Materialism

The corruption of the Christian ethos by Catholicism becomes ever more apparent as lay Catholics in wealthy communities in Massachusetts whine over the loss of real estate. The parishioners at St. Francis Cabrini, for instance, have been occupying the Catholic Church in the coastal town in hopes of taking it over from the archdiocese of Boston after the Vatican's final decision to close the church down. The wealthy parishioners are willing and able to buy the church.

Why not? Perhaps Rome is missing out on a great opportunity here. The independently-owned franchise is an American tradition. Why not sell off the churches as Mac-temples to the more prosperous and materialistic congregations? For the Catholic devout, the church is obviously comparable to a country club or other community organization, with the added mystical provenance. Then there's the possibility of adding a Dunkin Donuts drive-thru.

Somehow all that good Catholic teaching has failed to convey the Christian message to these die-hard congregants. Simply put: "It's NOT about the church, stupid!" The rites, bricks and mortar of the Roman Catholic Church have been its focus for centuries. This is at the root of its decline and, hopefully, its fall.

Perhaps these dispossessed congregants can find some community in their displacement. Perhaps they will form the kinds of relationships which will supplant the significance of vestments and hollow absolution in their lives. Perhaps they will learn to love on another and care for each other, instead of running bingo games to buy gold candlesticks for pedophiles. I hope so, for their sakes.

Churches

I recently watched an apologist on TV excuse the papacy for its collusion in pedophile sex abuse. This man was once a mayor of a major U.S. city and ambassador to The Vatican. He also has been suspected of political corruption and has a reputation as a brazenly public alcoholic. Therefore, his moral compass apparently points South. Perhaps this is the best modern media outlets can do in the papal-apologist category after the unrelenting revelations of wretched and chronic child abuse by Catholic priests and nuns.

Why would any sane, truly moral, truly ethical person continue to identify himself as a Roman Catholic after this has come to light? I don't know.

Christ's composite biography, whether fictional or factual, describes an admirable human being. Actually, he was outstanding in his time, which was an age of brutal materialism, like today. Christ did not belong to a church. He was not Catholic. He was born an ethnic Jew, but his disdain for institutional Judaism is quite obvious in the various records. In fact, politicized, institutional Judaism colluded in his execution. Everything I have read about Jesus cries "anti-religious".

Now, if you profess to be a Christian, you are actually following the teachings of someone who would not belong to your Christian club. He would not wear funny clothes and wave around the thing they hung him on to execute him. Who would? Unless, of course, you think Jesus was a masochist. I don't see that in what I've read about him.

When I read about Jesus Christ, I see a man who loved people, despite the fact they frequently let him down. He didn't care about toys and status symbols. He didn't own a house or even rent one. He slept outside a lot. He had a real temper, and I'd love to see what he would have done to a priest who he found abusing a child. My guess is he'd have beaten the living crap out of him.

So, why is it that religious Christians don't get it? Why do they keep getting suckered into building megachurches and paying for BMWs for their pastors? Why do they listen to puffed up con-men who have absolutely no resemblance to Jesus Christ, whom they claim to emulate and represent? Are these religious Christians deaf, dumb and blind? Or are they simply lazy? Or do they accept corruption of Christ's message in their pastors to excuse it in themselves?

You do not have to belong to a church to be a Christian. Just follow what Christ taught. Read the New Testament and follow it in every situation every day. It would be very hard, but that would definitely make you a Christian more than being dunked in a river or singing hymns on Sunday. And, you'd probably be a lot happier.

You don't have to belong to a club to be a good person. I consciously choose to live an ethical life with compassion and generosity, as difficult as it can be. I call myself a humanist, but actually I am simply a human being. I associate with other humanists, but I don't pay dues or feel the need to wear a T shirt to be one.

The more we can all accept our ability to be good, non-violent and ethical human beings without picking a side, a uniform or a label to do it, the better off we will all be.

Possession

Possession is always a two-way process. There is no possession of goods without a reciprocal possession by goods. This is the essence of Buddhist admonitions about materialism. It is a core precept lost entirely by Christianity. It has little historic correlation in Judaism. Islam preaches a socialism, pertaining to possessions, which is never concretely followed in Islamic cultures. The economic divide between rich and poor in all cultures permeated with these religions is a glaring indictment of the messages of those religions, as they pertain to greed and possessions.

Buddhism (the core sutra philosophy, not the cultural religious forms) advises a realistic approach to possession. Detachment entails the constant mindful understanding that all things and beings are transitory, illusory. Liberated consciousness, that mental energy that supersedes its origins in personality through practice and meditation, enables its source to be detached from all possessions and ties to the material world.

Detachment is an acquired skill, in other words. As someone who recently bought new appliances, I can attest to the seduction of shiny new things. However, I have been struggling with remaining detached from these machines, despite their efficiency and time-saving benefits. Remaining detached from people is much more difficult, of course. To love unselfishly, to be compassionate and to be detached simultaneously are the skills of a Buddha. Perhaps this is beyond the capacity of most, if not all, human beings.

Practice is the daily conscious attempt, moment by moment, to strive for this Buddha state, a state without possessiveness, even of oneself.

Christianity

Some unsolicited advice for followers of Christ from a former Christian, who is now a secular humanist:

Try to be a Christ. Do not just call yourself a Christian.

Seek to heal yourself and others. Do not wait to be healed.

Practice peace. Do not use your religion as a weapon.

Help carry another's cross. Do not worship a fake one.

Practice listening. Do not simply preach.

Accept responsibility. Do not just mess up and apologize.

Forgive liberally and often. Do not foster grudges.

Practice tolerance. Do not just seek it.

Seek to share. Do not look first to get your share.

Respect all life. Do not respect life only on your terms.

Practice humility. Do not use Jesus as a merit badge.

Violence

I had the displeasure of viewing Mel Gibson's "Passion of Christ" last evening. I also listened to a story this morning on National Public Radio about the sentimental and commercial issues of civilians in a military town in the South. In both situations, I was appalled by the lack of understanding that violence is the enemy of human progress. Gibson promoted a lascivious orgy of violence with graphic special effects in his idiotic retelling of the Christian myth. These same sobbing patriots in the military-base story are those who promote war and violence which causes their histrionic grief over "our lost loved ones". The problem is the assumption that violence is an acceptable human behavior on a national or individual level. If violence were surgically removed from society by the elimination of guns and weapons, the human species could get on with the work of conscious evolution. And that would be miraculous.