Rev. Dustin ParkerBoxing
I would like to thank Wendi for her writing about Mr Neale Donald Walsh. In a way of looking at it, this is kind of dedicated to the man, and to his team and their goals.
The most terrible part of the human problem, is that we're all terribly arrogant. Including me. It is our core belief that we are supremely capable of re-creating the world in such a way that our own perspective can ascend and dominate every other, that we are perfectly self-sufficient. And what we refuse to learn is that we are wrong.
Man's own performance when he completely removes God or a belief where he believes his behaviour towards his fellow man is somehow not arbitrated by an ultimate authority usually leads to one kind of conclusion, though we have several different words for it. Nazism, communism, Facism etc. I would like to point out that this is not simply when christianity is shoved out of a country (though the aforementioned political systems certainly did that) but when man makes himself a God he recreates himself as a demon. Certainly, similar things happen when man makes God in his image. God had no intention of letting us shape Him (which explains why He never wanted any idols made of Him but would also explain why He made us all in His image) mainly because we would see Him only from our perspective, and use our hands to try and create that which is without limits.
But I suppose the man crux of what I am trying to communicate in this case is that the people that Mr Walsh has influenced have called themselves Humanity's Team. I wondered for a brief while who exactly they might be playing against, and more importantly, what sport they were competing in. After reading their mission statement, to create a god of their own that was only love and acceptance, that judgement would be removed from, or completely prohibited from his character. Which intrigues me. The main reason being that if one is first allowed to design their own god then it is no god at all. It may be a belief, a superstition or a dream, but as the limits and character of the god is chosen by the followers it is a being of no authority. It cannot say, "thou shalt not" if his (or perhaps her this week) will is going to be changed to "if you feel like it."
Though I will admit that I admire the fact that they have recognised that the world is in a bad state and needs help from God I cannot admire the way that they are setting to do it. They say that they are intending to make God accessible to all, to take away His right to judge, to change Him in order to make Him more alive. What they are proposing is to take His character, His identity and put it in a box. There is only ever one time that we might put a person in a box, and it has nothing to do with them being alive.
JZ
The most terrible part of the human problem, is that we're all terribly arrogant. Including me. It is our core belief that we are supremely capable of re-creating the world in such a way that our own perspective can ascend and dominate every other, that we are perfectly self-sufficient. And what we refuse to learn is that we are wrong.
Man's own performance when he completely removes God or a belief where he believes his behaviour towards his fellow man is somehow not arbitrated by an ultimate authority usually leads to one kind of conclusion, though we have several different words for it. Nazism, communism, Facism etc. I would like to point out that this is not simply when christianity is shoved out of a country (though the aforementioned political systems certainly did that) but when man makes himself a God he recreates himself as a demon. Certainly, similar things happen when man makes God in his image. God had no intention of letting us shape Him (which explains why He never wanted any idols made of Him but would also explain why He made us all in His image) mainly because we would see Him only from our perspective, and use our hands to try and create that which is without limits.
But I suppose the man crux of what I am trying to communicate in this case is that the people that Mr Walsh has influenced have called themselves Humanity's Team. I wondered for a brief while who exactly they might be playing against, and more importantly, what sport they were competing in. After reading their mission statement, to create a god of their own that was only love and acceptance, that judgement would be removed from, or completely prohibited from his character. Which intrigues me. The main reason being that if one is first allowed to design their own god then it is no god at all. It may be a belief, a superstition or a dream, but as the limits and character of the god is chosen by the followers it is a being of no authority. It cannot say, "thou shalt not" if his (or perhaps her this week) will is going to be changed to "if you feel like it."
Though I will admit that I admire the fact that they have recognised that the world is in a bad state and needs help from God I cannot admire the way that they are setting to do it. They say that they are intending to make God accessible to all, to take away His right to judge, to change Him in order to make Him more alive. What they are proposing is to take His character, His identity and put it in a box. There is only ever one time that we might put a person in a box, and it has nothing to do with them being alive.
JZ
