'TAKING A KNEE' IS HOW HUMANS SHOW GRIEF, NOT DISRESPECT...September 28, 2017

An Image Of Sorrow- Not Disrespect.

I've never worried that I or my sons would be stopped by police only because of our light skin. Or that I'm at much higher risk of being shot for being white. My parents weren't humiliated by being refused at restaurants or  compelled to drink from 'colored' fountains. My great grandparents were not slaves to African-American masters or silent victim's of cruel Jim Crow laws under an American flag. So unlike me the anthem and flag remain painfully conflicted symbols for many black persons.


It's urgent today for white persons to finally face such painful realities of injustice. The nation's future depends on it. Above are facts of life and heritage for most of the honorable men kneeling on the NFL sidelines. They mostly need white persons to be honest about our different American experience. An unintentional spiritual blindness is what has always supported the unresolved American split we have always had. The effects of our profoundly different yet common history are still alive and threaten every young black man, his  family and community.

This “kneeling”, something humans do to show sadness, is a way some thoughtful  well known black males have found finally to respectfully say, “It is my flag, anthem and country too.” But until whites grieve the real mutual past with blacks, African-Americans cannot truly feel embraced by these symbols. White persons can courageously 'get this'- if we want to.

This is not primarily  something white Americans  need 'to do for'  African-Americans but something we need to do for our own survival as a WHOLE  nation, to do for the further evolution of our very young  American experiment. It is also not something where we need to blame our white forebears  but to understand  and accept their role in the  curve of  psychological and spiritual evolution. The complex nature of evolution, including its dark elements like the 'survival of the fittest',  seeks in the long run  to  unfold  in us  a  brighter future  than we could have ever consciously  planned ourselves. This fits with the idea of the complexity of the 'Mind of God.' Our human role is always to stubbornly  become more conscious than we have been in past ages. America can be a  blip and dead-end in evolution's attempt to move humanity to a higher consciousness or it can be a very significant process in that spiritual  movement.

The  blessings promised in the symbols of the American flag and anthem are still  much withheld from darker skinned citizens. It is appropriate that strong Black males question  brothers  like me with , " How dare you discount my courage to finally say respectfully, on my knee, that America is not yet fully the equal home of all its brave citizens.". I can welcome and thank them for insisting , for all our sakes, through uncomfortable protest that I become more conscious of what is happening in OUR nation .....or... 

THE HUMAN SPECIES YEARNS FOR ITS OWN HEALING AND NEW CLARITY OF UNDERSTANDING... August 20, 2017

If we aren't anticipating changes in understanding and reconciliation beyond the "conservative vs. liberal" and "Republican vs Democrat" splits, then we're likely only wanting to win over others. 

It's unlikely advances in our present human crises will result in either side winning, but rather a "new psychological view point" which no one could have  planned. I must constantly remind myself of this, or else participate in what easily becomes a mean-spirited polarization; a following after a political ideology or religious system  as a "one and only" way. Such perspectives, tempting and common, make us rigid, inflexible and  less-useful vessels for creative solutions.

Expecting a new view point is  likely a more healthy way to think and hope about resolving logically insurmountable splits and divisions. The "union of opposites," whenever it happens, strikes human consciousness as a miracle and creates a genuinely new view point. This more depth hopeful  view of an evolving solution is part of the ancient wisdom rediscovered by C G Jung and found in the highest spiritual teachings of humanity.

I suspect humanity is on the verge of transcending our best, but presently failed, efforts at loving the Earth and each other. No person or group will be able to take credit for that should it happen. We will just "know" that humanity and creation is ONE far more than we do now. The human species could be saved from self-destruction by its own painful path toward increased psychological consciousness of such possibilities. And a large part of humanity could be gripped by a genuine and natural religious attitude which loves its own species and the Earth with her delicate processes. This my hope.

THE PRESIDENT HAS BLURRED THE NATION'S MORAL FOUNDATIONS TODAY.... August 16, 2017

Today, in total contradiction to the reasonable statement he made yesterday(obviously insincerely)regarding the Charlottesville, VA tragedy, the President served up maybe the most uninformed, divisive and dangerous arguments that have ever come from a sitting President of America.

If still more people, who sincerely voted for him as an agent of some change, do not see what he really represents then we are in serious trouble as an authentic democratic nation. By leveling out a Group of people that defined itself as full throated racists, that is the KKK, Neo Nazism, White Nationalists and true White Supremacists, as containing 'very fine people' totally blurs the moral and ethical foundations of our nation. He just made it far easier and more safe to hate in America.

Everyone of normal intelligence on that side of the gathering in Charlottesville, VA knew exactly what the message of that group was. They saw all the symbols of evil racism being worn and carried. They saw the threatening torches and open guns, the helmets, the swastikas, the racist shields being carried. They all saw the Nazi hand signs in the air. They heard the hateful anti-Jewish and anti-Color chants.

No, no one present in that group was not of the very same mindset as any official KKK, Neo Nazi , White Nationalist or White Supremacist. If ever there has been guilt by association it is true of all who walked among those hate symbols, smells and sounds. It was this same racist energy that led to the murder of an innocent woman that day.

(It should be noted  it is alwsys a moral mistake to dehumanize persons even  when they have  fallen into murderous states of mind. Many of these persons are  misguided  followers not leaders. Most are likely  victims of trauma and abuse themselves. So they remain  valuable humans who are capable of being freed from the hate state of mind they have succumbed to.)

These groups exist only to assert the superiority white persons over all others. If that does not alarm every American I do not know what would. None of us can afford to be uninterested in Politics anymore. If ever Americans in modern times needed to search their souls this may be the most urgent.

And equating servants of the nation's origin and its original documents like Washington and Jefferson with Confederate Leaders who, however courageous or sincere, fought to preserve slavery is as mistaken and unethical view of history that can be imagined in post modern times. To align our social or moral values in 2017 on the Confederate effort to preserve slavery could not be a more clear way of identifying as a present day loser and on the wrong side of history and evolution.

SUBTLE RACISM IS A HATE/ VIOLENCE VOLCANO WAITING TO ERRUPT. ...Charlottesville, VA August 14, 2017

SUBTLE RACISM.. The most dangerous kind for it is the place in the human heart where racial and ethnic Terrorism is quietly nurtured.

The most insidious racism in our culture now is SUBTLE, not overtly in the open like American slavery where it started as a foundation stone in our American psyche. Every white person is responsible to deal with this for it's in our evolutionary DNA. This is why it is dangerous and hard to notice, sometimes even by those who are innocently its victims. 

It is an attitude, a frame of mind that unfortunately is often not conscious to its owner. In this form racism is not  about personally mean words or actions to ones who are 'other' when encountered in personal life. But instead shows itself in a failure to be much aware of obstacles and lesser rights, opportunities and privileges that the 'others' are afforded by the social structure compared to those of the privileged dominant group. 

Subtle Racism can be felt as a student not receiving due attention. 

Such subtle racism will not be concerned about these discrepancies under the law and will exert no energy to correct them. But will usually see such activity as no ones responsibility or 'business' and find it irritating and as only 'stirring up trouble.' Such peaceful but resistant protest activity is actually an essential behavior for any healthy democracy.

Subtle racism can with clear conscience insist, " I have black friends.", " I never mistreat anyone."  and  " Our races get along well in our town until someone stirs things up." And when such subtle racism continues to not be made conscious and owned it WILL time and again break into the open volcano -like either personally or collectively as overt and hostile violence. Charlottesville, VA is a most recent example. And as usual there is a strong voice present that seeks to protect the open racist hostility claiming it is simply 'one side' of the problem, thus not naming it for the Terrorism activity that it surely involves. This is why many are expecting the President to be more clear and forceful about naming it Terrorism, the same as he has done with ISIS supported  Terrorism.

Charlottesville, VA   August 12 2017

Presently groups who are openly hostile racists and whose declared message is one of claimed white superiority and privilege under the law are feeling embolden in our American culture. They will openly suggest that their voice of open hate and claimed superiority is a constitutional right they enjoy. They of course do have freedom of thought and speech rights in America but no citizen has a right to purposely intimidate or threaten others with bodily harm. Such behavior has another name which it should always be called. It is TERRORISM, behaving and using symbols intended to make others afraid of bodily harm.  (As always when conflicting protests of any kind become physical either side can lose control and become guilty of physical violence. But this should never be used as an excuse to not declare what is intentionally a  Terrorism activity from the start. )

https://www.thoughtco.com/examples-of-subtle-racism-2834960

A BREAKTHROUGH OF REASONING CONSCIOUSNESS - THE MONKEY TRIAL IN TN of 1925....July 15, 2017

This was an amazing event(The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 ) where natural reason pushed itself up through the prevailing and socially required religious superstitions of the past millennia.

Few things like the discovery that nature has all come down to us by the way of gradual and uncertain evolution- not some immediate creation of things by an exact pre-planned perfect design. This coming to consciousness in a little Tennessee town shook our Western mentality like few events ever have in America. (This story is told in the movie Inherit The Wind.) And even still this world view changing information has not soaked in to a relative large part of the American public. Strong political and religious mentalities still fearfully resent it. It is still resisted by what is called Intelligent Design, another name for Creationism, which is a direct confrontation of the findings and the spirit of serious science.

Evolution's Erratic Path Is Captured In Fossil Record.

If only those who still fear the implications of evolution could realize that evolution does not push one away from any real experience of God but simply opens the door to discovering more the actual nature of God. That God is not the all powerful perfect mind, and perfectly content within itself, being behind everything. But an imperfect evolving mind not yet completed while  still being an all pervading mysterious and  partially guiding  universal reality. A psychological reality continually  affecting us all and now earnestly seeking us humans to participate much more consciously and fully in what it started. We now can come to know that no long term epoch changing good can come to the world unless a respectful mutuality between God and Human begins to happen far more concretely than it ever has in the past.

So in ways far beyond the reasoned and rational even a little Tennessee town cannot resist the pressure of unconscious forces(that surely must come from the inner activity of a living and changing God) which nudge us all to let our idea of God change and evolve. Tiny Dayton, TN finds itself building a monument, like the ancients naturally did for their new gods, to push us all in the direction of a new epoch of Sacred -Human compassionate consciousness. This is a very hopeful sign that God's evolution continues to operate within us and seek our conscious awareness and participation.

At Site of Scopes Trial, Darrow Statue Belatedly Joins Bryan’s

A test of Bible Belt tolerance: Can the town of the Scopes “monkey trial” stomach a new statue of the famed agnostic lawyer Clarence Darrow?

nytimes.com

A NEWLY EVOLVING VIEW OF OUR CHRISTIAN HERITAGE...July 13, 2017

Carl Jung, child of a long line of protestant pastors, in 'Psychology and Western Religion' answers questions which I'm sure are  what my educated thoughtful Christian friends would put to me. His answers are very sane, logical and reasonable for he takes seriously that the Bible stories are speaking symbolic truths which are true at a deeper level than if we, as most still do, take these stories as primarily physical happenings. I often wish that more persons in my circles could find a way to consider the view point which such new assumptions offer. Many traditional questions are answered on this path and we are not called on to surrender other important kinds of knowledge that humans have gained, for example the general theory of scientific evolution and other sound scientific principles? Much of my life experience as preacher, science teacher, human development counselor and Hospice chaplain has been a search for how solid science and the religious stories I was taught can be harmonized for a more whole world view. Careful consideration of  these ideas and what follows express where I have found a significantly more authentic harmony.

Adam and Eve Harnessing The Living Serpent(A modern dream)

A great hurdle for 'believers', and ones who feel they must reject the idea of God, is to let loose of God being  imaged as an all powerful being that is absolutely good and perfect, and thus bearing no responsibility as a source of some of the suffering and sin in the world? Anything that brings suffering , chaos and harm to humans it is generally insisted is humanity's fault alone. If we would just get our act together all would be well we are told. God has nothing to change within itself unless we become blasphemers. And equally challenging from our orthodox views is   to embrace the concept, quite common in the Biblical narrative, of God needing the human; not simply because God is lonely but because God does not fully know itself, the same problem we humans, made in 'God's image' have in not fully knowing our deeper selves.

Only human consciousness, which must have- to God's incomparable  unfathomable credit- been  the original  dream and barely conscious hope  of God which has come true, can give God what God  needs within itself  to move the universe to a fuller more compassionate consciousness. And thus toward a truly better world that we claim to desire.

Moses Pleads With God To Be Compassionate

Every human, perhaps some more than others, can do his/her share in giving God this necessary gift. This involves the personal  sacrificial(for it involves a psychological/spiritual suffering which most of us never planned to acquire) gift of  our evolved consciousness. A consciousness,  which at least at some essential  moments,  is  more moral and compassionate than God's alone. Nothing else in nature can supply this for it is the human alone where such consciousness has evolved and we can assume  potentially  can continue to evolve. This is the gift  which the human ego consciousness has captured through thoughtful living and  suffering. And this is the human's needed gift to God  who obviously   remains forever ineffable and far 'more' than the human ego can ever comprehend. As God receives this gift the resulting  increased consciousness of God ( For no consciousness can develop without comparing itself to a consciousnesses outside itself.  So God needs the human. It is only our human bias and psychological need for God to be perfect, similarly as a developing child must think of its parents as perfect, that keeps us from realizing this is as true of God as of us.) can finally transform the world toward a much expanded 

Gospel speaks of Jesus and Serpent having something in common

peace,  love and truth. 

This approach finally begins to answer the question that humans have asked for millennia even on the best day, “Something seems wrong in the world.” And instead of blaming the human for it all(which is overwhelmingly not true or fair) a new understanding  can reach  us: God's and Human's  presently still evolving consciousness mutually share in the problem and solution. The problem, natural to both God and human, is about our not having yet arrived (No unbearable shame  in this for all is still evolving. There was not a time in the past when everything  or anyone was only good, ever.) at a strong enough ethical consciousness so that love  more truly has its way in God, nature and humans.

Abraham counseled God  to show compassion to Sodom.

A Slaughtering Tsunami Rightly Called An 'Act of God'?

We, I think, should consider that it likely raises the dignity and responsibility  of humans exponentially to know they are needed by God for his/her consciousness raising capacity (Surely granted,  is only there  by God's dreamlike foreknowledge, and only now made more conscious in both God and human.) than to only be loved by God. And similarly it is a greater compliment to be able to say to a friend or lover, " You have made me more conscious, aware of the fuller meanings of life. " than even to say, " l love you."  For the greatest most mature  loves in this world   are necessarily the product of  increased consciousness, whether that be God's or a Human Being's.

EVOLUTION'S NEW ERA OF COMPASSIONATE CONSCIOUSNESS.....June 28, 2017

The caring so needed in our shrinking world must go beyond caring for those we know and have actual ties to and investment in. The call is for caring for the collective human family and especially the most vulnerable and disenfranchised among us.

We need to resist in ourselves and our leaders that strong evolutionary survival tendency to achieve quality life only for ourselves and "our kind." Evolution was once necessarily and unconsciously barbaric in its survival of the most physically fit.

That need has changed. Human consciousness, not evolved to its present potential in past epochs, is now called on to shape the future of evolution. This shifts the need from viewing life as the "great competition" to the new epoch of cooperation and compassion toward all people and nature.
The hope-filled potential for a world-embracing compassionate consciousness I think has made a giant leap in the last century. Only humans can supply this feature to nature which alone leads to a more healed world. But we're not forced to embrace such a compassionate consciousness. We can instead stick to the well-worn paths of smaller mindedness.



'Times are a changin' and new times call for a tough but compassionate and wise consciousness. These are the new key for the survival of our species and planet. The great world religions all point to such an era of surviving compassion. Are we already too late in receiving the saving compassionate consciousness which has been a cosmic goal of evolution for millennia?