Nutella & Funfetti, together forever at last
I have learned to see a need for everything God gives me and want nothing that He denies me.
“
| — | Joseph Elliot (via magicunicorndick) |
According to Bloom, America’s obsession with the unborn child marks this culture’s unacknowledged commitment to an essentially Gnostic belief system, whereby the essential self is as old as God himself and, like God, no part of the creation. George Bush’s apparently contradictory concern for fetuses and unconcern for unwanted infants make a kind of sense from this point of view, valuing the uncreated—or precreated—divine being over the unwanted child who “is sadly fallen away from freedom”: “One sees why the fetus and the flag are one; the baby is not alone, and will drain the pious taxpayer, but the fetus can wave over the land of the free, whose Fundamentalists will remain solitary and godlike, poised always _before_ the Creation.
“
| — | Una Chaudhuri, Staging Place: The Geography of Modern Drama (1998), p. 18 (via ianthe) |
Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to His disciples,
“These infants being suckled are like those who enter the
Kingdom.”
They said to Him, “Shall we then, as children, enter the
Kingdom?”
Jesus said to them, “When you make the two one, and when you
make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside,
and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the
female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the
female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye,
and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and
a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter [the
Kingdom].
“These infants being suckled are like those who enter the
Kingdom.”
They said to Him, “Shall we then, as children, enter the
Kingdom?”
Jesus said to them, “When you make the two one, and when you
make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside,
and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the
female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the
female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye,
and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and
a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter [the
Kingdom].
“
| — | Gospel of Thomas, Verse 22 (via aluminados) |
I will be gentle and reverent toward all life; I will not kill or benefit from killing.
I will be loving to others and respect their property; I will not hoard or steal.
I will have compassionate and wise relationships; I will not abuse or use others in lust.
I will be forthright, peaceful and honest; I will not deceive.
I will keep the temple of my body and mind righteous and pure; I will not overindulge its desires or endanger its health.
I will cultivate serenity and goodness; I will not gossip or engage in idle chit-chat.
I will be humble and helpful to those in need; I will not belittle or live off others.
…I will not grumble or give in to envy.
I will be mentally focused and calm; I will not give way to distraction and anger.
I will be loving to others and respect their property; I will not hoard or steal.
I will have compassionate and wise relationships; I will not abuse or use others in lust.
I will be forthright, peaceful and honest; I will not deceive.
I will keep the temple of my body and mind righteous and pure; I will not overindulge its desires or endanger its health.
I will cultivate serenity and goodness; I will not gossip or engage in idle chit-chat.
I will be humble and helpful to those in need; I will not belittle or live off others.
…I will not grumble or give in to envy.
I will be mentally focused and calm; I will not give way to distraction and anger.
“
| — | From the “Tenfold Vow,” in Gnostic Prayer Book, by Davied Asia Israel (via cosmic-rebirth) |
The higher powers wanted to deceive humanity… they took the name for goodness and applied it to what was not good, words become deceitful, they alienate with simulations and appearances; they make a free person into a slave. These harmful powers do not want human beings to be saved, they instill in them a taste for sacrifices; people then offer animals to these powers, and what was living becomes dead, and their offering becomes a murder.
“
| — |
Philip 13-14
|
Religious Addiction
There is such a thing as religious addiction. Some people can get so wrapped up in religion and trying to be so absolutely perfect that they loose sight of the true meaning of Christianity. If we are so focused in being the sight of perfection that we can never attain due to our humanity, then we can loose sight of the community that we have been called to be a part of. Tippens often refers to the dangers of Gnosticism; he tells us that we cannot do everything on our own. Tippens goes on to explain that a communal way of life will be “a long, sometimes bumpy, circuitous, and risky adventure.” He explains by the use of the African proverb that we will get further if we live in a more communal way of life. Christianity requires the unity of people in order to be effective.
Many Christians are disconnected from the world around them. I have a perfect example of this. One of my neighbors a few years ago came over to my home. He told me that because I did not attend his church, I have “built a stronghold around” my family; and on Judgment Day, we would “all be left behind.” I told him that I did not attend his church, because I had been there and I did not take kindly to the hypocrisy in his church. Needless to say we were not welcomed kindly in the church, and I never felt so uncomfortable in my life. This man had a twelve-foot cinderblock fence around his entire yard. Not only was his church disconnected from Christ’s message of community, but he had also literally disconnected his family from the world around him.
