The following is a chapter from Money, Sex, Power & Faith.
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“We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming ‘sub-creator’ and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbor, while materialistic ‘progress’ leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien
Since before we began to measure time or space, we have embraced our compulsion to connect with the Divine, that energy that fuels the Universe and our continued existence therein. As we have taken to filling our time with effecting the space, we have carved our understanding of our Creator and Caretaker through stories, myths, and methodologies. Yet beyond the constructs we have used to develop our religions as extensions of our egos back toward the Source of our being from which they separated us, there is a glimmer of blindness revealing the possibility we could be wrong, and in that glimmer is where our true faith lies.
There is a difference between faith and faith-based. As our culture has developed, we have often confused the two, and we often still do.
When we often use the word “faith,” we use it to describe a brand of religion, a particular incorporation in the business of pointing to divinity. We say, “he is of the Christian faith,” or “she is of the Hindu faith,” as if faith is synonymous with religion. Yet while religion is indeed based on the notion of faith, its necessity for structures, beliefs, and securities, and its tendency to often point in the absolute opposite direction of the Divinity it proclaims to serve, it reveals itself as regularly ineffectual at fully connecting with the essence of origin.
This is not to say our religions have been useless, but have been catalysts for the journey which has brought us to Now, where we stand more fully aware of our ability to craft our own personal relationships with the Divine as we experience It, without the need to rely on the good opinion or permission of others. In the upcoming blogs I’ll be sharing here and the book to follow, I frequently draw on the example of Christianity, since it was the first religion I experienced as a child and has been a huge contributor to the development of the culture in which I happen to live. Although it is my intention to point out some of the trappings of its dogmas, doctrines, and mythologies, at the heart of the bleeding, red letters of Christ, there is a kernel of connection to true faith through the activity of love, as is ultimately the essence of each and every religion I have studied since.
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