Monday, May 02, 2011
I am Jack's Religious Introspective Insight
Tyler Durden: Shut up! Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?
Narrator: No, no, I... don't...
Tyler Durden: Listen to me! You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen.
Narrator: It isn't?
While I do have many aspects of philosophical nihilism incorporated into my spiritual and philosophical beliefs I want to reflect on this for a moment in a less nihilistic capacity. We see in Judaism Abraham being asked to sacrifice his only favored and effectively only son, who he had at an age that is staggering to the modern mind. G-d who promised him a great nation asked of him to take that son and put him on a high mountain and take his life. G-d did this to see how deep the devotion of Abraham was. We see also in the Book of Job a man confronted with bad things happening to him and the overall message (as I see it) is you cannot comprehend G-d. Here in extremes we see two opposite poles. G-d is infinite and unknowable, but we come to know g-d by the presence of his hand in creation tracing a line through the stream of history.
I think G-d is bigger then just a representation of our fathers. Our mother is also there, as is the larger fullness of our family and community. As g-d made things finite and tangible so he could come to us and express himself to us, so we follow his example and try to understand him.
I have a relationship with g-d where he 'speaks' to me. But I now have been given cause to reflect. Is my connection and relationship to g-d driven my the lack of clarity caused by my family life, or does g-d approach me with that tone and message because these pathways are already born into me.
But right now, I am partial to Wrath.
The Operative: Do you know what your sin is, Mal?
Mal: Aw, hell, I'm a fan of all seven. [headbutts the Operative and pulls the sword out.] But right now, I'm partial to wrath.
My Paternal Grandmother died, and I never really had a time to metabolize that loss.
My Paternal Grandfather died, and I never really had a chance to say goodbye, or to
be there to have full closure.
My Maternal Grandfather is in the middle of the Dementia Process. I have lost the man he was and their is a whole lot of family drama (I won't get into now) where he has been denied the best care and his human dignity.
My Maternal Grandmother is in poor health but as my Grandfather has gotten worse the bad of her personality has gotten worse. She is largely emotionally cold and distant, except when she is putting on airs. She is an idolater. She spreads rumors and promotes discord in the family. She is a narcissist and a hypocrite. She is at the center of the family drama regarding my grandfather.
My Maternal Uncle is an Idolater, and a profane human being. He is connected to the family drama regarding my grandfather
The rest of my extend family who I love dearly, for most of them I feel like I have fallen out of their lives. While some connections have improved due to the decline of my grandfather but we are being united and brought close in negative feelings. And largely speaking I am marginally part of their lives. I wanted to do more, but I was unable to do more in that regard myself. I felt a deep sense of guilt about that but I feel alone in that regard.
My father was a distant man. He abandoned me because of his new wife. While I have some degree of normalcy in the relationship with my father alienation has largely dominated it.
My mother who I love dearly has not been the type of mother I wanted her to be, and probably not even the type of mother she should have been for me. This is not to take from my mother the love I have for her and the love she has for me. This is not to take from my mother the excellent job (against serious odds) she did in providing for my material needs.
So I come with this sense of anger, disturbance, and alienation in my family life to Judaism and I look across the people in the Shul. While they may not have any better or worse families then I did (and some most likely don't) I see a warmth of family connection that has been denied me.
G-D has brought me to shul and in prayer and meditation he has shown me this pain and wound in my heart that I truly did not know I had. I pray to g-d that as I move further down my road I will be healed of this pain and wound in my heart. I pray that this process teaches me what I want and need, so I can provide that good to my future children and family.
Labels: anger, conversion, Judaism, Personal
Sunday, May 01, 2011
The start of Something
My first visit with the rabbi we discussed the role of Jewish Prayer, and the next visit will be discussing the role of the Jewish Holidays and Calender.
So I have decided to take this old project blog and throw it to this new purpose. (talking about this new Journey God is leading me on)
Hope the hand full or two of fans will enjoy it
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Not my original reason for this blog.....
Reverend Donald Jackson and
Of all the people you told us would be coming to speak to our class no person did I anticipate and dread more then Rev. Don’s attendance. I was a friend to his grandson way back when I was in attendance at
The presentation was characterized by three types of problems. Statements that were made in direct contradiction to, or lacking real facts to speak of. Some of these statements were made more troubling in how they conflicted with the principles of Unity. The statements that while holding some degree of accuracy were missing other important data or otherwise logically flawed. And the final category was the statements of personal bias, which seemed to pepper his entire presentation, as a way almost to spice it up for the audience. This pattern of statements took away from the precepts of unity that were vague and generally agreeable. But with a Minister from unity providing details we saw how the ultimate inclusive ideology ends up breaking down under its own weight.
The worst of the comments made on a lack of information is that “Muslim’s can’t have democracy.” Despite his justification this assertion falls apart when one examines the role of elections in the governance of Sunni and Shiia mosques. This also fails to meet reality that prior to the cold war period their were several democratically elected governments that existed in the
But, statements made lacking a factual basis in any information were not the only problems presented. Some issues were either leading based on a bias or logically inconsistent with other positions. The Immaculate Conception was the major doctrine I challenged him on in the later half of the presentation. While his statement was true it was only made a mandatory dogma in the 19th century, a deeper analysis of the issue shows that his statement was very misleading. Church fathers as early as the 1st century were known to have written about this doctrine, it was widely practiced in
I know some of the story of Reverend Don’s past and while I cannot rightly judge him for the way he feels about his past, it presents a clear and unadulterated bias on his thinking as a religious leader. He talked intensely of the negative physical feeling he gets when he hears the simple phrase from his family “I’m praying for you.” This coming from a man who preached earlier in his lecture the doctrine of inclusion, and presented that prayer could not work if it was manipulative in nature shows himself violating the 5th principle of unity; do or do not, there is no try. His family and the community he came from did very awful things to him when he left their fold and moved his own way, but his view of their prayer for him is much as the view of a man who is hid away waiting for his death to come for him. Its an angry and almost bitter tone. If he wished to do what Christ taught, he would turn the other cheek… he would accept that they mean him well when they say that. But, his actions show he thinks poorly of them. Just as he rejects inclusion for those who were as he was, fundamentalist, and just as he spoke of a catholic doctrine and tried to paint it as an anti-intellectual reaction when it clearly was not he extends a visceral hated of the “bubba” fundamentalist, and it is played out in one person specifically. George Bush does not fit the stereotypical bubba; he was not born in the south, he was educated in the heart of elitist
At this point, I am reminded of how this whole lecture went wrong for me. When I challenged Don on the issue of religion being emotionally driven. He demanded my respect when I tried to present my case to him with a passion I hold to presentation of knowledge to an audience that should be receptive. I look at this call to respect, then view his leaving his cell phone on for the entire class, along with his use of bias and half thinking to present his lecture to the class. I am reminded of the way I have always felt talked down to in a formal fundamentalist church when I sat down. And I presented my knowledge as I felt appropriate and was largely accepted politely, patted on the head, and hoped to go away so I don’t present troublesome thoughts. It was this attitude that kept me from pressing him on these and many of the other issues his lecture presented to me. I felt he was not willing to listen, or respect my studies. A view he reassured me of when I challenged him on the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.
But just as this was hard for me to write without first opening with a confession, I feel I must add a note on my experience with Reverend Don as a religious leader in
Reverend Don is a good man, my words may suggest I think otherwise. But to me it is clear he weaves words and scripture to make a case as artfully as those he claims so stridently to be against. My first attempt at this paper was a whopping 11 pages and 5000 words before I saw a need to rewrite it. I did not address all the problems I had with what he said, there were many more, I however needed to address that while he came to us to talk about uUnity, he taught us a great deal about himself.