Sermon to the Fundamentalists

A SERMON TO THE FUNDAMENTALISTS

I hold beliefs and live them with integrity, but I am open to changing them, to learn, to grow. I live a lifestyle that may to many of you appear immoral, disgusting or evil. I am gay, but I tell you, I am a good person. It is your right not to believe that, but I ask you to suspend judgment, just as Christ asked, for a while so you can open your ears and hear and perhaps learn.

I am a human being, like you, I have feelings like yours; I can love and try not to hate. I will not willingly harm anyone nor wish to lead anyone on a path to wrong. I will not kill others nor maim them, unless in self-defense, nor will I steal from them or lie to them. I will generally follow those ancient Ten Commandments.

I accept your right to hold your beliefs, even if opposed to mine. I will not attempt to force mine on you, for that would be a violation of humanity and of God. I ask you to do the same for me. I believe you have to right to believe and feel as you wish, but you don't have a right to enforce your beliefs by law or that idea translated into action upon others not of your persuasion. Your religion teaches that, yet you persist in condemning and judging others by your rules and dogma as if only you are right and good and, therefore have a right to persecute others for their good and the glory of your perceived God - that that in itself is good and righteous. It is not.

Jesus told us not to judge, yet we must judge and discriminate to know and understand anything. But there are instances in which we must withhold judgment to reach a wider and higher discernment - when that withholding (or at least not acting upon it) would not cause us personal harm. It is a responsibility to self, humanity and God.

We cannot hope to force nor convince all people to believe as we do, for by such differences are we able to learn about life. There is a matter of faith and belief, but both are blind if learned and accepted within the social institutions and not experienced personally. Faith and belief must be constantly examined. Doubt is spiritual. That is an inward process which leads to true knowledge and understanding. All great spiritual leaders went through it and often were persecuted for it because their teaching upset the institutional and social order - the doctrine and the dogma. It must always be

so. Your beliefs are not the final answer. The Bible is the perfect illustration of this. It is not final, for after all, it was written by men who were as fallible as you and I. And their visions, no matter how God inspired, were individual visions. No two can be alike.

The Bible is a record of one culture's visionary experiences and is limited by the beliefs and times of that culture, as well as the fallibility of its translators. Its message may be universal, but not absolute. For we change and constantly reinterpret all our experiences.

Can I ask you to make a leap of understanding? That the Bible is both true and non-literal , except perhaps in the purely historical accounts (and even there is room for disagreement), that it is a record of individual journeys in consciousness and how those affected the Jewish culture?

You may believe that the Bible is a holy book, but it is just a book - an object like any other - yet you worship it or you worship a doctrine and dogma of a church fixed in a final form, and you worship the institution of the church or the church building or the minister. Yet what does your religion tell you? All of those are idols - graven images, thus you do not rely on the inner truth, individually experienced, to guide you. You operate and act on blind faith and fear, on convention and social status. Why fear change when it is a natural part of life? - the giving up of old ways therefore to accept the new life. It is growth and newness and a sense of wonder as has the young child, but we kill it and by it kill the part of ourselves that is godlike. And we anthropomorphize God into something merely superhuman rather than transcendent. Then it should be no cause for wonder that we limit ourselves, too, and keep ourselves away from greater glory.

We live in a wonderful, magnificent universe. We are part of it. Yet you often hide from it as if it were dangerous to your soul. Do you not wish to know what is your right, your inheritance? The universe is not malevolent nor is it totally benign. Our lives cannot be secure; there are always risks we must take. But that is the nature of life. We can't hide, for there is nothing to hide behind. To hide is not to grow, to reject life, to die a thousand spiritual deaths.

Your religion teaches of a search for wisdom and truth, but you will not find it if you try to hide, live in fear, for your fear will conquer you. If you live in convention you do not search; if you follow blindly you do not see, evaluate and learn. Learning involves inner change. Wisdom and truth are not fixed, but a growing process. So if you always rely on your conventional preachers and your dogma, you may feel safe while inwardly you yearn for fulfillment denied. That in itself can turn into anger and hatred.

Science has proved true, and yet it changes, against religious belief. It is a way of knowledge. Religion has sometimes called it a tool of the Devil or evil, but anything can be used for good and evil - all knowledge, but let us not fear it, but respect it and use it. If we will not face it will use us. When we have used it wisely it has brought immeasurable good.

You must realize that you have the spiritual authority to learn to follow your inner desires. Do not be afraid of failure, for through that we also learn. You do not need preachers or theologians to interpret the spirit for you. That is only their experience. You must find your own. It is not an easy nor always joyous task. It has its perils, but the perils of blindly following a leader are just as great. You are an individual soul with the right to decide and choose for yourself. No one else can do it for you. You must be responsible; there is no way to avoid it, for you are also responsible for avoiding your responsibility. To follow blindly is to be a robot. Do you want that? Or do you want to be a free human being, as God promised as your right?

Each of you decides how you view the world - as a place of goodness and happiness, or as a place of evil, suffering, etc. And if you believe in a tempter or Devil, have you not heard that even the lowest of you have power over that? It is stated in the Bible. You are so afraid of supernatural punishment and death, well, you will surely reap what you sow. But in your belief you can't die - the body will surely perish, yes, but you won't .And as for eternal punishment, you decide that, too. Your doctrine states that.

You need not fear that in your spiritual search you will be overwhelmed by evil without your willing consent. It is the fear promulgated by those who preach the "Hellfire and Brimstone" to keep their followers in line who must be overcome. Fear is the enemy, but there is literally nothing to fear unless you fear yourselves.

Do not be a slave of fear and of demagogues who will try to lead you down paths for their gain. They are your enemies, humanity's enemies. And do not be afraid of being an enemy of God, for to be an enemy one has to be a threat to one's existence - patently impossible for God. Yes, you can oppose His will and you will suffer for it, but you will learn in the process and God will not be harmed. Remember, for there to be good there must be evil, otherwise we could not tell the difference, thus evil serves its purpose and can bring no harm to God. All is right in the universe.

Perhaps some of you have heard that you can be godlike, yet you deny this in your everyday lives or try to put on piety for Sunday mornings, but that is false. Live everyday to grow more godlike, to learn, to accept people in their differences, for they are part of God. Promise yourselves to suspend judgment, for God does not judge; that may be the hardest lesson for us. We judge and presume that it is God's will. How dare we decide for God! But we are the parts of God who judge. So to grow more Godlike is to accept and see the good in everything.

You have been taught to look at evil, to concentrate on it, to fear it, and that blinds you to seeing the good. It is true, if you look for evil you will find it, and the same if you look for the good. You have thought that evil must be rooted out and the good will take care of it; that is not so, for you have put much energy into evil and neglected the good. And too, your fear of evil has given it mastery over you. Forget about it, for it has no power to harm you. Be godlike, non-judging, forgiving, loving - that is what religion has to teach us. Be the good example of a righteous life. Do not be the persecutor. Do not re-crucify the Christ everyday, for in doing that you only hurt yourselves, as others have done out of fear of the unknown. The unknown awaits our discovery to give us not fear, but a richer, freer life.