1892 - 1973)
38. Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing. Phil Jackson
39. Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile. Pierre Coneille
40. To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others. Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)
41. The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. Richard Bach
42. Joy is not in things; it is in us. Richard Wagner
    No joy can equal the joy of serving others. Sai Baba
43. Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy. Sarah Ban Breathnach
44. My mind to me a kingdom is,Such present joys therein I find,That it excels all other bliss. Sir Edward Dyer
45. Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile. Sir Wilfred Grenfell (1865 - 1940)
46. There is no greater joy nor greater reward than to make a fundamental difference in someone's life. Sister Mary Rose McGeady
47. When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground from beneath your feet. Stanislaw J. Lec (1909 - 1966), "Unkempt Thoughts"
48. Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time. T. S. Elliot
49. Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. Thich Nhat Hanh
50. Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind,But leave---oh! leave the light of Hope behind. Thomas Campbell (1777 - 1844)
51. Joy comes from using your potential. Will Schultz
52. Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2
53. I wish you all the joy that you can wish. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), (Merchant of Venice)
54. You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. Ziggy, character in comic strip by Tom Wilson
55. Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)
56. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
57. The world is extremely interesting to a joyful soul.” Alexandra Stoddard (American philosopher and designer)
58. The joy that isn't shared dies young. Anne Sexton
    I do it for the joy it brings, cause I'm a joyful girl. 'Cause the world owes us nothing, we owe each other the world. Ani Difranco (American Singer, Song Writer and Guitarist. b.1970)
59. I asked God for all things, that I might enjoy life. God gave life, that I might enjoy all things. Anonymous Author
60. Unless each day can be looked back upon by an individual as one in which he has had some fun, some joy, some real satisfaction, that day is a loss. Anonymous Author
61. It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
62. A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live. Bertrand Russell
63. The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days. Bible: Ecclesiasticus. XXX. 22
64. The only joy in the world is to begin. Cesare Pavese (1908 - 1950)
65. Joy is but the sign that creative emotion is fulfilling its purpose. Charles Du Bos
66. The enjoyment of life would be instantly gone if you removed the possibility of doing something. Chauncey Depew
67. Do not judge men by mere appearances; for the light laughter that bubbles on the lip often mantles over the depths of sadness, and the serious look may be the sober veil that covers a divine peace and joy. E. H. Chapin
68. When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. Cherokee Indian Saying
69. One joy scatters a hundred griefs. Chinese Proverb
70. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. Earl Nightingale
71. Give not over thy soul to sorrow; and afflict not thyself in thy own counsel. Gladness of heart is the life of man and the joyfulness of man is length of days. Ecclesiastes
72. Live and work but do not forget to play, to have fun in life and really enjoy it. Eileen Caddy

Ransom. Redeem.

"A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act," Gandhi

As always in my life of recent years, I'm doing stuff led by Love (God) and therefore my Head can't make sense of what I am doing till quite a bit afterward. This occurs almost daily - beginning to realize way after the fact what sense there is in this or that decision that I've made or path that I've been walking.

That Jesus somehow Ransomed our Lives and Redeemed us is written of in the Bible.

Now this is beginning to make sense to me as I see what Love / Life / Truth (God) has me doing.

THE ONLY WAY TO ESTABLISH THE PRICE / VALUE OF SOMETHING AND TO ACQUIRE IT IS TO PAY THE PRICE WHEN NECESSARY / REQUIRED. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. RIGHT? A PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY; OR AT LEAST VIOLATING THIS TRUISM IS AN EXTREME IMPRACTICALITY. [In other words how to you establish the fact of extreme Love / Unconditional Love without - SHOWING COMPLETE, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE; THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.]

The point?!?!?! To show us how desperately important it is to purchase our lives back from Selfishness / Lust / Flesh in order to return us to the health of our "home" state / condition of Love / Life / Joy... Jesus had to PAY THE PRICE / REDEEM US / RANSOM US - BY GIVING HIS LIFE FOR US.

Well, the price (ransom, redemption) in such matters does not have to be either set or paid in 100% of the transactions. (Ahh, that this were true in the purchase of AIDS drugs for example; that we could purchase one prescription and then get refills for a lifetime!) But it DOES have to be done (Set, Paid) in some %: 1%? 10%? For example, for a child to truly know that his/her parent loves them to the extreme, the parent does not need to surmount an emergency out of love for them every hour. But it probably does need to happen several times within the child's youth!

We shouldn't need a Jesus in our lives sacrificing His life for us to the extreme every day or year. But WAY MORE THAN ONCE EVERY 2,000 YEARS IS NEEDED!!!!

[Start, you are rambling!] Hmmm. I'm called to BE Ransom, the price of Redemption... for Chester children, Darfur.... and maybe many causes in the future. And, YOU are AT A MINIMUM called by Love / God to be the price Ransom / Redemption for some Loved one(s) in your life in an obvious emergency.

ALL HUMAN BEINGS FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO ATTAIN RELATIVELY FULL PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH (a tiny minority of us in today's ultimately TOXIC CULTURE tragically) are called to be Redemption / Ransom for Humanity pretty extremely as a mainstay of our lives until the planet begins to get back on track.

By the way, being called to a life of extreme Redemption / Ransom within the realm of Joy / Love / Life is the equivalent of winning the $1 billion Lottery in the world of Selfishness / Flesh / Mammon. Life does not get better than this.

[I hope you stayed with this post. Sorry I couldn't do better with it. Yet.]

At age 33 why did Jesus ride into town to certain death?

There can be only one answer that makes sense outside of nonsense about fulfilling ancient legend in the Bible.

85% of communication is non-verbal. This is one of the ONLY things that all psychologists agree on! Indisputable truth. We humans do not get it with words. Oh, we'll talk forever. But our behavior, our actions, our core beliefs are not influenced by words.

Action, heroic, self-sacrificial action is the only thing that can Save us from distorted, sick, sinful / wrongful behavior, actions, core beliefs and values.

Jesus rode into town to certain torture and death because that was the only way He could Save / Change us. Words, or safe action couldn't do it.

I, Start Loving am Hunger Striking in front of the Sudan Embassy to Death's Door because that is the only way I can Save / Change you and others so that YOU wake up,
!!!!JOIN ME NOW!!!! and Save Darfur, and get on with Saving your world from its Death Spiral of Entropy. Words, or safe action couldn't do it.

Yes, so far Jesus has almost totally failed. But He never expected to succeed unless we followed in His footsteps. I am following His footsteps, and it is everything He promised - more Love, Joy, Happiness, Mothers, Brothers, Houses in this life and the next. Oh, you must believe me. You must get it. This is Heaven. You may be willing to deprive yourself. Are you willing to deprive your dearest loved ones? Are you willing to abandon Jesus? Are you willing to deprive your biological children?

KNOWLEDGE IS RESPONSIBILITY. IF YOU REVIEW THIS SITE IN DETAIL YOU WILL KNOW.

1 John: "CHRISTIANS" LIVE JUST LIKE JESUS LIVED!

This is the most important sentence in the bible for 2007

1 John, Chapter 2: "This is how we may know that we are in unity with Him. Whoever claims to abide in Him ought to live just like He lived."

I Testify: Jesus was true in promising Hell in this life

Having just read the New Testament letters for the first time in many years (New American Bible, St. Joseph's Edition!) I offer my life as Testimony to the absolute Truth of the Spiritual / Psychological reality it explicitly teaches. [Perfection in all words? Come on, these were men writing as and two people of 2000 years ago. Imagine the limitations! Let's grow up.]

Yes, HELL IN THIS LIFE IS A CERTAINTY FOR:
* Living in the Suburbs
* Expensive educations
* Practicing capitalism
* Sex for power or recreation at any time
* Holding "Church" in other than a basement or warehouse
* Restaurants
* Daily casual time
* Time wasting
* Pandering, catering to the wealthy
* Tempting anyone toward anything other than going to the Cross for The Least Of These.
* Skiing and other $ and time intensive sports
* etc.
* etc.

All of this is sin punished by Hell in this world of unimaginable suffering by the masses. There is not a second, $, neuron, or muscle fiber to waste. The world is one big Elementary School and the roof just collapsed. And you are going to worry about your career, dinner tonight, appearance, preoccupation with "your" child/husband/wife, flowers, garden, house, safety....???????????

These (above and their like) are guaranteed Hell - separation from: God, Our Father, Eternity, your Body, Your Soul, Solidarity, Service... LIFE.

Wow. The clarity I found regarding this in the New Testament is so extraordinary. God forgive me for not seeing it before. Timothy 1 and James are breathtaking.

I Testify with my life, for all who I Love, for all Humanity that with trivial exceptions these writings are the Truth, as Einsteins writings are the Truth.

Please do not lead a life (death) of sin as I have. It is Hell. Please LIVE. It is Heaven on Earth.

Read the New Testament in this version of the Bible and BELIEVE.

--------------------------------

Exceptions:
* Dramatically discount emphasis on getting to heaven; HEAVEN AFTER DEATH IS NOT WHAT JESUS WAS CONCERNED ABOUT.
* Subservience of women to men: RUBBISH.
* Continuity with the Old Testament: RUBBISH. Maybe this was a constructive emphasis 2000 years ago in attempts to bring along some of the Jews into Christianity. If it was of use, it is no longer. Forget the Old Testament. Making it through the next 20 years alive beginning now depends on Jesus' prime directives: Love God and Love Your Neighbor. Get Distracted and you and we die.
* A few others but I'm out of time. Anything that is not about waging a Navy Seal calibre War of Brotherly Love to bring about Brotherly Love FOR THE JOY/LIFE/LOVE/PEACE OF IT - IGNORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Essential Reading

1. The Gospel in Brief (Tolstoy, Translated by Isabel Hapgood); Created Gandhi, may have Created Dr. King. Online Translation (not as good as the paper version)

1. The Kingdom of God is Within You (Tolstoy); LAST 2 CHAP. 1ST. Online. What I Believe, Leo Tolstoy.

2. Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler; a non-mystical, psychological, mainstream way of seeing what Jesus died to show us - evil is clinically madness - selfishness. To be selfish is clinically to be out of your mind. Probably the most difficult read of my life. Skip it unless you want to save the world. Online

3. Four Gospels and the Appostolic Letters- New American Bible, St. Joseph Version; to my shock I find not only the Gospels but the letters enormously helpful in moving from Flesh/Death to Spirit/Life within myself. Now Jesus said in Johh, "If you love me you will do greater things than these." Jesus either didn't know the psychology of what he was on to, or he figured out that those he was preaching to couldn't understand it 2000 years ago. Either way, you've got to see that these folks were using mysitcism where today it doesn't belong. Be careful, I wish I had more time to explain, but now I don't. Use your heads. And, they were human! The got the woman thing, subservience, all wrong except for the extreme modesty part which is absolutely correct. Too frequently they justify going to the cross for an afterlife. No! Going to the cross to save your brothers and sisters IS heaven on earth, and it is clear that those writing and being persecuted experienced it that way. To my shock I found it enormously in sych with the contents of this site. Profoundly so. James and 2nd ? were utterly awesome.

4. The People's History of the United States (Zinn); If you read this book you will have the same Truth experience that Neo had when he took the pill in The Matrix. You cannot be ALIVE in the US culture without reading this book. You will stay in The Matrix - screwed in, all nice and save, sound, and Dead.

5. Voices of a People's History of the United States (Zinn)

6. From Yale to Jail & Revolutionary Nonviolence (Dellenger); total of 3 years in prison for his nonviolent war for civil rights, stopping the Vietnam War, and other causes. See this site: David Dellinger Quotations

7. Peace and Nonviolence (Guinan); well this is an indespensible gem of a book. A collection of writings unlike anything I've seen before on the great nonviolent warriors of our time. Inexplicably brillient and useful collection if you want to Save the world. Online excerpts.

8. Courage & Compassion (Fogelman); Heroes of the holocaust. What to see what going to the Cross looks like? Online excerpts. Online excerpts.

9. The Cost of Descipleship (Bonhoeffer); This man walked the walk - to the Cross, with Life - Joy and Love. Online

10. All Men are Brothers (Gandhi); Online

BE EXTREMELY CARFUL OF:

Walter Wink. Through a tragic blindness he perverts Jesus' teachings of "Saving" the Heart of the other into slick power moves. Tragically evil.

Gene Sharpe: His Politics of Nonviolent Action. He is a mechanic! He shows a profound lack of grasp of the Spiritual battle. STAY AWAY!

ANYONE AND ANYTHING THAT DOES NOT HAVE A HEROIC TRACKRECORD. Spirit is everything - including Wisdom and Insight! If they do not have a Heart for Heroism, they don't have a Heart / Spirit that knows nonviolent revolution. Learn from Heroes or figure it out yourself. BE CAREFUL.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OTHER GREAT STUFF: [sorry about the formatting. no time to fix it now.]
for now a cleaner version of what follows is at the Chester PA site: Suggested Readings


TITLE
AUTHOR
RELEVANCE
What Life Could Mean to You
Alfred Adler
Considered by some the comprehensive foreseer and pioneer of today's emerging, theoretical, directions in psychology.
Their are only 2 possible overarching goals and humans organize their entire lives around one OR the other: 1) Survival, 2) Happiness (which is achieved only by bettering the future of mankind). It is only the latter, that is "healthy".
This book may be the single most illuminating, important guide book to "health" in living ever written. (Jay's opinion). Read it, and be alive!
The Evolving Self
Flow
Findiing Flow
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
University of Chicago Cognitive Psychology Dept. Foremost authority on "happiness" or "optimal experience".
If you exhaustively study all people world wide you will find that "optimal experience" (joy, bliss) comes from: 1) absorption in a high skill; 2) high challenge; 3) high human MEANING pursuit.
Said differently: the human organism is rewarded with the feeling of joy when he/she is totally immersed in the task of bettering mankind... that is, working against the relentless force of entropy, that works against the success of the "species"; that is, being "loving".
How can I help?
Ram Dass
Stamford University, psychology
Exraodinary insights on how the psychology of the helper, if understood, can enable helpers to avoid burnout, and progress rapidly along a path toward limitless bounty of compassion, joy, peace and love for themselves, the helpers.
The Words of Gandhi
All Men are Brothers
Mahatma Gandhi (by Richard Attenboro)
'The golden rule... is resolutely to refuse to have what millions cannot.'
'Full effort is full success.'
'Be the change you want to see'
'I will admit but one tyrant in my life... the still, small voice within'
Lost Boys
Dr. James Garbarino
Cornell University: World recognized expert on adolescent male break down and violence.
If you take any 100 people like me and you and keep them in "war conditions", ALL of us will BREAK DOWN emotionally within 2 months! Same for ANY AND ALL minority males born and raised in an environment like Chester, studies conclusively show.
"It's the "diet" (environment) stupid" [play on President Clinton's saying]
Autobiography of Dr. King
Clayborne Carson (using the archived words of Dr. King)
'Spirit, not material things, ultimately shapes history'
'Human rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) are won ONLY at an enormous price.'
'Rights are ALWAYS won by the oppressed. [Jay - So, what is to become of the Children of Chester? Herein lies the profound challenge ahead to liberate the Youth of Chester from oppression.]
'The great obstacle is the "moderate" '
'I am disturbed to find that all too often the Church is the 'opiate of the people... a social club with the thin veneer of religiosity."
'Church is a place where people go out from. Let us go out!'
'Human health for any individual can be ascertained by measuring three axis: 1) healthy love for self; 2) love for humanity; 3) love for God (and all of his creation).'
"Love is gladly giving one's life for the wellbeing of another'
'Peace is not the absence of injustice, but the presence of justice.'
'Freedom is achieved at the point that you are not afraid to die.'
'A man is fit to live when he knows what he will gladly give his life for.'
'The ends are preexistant in the means"
Long Walk to Freedom
Nelson Mandella
Leader of the South African freedom struggle.
It is nurture, not nature that shapes the individual.
The battle is for the heart and the mind. The prize is worth any price that is required of the warrior.
The pursuit of Happiness
David Myers
Hope College
Extensive meta surveny of the research on happiness by this author of the world's most widely used basic psychology text.
What No School Can Do
NY Times
'Researchers and educators have known for decades that it is the environment of the child before they enter school, and when school in not in session that determines success in school... and life.
'The amount of social and intellectual capital a child brings to school, more than the school itself, determines the outcomes.
'As with any capital, social and intellectual capital can be given only by one who 'received' them in the first place.'
"It's the "diet" (environment) stupid" [play on President Clinton's saying]
Vouchers for summer school could help halt the learning slide.
NY Times
"A child living in an inner city is in school for only so many hours. It's the rest of the day -- as well as the rest of the neighborhood -- that's the big influence, and the problem."
"It's the "diet" (environment) stupid" [play on President Clinton's saying]
Bible
St. Paul
'Owe no man anything, except to love one another.'
The supreme value is Charity... an awareness of God in oneself and in the other. [Clearly our children are starving to death in Chester due to extreme poverty of charity in the Delaware Valley. What other explanation? This is to be expected. The way we amass personal, material wealth is by allowing our charity to atrophy. This is our supreme, enabling technology of the west. No? - Jay]
Spirit is everything... material things are nothing.
Adults know what kids need; we just don't do it
Search-Institute.org
We better get on with "feeding" our Chester children what every child needs.
"It's the "diet" (environment) stupid"
Identity and the Life Cycle
Erik Erikson
Harvard Psychiatrist. Author of the predominant theory of human psychological development.
"Healthy" human development takes place through 7-8 stages.
The 6th stage is reached by "healthy", 'species normal' [vs culturally normal - Jay's note] people in their early 20's and lived until the onset of old age.
The 6th stage is "Generativity"... being consumed, gladly, with the task of advancing the wellbeing of humanity through insuring the success of the next generation.
Man's Search for Meaning
Victor Frankle
Among the most widely translated and published books in the world. This psychologist jew survived the holocaust and in the process discovered that "meaning" in life may be the most important determinant of mental health and wellbeing.
The Meaning and Measurement of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg
Harvard professor. Author of the predominant theory in psychology of "moral development".
Also: See basic Psychology texts and research articles.
'Species normal" adult moral development is BEYOND, social reference, or observance of law.
Healthy moral development is Stage 5-6, where an individual acts based on the developed capacity to experience "interchangeably, and indistinguishably' the human impact on the "others" in a situation, and on the "self".
Less than 1 in 10,000 reach this 'species normal' health in our US culture (Scientific American, 2000)
Toward a Psychology of Being
Abraham Maslow
President Am. Psych. Assn. late 1960's. 'Measured' IQ 190+. Hugely misrepresented in popular literature.
Fewer that 1 in 150 people reach 'species normal' healthy adulthood - 'self-actualization'.
Contrary to almost universal misrepresentation, "self actualization" ALWAYS means becomming totally absorbed in, and utilized by the the task of advancing the future wellbeing of all humanity.
Speech in the Middle East
His Holiness Pope John Paul
An address shortly after September 11, 2001
[If mankind is to survive] 'it is time to usher in a new "civilization of love".
The Power of Assets
Search-Institute.org
'For a child to be healthy they need to see that there are 3 adult in their life that think the world revolves around them' [most of our children in Chester have ZERO - Jay]
Take away 75% of the "asset rich diet" needed by children and you are CERTAIN to see increasing drug use 40X, decreasing school performance 7X, increasing violence 10X....
"It's the "diet" (environment) stupid"
TheWays and Power of Love Note: Available in many, substantial libraries
Social and Cultural Dynamics
The Crisis of Our Age
Pitirim Sorokin
Founder at Harvard University of the Department of Sociology. Founder of the Eli Lilly funded Harvard Center for Creative Altruism
If we do not develop our 'technology' and technique for producing massive quantities of altruistic love there is no future for mankind.
Contrary to popular wisdom, highly altruistic people have much higher quality and length of life than non altruistic people throughout recorded history!
The number one factor that explains where "Saints" ('heroes of compassion', 'heroes of altruism and love') come from is - particularly loving adults who are a child's 'family'.
A Dry White Season
Video
Donnald Sutherland
If you want to see how brilliantly, and skillfully "blind" the "kindest" of we, of the privileged "classes" can be watch this video. Prepare to learn much that is terrifying about 'nice, middle class, Americans' through seeing this story of middle class awakening in South Africa.
The Kingdom of God is Within You
Leo Tolstoy
Dr. King and Gandhi each independently credit much of their 'rebirth', to become the world forces that they each became, to the reading of this book.
'The world will start to heal when Christians [and presumably the followers of all religions - Jay] admit to themselves that they are NOT following Christ' [or the founder of their non-Christian religion - Jay].
Cry Freedom
Video
Danzel Washington
If you want to see how brilliantly, and skillfully "blind" the "kindest" of we, of the privileged "classes" can be watch this video. Prepare to learn much that is terrifying about 'nice, middle class, Americans' through seeing this story of middle class awakening in South Africa.
Conscilience
E. O. Wilson
Particularly in the last chapters this Nobel prize winning biologist / zoologist from Harvard reviews the research asserting that "ethics" and compasion have genetic basis; we are predisposed to get joy from taking care of the tribe.
The Triumphs of Joseph
Robert Woodson
Woodson's life has been spent finding, understanding and supporting ministries that are transformational to those in need.
Transforming ministries, those that demonstrate extraordinary impact on many lives: - never start with funding, - don't accept traditional funding, - don't start with a "rational" plan.... Transformation starts and sustains with an enormous wealth of "irrational" (unconditional) love.

THE CENTRAL TEACHINGS OF JESUS

Tolstoy's translation of Jesus Gospel as found in the original Greek Texts is that which seems the most clear and Truthful by far: "The Gospel in Brief." Two books that grew out of "The Gospel in Brief" proved monumentally important: "The Kingdom of God is Within You" created Gandhi / became his bible; "The Law of Love and the Law of Violence" deeply influenced Dr. Martin Luther King at Crozier Seminary when he was young. From "The Gospel in Brief," I find these to be the essential teachings of Jesus:

p58 "...my teaching ... works of love to one's neighbor."

p58 "The external worship of God cannot be combined with works of love. The old teaching of the external worship of God cannot be combined with my teaching of works of love to one's neighbor."

p67 "He gave the spirit to the world, and the spirit itself lives in men, and men who liveby the spirit make up the kingdom of God."

p67 "A woman puts yeast in the kneading trough and mixes it with the flour; she then stirs it no more, but lets it ferment and rise. As long as men live, God does not interpose in their life."

p67 "For the spirit there is neither death nor evil. Death and evil are for the flesh, but not for the spirit."

p72 "If all praise them [the rich], woe to them, because only deceivers get everybody's praise."

p73 "...he who shall fulfill [the commandments I give], and shall thereby teach others, shall be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

p75 "All sensuality destroys the soul, and therefore it is better for you to renounce the pleasure of the flesh than to destroy your life."

p75 "... the soul ... your life."

p79 "All men are His children, and therefore all are brothers to you."

p80 "All these commandments are contained in this one: All that you wish people should do for you, do even so to them."

p80 "I. Do not be angry, but be at peace with all men. II. Do not seek delight in sensual gratification. III Do not swear anything to anyone. IV. Do not oppose evil, do not judge, and do not go to law. V. Do not make any distinction among men as to nationality, and love strangers like your own people."

p80 "... love strangers like your own people ... "

p82 "The light of the body is the eye, and the light of the soul is the heart. If your eye is dim, then all of your body will be in darkness. And if the light of your heart is dim, then all your soul will be in darkness."

p89 "My food is to do the will of Him who gave me life, and to fulfill that which He intrusted to me."

p94 "... the fulfillment of the Father's will depends on each man's effort and striving to make people see that life is given, not for oneself personally, but for the fulfillment of the Father's will, which alone saves from death and gives life."

p99 "... the nourishment of man is the spirit descended from heaven. This it is which gives life to the world."

p102 "... Our flesh is the true food for the real life."

p106 "I drive out evil by summoning people to fulfill the will of the Spirit, the Father, who gives life to all."

p118 "That which stands high in the eyes of men, is abomination in the eyes of God."

p118 "Now the kingdom of heaven is attainable on earth, and great are they who enter it. But they enter it, not the rich, but those who have nothing."

p121 "Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not lie. Do not steal. Further, honor your Father, and fulfill His will; and love your neighbor as yourself ... One small thing you have left undone. You have not fulfilled that which you say. If you wish to fulfill these commandments ... above all, the comandment: Love your neighbor as yourself - then, at once sell all your goods, and give them to the poor. Then you will have fulfilled the father's will."

p121 "... sell all your goods, and give them to the poor ..."

p121 "... above all ... love your neighbor as yourself ..."

p124 "See now, this poor widow has put in two forthings in the boc. She has put in more than all. Because they put in that which the did not need for their own livelihood; while this woman has put in all that she had; has put in her whole life."

p124 "... put in [all that you have] ... put in [your] whole life ..."

p128 "... God should be served not in the temple and by sacrifices, but in the spirit, and by deeds."

p128 "...God should be served ... in the spirit, and by deeds."

p129 "Your law of Moses is not the Father's law ...."

p135 "If your father were one with me, you would love me, because I came forth from that Father."

p136 "I am from the Father of good, from God; but you [Orthodox] are from the devil, from the father of evil."

p136 "... the Father of good ... God ..."

p139 "There are shepherds to whom the sheep are the chief interest in life, and who give up their lives for the sheep. These are true shepherds. And their are hirelings who do not care about the sheep, because they are hirelings, and the sheep are not theirs; so that if a wolf comes they abandon their charge and flee from them, and the wolf devours the sheep."

p140 "My teaching is this - to give up one's life for the life of men."

p142 "Every man in the spirit is the son of God."

p151"... Men do not love even a reminder of the spirit which lives in them, and declares to them that it is eternal and they are not eternal; and they have killed, as far as they could, the consciousness of the spirit; they have wrapped in a cloth and burried in the ground the talent that was given them."

p166 "I am teaching ... how to save people."

p172 "... Christ is that same Lord, our Ruler, whom we know in ourselves as our life. Christ is that understanding which is in us."

p172 "... Christ... in ourselves as our life."

p172 "... Christ ... that understanding which is in us."

p173 "From [the orthodox] comes all the evil in the world; because they hide the good, and instead of it uphold evil."

p173 "[The orthodox] do the easiest thing, the external thing; that which is needful and difficult - love, compassion, truth - they leave undone."

p173 "... that which is needful and difficult - love, compassion, truth ..."

p174 "There is one temple of God, that is, the hearts of men when they love each other."

p181 "... the present society of men is condemned to destruction. From now that which rules this world shall be destroyed."

p182 "... my Father, the living spirit in me ...."

p182 "... my Father ... the spirit of understanding ..."

p182 "He who believes in my teaching believes not in me, but in that spirit which gave life to the world."

p187 "Seek to be only thus distinguished from other people - Love one another."

p194 "My commandment is, that you love one another as I have loved you."