Religious Lies - Religious Truths: It's Time to Tell the Truth!

The author has written a controversial book on religion that is designed to awaken, not merely to inform. The thesis of his book challenges the Traditional and Orthodox interpretation of Christianity, charging that since the Third Century, Christianity has become a new religion. The religion that was created at the Council of Nicaea (C.E. 325) deviated from the original teachings of Jesus, since those teachings were thought to be "too difficult" for the masses to emulate. This substitute Christianity, which he calls "Christianism" has failed to change the world, since it is a religion of accommodation. It is a religion of "Cheap Grace," which he defines as repudiation of universal grace that portrays God as Unconditional Love. The author believes that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, which the proponents of "Christianism" have failed to deliver. The claim of "Christianism" for uniqueness and originality tends to rely on internal evidence that exists only in a vacuum, and totally ignores the evidence of history and external sources. The author seeks to show that these extraordinary claims cannot be substantiated by close examination of the external evidence. He calls for a return to the Teachings of Jesus and the embrace of innate divinity, which he calls the "Indwelling Christ." The author employs a unique writing style by quoting Thomas Jefferson at the beginning of each chapter, pointing out that Jefferson supports his conclusions.

This book was painful for the author to write, since its contents challenged his fundamental Christian roots. It shook the ground on which he stood and left him uncertain and insecure. Then, it dawned on him that the secure and certain ground on which he once stood was an illusion, a lie perpetrated by those in control who wanted to incarcerate his mind in their propaganda prison. The research for his book challenged his belief system, undermined his faith, and set him on an adventure that left his brain spinning. It was "search for truth" that guided his steps in writing his book. Since truth is a personal and individual pursuit, the readers may find comfort in learning that a growing number of Americans are seeking to know the evidence that this book presents. It is this audience of open minded and seeking people to whom he is addressing this book. His is a polemic to awaken, not merely to inform. Thomas Jefferson is his hero on both religious and political issues. He has included quotes from Jefferson at the beginning of every chapter and have scattered them throughout the book, where appropriate. The reader may be surprised to find that Jefferson was not an orthodox Christian; in fact he was a Deist, hostile toward orthodox Christianity and the supernatural. In this book you will find quotes that support this assertion and reconstitutes the Jeffersonian-Jesusonian dream. The author believes that Jefferson's vision for the American Republic is dead. A cursory look at the daily news in the newspaper and on T.V. will supply enough evidence for this conclusion. He believes that the survival of our planet is at stake. The ship of traditional Christianity is floundering and many are lowering the life boats looking for an alternate vessel. Orthodox Christianity has failed! It has struck the iceberg of pragmatism and irrelevancy. It simply does not work and does not speak to the people of the 21st century. While the church is sinking, its crew is feverously rearranging the chairs on the deck of the sinking ship. Conflict in local churches from Baptist to Unity congregations is testimony to the fact that the Cartesian subject-object model of religion is not viable. It is caught up and controlled by ego-centric investment. The original Christianity of Jesus began in Palestine as a spiritual movement. It moved to the Western world and became a business. This book confronts the business venture of the church and calls for the courage to abandon the economic motivation for the church's survival, by embracing Jesus' original blueprint for spiritual evolution. The alternative to this failed model is trans-personal Christianity or integral philosophy. This is a shift that would resurrect Christianity by creating a "new creature." This intentional, conscious, self-aware, and responsible human being is a participant in transformation that expresses itself in community. This involvement would create an inter-subjective community, which abandons the emphasis on individualist spirituality that has focused on ego-involvement. The purpose of a trans-personal Christianity is to restore an independent trans-personal culture. To be authentic, one must find ways to escape the belief-based approach to religion. Radical self-responsibility is the hallmark of the adult and the adult culture. Authentic spiritual life begins with a trans-event. The trans-perspective does not repudiate, eliminate, or demand the abandonment of experiential consciousness as a private, inner aspect of spirituality. It merely subordinates those stages to the spiritual stages that follow. Ken Wilber points out in his book, Integral Philosophy, that our progression involves a dialectic process of transcending each preceding stage of growth. Our development is like unpacking a nested set of Russian dolls; one stage lives within another. Many members of the church are at the child stage of development and seem to be unwilling to grow to the next stage. It is this group that is preventing many clergy from embracing Integral or progressive Christianity. To the author, it is a matter of economics.