Faith
of Our Fathers
“From
the depth psychological perspective, the primary standard to evaluate the
legitimacy of any religion or spiritual perspective is whether or not it promotes
the expansion of consciousness in general and religious consciousness in particular.
Does it promote awareness of the creative and destructive capacities of the
human person? Does it promote the self-understanding of its members? Does it
address the mystery of who we are in relationship to the mysteries of the
cosmos? Does it support the connection and interconnection of all there is—the human
and more than human? Does it build bridges between and among all, or create
divisions.”
Jerry
Wright (A Mystical Path Less Traveled, p.105; Chiron Publications, Asheville
NC, 2021)
I will
never forget the man who told me that my friend Andy, who had broken his neck
in a fall and was lying motionless in the Intensive Care Unit of a Northern
Indiana hospital, was going to hell for eternity because he hadn’t declared the
“Lord Jesus Christ as his savior.” In one stroke, this man, who was a neighbor of
my friend, dismissed his lifetime of contributions to science and soccer, to
micro-loans and macro-gifting, of devoted friendship and committed fatherhood—because
of failure to say words he didn’t believe and knew for himself would not be
true. If your religion teaches you this, you should seriously consider leaving
it. My friend died from his wounds, and I am quite confident his soul is
wherever good souls go, because his was kind and generous—unlike his
neighbor.
Too many of
us walk this path of Christianity that somehow has attributes judgement to Jesus
that he never espoused and would have considered nonsense. Our spiritual
beliefs and practices should bind us together as a human family, not separate
us from one another. To the extent that we live in the questions of soul and
heart, that we weigh and measure our own capacity for goodness and evil, we are
living a spiritual life. Every true faith leads us to self-examine and soul
search rather than to judge others by one short yardstick.
Today
is Fathers’ Day in America. I wonder how many fathers are celebrating by giving
their sons their first firearm, their first shot at the human-shaped target at
the firing range and believing in their hearts that they are protecting them
from harm. Target practice is now considered a necessary skill, overlooking how
to feed themselves, make something useful from scratch, plant a garden, change
a diaper, or change a tire on their car.
On this
Fathers’ Day, let us honor the fathers who teach their children kindness, who
model responsible behavior, who help them express their emotions honestly, and
who love them enough to teach them the ways of peace. Fathers like my friend Andy, whose gentle soul lives on in his sons and grandchildren today.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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