BishopAccountability.org
	Time for a Real Spiritual Revolution By Candace Talmadge North Star Writers Group May 6, 2009 http://www.northstarwriters.com/ct155.htm Lordy, not again. ABC News reports that Orthodox Jewish communities in Baltimore and Brooklyn now face multiple and serious allegations of sexual abuse – shades of the pedophile priest controversy and prosecutions that dogged and damaged the Catholic Church at the start of this decade. There is an old saying along the lines that if we let others do it for us, they will eventually do it to us. In the realm of religion, what we allow so-called authorities to do for us is mediate between us and God. We imbue the sanctified with some sort of mystical or better connection to our source than we possess, and hope to ride to salvation or Heaven or wherever on their presumably purified coattails. The preceding is an insidious, dangerous delusion. No one has the right or authority to stand between anyone else or dictate another human being’s relationship (or lack thereof) with God. A wise rabbi named Jesus told his listeners that the kingdom of God is within. He did not mean a physical structure like a church, a mosque, a temple or an ashram. He was referring to within self, inside the hearts and spirits that truly define who we are as both physical and spiritual beings. Most of us, even those who profess to be followers of Jesus, act as though we don’t believe him. We look everywhere except within for a relationship or connection with the divine. In vesting our trust externally, we give over our power to the rabbi or the priest, the pastor or the imam, the lama or the guru. Tragically and just as inevitably, some among them betray us. They cannot help it. They are human just like us, and despite all pretensions to the contrary, they don’t know anything more about the divine than the rest of us. Yes. This is a rant. That’s because our relationship with God (or whatever word we want to call it) is the one of the two most critical relationships we will ever have. It is far too central to our well-being and wholeness to vest it in someone else’s jurisdiction. It is ours alone to nurture and grow, although we are certainly free to seek out help and advice along the way. That’s why God didn’t stop with Adam in fleshing out creation. We are here to help each other, not step on each other’s spiritual toes or butt into each other’s spiritual business. By all means, let’s hope this ends in some prosecutions and some sort of vindication for accusers who, yet again, are denied, vilified and disowned even by their own families for daring to step forward and speak their truths. Prevention is the far better approach, however, since it avoids the grievous spiritual and emotional injuries that ensue from abuse by a religious authority, that abiding sense of betrayal and abandonment and the resulting anger at the authority, and at God. And the only way to prevent abuse by religious or any other type of authority is to stop bowing to external authority, reclaim our power and rely on our own inner authority. Holy smokes! We’re talking real revolution here, and ultimately the only one that counts.
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