I feel called to write this essay, because the extremely violent policies of the United States Government are endangering the future of human civilization. President George W. Bush especially is under the influence of Christian delusions and is implementing imperialist policies that are extraordinarily hypocritical and contradictory to both the teachings of Jesus the Christ and the democratic values for which the United States of America is supposed to stand. These delusions and this hypocrisy are shared by many believers of fundamental Christianity and Americanism, which itself is becoming a secular religion. I call some of these Christian beliefs delusions, because they are false and were not taught by Jesus himself. People who call themselves Americans, even though they distinguish themselves from Canadians and Latin Americans, suffer from self-deception in thinking that somehow the United States is better than all other countries and should therefore be an exception to the rule of international law. Because the United States has emerged as the sole surviving superpower (so far), they believe that it has the right and even the moral obligation to dominate the world and spread its "democratic" values, which are really more capitalist than democratic. The plutocrats who dominate politics in the United States want to increase their wealth and power by assuring that the world's dwindling resources (especially petroleum and fresh water) remain under their control so that this tiny minority can continue to enjoy luxurious life-styles even amid massive poverty. If they truly believed in democracy, they would support world democracy instead of U. S. hegemony and domestically would allow the removing of the corrupting influence of money from the political process.
Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and money," but it is only too clear which of these most Americans pursue with their hearts and minds. He told a rich man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor if he wanted to follow him. I say the modern version of this is to donate all one's income above the taxable level to non-profit organizations so that one is not paying income tax to the U. S. Government, which uses half of it for war-making expenses. Luke 23:2 indicates that the main reason why Jesus was crucified by the Romans was because he told people not to pay taxes to Caesar. He was questioned about this in the temple, because they knew he opposed it; the authorities were hoping that if he told the truth, then they could arrest him. However, he carefully avoided that by saying they should give Caesar's things to Caesar and God's things to God, implying that his followers should have nothing to do with the Roman money system. That is why he told his apostles not to take any money with them nor accept money from anyone.
Jesus, more than almost anyone else, taught that people should avoid the use of violence. Yet he did not mean being weak, because turning the other cheek is standing up to the adversary but without violence. Jesus even taught us to love our enemies and to do good to those who abuse us, because he knew that otherwise the cycle of violence would continue to fester. The best way to get rid of evil is not to resist it so that it dies a natural death. Jesus demonstrated these teachings in his life and did not resist even torture and execution by crucifixion. When President Bush, who claims to be a born-again Christian, tries to punish the "evil-doers" with violence, he and his supporters become evil-doers also. This magnifies the evil in the world, because then other evil-doers try to punish these evil-doers and back and forth and so on.
Witnessing the Bush administration's use of force to overthrow the governments of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Haiti while justifying his policies with such hypocritical rhetoric, and learning that so-called "Christians" helped elect Bush in two questionable elections has stimulated me to evaluate Christian theology and question why people, whom one would expect to be following the teachings of Jesus, are in fact supporting someone who acts in opposite ways. Instead of helping the poor, the right-wing Christians seem more intent on helping the rich garner even more privileges. How could people go so far astray from the original teachings? Jesus himself exposed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in his own time and made clear that people will be judged by the fruits of their actions. Not those who merely call upon his name will be saved but those who do the will of the Christ by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and loving their neighbors. How can people who claim to be Christians do so much harm and so little to help the people most in need? The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world; yet its people give much less to charity than other prosperous countries, and some of the large charities pay their executives enormous salaries and spend much of their contributions raising more money.
As I reflected on these things, I began to realize that after the crucifixion of Jesus numerous beliefs developed that most psychologists could only describe as delusions. Confusion over the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for a young woman which implied a maiden led people to believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, continued to remain a virgin even after giving birth to him and several other brothers and sisters. Commemoration of the last meal that Jesus shared with his twelve disciples before his execution became a ritual in which the participants professed to believe that wine was transformed into blood and bread into the body of Jesus. This delusion was adopted as a way of getting people to believe that Jesus had died for their sins rather than for some people in his own time. This enabled religious authorities beginning with the apostle Paul (who had been a deadly persecutor of the early followers) to promise converts that their sins were already removed by the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. Peter also went along with this doctrine of vicarious atonement. Yet the moment after Peter had recognized Jesus as the Christ, he objected to his expectation of being crucified. This prompted Jesus to call Peter Satan, and he told him to get behind him. All the disciples promised to stay with Jesus when he was arrested, but not one did. Peter even denied knowing him three times. So perhaps it is not surprising that his followers betrayed his teachings so soon after his death.
I have been told by the clairvoyant John-Roger (who has claimed to have been the disciple John the beloved in a previous life) that in that lifetime I was a disciple of John the Baptist. After his death, I followed Jesus until the crucifixion. Then I went to Caesarea and began a mystery school, which was successful until the first Christians began luring students away and asked me to follow them. Now I think I understand why perhaps I did not follow them. This doctrine of vicarious atonement, which was accepted even more adamantly by Martin Luther and most Protestants, I think may be a dangerous delusion also. I believe that Jesus is probably the greatest spiritual teacher of all time, but he is not the only one. I believe that he is the son of God and still exists as a soul, but in my view every soul is an extension or child of God; eventually we all will realize that.
Believing in these delusions may give some Christians an excuse for committing sins, because they think that just by believing in Jesus, who died for them, that they will be saved. I think this mocks the laws of God, that we each are responsible for our actions. I love Jesus as a great teacher and spiritual presence. Yet when I die, I expect to stand before God on my own without begging for his help. I do believe that I am completely dependent on God and that whoever has the Christ awareness can help me and others to grow spiritually; but I think we each need to have the courage to face God for all our actions. If we repent of errors, we can be forgiven by God directly or perhaps through an intermediary, if we change our ways. Otherwise we repeat the same pattern and must suffer the consequences.
I believe the time has come for the United States of America to repent and change its violent ways. Religious delusions often take the form of idolatry, which is worshiping something other than God. Bibliolatry is worshiping the Bible and taking it literally as the word of God. The Bible is a collection of ancient books with much wisdom, historical accounts, and primitive laws. The quality of the teachings varies greatly, although I think the Gospels represent the best spiritual teachings. Many other books have great spiritual wisdom also, and we can learn much from studying them as well. Jesusolatry tries to make Jesus equal to God when he is in reality only the son of God.
Another idolatry is Americanism or worshiping the United States, and the flag, its symbol, becomes part of that idolatry. It is a foolish and dangerous delusion to think that one nation, whether it is Israel, Rome, Germany, Japan, or the United States, is superior to others and therefore has the right to be the imperial power or master race. Each of those nations has succumbed to this megalomania and become fascist by using military aggression against other countries. I believe that the Christ is calling us to stand up to this evil without using violence. The ultimate superpower is the world peace movement, which will eventually overcome the militarists and transform this civilization into peace "with liberty and justice for all" by nonviolently bringing about universal disarmament and global democracy.
Perhaps the most recent and bizarre Christian delusion is the fantasy propagated in fictional books of the "rapture" in which those who are "saved" by having accepted Jesus Christ will fly up to heaven while those left on Earth will suffer on a miserable and degraded planet. This is especially dangerous and pernicious, because it assumes that wars rather than peace will lead to the second coming of Christ. Thus these believers think they do not need to care about the Earth and its future generations. Such delusions are not inspired by the Holy Spirit but by the negative power. The doctrine of resurrection which was adopted by Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, and Muslims is a perversion of the universal truth of reincarnation. Instead of individual souls being responsible for their own actions and having many lifetimes to learn the lessons of being human in their eternal progression back to divine consciousness, priests persuaded ignorant people that they had only one life in which to avoid hell and follow their authoritarian religion. How could a just and merciful God ever punish souls with everlasting hell after only one life with unequal and unfair conditions? I have good news for those who do not know it yet. The return of Christ is when each person realizes it within oneself. Jesus warned people not to follow after others who claim to be the Christ. He taught this, because the Christ is not outside of you but is the soul within your consciousness. Christ is already here now inside us.
I appeal especially to Christians to read the Gospels and practice what Jesus taught. Give charity to the poor and work for the peace with justice that is the sovereignty of God on Earth. Loving our neighbors as ourselves is respecting the equality of all, and in this global era many of our neighbors are on the other side of the globe. How can we support mass murder by aggressive invasions and military occupations of other countries?! The "war on terrorism" is being perpetrated as much or more by the terrorist nations claiming to be killing terrorists as it is by small groups of criminals, who occasionally commit heinous acts. The answer to these crimes is not war but effective international law with a proper judicial process after arrests that are as nonviolent as possible. No nation has the moral or legal right to enforce laws outside its borders. Only an international authority, which should be more democratic even than the United Nations, should be authorized to enforce international laws. The UN Security Council is dominated by the nuclear-weapons powers; yet the Bush regime even went against the will of the Security Council to invade Iraq in a clear violation of international law and treaties which are the supreme law in the United States according to its Constitution.
How can the United States, which has more weapons of mass destruction than the rest of the world combined, arrogate to itself the role of world policeman by attacking other nations attempting to develop such horrendous weapons just as a deterrent to keep the United States from dominating them? This hypocrisy is accompanied by the contradictory idea of trying to force people to be free by using military power. That is not democracy! Democracy is letting the people of each state decide how to govern themselves, not imposing one's own ideas and control over another nation. I believe that weapons of mass destruction are a threat to the security of everyone in the world. That is why the United States needs to lead the world by beginning the process of nuclear disarmament here at home.
In my candidacy for President
of the United States last year I proposed plans for disarmament
with inspections and world democracy. I suggested that we could
lead the world better by converting our military bases in other
countries into hospitals and university campuses. Instead the
Bush administration is using schools in Iraq as military bases
for its soldiers, who are killing the people we are supposed to
be helping. Hospitals are not being repaired, because they might
be used to treat the casualties of U.S. violence. Many innocent
prisoners have been tortured and grossly humiliated. When we learn
of these atrocities, how can we sit by and allow them to go on?
For every American killed in Iraq in this outrageous war at least
ten Iraqis are killed. Thousands more on both sides are maimed
for life. The psychological damage to young people coerced into
performing these acts of cruelty will last a long time. We need
to heal our country by applying the necessary psychological therapy
so that we can change the fascist policies of the Bush administration.
We need to make sure that much better policies are implemented.
President Dwight Eisenhower once said that the people want peace
so much that one of these days the governments had better get
out of the way and let them have it. Let us pray and act and so
that those days will come soon. Amen.