Rob R/The 'good' child

[Guest guest]

> Wed, 12 May 1999 17:40:56 -0700 (PDT)

> Rob Rinne <breadcasters

> Gene Poole / The "Good" Child

>

>

> Gene:

>

> Thanks for your recent input and kind and helpful

> comments.

 

Hi Rob, you are most welcome.

> I certainly agree with your reply to Amanda. As children,

> we all to some degree sacrificed our beautiful and

> God/dess-connected natural selves for fear of displeasing

> our parents and other authority figures, whose love and

> protection were conditional. Jesus understood this

> universal tragedy, which is why he placed such an emphasis

> on the value of children. In fact, I believe that Jesus

> lost and then was able to reclaim his own inner child,

> which explains his statement in the gnostic gospel of

> Thomas, "my mother gave me falsehood but my true Mother

> gave me life". Unfortunately, the "poisonous pedagogy"

> that Alice Bailey has vigorously attacked in her numerous

> books is certainly as rampant today as it was in Jesus'

> time, and the irony is that it is the church that

> purportedly serves Jesus that is a major contributor. To

> me, it is incredible that the Christian church strayed so

> far from Jesus' actual teachings. A lot of "good,

> Christian folk" would do well to ponder the meaning of

> Jesus' words directed to a

 

Looks like something got left out here, Rob.

 

I agree with your advocacy of Alice Bailey's works, in particular "Thou

shalt not be aware".

 

I also suggest the book "The People of the Lie" by Scott Peck, MD. It is

heavy and very significant.

 

I could go on and on about the sins committed in the name of G-d, but I

won't, as they are familiar to most readers of this forum. It is well worth

remembering the many atrocities committed in the name of religion and

'G-d'. As you say, the wounding of children should stop, and only

responsible adults can do anythng about that. Our children are ourselves,

however we look at this picture.

> I intend to do what I can to educate as many as I can

> about this soul murder.

 

Yes. Be careful, though. As it was said in ancient China, "Those who fight

dragons, become dragons".

> I will read the book you suggested (The Guru Papers).

> Thank you.

 

You are welcome. As I said, I do not fully agree with the authors, but they

are doing groundbreaking work.

> I had to look up the "Foursquare" Christian church (there

> aren't any in my part of Canada). It seems to be strongly

> fundamentalist. I'm glad that there is at least one

> anti-authoritarian pastor in this church but I imagine he

> still tells his flock what they must believe in order to

> be "saved".

 

Yes, the 'Foursquare' churches are notorious for their fundamentalism; that

was why I was so shocked to experience this one Pastor, preaching actual

non-harm. I have sat through about 20 of his sermons; he once did a series

on the Ten Commandments, in which he thouroughly disabused the congregation

as to the nature of G-d. The ripples of disbelief were visible, as many

(usually old white men) tightened up to the max in reaction to his words.

So this Pastors work is to undercut fundamentalism with an even more

fundamental or 'original' kind of 'true to the Gospels' approach, and to

thus undercut the 'Christianity as a religion of convenience and consensus'

style of fundamentalism.

 

I have never heard this guy tell anyone what to believe, 'believe it or

not'. He is a rarity.

> The only way to permanently reclaim the "Kingdom of God"

> within is back through the pain. It seems that we must

> fully grieve what we lost in childhood, but before we can

> do that, we have to understand what happened to us. This

> means being willing to question very deeply our

> relationship with our parents /caregivers and the

> influence of whatever religious upbringing we may have

> had. This takes courage. The thought of facing painful

> truth is scary but it must be done. The rewards are

> certainly worth the effort, for our sakes and for the

> sakes of our children and children's children.

>

> Love,

>

> Rob

 

I agree with you, Rob. But lest anyone think that I am an unrepentant

'archeologist' of traumatic human history, I offer that in the present

moment, the Gift of Grace can uplift one who can let go.

 

This above, does NOT mean that I advocate ignoring the obvious lessons of

the past; as you say, the fact that we have all been wounded, should lead

us to a better way of Being, especially in concert with our children. We

must somehow balance our own transcendence with the need to allow children

(and everyone) to be free of destructive influences, especially in our very

homes and churches (and schools...).

 

Loving,

 

==Gene Poole==