Thoughts On God...

                            by Rev. David Lartigue

I ... praise only one God, but he manifests himself in very different
and often seemingly contradictory ways.  I see others doing things that
go against my God and try not to criticize them.  Just like the "Christians"
outside of the RHPS every night assuring us that God will burn us for seeing
the movie.  Sorry, my God doesn't have an inferiority complex.  My God
doesn't think "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is a big threat to him.  But I
try not to criticize these people too harshly because they still fit into the
Big Picture.  It was people like these that helped me on my way -- I wasn't
sure about God, but I could look at them and know that wasn't it. Knowing what
something ISN'T is a big help in establishing what it IS. It's all a lot
bigger than Heaven or Hell.  That's far too simplified. It's about the
Meantime.

A lot of people criticize things such as sex and drugs as being "evil"
without ever examining what it is about them that makes them evil. I'll use
drugs as an example, since that has been a recent topic.

Drugs themselves aren't evil, of course.  A Marijuana cigarette sitting on a
table will harm no one.  Even the Bible (which I will get to in a moment)
notes that money itself isn't evil, but the LOVE of money is.

Many people don't understand LSD and its importance.  Ken Kesey did, but was
destroyed by others' failure to understand it.  At this point, the vast
majority of people in the Acid scene haven't the slightest idea what LSD is
and why it is.  THe value is in the wrong place.

I quote again from the Illuminatus! trilogy (a book which, to me, ranks
right up there with the Bible as far as wisdom):

     "They spoke in symbols and paradoxes, like the real sages,
     but for a different reason.  They didn't know what the
     symbols and paradoxes meant.  Instead of following the
     finger that points to the moon, they sat down and worshipped
     the finger itself.  Instead of following the map, they
     thought it was the territory and tried to live in it.
     Instead of reading the menu, they tried to eat it."
                              (Miss Portinari, page 716)

That's what's going on.  They've found a key that unlocks a very important
door, but instead of going through that door, and examining the other side,
they're just examining the key.

Drugs are "evil" when the user places more value on the drug than
anything else.  And now we get to the Bible.

Too many people worship the Bible instead of the message it presents.
The theme of the New Testament is Love.  Not sin, not "thou shalt not"
not "AIDS is God's punishment against homosexuals" or other nonsense.
But instead of following the message, people are following the book.
See what I mean?

This is going on longer than I wanted and I'm not sure it's all tying
together.  I'll stop now and await comments.  Sorry about my  wordiness...


Incidentally...and this may tie it together.  I've never done Acid.

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