Weapons of Mass Disctraction...

While the Community of Denver anxiously awaits the arrival of Activist Greta Thunberg to discuss important and vital issues concerning Climate Change and accountability-the temperatures here in Colorado Springs dropped last night to 11 degrees (21 degrees below freezing) with many people that experience homelessness left to freeze. This is the new humanity of the Church.

The current Political Climate here in the United States has polarized the faith communities-we have moved from barely tolerating each other to full on name-calling and assault. Christianity over the years has declared her war on abortion, same-sex marriage, terrorism, marijuana (after all, it is the Devil’s Lettuce) immigration, drugs, prostitution, and of course people that don’t tithe.

To what end? The impact of these campaigns has been a loss for most and marginal at best. Thousands and thousands of dollars, pulpit hours, protests and events have been aimed at handing issues that Jesus did not say one word about. God forbid the next war we wage be on homelessness and poverty (we already have, it is no illegal to be seen asking for money or handing money to people asking here in Colorado Springs)…

Countless hours in our church services are dedicated to conjuring up the Holy Spirit (odd, since the Scriptures teach the Holy Spirit is with us always)… hours spent on self-improvement and name it/claim it… all designed to improve the life of the Believer.

Jesus is not your personal life coach. Jesus is not going to come back and burn the faces off all the people that don’t believe in Him. When Jesus returns, prepare for the conversation to line up with Matthew 25:31-46. We want so bad to be the victors in our wars we forget we are here solely for the purpose of the oppressed, the disenfranchised, the poor and the needy. We want to thrill ourselves with a 13 year old activist that we forget the 13 year old’s that can’t afford food-and then we argue about the importance of feeding them lunches at our schools. 

 

What the hell is going on?

Please tell me.. honestly… what single part of your church is doing any part of the words attributed to Jesus..? Have you gone the route of being a Pauline based church (doctrines, hierarchy and empowerment) or are you a church that embraces the message and life of Jesus-a Jewish Rabbi from a backwater town whose message was so powerful it upset both the religious ruling community and the Roman Occupation?

While you are drinking your Carmel Frappe, tell me how, with the churches in our areas, with massive buildings, huge mortgages, big screens, worship bands (what do they worship?) Pastors in blue jeans and polos.. how we are positioned to do the work Jesus left us?

Give me a church of 100 people or less, tucked in a rented storefront property, willing to do the hard work-the Message and Gospel of Jesus-willing to minister to the poor and needy-willing to at least for one hour a week-not separate themselves from the mess of humanity but actually invite them in…

Greta Thunberg was right about one thing.. shame on us…

In the wake of the shootings... here are my thoughts...
Each year, Israel, Judaism and the Jewish people observe Tisha b'Av (National Day of Mourning). It is taught that both the Temples were destroyed on Tisha b'Av.. it is a dark day for the Jewish people.
The Rabbis and Sages teach that the destruction of the Temples was caused by "Sinat Chinam", which means "needless and unwarranted hatred", which brings us to today in America.

As Americans discuss, talk, tweet and speculate over the latest rash of mass shootings, in which we understand that innocent people were killed and wounded, the emphasis seems to be on who to blame-which at best-will seek out the effect but not discover the cause.


The cause is hatred-Sinat Chinam-needless and unwarranted hatred. This hatred-hatred of other peoples views, hatred of people that are different than us in any discernible way, hatred of anyone we can attach a name or label to that justifies our loathing... this is us.


Hatred in America-has free reign-without the attempt of social etiquette, there are no demands for respectful dialogue. We can no longer call ourselves a "free society" when opinions and thoughts of differing sides result in total rejection, excommunication and hateful words in response.


America needs a National Day of Mourning-to set aside a time to mourn what was and now is no more-to examine ourselves and see if in some way-we are promoting the kind of hatred that allows a sick person to use our words-to justify their actions.


America needs to consider a National Day of Mourning where we look into our own souls-and the very soul of our nation-to see if we are agents of civility, graciousness, love of each other...

America needs a National Day of Mourning to remember that we all can be the reason we see less acts of violence-less mass shootings-less needless deaths-by holding back the spewing of hatred that we allow ourselves to do-

Think of these things..
(Special thanks to Rabbi Hilbrant and Rabbi Blech for contributions to this article)

My Disc Golf Journey...

For many people, disc golf is a fun day out, a chance to walk around, and enjoy some outdoor activity and good friends. And all of that is true. But my story is different...

So please read on... 

 

I was born and raised in Southern California, with disc golf being a growing Mecca of activity. I went to La Mirada High School, across from La Mirada Regional Park, where several early Pro Tournaments were held. But it was much later in life I was introduced to disc golf by a youth director at a local SoCal church. He would take the youth group kids out and we played a course at night (yes, I said at night) in Anaheim CA.

I was hooked pretty quick and started playing all over California, one day hoping to play at the Pro level. Well, that did not happen and I kept playing for about ten years. Life has a way of introducing new people and challenges, and my passion and drive for the game slowed down. Somewhere around 2005 or so, I stopped playing.

My family and I (yes, I went with them) moved to Colorado. Little did I know that in 2009 and forward, Colorado, Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Flying Disc Club would be exploding the disc golf scene in many ways. But it wasn't until a sad and unforeseen tragedy happened that brought disc golf back into focus for me. Tragic, is an understatement...

June 30^th 2012, came the news of a car accident that claimed many lives, one of those was Nick Naples, a 17 year old teenager from Woodland Park with deep ties to his family, community and church. Nick was an avid disc golf player, and he designed and installed Woodland Park's first disc golf course, The Nick Naples Soaring Eagles Disc Golf Course.

I knew Nick Naples from the church I was volunteering in, Mountain View United Methodist. We had played a few youth group band sessions together, he was a very talented guitar player and I was a hack bass player, filling in for the band from time to time. I also knew his family from the church as well, good people and good family.

The Youth Director of the Church, Carolyn Brown (not enough can be said about how Carolyn dealt with this situation and the kind of amazing person she is) had somehow found out I had played disc golf in the past and presented me with this idea... She wanted to do a “remembrance” tournament in Nick's honor on September 30^th.. I agreed...

This was the start of my return to playing disc golf. We spent a few weekends practicing with the youth group kids and on September 30^th, kicked off a round at the course after a pretty fierce rain storm came through.

And here we are... 2019

Through the last seven years, coming out of this tragic event, I have met some of the greatest men and women I have ever known. I do not have the space here to list them all, but their impact on my life, their care for others around them, their commitment to the growth of the sport has been simply unmeasurable. These are good hearted-people, regular everyday people, hard working, families, ties in the community... my kind of people.

On June 30^th, I will remember the loss of Nick Naples-and remember his life and accomplishments-and think of how through all this I gained a new family, a new love for the sport and a fiery will to compete again. The, just a few days later, on July 5^th every year, we all gather at the Nick Naples Soaring Eagles Disc Golf course, and participate in a charity tournament in Nick's honor, run by his family members. Each year, they pick a local charity to donate to from the tournament.

Life goes on. Even under the harshest of circumstances, the pain of loss and suffering, the sting of it all, life goes on. What we do with the tragedies-how we survive them-and what comes out of them-is the part of our humanity I am most proud of...

Disc Golf goes on... but I for one owe a huge debt of gratitude to Nick Naples-for having the desire and vision to place a course in Woodland Park-and forever etch his name among the City Above the Clouds

What If God Was One of Us? (or created by us)

In the hit series by HBO called Game of Thrones, the characters range from violent killers to seductive maidens. Murder, deceit, failed overthrows and surprise killings mark the series from opening moment to end of episode. One of the constant themes of the show has to do with various alliances to different gods. There are single god believers, multiple god believers and of course, the ever mischievous followers of the “Lord of Light”.

These different believers and their differing belief systems will gladly toss off your head or kill a village of innocents based on the “readings” they get from their god(s). Sound familiar?

By the way, there are also dragons, but that doesn’t really fit into this article.

The fact of the matter is that throughout human history, people have done what they believed to be “acts” required of them or instructed to them by their god(s). For example:

Chants of “Allah Akbar” (God is Great) are chanted while women and children are beheaded for being “impure believers”

1359 CE- 350 towns in Germany murder Jews by burning them alive for being “Christ Killers”. In this year alone, more Jews are killed than the entire 200-year period of Roman persecution of the “Christians”. (Also killings performed in the name of the Lord Caesar).

1648 CE, 200,000 (read it again) 200,000 killed the area of Chiemlnitzki, Poland, during a “purging” of Christians

Era of the Witch Burnings- 1484-1750 (approx.)
Several hundred thousand killed, with books published by the church on how to discover, interrogate, torture and eventually execute witches. Historical records estimate that 70-80% of those killed were women.

1580 CE, Jean Borden writes in his instructions, Punishment Deserved by Witches, “Don’t wait for solid evidence to begin examination, torture or punishment, for if we did, only one in a million would be punished”. The reason Jean Borden gave for this type of enforcement? To appease God, of course.

I point out these examples because as we all know, violence in the name of god(s) has millions of examples and as it seems, no known cure. I picked these examples because they rank from modern cases to relatively unknown events.

There is no way humanly possible that we could absorb all the death, destruction, genocide, murder, war, rape, torture, and reckless use of natural resources, poverty and evil that has been performed by humans in the name(s) of god(s). We even go to war over which one of these god(s) is the true god…

Simply put, I reject in all cases and forms of religious practice that any god, a deity with creative powers and loving concern for their creation, is capable of requiring or even asking their followers to commit acts of atrocities against other humans. I believe that religions today are following a god(s) they created in their image, not the other way around. Here are a few examples:

When your god agrees with your theology, your beliefs, condones all you condone and hates what you hate, at the expense of all others
We have a god in our own image

When some of your god’s rules and laws apply to you and some don’t
We have a god in our own image

When your service to your god benefits your life, your finances, that god is your personal god (like a personal pizza, all about you)
We have a god in our own image

When your god is the one true god to the exclusion of all others
We have a god in our own image

When your god has you charging admission to your “worship” events
We have a god in our own image

When your god has you using a pulpit or teaching in a sacred space to assist in the election of public officials (who by the way would undoubtedly support your god’s view)
We have a god in our own image

While advances in modern science, history, geology, biology and physics have given us greater insights into humanity and understanding our origins, you would prefer to listen to some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in tongues
We have a god in our own image


Still here?
When it comes to thoughts about god(s), people are just making this stuff up. Much to the detriment of humanity, people are assuming the role of god(s), speaking for god(s) and the effect is horrific. As a country, as a faith group, as people of the world, we have never been more separated, confused and isolated, regardless of what Google tells you.

Do we create god(s) in our own fearful images?

A study conducted by Nicholas Epley at the University of Chicago and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, asked people who believed in the Abrahamic God for their opinions on controversial issues such as abortion, death penalty and same-sex marriage. They were asked what they believed the views of God, of ordinary Americans, and of well-known public figures were. Perhaps not surprisingly, their own views most closely resembled what they regarded as God’s views (even though those views were different from believer to believer)

The experimenters scanned believers’ brains while they were thinking about their own views, those they ascribed to God, and those they ascribed to “average Americans”. The experimenters found that when the believers thought about their own their own views or God’s, the same area of the brain was active. But when they thought about the views of other people, a different area of the brain-an area associated with discerning the mental states of others-was active.

The experiment lends itself to a single conclusion: While people can readily make a distinction between their views and those of other people, they are far less likely to make a distinction between their views and God’s. Basically, people map God’s beliefs (as they see them) onto their own. This necessarily wouldn’t be a bad thing unless of course you actually read the beginning sections of this article.

I am not trying to make a point about; 1) There is no God, as I believe in God. 2) It’s not always bad to have your ideology congruent with your belief and practice of your God, (unless of course this includes beheading or acts of violence), 3) All gods are man-made gods. There are man-made gods, like the god of Creflo Dollar, who needs a 68 million dollar airplane to spread the gospel around the world. (Seems inefficient, can’t we train people in those areas and let them spread the gospel?)

With all this available “god-help”, there are a few unanswered questions for me. Why does mankind find itself lost in a disordered world overrun by chaos, an existence riddled with pain and unspeakable suffering? Why do we find ourselves in a material dimension that knows only decay and death, a reality governed by the Law of Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that everything must deteriorate and corrode over time?

Something went wrong.

Somewhere along the line there was a disconnection. Mankind lost touch with its true origins. All of us, forgot about God and starting developing religions to assist us in understanding God, but later these religions served to erase God and insert mankind as the new and improved version of god(s).

How can we recover from our path of personal deity and return to God? What can we begin to work on right away that can start to turn the tide from a man-run religious effort to a God-based lifestyle?

Fair warning as we move forward. I am a Christian (albeit a very poor example of one), so I am going to approach this from a Christian understanding.   You can insert any teachings or ideas from your own faith traditions that make sense.

First, Yeshua (aka Jesus), a Jewish Rabbi from the 1^st Century taught several God-like lessons. One of His greatest (my opinion here) was Jesus instructing us to “bless our enemies, bless and curse not”. This is a godly trait. Praying for your enemies often relieves the feeling you need to kill them. Understanding that all mankind has a place in this universe and that all mankind (regardless of the choices they make) are God’s creation helps us to act out godliness, which in my mind is the core element of the New Testament documents.

Second, quit confusing the kingdoms. Obviously God lives in another Kingdom, a spiritual realm and by most standards, plans to guide us through our human existence to a time where His Kingdom will reign and this earthly kingdom will be over. We cannot and nor should we in the name of our god(s), God, attempt to legislate morality based on our Scriptures, doctrine and dogma. There will be a time and place for Kingdom rule, but here on earth we are to live out our days helping people see the benefits of godly living rather than clubbing religious ideals (which vary widely from one Christianity to another) into the ballot boxes.

Do you realize we could legislate all the right morals, elect all the right officials and not come close to any of the instructions left by Jesus?

Lastly, most religious groups hold to some kind of an idea that the world will end and their group (of course) will have a huge supper celebrating the ultimate defeat of evil. I like a good meal as much as the next guy, but I think it’s an adventure of missing the point.

Is it possible that the people of this world would at some point come to a realization: We aren’t suffering from a lack of religions. We are suffering from a lack of compassion. Endless reports of poverty, poor living conditions, unfair wages, slave trading, global war and so on tell us that whatever our belief in our god(s) may be, it is translating to very little difference in the world.

There can be no greater proof of a Living God that cares for His creation then people who claim to follow that God caring for His creation. If you belief in God leads you any other direction, I suggest that you have created a god in your own image.

In the Book of Psalms, attributed the King David, the Psalmist says, “I would have fainted unless I had longed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”.

I can’t speak for God and I wish preachers and the self-anointed/self-appointed would stop speaking for Him. I can only be His action here on earth. That leads me to believe that God would want me to love, nourish and support His creation. Because, that’s what I believe He is doing.

David Fournier

Senior Instructor at Restoring Grace

The Power of Acceptance

Almost all of Christianity would come to some kind of agreement concerning the need for a positive confession of faith in the finished work of Jesus as a mandate for entrance into heaven. From there, the differing faith groups and belief systems head off into many segments. According to a recent post on Wikipedia, there are 38,000 Christian denominations. If we figure that number has a 30% inaccuracy rate, that still leaves 26,600.


That number probably does not represent the factions within those denominations. The point is clear: Christianity is widely divided on issues of faith, practice and systems of belief. A strange situation for a faith group whose most celebrated and known author, the Apostle Paul, chastised the early followers for spreading factions and following individuals rather than following the Author and Finisher of their Faith.


Impacting this organized division even more is the varying degrees of belief concerning social issues. While millions are spent on the issue of same-sex marriage, with a constant series of votes and appeals, a recent sociological study by the Interagency Council on Homelessness states that not only are the number of homeless in America increasing, but women and children are larger segments of the homeless than ever in the history of America.


In Matthew 25, Jesus made no clause for “when I was considering same-sex marriage, you stopped me.” He made His entire platform for world change based on belief in Him that carried effective and needed change into the community. (For my thoughts on same-sex marriage, e-mail me at: dfour26@gmail.com)


As we watch the mission of Jesus here on Earth unfold, we are hard pressed to find a segment of population He did not address. From the religiously elite to the religiously rejected, Jesus accepted them all. But beyond acceptance, He offered them the keys and tools to transform from stereotypical elements of society into positive elements of change. Because Jesus transcended cultural norms, He was able to transform cultural norms.


It appears, however, that this particular strain of Jesus’ teachings has not stuck with today’s culture of Christian practice. How does 38,000 different denominations weigh in on the issues? 38,000 different ways! In terms of impact, what could be the largest single community for social justice and the relief of the poor and needy has been down-scaled to 38,000 different voices all singing their own agendas. This makes for a pretty lousy song.


Adding to the challenge is the seeming disrespect the different denominations express for each other. Just try listening to a Christian radio station and you will hear one pastor after another talking over the opinions and teachings of the guy just on before them. Rather than putting together a constant stream of refreshing consciousness, we have become just like the political radio stations, a band of talking heads with no center-point of agreement and all manifesting a pre-programmed agenda.

Acceptance of each other, with our successes and failures, our diversity and differences, is the Path of Jesus. As a Christian, do you love the homosexual? Right where he lives, or after his conversion? How about the black man or white man? Do you see Jesus or do you see past generations of negative stereotyping? 

 
People have said to me that they will come halfway. They are willing to meet in the middle, with their 50% and the other parties 50%. Thank God that His plan to redeem the Universe did not include Jesus stopping halfway. With Jesus hovering somewhere in the Mesosphere, we would all die missing Heaven by miles.


It takes the “all in” level of acceptance, my 100% with your 100%. That 200% creates the environment for the Light of the Creator to shine. Here is a prayer I read I think says it all…


I am going to get out of the way and allow the Tree of Life to lift me up.
In the past, I have been stubborn, set in my ways, and I will let go.
Instead of clinging to my beliefs, I will open up.
I will allow the Light of the Creator to shine down into my world and transform my life.
I have real desire, not for myself alone, but to connect to the Creator.
Letting go of my Ego and stepping aside, I feel the Divine Force of God taking over.


It is time for all or nothing. We could assemble the greatest spiritual force in the history of humanity by offering the gift of acceptance to everyone, all the time! Perhaps our generation, our people, our time, could sound the call that would bring Messiah here to Earth. May it be So!


David