So the story goes that Christ was hanging out on the wrong side of the tracks and, you know, eating and drinking with the derelicts and the outcasts of society – the poor among the Jews, tax collectors of dubious background, unwashed fishermen, prostitutes and other assorted “sinners”. The high and mighty came and saw Him defiled in this filthy company and they were amazed and wondered aloud at this.
Christ gave them an answer to ponder…many of them may still be pondering this today. He said, “Look, the healthy have no need of a doctor. I have not come to call the righteous, but to lead the sinners to righteousness.”
So doesn’t this teach us a lesson of tolerance? I mean, this is the post-modern age. Can’t we express our individuality and follow our own path? Certainly, we must demand no less….
Well the answer is actually No, we really can not….
So while the spirit quest can take us along many paths, we are eventually aligned with the same path that Christ took and must follow Him in one form or another to get to our collective goal. This begins with the dogma that is irrefutable and can not be thrown out with the bathwater.
One might argue that this dogma is a tolerance for everyone’s beliefs and their lifestyles, but this idea must be refuted as entirely wrong. Some beliefs are intolerable. Does that mean we must impose our beliefs on others? No, it does not, but it does mean we can not be tolerant of certain beliefs and of certain lifestyles.
Let us look to Christ’s example you might say. Wasn’t our Savior tolerant of all and here to be with us sinners?
So this begs the question: what is this dogma that must take precedence over tolerance? It is as simple as the truth that lies at the heart of the mystery of the universe and within the knowledge that was once called “secret” knowledge. That’s the one you have figured out in your heart or are involved in figuring out now…. Do you know this truth?
There is one Father and this is God. There is one Mother and this is Earth. We are all, every one of us, children of God and each of us are brothers and sisters – every living creature.
This is the simple truth that comes from an understanding of who we are and where we come from.
Today, we see in America and indeed throughout the world old political divisions that arose from masters and from slaves or those of the “right” and the “left”. Certainly, a part of modern divisions comes from these divergent perspectives of power and of will. In part, the rich and powerful (the “masters”) have realized that in post-industrial modernity’s smaller, crowded world that their message – indeed their very control – is losing its hold upon the masses who have been duped by these masters of power for these last millennia.
Let’s call this something like post-modern enslavement or better the emergence of the enlightened slave.
In this corner, we have those who wish for an inclusive society that tolerates difference and otherness. In the other corner are the proponents of exclusion and the select. While one corner preaches harmony through diversity, acceptance and inclusion, the other praises harmony through homogeny and the stratification of an enclave society. One corner shouts universality while the other speaks of selective grace, privilege and even racial superiority.
…dogma then? Doesn’t this indicate intolerance? Yes it does, but this intolerance speaks of intolerance and is about intolerance. This dogma is indeed about being intolerant of, you guessed it, intolerance. It clearly states that these ideas of intolerance are wrong and not to be tolerated by society. Does this mean we are to impose our will? …no, in the respect that each individual is free to think as they will, but their beliefs and most certainly their lifestyles remain intolerable as long as they are intolerant of others – any others.
This is dogma that can not be negotiated. We must have an all-inclusive society as any society that accepts some and rejects others must be rejected as anti-Christian. We must accept all – including those of us who are in the most miserable state as, indeed, our compassion and empathy demands that we care for the weakest in our society and that this is not a society that is made by masters, for masters and made to exploit some for the betterment of others.
So there is a line here and it is not simply an ethical line either, but a moral stance. We are the true Christians if you will. We are the right. Those who wish to separate the good and evil, saved and damned, masters and slaves, white and non-white, or whatever else they’ve come up with to judge the quick from the dead comes not from the Father of All, but from the father of lies.
So these righteous ones, we must love as brothers and sisters, but it is their intolerance, their very righteousness, that we must turn away from.
So once you get in the right corner, sit down and give praise for every living creature. It’s time to stop the murder and eating of the flesh of your brothers and sisters. This is dogma without compromise. This brings us back to the peace, the love and the understanding of our one Father God. Get your house in Zen order brothers and sisters. It’s about time.
This post originally appeared in the Reveille website on April 16, 2017.