Please enjoy these songs by George Harrison. Just minimize the window while reading:
My Sweet Lord  -  Here Comes The Sun -  While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Today I was browsing websites to find a short description of Mother Theresa's service work to share with the readers.  I was concerned
when I came across not one, but two critical denunciations (by alleged Christian  representatives) of the teachings of Mother Theresa.  So I decided to offer up a response.


Because Mother Theresa advocated service work as a means to lovingly serve God, she, like Gandhi, believed that "No color, no religion, no nationality should come between us. We are all children of God."  She understood that service work would help "to make the Christian a better Christian, the Muslim a better Muslim, and a Hindu a better Hindu".  This is where fundamentalists seem to have a problem.  And yet, by the time of her passing, Mother Theresa had trained more than 6000 aid workers to maintain almost 600 'Missionaries of Charity' homes in 120 countries across five continents.  Such was her 'love in action'.

I have discovered that the jist of Christianity is widely misunderstood in the West.  I will attempt to explain with one simple verse from the Bible.
1 John 4:16  American King James Version
God is love; and he that dwells in love, dwells in God, and God in him. 

It seems pretty straightforward doesn't it?   According to the bible, Jesus told his disciples "I and the Father are One. No one comes to the Father but by Me. I am the way..."   Therefore, since God is 'Love'  and since Jesus and God are one and the same, the jist of Christ's message must have been;  "I am Love; and when you live in Love,  you are living in Me. Love is the way". 

So simple, yet so misunderstood.  'When acting with a loving heart, God is with you'. Any individual, despite their religious beliefs, may choose to act with love and compassion for others, and thus enjoy the presence of God's love in their life.

Service work opens the heart by allowing the individual to serve the global community with loving kindness. The light of love kindles the hearts of all compassionate persons across the globe.  Yes, 'the road to God is narrow' because only acting with loving intentions will suffice.

The question is whether the aspirant lives with love in his heart while expressing compassion in his actions, or not. 

As the saying goes: "We can read the word 'honey' on paper, but licking the paper will never give us the sweet taste of honey".  It requires living that love.  It means our actions in the global community must be acts of compassion and love.   Did Christ's teachings ever support war on weaker nations in a vain attempt at Christian dominionism?  Isn't depleted uranium tipped missiles and bombing civilian targets, the very opposite of 'love thy neighbor' teachings?


Today, we as world citizens must be aware of those corrupted individuals within the halls of political and religious power who would mislead us to war....war which profits a few while devastating the lives of millions of others. http://www.blissful-wisdom.com/the-battle-for-libyan-oil-fields.html

The following video illustrates how organized/televised religion, affiliated with pro-war US Administrations, manipulate their followers to pray for war, in the name of Jesus:  http://breakthematrix.com/war/praying-war-jesus/#comment-60494

This is why I have compiled a number of web blogs exposing the lies and fabrications being used by mainstream media today to garner support for warfare.  http://www.blissful-wisdom.com/who-owns-news-and-media-networks.html


An American friend of mine named Van Robison wrote to me regarding the problem for religion and government when people begin to ''think''.

"Dear Silenced,


The battle of minds is an amazing reality in human life on earth.   One thing many of us learned in our years with the Worldwide Church of God/Ambassador College, is what the truth is not.   My personal exit was in October, 1974 after working for Ambassador College in Pasadena for about twelve years.  At the time of my exit I was the Payroll Manager for the college/church payroll.  There is no doubt that early indoctrination into religious beliefs, will impact human beings for life.

The Worldwide Church of God experience, was not my only church association, because years after our voluntary exit from WWCG, we attended charismatic, pentecostal, baptist, 7th-day Adventist, non- denominational and perhaps a few others thrown in.   My wife and I have long since removed ourselves from all organized and institutional churches.  We read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation many times over the years and now conclude that it is the "Holy" books of all the religions of the world, that are the cause, foundation and source of many of the worlds human problems, antagonisms, and endless quarrels over what is and what is not "truth".

There is no living human being alive on earth today who is a personal witness to anything from Genesis to Revelation.   What human beings believe is primarily what others have said, and so people believe what they hear verbally from others who stand in pulpits, from television, from "news", from movies, from radio, from politicians, and even schools. People also have their thinking shaped by what they read from INK on PAPER.   Most likely what we all generally believe is, in reality, what others have said... and we accept it as "truth."

Men have always put words in the mouth of God that God never spoke, and any writer can easily pen such words as "thus saith the Lord", "God commanded", "God said", "God appeared to me", "all scripture is inspired by God", and so forth, and attach any writings they want to such words.  Millions of human beings believe that when they read such words, that means God is the author.  That is a seriously mistaken presumption.   While I don't personally believe what is called "the Bible" is total fiction, I do regard much of it as fabricated.

Many ex-church goers have become so disillusioned that they have turned to atheism.  I am not an atheist and I do believe in Jesus Christ, as a personal choice.  On the other hand, I see the Old Testament, the book of "Revelation", and even parts of the "New Testament" as maligning and distorting the true character of God.  Jesus Christ or, if you will, God Almighty has not appeared to any of us living on earth today, in a physical and visible form, and has never said so much as one word to any of us, or taught us what truth really is.

Primarily, what Jesus taught was LOVE, COMPASSION, MERCY, EMPATHY and HUMILITY.   Jesus is NOT the author of the clergy/laity system of the church world, but that distinction has to be placed at the feet of the so called "apostle" Paul, or to those who penned works in his name falsely.   In my opinion, the story of Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts is such a major contradiction to Jesus Christ, what Jesus taught and role-modeled, that this fake story is more than proof that the human authors of some of these writings, were NOT inspired by God.   Supposedly God struck these two people down dead at the feet of Peter, over $money matters and lying.  Amazingly, the Roman Catholic Church traces its origin (falsely) to Peter, and is it any wonder that such a story is found in the New Testament.  It is obviously intended to instill FEAR in people - Fear of religious rulers and secular rulers of men.

The Bible is in fact filled with attempts to create FEAR; fear of God, fear of religious and secular rulers of men, fear of the loss of salvation, and fear of punishment.   In the Old Testament there is a myth attributed to God that the earth opened up and swallowed some men, their wives and  their children and babies, because some of the men voiced opinions contrary to Moses.  It is nonsense!    Thus, organized religion is human bondage, a prison and a form of captivity.  We read that Jesus came to SET THE CAPTIVES FREE, and yet those who lust for power, control, and free-money, insist on keeping the naive and gullible captive to their vanity, self-importance and false teachings.

It is a shame that so many innocent people are still kept in bondage to splinter groups of the Worldwide Church of God, but people live in fear of losing their salvation, and think they "must obey" the false and self-appointed leaders of these organizations.  We can extend this to 100% of all churches, all religions, and all man-made religious beliefs. God has NOT spoken to any of us, and so what everyone thinks is "truth" is nothing more than what others have said.   And of course, others have been saying things they proclaim are "true" for thousands of years.   Human governments of men are also bondage, and they all exist by coercion, force and compulsion, which means there is no such thing as "freedom."

We are all slaves on earth to those who rule the money system of the world, those who rule at all levels of human governments, those who rule nations, those who rule the world and do many things against our will.  In fact, religions and governments are twins, because they all control and take your money, in the pretense of "its the law", whether that "law" is attributed to God or to man-made laws.

Those who defend the Bible tenaciously are simply so indoctrinated and programmed in their thinking, that they are beyond being rational.   Stepping away from the churches, one begins to think and see much more clearly."


Cordially,
Van Robison (age 69)