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I am a pastor and a clinical psychotherapist. My life's passion is defining healthiness from a human perspective and paralleling it to the holiness of God, divine perspective. Shifting perspectives creates a paradigm that is alongside of rather than over and against. The parakalein of God and the paradoxes of humanity are redefined. Humanity is all about winning and yet we are losing ground everywhere. Divinity is all about letting go of the desire to win and the fear of loss. The Divine embraces the world with loving care regardless of anything.

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Three Cheers One Hope

Posted by Don Paine


Cheers rang out a world away on September 11, 2001.  While many worldwide and more locally were struck with horror and horrible loss of life,  many in the streets of other nations celebrated a victory . While some mourned others celebrated.  In America we were horrified by the horrible made worse by the reality that some were celebrating while we were dying, grieving, and in pain.

A clearly defined military mission to seek out and capture, Osama Bin-Laden, the master mind of 9-11, was initiated inclusive of vigilant military strategies.  Nearly 10 years later, on May 16th, 2011, Osama Bin-Laden was killed at his hideaway compound.  Cheers rang out again , this time, in the streets of America.  I blogged that morning that I was in deep sadness, not because I thought Osama Bin-Laden was a nice guy but because we live in a state of world conflict that promotes a “kill or be killed” state of being.  

We called it justice but it is not justice when one side celebrates and the other side mourns.  Regardless of which side of the street you live on, it is about leaning how to be respectful and responsible as human beings toward all other human beings.  In both cases the preparation of violence was in their mind justified by egregious acts of the evil empire against them.  It is justified revenge but it is not justice.  Justice seeks not to oppress or harm anyone.  Justice is to be done toward all regardless of anything.  All peoples hurt and pain are understood and transformed into healing through the empathy of compassion and the emptying of my way as the only way.
Ghandi’s blind world through an eye for an eye mentality has degenerated into something worse than blindness: seeing with only one eye.  Seeing with one eye, one way breeds prejudice not justice.  One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. 

The saddest part of all this is that religion is part of the problem when it is intentionally part of the solution.  It is specifically purposed toward encouraging a world wide ways of love and peace.  John Lenin in his famous song, Imagine, had a line that stated, “nothing to kill or die for, no religion too”.  Why, because most all wars have some religious overtone, drive, or agenda that is itself inconsistent with peace and harmony.

Today on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, we call on all communities of faith to come together for peace and justice by embracing with compassion all persons, regardless of anything.  This is a call to a new kind of community that is not about the lowest common denominator but the highest common good.  It is the one hope of and for humanity.  If religion cannot lead the way to turning our differences into community building by surrendering our way as the only way to a new way of living in love and peace with all.  Soren Kirkegard said, “To know the truth and not be the truth is to embellish that very truth with error”.  When my truth, whatever that truth, gives me the right to degrade and deny the truth of your truth it is essentially a self serving posture.  There is nothing so inherently inconsistent with the heart of any spiritual movement and the heart of Christianity as a self propagating and self aggrandizing posture as the founder was a living sacrifice of self for the good of humanity.  When the living sacrifice becomes a lying sacrifice there is no Spirit of Truth but the spirit of deception and self-promotion.

As John Lenin wrote, “that we all live as one”.  This was the heart of the Jesus of Christianity and it is at  the heart of all non-extremist religious movements.  Jesus said, “That they might be one even as I and the Father are one”.  Not one in ecclesiastical or theological positions but is the posture of loving kindness toward all regardless of anything.

 Justice is never one sided it is mutually respectful and agreed upon as the healthy way to care for an injustice that is done in the world. The language of what we are saying and the meta messages that are being presented and perceived really concern me.  The prophet Micah intentional connects "justice, mercy and humility" and these are not connected here.

In a nation that is fighting for the removal of capital punishment, there are few voices acknowledging that this is an "eye for and eye" moment which his more about our blindness than about clear vision.  One way thinking is what is at the heart of unresolved differences in our homes and in our world.  No ideology, thought or reaction is in itself the problem, the problem is we live in a social system that does not allow for equity, respectfulness, or peace.  It is about getting the bad guy, killing the enemy only to find our sense of humanity diminished.  We cannot kill one human being without that act lessening our sense of humanness and lowering our standard for mutual respectfulness and world peace.

As religious leaders of and in our communities of faith we need to decide to stand for mutual respectfulness and responsible teaching.  When we teach our particular faith group that we are the better way, the only way, the best way we insult our fellow communicants and insinuate that we are right and they are wrong.  The system that supports a right and wrong world perpetuates un-healthy competitiveness.  Under the pretext of faith, love and peace we sow conflict competition and contradictions.  What is as leaders of respective religious communities of faith we took a bold step forward and embraces our belief system with denigrating or degrading or devaluing the system of others.  Would we then change the un-heathy system that fuels wars and wastelands and into a new respectful and responsible system that nurtures peace and a blossoming earth.

In the new system the key qualities would be mutual compassion, calmness, courage, and creativity that would find ways to be together to promote love and peace in our world because we do not believe anymore that it is us or them that are right.  Ghandi said years ago that an eye for an eye orientation to life results in a blind world.  I say today that an eye for an eye world results in people with only one eye that sees only their way and that is worse.  It is a cyclops that perpetuates war famine and destruction.  When we see with two eyes we see our way in a self-respectful way and we see the ways of others in an equally valuing and validating way, respectfully.  When Christians teach that Jesus, as any Christian or ecclesiastical group proscribes him, is the only way they do an injustice to all other communities of faith.  Part of justice and true spirituality is mutual respectfulness and responsible honesty.  The Jesus way is not an exclusive or excluding way but an inclusive and including way.  The Jesus way is not an ecclesiastical or creedal way it is a life and attitude way.  Jesus welcomes everyone and invites everyone to his table of love and peace. The way of Jesus is a way of self-sacrifice (it does not have to be my way), humility (I see you and your way as better than my way not because it is but because that is the way of humility -Phil 2:4) and openheartedness (God's heart of love and forgiveness is available to all regardless of the particular belief system they endorse or embrace.  Jesus is not the way the Way is Jesus.  Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, etc all teach the way that Jesus lived as the way we all should live.

Imagine a world where there is full mutual respectfulness of all communities of faith, unconditional love and agenda-less respect.  Peace on earth and intentional acts of good will toward all humanity form all humanity.  Sounds like a religious festival!  

To do this we do not need to change our core beliefs just our excluding and exclusive beliefs.  We can all have and maintain with self respect and respect for others our beliefs as long as we add a closing belief statement to all our ecclesiastical statements of faith or creeds.  That statement would be that while we believe differently we all believe that what we believe should not separate us from one another in the community of faith or the community of the covenant of love and peace for each other and the world.

This is the third cheer.  When people all over the world from all communities of faith cheer the inclusion of all in the grace and truth of love and peace.  Imagine the cheers that would ring out if in a few months when we celebrate Christmas, we truly experience peace among all peoples of faith leading the world to peace that passes human understanding, which then results in a tsunamie of kindness and good will toward all men.  Was that what the angles had in mind when they sang,
“Glory to God in the Highest and on earth:  Peace, and good will toward all humanity”

Just imagine

Rev. Donald L. Paine
Parakalein Counseling Services
251 New Karner Road 
Albany New York 12205
518-452-9919


Rev. Dr. Donald L. Paine, LICSW, AAMFT
Trained Internal Family System Therapist

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