Manifesto

For the Love of God

       Our relationship to God emanates from three simple truths.

I.                    God is

II.                 God’s love exceeds our comprehension

III.               Our reception of this love will release within us a boundless love of God.

I. God is

     Throughout the ages mankind has been creating a God or Gods in their image.  Thus, these Gods would naturally become angry, demand sacrifice for whatever their priests consider a sin. Or for that matter, sacrifice was useful for rain making or creating favorable conditions to kill your enemy.  Gods in our image are vengeful, must be addressed by the gender of a he, she, or it and by the feudal title of lord or whatever, and sits on a throne with positions to the immediate right or left of the diadem spoken for.  These Gods would offer a life, as  comprehended in the human mind, after death.  Enticements  to participate in this after life varies according to the culture in which this God or these Gods feel at home.  Maidens prancing about gardens of paradise, to streets of gold, big mansions for a selected few loyal adherents and cattle all over the place reflect the earthly source of their creation.  These Gods expect you to submit your petitions before them in the form of prayers, submission or by intercession: preferably with head bowed or on your knees. 

     A sense of God has been inherent in the human species since they first climbed down out of trees and began walking around on their hind legs.  To avoid the rather strenuous life required of flesh eaters and to fulfill the natural inclination of dominance over your own kind, some few of these homo sapiens decided to establish careers as this God or God’s representative.  Eventually these appointments would originate from their God and take the form of ceremonial coronations.  For the people who fell under the guidance of these ordained representatives, all sorts of elaborate procedures would be required for admittance into the eternal realm of their God.   This God or Gods and their representatives or priests or whatever also desire great edifices to be built so as to organize the homage,  provide an appropriate place to submit petitions, and  for revenue collection.   The relationship with their God and people has become so complicated that it requires seminaries of learning to prepare the priest for his role.

     On the other hand, my God simply is.  I am aware of God but for me to give God any form of attribute is to place myself within a human level of comprehension with my God.  This, no human being can do.   Terms such as God says, God is angered, God is forgiving, God is merciful, God demands sacrifice, God is anything, wants anything, or reacts in any way is based on the premise that your understanding of God is based on human attributes.  I am unable to say that my God thinks, knows, or exists.   To do so, I would have to assume  my God is an understandable function.   To state that my God thinks or knows is to imply God has a need for either capability.  To state my God exists is to imply that like an object before our visual processes,  my God has some sort of specific identity.   My God would not be my God if I had such a comprehension.   Some sects of religion contend that our questions must have explanations for the relationship of the human being with God.   I need no explanations or priest to guide me.  I know God is.  I need no intercession or supplications.  I know that God is.  I need no building or congregation to bolster or maintain my awareness of my God.  I know God is.  I need no religious creed, complicated text or catechisms.   I know that God is. 

II. God’s love exceeds our comprehension

     The simple act of acknowledging God without cluttering this avenue of consciousness with intermediaries and a myriad of preconceptions relating to God, which are of human origin, is the beginning of enlightenment.   Once realized, this enlightenment immerses the recipient in a love so overwhelming as to defy our comprehension.  You know without understanding or comprehending that God is of this love.  From your human perspective, your consciousness has been brought into a total realignment with its relationship to God and the world.  Responsibilities have not changed but become filtered through this overwhelming love.  No longer do we need the mansions, the streets of gold, last rites, and or eternal afterlife.  We now realize that we are one with and part of this infinite love.   That is enough.

III. Our reception of this love will release within us a boundless love of God

     Once your simple acknowledgement of God exposes your consciousness to this love of God, you find that the enlightenment is without form.  No direction of love from or to, beginning or end.  When you become a recipient of this love, you will and find yourself loving God with an intensity beyond your understanding as an inseparable part of the same love.  Beyond your comprehension or manipulation, this love of God becomes the primary factor in your existence.  

Commentary

     George Fox (1624-1691) the unintentional instrument in establishing the Society of Friends as a separate Christian sect, came very close to recognizing this universality and inclusiveness of these three tenets.   However, he pulled up short of what he must have known was the fulfillment of this enlightenment by espousing a Christian alternative or reformation rather than the untainted universality of the love of God.  This identification with a particular religion would also tie the Society of Friends to the fallacy that the will of God could be manifested in a lifestyle necessarily related to the European or western culture.  Although, many of the traits in the expected behavior of a member of the Society of Friends or the Quakers are admirable,  the assumption that this conduct reflects the will of God is based on what we perceive and not what is.  This human perception in relationship to God being in our image dooms the Society of Friends to an exclusiveness within the Christian religion. 

     Jesus of Nazareth placed this simple message of the love of God before the ages.  His personal union with this love of God is all the more remarkable not because he was a deity but because he was a man born of an earthly father and mother.   The miraculous nature of his birth, life, and quotations began to be put to written text some three generations later to justify the establishment of a branch of Judaism, which would later come to be known as Christianity.  Jesus was not killed as a required sacrifice for  anyone or anything.  He was crucified because he was delivering a message that the priests were unnecessary in our relationship to the love of God.  The love of God and our unbounded reciprocation of this love require no ceremonies or administrators.  Jesus was killed because the priests considered him a threat to their authority and livelihoods. 

     A morality defined by law is necessary in order for any culture to maintain its identity, control the strong and defend the weak.  Such definitions can and should be inspired by this love of God.  However, to assert that these standards of morality are of God is an erroneous assumption, which has resulted in a horrific amount of bloodshed over the ages.  No mortal can say this is of God.  From our human perspective, we can only say  God is.  Each culture has its own set of morals.  Within each culture, one will find several different viewpoints on various aspects of its morality.  Thus, to act counter to a moral issue in your society (what some would call sin), would not necessarily be in conflict with the morals of another society.  On the other hand, each culture can ascribe to a certain set of morals reflecting their sensitivities so long as they do not attribute these standards to a perception that they spring from a will of God.   Again, we are in error when we refer to a will of God.  We can only say God is and relate to others by our emersion into the love of God.  Every society or sect within a society has a right to voice an opinion and seek codification of these opinions in such areas as bearing arms, abortion, and sexual activities so long as they leave God’s will out of it.

     No human is or ever has been able to comprehend God.  We can only accept and merge into this incomprehensible love of God.  Therefore, we all must be tolerant of our neighbor’s interpretation of God so long as his interpretation does not interfere with our entrance into the love of God.  As the love of God requires no outward manifestation beyond the reciprocal nature of this love being contagious to one’s society, it is difficult for conflict to arise from our presence.  If we wish to go from the back door of our home to the front door through our living room without molestation, we should be allowed to do so.   Should our neighbor decide to reach the front door of their home by exiting the back door, walking three miles around the neighborhood, and stopping at each corner to perform a ceremony, they should, without molestation, be allowed to do so.

     Organization with other adherents of these three tenets is undesirable and unnecessary.  Should every place of worship and every priest disappear from the planet today, the love of God would remain infinite and consciously available.  It might be observed that with the disappearance of these religious institutions and their priests, rather than the world deteriorating into chaos, earth might be a better place as we can on an ongoing basis attribute millions of killings to religious differences.  Churches, which are buildings and people, would ideally become centers of social activism and community.  The pretext that they were or could be spokespersons for the will of God would be dropped from their identity and each member would be encouraged to approach the love of God of their own volition outside the organizational structure with which they are associated.

     Religious writings are used by religions to define and justify their doctrines.  They are valuable for the promotion of a particular set of cultural principals and historical perspective.  No one can claim these written texts  are the words of God or inspired by God.  To make such a declaration, the human mind would have to be able to comprehend God.  No human ever born could attain such insight.  When one takes a sentence or word out of these text in order to validate what they perceive to be God’s position, they are sowing the seeds of human discord.