A sorry observation indeed

Here is a sample of what I get almost every day in the search text that people have typed in and got to my blog:

masturbation is wrong
sin masturbation
divorce masturbation sin
church says masturbation is sin
masturbation hell evil
bible masturbation right wrong 

Following an earlier post, I only hope each of these poor people will wake up to the plain and simple fact that there is nothing wrong whatsoever with masturbation, that the bible says nothing at all about masturbation, and that the christian church has twisted and bent this simple gift into a grotesque and unrecognisable act of shame. The only reason so many people are struggling with this otherwise very simple issue is because what they have been told by other people is in conflict with what their own feelings are telling them.

To everyone who has ever taught that masturbation is a sin, I tell you that you are a false teacher and a liar, that you have heaped unecessary guilt of those who have trusted your words, and that you should apologise to each and every person that you have deceived.

To everyone who has ever been taught that masturbation is a sin, I tell you that your sexuality is given to you by God and is very good. You are free to discover and enjoy this aspect of your sexuality in the full knowledge that you do this with God’s full blessing and that you have nothing to fear.

The Muddle of Models

Look at the picture below, and tell me what you see. (Now I’m really hoping that everyone is going to get this right)

Yes, its a TABLE.

That was easy wasn’t it?

Now have a look at this picture below and tell me what you see:

Not quite so easy is it?

It could be a “table with 3 legs”, or “a 3-legged table with a square top”, or “a flat rectangular piece of wood with uprights on all but one corner”, and so the list goes on.

But which of these descriptions is correct? We just don’t have a word that fully describes this particular object.

It’s no wonder we are all having so much trouble talking to each other about “God”

Christianity, the evils of masturbation, and other such nonsense.

When I was 16 I converted to christianity with a dramatic experience of joy and freedom. I was then told that masturbation was a sin, and since back then in those days I believed that what christian leaders said was true, I spent the next 8 years (I married at 24) battling and struggling and weeping and confessing and repenting against my own sexuality. Looking back I see now what a misguided and un-necessary waste of my energy and time! I am still angry at the church for having robbed me of so much of the joy of my teenage years because of this simple but stupid lie. The christian religion has done more to twist, contort and generally ruin the beauty of human sexuality than all of “Satan’s demons” put together.

“Sacrifice” means to UPLIFT « Always Embraces All Ways

“Sacrifice” means to UPLIFT « Always Embraces All Ways

This is a fantastic post that should be compulsory reading for all christians. As with so many other ideas of this type, my teachers had simply dismissed this type of teaching as gnostic error. But what if …

God – the great observer

“If you believe that God is some omnipotent being who hears all prayers, says “yes” to some, “no” to others, and “maybe, but not now” to the rest, you are mistaken … If you believe that God is the creator and decider of all things in your life, you are mistaken. God is the observer, not the creator. And God stands ready to assist you in living your life, but not in the way you might expect. It is not God’s function to create, or uncreate, the circumstances or conditions of your life. God created you, in the image and likeness of God. You have created the rest, through the power God has given you.” (CWG, Book1, p20)

For me, hitting this paragraph was really the first big crunch point in deciding whether or not the CWG message could be somehow reconciled or harmonised with christianity. This just seems to say the exact opposite of what I have been told for all these years. Whenever I wanted something (and thought there was a reasonable chance that God would approve), I would pray, and ask God to cause it to be. If it did, then it was obviously His will for my life. If not, then oh well “not my will but Thine be done.” And for most other stuff in the gray area in between, well I just sort of did what I thought was best – after all, God did want us to grow up and not remain children all our lives.

This quote turns the power of determination and creation for all of our lives into our hands!

Who decides my reality? I do.
Who creates my reality? I do.
Who decides what I do next? I do.
Who creates my circumstances? I do.
Who creates my conditions? I do.

And this is at it should be, because not only do I have the power to create, but also the free will to create that which I choose. “Prayer” (if this is even an appropriate word any more) is simply a word that describes the process by which that which I fervently hold to be true becomes true.

The idea that God is an observer cuts even deeper across the christian message. I was told that God had a plan for my life, and that I was to discover and follow that plan and in doing so would be blessed. Yes I had free will, but free to choose from a certain range of “acceptable choices” – certainly not free to just go off and do any old thing! That would be sinful disobedience. This quote says that this whole way of looking at things is not even close to being true!

This leads on to what is for me one of the most shocking statements in the whole CWG series which relates to Man’s free will and God’s will, which I will discuss tomorrow!

Unanswered prayer – that which was wanted to be true but was not.

“No prayer – and a prayer is nothing more than a fervent statement of what is so – goes unanswered. Every prayer – every thought, every statement, every feeling – is creative. To the degree that it is fervently held as truth, to that degree will it be made manifest in your experience.” (CWG, Book 1, p20)

Over my years of sitting churches, I have seen all sorts of demonstrations of prayer. Shouting and ordering while “binding demons”, tears of supplication bordering on begging, declarations that we were assured would become true if we “agreed together in our spirits” (whatever that means), passionless recital of written liturgies, and so the list goes on. Personally, I have done all of these. I was told that I was to “submit my requests to God”, and then “wait on the Lord”. If the answer was not forthcoming, I was then told to be like the woman in the parable of the persistent widow, and to hound God (I guess to let Him see that I really was sincere and meant business, and maybe even wear Him down a bit). It all seemed a rather woolly enterprise. When prayers did get answered, there was always great excitement in the camp. When the heavens’ seemed deaf – well, God’s ways are just not our ways; the Lords gives and the Lord takes away; etc. It’s no wonder the Greeks had so many female gods. (“Fickle, fickle is the heart of woman! For you can scarce fit a pin prick between her yes and her no” – Thomas Hardy)

This quote from CWG introduces quite a new take on prayer, claiming that the result is not based on God, but on us! At first sight this may appear just the same old church-speak we have all come to hate that goes “Ah yes, God has not done this because of your lack of faith.” (I have seen this being told to parents of a sick child!) However, this CWG idea of prayer is not in the “submit a request to God” framework, but instead prayer is the result or expression of our own creative ability. To the degree that we fervently believe (or understand) our thought/word/deed to effectively create, so it is created.

So why then, do so many prayers go unanswered?

Easy – they don’t!

It’s all to do with the thought behind the thought – the Sponsoring Thought. That’s the real thought that drives the creative outcome.

For example, lets say I “pray” to God, begging and pleading that He will give me a new car. Now why don’t I get a new car? Simply because under the surface the Sponsoring Thought of this prayer is that “I do not have now what I wish”, and that’s the prayer that gets answered!