We
can get greater energy out of love and joy than out of hatred. Hatred
is so off balance. You blow your adrenals in one minute, then you're
shaky and weak. But if you're joyful, you'll get an endless source of
energy.
|
I
used to think that to become free you had to practice like a samurai
warrior, but now I understand that you have to practice like a devoted
mother of a newborn child. It takes the same energy but has a completely
different quality. It's compassion and presence rather than having to
defeat the enemy in battle.
|
In what seems like the logical extension of the recent trend, Exodus International has decided there were not enough people interested in attending their Love Won Out conference scheduled for later this month to justify the expense. Conference attendance has been trending downward, with their last conference bringing in barely 400 people. This is down from nearly 1000 in Exodus’ headier days. In November, XGW reported on a secret meeting held by Exodus president Alan Chambers to come up with ways to rebrand the organization in the wake of social and financial collapse. Since then events have occurred which seem to validate that scenario. The cancellation of this conference, the first time we know of since either Exodus or Focus on the Family held the event, appears to provide more evidence of their decline.As everybody here doubtlessly knows, "ex-gay" therapy is a con job, a scam, a cash-cow designed to separate self-hating homosexuals from their money. It's sort of brilliant, really. You're never "cured" so you just have to keep paying and paying and paying. It's like Jenny Craig, but without the delicious cardboard aftertaste.
The American right is undertaking a huge project of trying to put right-wing politics beyond criticism by shouting "religious bigotry" any time someone gets in the way of their political agenda. If they can create a consensus that it's somehow off-limits to criticize teaching that gay people are subhuman as long as you wrap it up in religion, that gives them a huge political advantage. Taken far enough, merely stating out loud in public that you don't believe gay people are evil could be cause for the fainting couches to be pulled out and accusations that Christians are being oppressed. Sounds ludicrous? Well, consider that we're currently debating whether or not it's oppressing Christians to accurately state what's in the Bible. Anyone who is actually supportive of gay rights shouldn't be playing along with this feigned umbrage. It won't stop until opposing anti-gay actions is considered completely off-bounds on the grounds that it's an attack on religion.Bingo.
If
we want to succeed in life and bring about a more peaceful world, we
must learn to control our emotions and not to be affected by a moment of
anger.
|
As
soon as we think we know something, then we become rigid and
unresponsive. You know the famous phrase: 'For the beginner there are
many possibilities, but for the expert there are few.' Maintaining a
mind of 'not knowing' allows us to respond to situations with openness,
freshness, and joy.
|
"Even
as Republicans try to wrestle women into chastity belts, the Vatican is
trying to muzzle American nuns. Who thinks it’s cool to bully nuns?
While continuing to heal and educate, the community of sisters is aging
and dying out because few younger women are willing to make such
sacrifices for a church determined to bring women to heel. Yet the nuns
must be yanked into line by the crepuscular, medieval men who run the
Catholic Church. How can the church hierarchy be more offended by the
nuns’ impassioned advocacy for the poor than by priests’ sordid
pedophilia? How do you take spiritual direction from a church that seems
to be losing its soul?" - Maureen Dowd, on the Vatican's order to punish nuns that don't publicly oppose gay marriage.
When
you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the
fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small,
neither yours nor others’. The place, the way, has not carried over from
the past, and it is not merely arising now.
|
