• Redemption comes to us followers of Creation Spirituality,) not as a power alien to our natures, but as an “aha” experience that puts us back in touch with our authentic natures. Redemption also reconnects us with our relational nexus. We reconnect with the relationship of reason and intuition, consciousness and embodiment, ourselves and others-humans, animals, plants.[1]

To those that practice Creation Spirituality, this “aha” experience, this personal moment of awakening or epiphany in which we realize that this paradigm offers so much more than the narrow fear based system we grew up with, (and) leaves us in the position of walking away from the experience muttering to ourselves, “Gee, I never knew Christianity could be like this!” We learn of the beauty, the glory, and the mystical experience of the original blessing. We learn that God is not a God of wrath and destruction.

In one of his daily e-mails wherein Bishop John Shelby Spong responds to letters sent to him, he responded to a reader that still yet holds on to the concept of the original sin and a jealous wrathful God. Bishop Spong wrote;

• (Your thinking) transforms God into a parent figure who delights in rewarding goodness and punishing sinfulness. This portrays God as a supernatural, judging figure and it violates everything I believe about both God and human life.[2]

Fall, original sin, redemption theology tends to use fear of eternal punishment as a motivational factor to encourage the faithful to accept Christ, after all who wants to die and burn in hell for eternity? Whereas Creation Spirituality celebrates God’s blessing and grace, allowing the practitioner to experience God’s love. The practitioner then can walk a path of righteousness here on Earth in the hopes of a glorious immortality after death without fear of final judgment and eternal damnation. It allows for a path of personal soul ascension, the repression of the lower self in favor of elevating the inner soul. A path of walking as Christ outlined versus following the convoluted doctrines and dogmas of mankind.

It is generous, mutually affirming of diversity, and non-competitive. Unlike fall-redemption spirituality, it does not set up competitive dualisms between males and females, celibate and married, heterosexual and homosexual, white and black, Christian and non-Christian, us and them.

Creation Spirituality teaches that God permeates all things and that humanity is created blessed, not tainted by original sin. In this paradigm we embody God’s love, we become the Creation that God intends. Creation Spirituality becomes an experience in which the practitioner, seeks redemption through the acceptance of Christ, not out of fear of burning in hell but from a burning desire to experience the light of his teachings and the blessing of a loving God.

The critics of Creation spirituality routinely try to discredit the concept by falsely claiming that Creation spirituality is Pagan in nature as (they claim) it leads the follower to worshiping creation itself. However Creation spirituality seeks to revitalize religion and culture through honoring all of God’s creation as part of the original blessing. It seeks to bring about the end of theism and reestablish of panentheism, (not to be confused with pantheism) which says the image of God or divinity is immanent in all things but that God transcends or is greater than, the created order. The hand of God and his blessing is apparent in all of creation but creation is not in itself God.

• Creation Spirituality, while exemplified in one line of Christianity, is truly as old as creation. It is found in all the great mystical traditions of Hasidic Judaism, Sufism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism. It is even more fully expressed in the nature religions of Native peoples that have been conquered and almost exterminated by patriarchal dualistic religions: the spirituality of ancient Celts, Africans, Australian Aborigines, and Native Americans. Creation Spirituality calls for a “deep ecumenism” which brings together these traditions of Creation Spirituality from every culture. Creation Spirituality seeks a wholistic spirituality that overcomes the dualism between religion and science, between spirituality and social justice and between psyche and society. It is a justice-seeking spirituality. It is fundamentally feminist and anti-patriarchal. The affirmation of women’s power in religion and society is central, but not simply in order to integrate a few individual women into a male-defined world. Rather, to reclaim feminine values for men as well, in order to create a new culture rooted in “right-brain” capacities for intuition and relationality. The tragedies of abusive relations in our own society:the abuse of the young, of women and of the poor, the gross expenditure of wealth, of militarism: all this is part of the story of a patriarchal alienation of human and planetary life. [1]

Defining Creation Spirituality adequately could possibly require voluminous works, however in conclusion of this essay, let us take note of how since time immemorial humans have had to search at finding their true self, their inner self. This search for the proverbial Holy Grail in itself is an act of translating an idea into action (spiritual praxis) through prayer, study, meditation and involvement with the community. If we do not seek change or spiritual praxis we live superficial lives, lives of individualistic anarchy, in fear, often succumbing to greed for the material that supplants or replaces the spiritual, and often focusing on false propositions or programming from a society, both sectarian and secular that implants false ideals of performing to their expectations rather than the expectations of God.

[1]Internet Theological Seminary

http://www.theoblogical.org/dlature/itseminary/creaspir/whatis1.html

[2]From Bishop Spong’s daily newsletter; If anyone pursues goodness in the hope of gaining rewards or avoiding punishment, that person has not escaped the basic self-centeredness of human life and it becomes obvious that such a person is motivated primarily by self-interest.

For years, at least since I became active in the various on line religious groups, I have listened to my friends and associates lament the behind the scene attacks of their critics and detractors, those that we refer to as “fans” with whimsical exaggeration. These “fans” are noted by their unsolicited opinions delivered through anonymous e mails (aka nasty grams), or by their attempts at character assassination when they contact other associates and deliver untruths and innuendos.

What amazed me is that as long as I have had a presence on the Internet, until recently, I never had such a “fan club” and I wondered what am I doing wrong? Am I not controversial enough? Is my writer’s voice not harsh enough? I know from examining the statistics from my hosting service, the web pages I have authored are being read by numerous visitors a day, so why is there no hate mail coming in? Surely, like my peers I must be “offending” someone, and seemingly deserving of their “attentions.”

Well I can now say that I have a “fan club.” Over the last few weeks my “fans” have made their presence known, through “nasty grams” – anonymous e-mails that track back to non existent accounts, or the phenomena that several associates have reported in which multiple individuals have contacted them and told of how bad a person I am. Wow! Golly gee!

It is small, no more than a half a dozen members, but it is a start! A foundation upon which to build, as I guarantee all, friend and foe alike, that I am not going silently into the night. I will continue to write editorials and inspirational material designed to make people think, or do so to best of my literary abilities. I will continue with plans to build a local ministry reaching out to those disenfranchised by others (others not too dissimilar of those in my “fan club”) who expect 99% world to walk in lockstep with doctrines espoused by 1%, (percentages purposefully exaggerated for making a point, not quoting fact). And like a personality in contemporary media, I will remain elite and aloof to this particular fan base and instead continue to focus my attentions on those that appreciate my work.

Humm, perhaps I could raise a buck or two by having some T-shirts printed with the phrase “I hate Rev Ed” and offering them for sale to my “adoring fans!”

Jus’ kidding

Rev Ed

Brian McLaren the author of Generous Orthodoxy writes:

“Often I don’t think Jesus would be caught dead as a Christian, were he physically here today. … Generally, I don’t think Christians would like Jesus if he showed up today as he did 2,000 years ago. In fact, I think we’d call him a heretic and plot to kill him, too.”

“……I am aware of another and quite different Christianity……. When I wrote “A New Christianity for a New World,” I tried to spell out what that different Christianity might look like.”

Bishop John Shelby Spong

The new religion of the future is the one that honors and recognizes all religions and all spiritual paths, for they all lead to the same place.

From the book Soul Psychology

by Dr. Joshua David Stone PhD.

How did this emerging church movement come about?

A man of vision, the Reverend Ernest Steadman first spoke of this “emerging” church of the future in his book “Path Way To The Stars” which was originally published as “Sic Itur Ad Astra” in 1982. Twenty years later he founded an e-mail discussion group as a place of fellowship for those that shared his opinions and vision, this group evolving into a bona fide church in 2002, and which soon gained acknowledgment at the time as the latest denomination of Christianity. In “Pathway” Reverend Steadman writes;

“But we must be able to embrace Christianity as our Lord and Savior originally intended. Like a sea of souls, owing allegiance to no one except our God and government, we must somehow break the yoke of institutionalism if we are to save ourselves from Balaam and from the destruction of our government. We see how the modern church strangles the very fabric of our existence, how it dictates the ability of our government to meet the needs of its citizens by denying it a just compensation for protection and services rendered, how they cry against everything new or different from what they perceive as just or right, how they consume wealth of the land and give little to God’s work, and ultimately go the way of Balaam seeking to enslave the people and shadow the way of truth.”

This modern church that Reverend Steadman speaks of is the church that many see as that which has largely grown out of the ashes of World War II, an institution that has little resemblance to the churches that existed prior to that tumultuous era. It became a commercial business, one more concerned with the bottom line of financial exploitation of the faithful, than it was with attending to the spiritual needs of the individual. One more concerned with bringing its dominion over the government so as to advance it’s (the organization) needs and agenda, an agenda that obviously is contradictory to the teachings of Christ.

Some of these same Saintly institutions evolved into little more than mind control cults using guilt and the threat of the individual being ostracized resulting in the loss of family or friends should an individual the seeker of truth, question their (the institution’s) false doctrine.
The public face of this false Christianity is what Bishop Spong was referring to when he wrote;

“The public face of Christianity in America is already something with which I do not want to be identified. So many people who call themselves Christians are aggressive, hostile, closed minded and insensitive to anyone with whom they disagree……………. Yesterday the public face of Christianity where I grew up was pro-segregation and anti-black.”

For more than a generation, people have been disenchanted with what the church has become and left in search of light and truth, freedom to seek out direct communion with God through the Holy Spirit.

Each and every day we receive e-mails from readers stating that they never knew that christianity could be other than what they have recognized as un-christian in other churches.
Does this sound like what you are seeking? A church that seeks to follow Christ, a church that applies more emphasis to his teachings and the worship of God.  A church that seeks out the beauty and mysticism in the divine instead of creating a divine social club? If so contact us to find out how to be a part of the Lighthouse family.