The problem isn’t the symptom.
What do I mean by that?
The statement by the Pope on the question of blessing same sex marriages has caused an uproar in the world. But, I am not writing this about that topic, but the topic is a good example of the very simple, important, yet elusive concept that religion and spirituality aren’t “of this world”.
Same sex marriages are “of this world.” They do not represent the spirit world anymore than same sex marriages. In Christianity, at least the Southern Baptist part of it, teaches that your relationship is directly with Jesus and to God. It isn’t “through” anything or anyone else. Not a church, not a Pope, not a Priest, not a Nun, Preacher or spouse.
The Apostle Paul was a hardliner. He is all about the worldly application of spirituality. Indeed, because religions are ruled by “laws” to live by, then each religion has their long list of dos and don’ts. In Christianity, the rule book is the Bible, and whatever the Bible says, is LAW, to that religion. So, the Vatican sees itself as the primary judge over matters concerning the religion. It must abide by the Bible. Anything else can’t be allowed, or they are violating their own commission.
The fact is that homosexuality is universally condemned as a sin in the Bible. There is no ship sailing around that fact.
But “sex” is a worldly thing. The world the church should focus on is the spiritual “world”, heaven, or paradise. It isn’t a place, it is a state of mind. It is a consciousness.
The definition of sin as I learned in Eckhart Tolle’s book “The Power of Now” is “missing the mark”. People continue to miss the entire point of spirituality and tie it to the world and wonder why everything is going bananas.
How are we missing the mark?
We are missing the mark because we are putting our faith and decisions in our own thinking. When we believe and trust what our minds conjure up and tell us to think then that is the definition of insanity.
By seeking to solve our personal issues through our own thinking, and live in accordance to our emotions, social pressures, and our interpretation of events, we are not putting faith in spirituality and the “universal font of wisdom” that exists in the spirit world.
The reason people do things is because it is their brain telling them to. To lift a finger, your mind has to tell it to lift. We believe our own minds almost exclusively. It is powerful for sure. But that power can be used against you and the world when people don’t question their thoughts. This is where sin begins.
Now, I am not saying anything about homosexuality here in particular, but those decisions are ultimately something we decide on, and it is an important decision to make. But that really has nothing to do with our spirit at all and if the church would simply take up the idea that what is truly important is a personal connection to the spirit world of Jesus and God, and concentrate on the really valuable assets of faith, hope, and love, then people would stop seeing each other as the crude animal standing in front of them, but as the spirit that inhabits them.
Overall though, the idea is that a sin is the symptom of the human curse of having more faith in the noisy opinions of the mind and the world around you, than you do in the infinite peaceful wisdom that comes from looking at the world from above, and seeing what it is we are doing.
Insanity is the result of not being connected to the realm of the otherworldly.
The finger pointing at the moon, is not the moon. The word “Water” isn’t water itself. The Bible, isn’t Heaven, it is pointing to it. So, it isn’t what is written that matters, it is only salvation itself that matters.
This is the mistake the Vatican is making, and has made many, many years, centuries, and millennia. They have been seduced into thinking that all of the fixtures of the world is what it is about and by controlling them, then they are solving the issue. They aren’t. They are just driving further away from it.