Selfish? Or uncaring?

‎

"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -- Stephen Colbert

Masons | Masonic Blog | Small Town Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Georgia | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Footloose: Christian school suspends student for attending public school prom

A few weeks ago Toldeo, Ohio's Heritage Christian School principal Tim England suspended 17-year old student Tyler Frost after Frost took his girlfriend Becca to the prom at her neighboring high school. England banned Frost from the Christian school, and would not let him participate in graduation ceremonies.

Frost was warned this would happen. Frost's family has threatened a lawsuit against the school and the principal.

England shared his bizarre reasoning with a television reporter in Toledo before the prom, but has refused to give more on-camera interviews since Tyler and Becca "disobeyed" him.

At a prom, there will be many young ladies who'll be dressed in the current styles, which will be low-cut dresses and things like that. There will be dancing.

Twenty-five years ago, Rev. Shaw Moore, played by John Lithgow, said pretty much the same thing in the film Footloose:

Even if this was not a law, which it is, I'm afraid I would have a lot of difficulty endorsing an enterprise which is as fraught with genuine peril as I believe this one to be. Besides the liquor and the drugs which always seem to accompany such an event the thing that distresses me even more, Ren, is the spiritual corruption that can be involved. These dances and this kind of music can be destructive, and, uh, Ren, I'm afraid you're going to find most of the people in our community are gonna agree with me on this.

Principal England told FoxToledo that Jesus wouldn't approve of Tyler going to the Findlay High School prom with his girlfriend, that Tyler should be more like Jesus.

Christianity is a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, and if you're gonna grow and be more like him, you gotta be obedient to what he says.

Didn't Jesus hang out with the "common people" and not with the pious? Didn't he thumb his nose at the "moral police" of his day, the Pharisees? Didn't he count among his closest confidantes a temple harlot?

Jesus never forbade dancing, best I can tell from my many readings of the Bible. In fact, Jesus's multi-great granddad King David, "wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets."

In Jeremiah 31:4, God Himself tells the nation of Israel to "take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful."

Principal England, with his Puritanical mindset, disgraces not only the educational system but also millions of rational Christians.



Christians | Christianity | Morality Police | Footloose in Findlay | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

'Then more Light you shall receive!'

I finally became Worshipful Master of my lodge.

No, not Worshipful Master of Pickens Star Lodge No. 220, F&AM, of Jasper, Georgia, where I was raised and am still a member.

I finally became Master of my own lodge.

While drinking coffee and watching the sun come up, and reading Bro. Theron Dunn's Beacon of Masonic Light blog, all the basic Masonic concepts and symbols I learned so long ago came together in a new way for me, first in a minor and then in a major epiphany. No, the earth didn't shake, and there was no clap of thunder, but I began to see things in a new Light.

Bro. Dunn's most recent blog entry is titled "Who is the Widow?"

The title interested me not only because it's a good question, Masonically speaking, but it hit me on a more personal level, since, out of all the Masonically-themed screen names I could have chosen, I was "led" to use the moniker "Widow's Son" when I began this blog two years ago.

His article speaks of goddesses: Isis, Ishtar, Mary the mother of God. It talks about Hiram Abiff, about spirituality and creative forces.

I enjoyed reading it, and I started to leave a comment, which would have been my first comment ever on his blog.

I wrote, "Indeed a thought-provoking post."

And then, I was at a loss for words. I wanted to express that his article was good, one of the more enjoyable I'd read there.

But what thoughts had it actually provoked?

I sat in silence for a few moments, and then these words almost magickally appeared on the screen, coming from a deeper source within me than my usual level of conscious awareness.

The Lesser Lights:

• Sun = God = Ra = Father = Hiram before his death = Junior Warden = The Plumb


• Moon = Goddess = Isis = Mary = Mother (Earth) = The Widow = Hiram as a dead level = Senior Warden = The Level


• Worshipful Master = Man, or the Potential of (a) Man (or Humanity) = Resurrected Sun Horus = Resurrected Son Jesus = Hiram as a raised perpendicular = The Widow's Son = Worshipful Master = The Square

Here I paused, as I pondered what I'd just written. I sat back, had another cup of coffee, and kept asking myself, "What then, are the greater lights, and what do they represent?"

After a few minutes, and more coffee, I wrote the following. At first, it was a struggle to find the right words. This didn't come as easily; it seemed to have had to filter through my mind, unlike the previous material, which just "appeared."

The square represents our "new," or resurrected self, or that potential in us.

The compasses, as we are told, represents circumscribing our actions, or drawing a circle around ourself, or a concentrated focus.

What then emerges? In most Masonic locales, there is a G within the merged square and compasses, or sometimes the Volume of Sacred Law, often the Holy Bible in Western cultures. The Bible here is not meant to be taken literally, but as a symbol, as are the square and compasses.

The VSL, or the letter G, must then represent the merging of the square and compasses, which leads to Gnosis, or enlightenment.

I sat back, satisfied that I'd written some good material, and had some more coffee.

I re-read what I'd written. I especially kept going back to the part in the lesser lights section about the Sun, and the Junior Warden. The thought that I'd never progressed past the office of Junior Warden kept popping into my head.

The myth of Ra, Isis and Horus is fairly well-known. But there's a player in the myth that isn't always mentioned. It's the same player found in the God/Mary/Jesus saga.

Darkness. Set. Satan.

In my mind, I began to overlay the Egyptian and Christian myths with the Hiramic legend, and that I overlaid on my own Masonic life. When I was Junior Warden of my lodge, I was, literally, accosted by three Past Masters whom I've semi-jokingly referred to in my mind and in print as the Three Ruffians, Jubelo, Jubela, and Jubelum. Those three were inspired to take the actions they did by one from the Grand Lodge, a man highly regarded by some in Masonry yet who to me has long represented the North, or Darkness. I had long blamed them for my "downfall," not only for knocking me out of my station in the lodge and off my path to the East in "real life," but also for derailing my Masonic-spiritual path.

In hindsight, I should thank them. Their actions, rude and unpleasant though they were, sent me online to seek my Masonic path to More Light. This blog, along with my regular reading of other Masonic blogs and sites, was a direct result of their seemingly unmasonic behavior. Had I continued in the normal progression to the East, I'd never have learned the many things I have learned. I'd just be "one of the guys," mumbling through rituals I had little understanding of, looking forward to receiving one of those gaudy Past Master's blue nylon jackets my lodge is fond of presenting to Past Masters.

Today I found that Light I'd long sought. I don't just mean the minor epiphany of better understanding the three lesser lights. I'm fascinated by myths and gods and goddesses and what they represent, but that's not the major revelation.

The major revelation is that I created the problems I had in lodge all by myself. Yes, the Ruffians and the Grand Lodge leader of the pack were wrong in their actions, at least in my eyes. But they were following their Paths as they best saw fit. What they did changed my Path, as I was not yet ready, or worthy, to sit in the East, neither physically in a lodgeroom, nor metaphorically-spiritually as captain of my own ship.

I'd never have come to understand the Masonic symbols — or lessons — had I remained "in the line." I'd never in a million years learn what Masonry "really" is sitting in regular lodge meetings in that lodge. It took being shunned by them, being away from them, to lead me to where I am today.

So I say a belated thank you to the Three Ruffians, and to the Man from the North. Without you I'd be just another soon-to-be Past Master of a physical lodge in rural north Georgia.

Because of you, today I accept the Master's chair of my own lodge, that is, my own life.

Masons | Masonic Lessons | Small Town Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Masonic Symbols | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

A rose is a rose is a rose

In the ridiculously titled article "Bush reveals his Freemasonry — again," blogger John Parsons calls Pres. Bush to task for saying, "...I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God."

I don't often agree with Bush, and as far as we know, Bush isn't a Freemason, but his statement is factually true.

Assume that God exists, and, as Muslims, Christians, and Jews believe, there is but one God. Logic dictates, then, that no matter who is doing the praying, and no matter what religious label they've taken upon themselves, the prayers are directed to the same Deity.

No matter what name you call him.

My son calls me Dad. My Masonic compatriots call me Brother, or Widow's Son. My parents call me Son. And my ex-wife calls me "you son of a bitch." But no matter what name I'm called, the name refers to me. There's only one me.

Ditto for God, as far as Muslims, Christians and Jews believe. There is only one God.

Why do the Christians who get upset at Bush for saying what he did think they own exclusive rights to "God"?

The Old Testament deity of the Jews was known by many names — El, Elohim, Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh, Adonai, Yahweh, etc. And Arabs, who typically believe in Allah, traditionally have their origin in Abraham's son Ishmael.

And of course, Christians co-opted the Jewish god as their own, confused things by also calling him Jesus, and then repeatedly translated most of the names of the deity into "Lord" or "God" when they printed the Bible, thus masking the many names of the Great Architect of the Universe.

"Official" spokesmen for God didn't like what the president said.

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, was quoted in the Baptist Press as saying the president "is simply mistaken."

According to a Washington Post account, Land said in an interview: “We should always remember that he is commander in chief, not theologian in chief. The Bible is clear on this: The one and true god is Jehovah, and his only begotten son is Jesus Christ.”

The Rev. Ted Haggard, then-president of the National Association of Evangelicals, also contradicted the president in a press statement. "The Christian God encourages freedom, love, forgiveness, prosperity and health," said Haggard. "The Muslim god appears to value the opposite. The personalities of each god are evident in the cultures, civilizations and dispositions of the peoples that serve them. Muhammad’s central message was submission; Jesus' central message was love. They seem to be very different personalities."

In November 2006, Haggard was forced to resign from NAE following allegations of drug use and sex with a homosexual prostitute.

Gary Bauer, former presidential candidate and president of American Values, said Bush's comment was "not helpful to the president. Since everybody agrees he's not a theologian, he would be much better advised to punt when he gets that kind of question."

I think Haggard, with his statement about the "personalities" of God, not only shows his ignorance (the Old Testament God rarely exhibited "love" as a trait, but instead was murderous and vengeful), but actually makes a case for the non-existence of God by showing that the traits we attribute to God are man-made. Both individuals and entire cultures create their own visions and versions of what God is to them. We see in God what we want God to be.

Perhaps Bush was being Masonic after all in his words, being tolerant of all religious viewpoints.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

— From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Masons | God | George W. Bush | Freemasonry | Religion | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Christian no more (verse 3)

Christians | Christ-Follower | Jesus | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Christian no more (verse 2)

Christians | Christ-Follower | Jesus | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Christian no more

Christians | Christ-Follower | Jesus | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Live like you're dying

Down at the bottom of this page, and every page on The Burning Taper, is a countdown timer set to December 21, 2012, the "Mayan end of time." That date is the last date on the Mayan calendar. Today, it says there are 2007 days left, and since this is the year 2007, what better time to talk about it? I mean, we only have five and a half years left.

You can find dozens of books and hundreds of websites devoted to explaining what the Mayan calendar ending on that date means. I have no idea what will happen that day — polar shifts and tsunamis, alien attacks, the return of Jesus, the Armageddon War, or Freemasons finally agreeing on what kind of barbecue sauce is best. Or it could be just like any other day, like Y2K, January 1, 2000 was.

I'm reminded of a cartoon I once saw depicting a loin-clothed stonemason, hammer and chisel in hand, standing in front of the rock the Mayan calendar is etched into.

An onlooker asks him, "Why does the calendar end on that date?"

"I ran out of room."

We're all going to run out of room one day.

None of us has a personal countdown timer. Our last day could be today, tomorrow, or 50 or even 100 years from now.

We have no guarantees. No one knows when the Reaper will come.

Saints and sages have given advice. "Live Like You Were Dying" was a popular country song by Tim McGraw. Jesus urged us not to worry about tomorrow. Eckhart Tolle suggests that anything other than living in the Now is insane. And Bro. Mark Twain wrote, "Sing like nobody's listening, dance like nobody's watching, love like you've never been hurt, and live like it's heaven on earth."

Somewhere in there is a message: Live like there is no tomorrow. Seize the day. Stop and smell the roses.

It will be Christmas 2012 before you know it.

Or not.

Mayan Calendar | 2012 | Live Like You're Dying | Freemasonry | End Times | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Teach your children

I know some of you don't like it when I talk about Christianity. If you're one of them, here's a choice of exit links for you: the Southern Baptist Convention's website, or the Roman Catholics' Vatican website. Pick your poison.

No, seriously. If Christianity is your sacred cow, stop reading now. I'm about to throw a little leftover Memorial Day hamburger on the grill.

It becomes more and more obvious to me that there must be something inherently wrong with a belief-system that generates this kind of madness and mayhem.

First case in point: A 19-year old man in the Texas Bible-belt microwaved his infant daughter. His wife, who is standing by him, said "the devil made him do it" to keep him from becoming a preacher.

Second case in point: Jack Chick. This guy has to be one of the nuttiest Christians ever. A hate-filled "loving" Christian, he's been producing sicko Christian tracts for what seems like forever, bashing every faith and belief other than his own warped view of Christianity. Michael at Full in Bull was discussing his tracts, and said that when he was in college he and his friends voted "The Last Generation" as the most ridiculous Jack Chick tract of all. I haven't read (and won't) all of Chick's tracts, but I remember laughing at them even as a kid. The theme that runs through Chick's pamphlets is fear. Fear and love are opposites; you can't use fear to send someone running into the loving arms of Jesus.

Point the third: Several weeks ago I wrote about a Mason-basher I'd discovered on the MySpace knock-off site YourChristianSpace.com. I set up an account there, and poked around through the weeds. It didn't take long to find the rantings of a 15-year-old girl aglow with Christian compassion. In the bulletin section, where everyone was sure to see it, was her breathless exhortation: "Please!!!! Everyone!!! YOU MUST SEE THIS VIDEO!!!" On her page was embedded the warped little movie you'll find at the bottom of this post, titled "Letter from Hell."

Her webspace indicated she'd been "born again" at the age of six, which means she has been inculcated — brainwashed if you will — into an evangelical form of the world's largest cult for nine years. Is this the kind of thing an otherwise intelligent youngster should have on her mind? Worrying that she will be responsible for someone else going to hell if she doesn't proselytize on a daily basis? I can't even imagine the nightmares this woman-child must have, and the neuroses she'll carry into adulthood.

Sunday an old friend contacted me, wanting to ask my advice on a personal matter. We hadn't spoken in a long time. She is a woman I dated briefly several years ago. We didn't go the romantic route, but became friends. As divorced people are apt to do, we talked a lot about our marriages.

Saturday night her oldest daughter, age 21, broke up with her longtime boyfriend. Her daughter is a sweet, decent, happy, deeply spiritual but not conventionally religious, outgoing young college student who is active in liberal causes. Her boyfriend of seven years ( ! ) had been a rowdy, alcohol-and-drug-abusing going-nowhere punk.

When her daughter got home Saturday night, she had a daughter-to-mother cry, and told her mom things she hadn't heard before.

About a year ago, she was told Saturday night, the boyfriend had "date-raped" her daughter. After that, he used the excuse that since they'd already had sex, they should continue. The daughter said she went along with it, but found it "messy" at best, saying it "did nothing for her."

It gets worse.

Somewhere along the way this otherwise rational young women had picked up this self-judgmental belief system: That she is ruined, and can never marry anyone else because she's had sex. She can't "give herself" to another man as a "pure woman." She's also disgusted by the idea of ever having sex with a man who has been with another woman.

It's not about disease, or safe sex, or any reason remotely rational. It's a warped idea about self-worth, and not an idea, I'm guessing, she came up with without some external stimulus.

My friend was bewildered at her daughter's attitude, because it is not something the daughter learned from the mother. Her other two, younger daughters, do not share the same attitude, either.

While talking to my friend, I remembered our long-ago discussions about her ex-husband. He had considered himself to be deeply religious. He carried a Bible with him everywhere he went. I hate to admit this, but he was also a Freemason. (I do not know him, and his lodge is at least 150 miles away from me.) Whenever anyone asked about Masonry, he said he'd be killed if he spoke even a word about it. He was also a heavy drinker, and would tell you all about Masonry when he drank.

He strongly believed women should not experience sexual pleasure, that it was all for the man, and that women should be punished if they felt desire or responded to desire.

He was a sometime violent and very controlling man, she said.

My meager contribution to the conversation was to simply ask if her ex-husband, the father of the daughter, could have been the source of the daughter's skewed self image, and whether her seven-year attraction to her equally controlling, "screwed-up" boyfriend could have been an attempt to use him as a replacement father-figure.

My friend, who had put her ex-husband out of mind for years (he seldom sees his children) was shocked, not that I had asked, but that I was probably right.

Needless to say, her reaction opened up issues better left unmentioned here.

My point is this: There is something about religion that makes some people crazy. It's not just Christians; it's readily apparent in Islam, too. The zealotry and the better-that-thou attitudes taught by religions set up in followers the psychological need to convert others to their way of thinking, by physical force or mental intimidation, or both, if necessary. It creates an us-versus-them mentality, where the "us" are more righteous than the "heathens" who don't follow the same religious belief system. Often religious people even squabble with their own kind, who happen to believe only slightly differently; Protestants vs. Catholics, for example, or consider the hatred between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

Religions have set themselves up as moral authorities which push its adherents to want to be judge and jury on private matters, like sex, or alcohol consumption, or the subjugation of women, or how many times you pray and what compass direction you bow towards. And religions have fostered beliefs in some odd, superstitious things, too, like Hell and Satan and that dead people can get up and walk out of their graves.

Just as Masons congregate on this blog and elsewhere to discuss the changes needed in Freemasonry, and debate what is the real point of Freemasonry and how best to get back to it, so too should Christians discuss and get back to — soon, I hope — the whole point of Christianity.

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second to love your neighbor. He didn't say anything about judging them, or killing them, or treating your wife badly, or making your kids a bit crazy with bizarre attitudes about sex or fears of Hell.

I'm pretty sure Jesus wouldn't approve of his followers microwaving babies, either.



Masons | Masonic Trial | Small Town Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Georgia | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

(Some) Christians crack me up

Quite often someone leaves a comment on The Burning Taper suggesting I "apparently have a problem with Christians."

It's not that. It's just that I can't open a newspaper, scan the web, or turn on the television without something strange, funny or just downright bizarre relating to something said or done in the name of Christianity jumping out at me.

Here are some recent examples:

A small town Georgia newspaper ran an article called "Bethany Church: An old church with a new vision" recently. It's a regular "church of the week" feature, commonly known in the newspaper game as "filler."

When asked what the church's mission is, Pastor Allen Howard said, "...going to heaven when we die, and taking as many people with us as possible."

Fine. Wonderful mission. Sign me up.

But what I found most humorous is this pudgy preacher's nickname: "Buddha."

Maybe it's just my warped sense of humor, but calling your preacher by the name of another religion's god object of spiritual adoration just cracks me up. If this guy had been thin, effeminate, bearded and had long hair, would they call him Jesus?

(Actually, he looks a bit like Alfred Hitchcock, doesn't he?)

Meanwhile, in Utah, Republican Party District 65 Chairman Don Larsen has decided that illegal immigration into the United States is part of Satan's plot to "destroy the U.S... as predicted in the Scriptures." He has introduced a resolution against the Devil. Yeah, that'll stop Him.

The resolution, in part, reads: "In order for Satan to establish his 'New World Order' and destroy the freedom of all people as predicted in the Scriptures, he must first destroy the U.S. The mostly quiet and unspectacular invasion of illegal immigrants does not focus the attention of the nations the way open warfare does, but is all the more insidious for its stealth and innocuousness."

Even his Republican compatriots are backing away from this misguided man.

A British blogger regularly rants against the Islamic invasion of his country, and promises "as a Christian it is my responsibility to stand before my God and my country in defence of this Evil enemy that has invaded our shores."

In February Lionheart called for the Knights Templar, the "legendary Army of Christian Warriors," to rise up and fight to protect his "Judeo-Chistian way of life" from the godless hordes of Islamic would-be conquerers flooding England.

He writes: "My God is real and all other gods are idols. I put out a call to every other person who has been chosen and anointed by God to rise up and let us unite as brothers and sisters in the Most Holy Faith with the divine mandate given from Heaven to defend the peaceful people of the Christian and Jewish world that expands the entire globe, against the Evil of Islam."

Didn't the Brits once conquer much of the world, so much so that it was said the sun never set upon the British Empire? Now that the tide is flowing the other way, it's not so pretty. Call out the Templars!

So, anyway, a few months later, he posted a rant against those damned Freemasons, about how Freemasons, "along with the Moslems from Luton... [are] threatening the whole community and the time has come for them to sweep their house clean or expect the 'Wrath of God' wrought through men to come upon them."

I guess he's unaware that many people believe the Knights Templar went underground and later re-emerged as Freemasons.

In Indiana the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church working with the Christian gay advocacy group Faith in America put up 22 billboards and 1,000 yard signs promoting tolerance towards homosexuals. Several of the billboards have been vandalized, and other Christian churches in the area are unhappy with the signs, the Indy Star reported on Wednesday.

The signs show a traditional Jesus-face or other Biblical image and one of these statements:

• Jesus affirmed a gay couple. Matthew 8:5-13
• Ruth loved Naomi as Adam loved Eve. Genesis 2:24, Ruth 1:14
• Jesus said some are born gay. Matthew 19:10-12
• The early church welcomed a gay man. Acts 8:26-40
• David loved Jonathan more than women. II Samuel 1:26

The website WouldJesusDiscriminate.com has graphics of the billboards, and an in-depth discussion of (including audio files of sermons) each of these statements from a Biblical, historical and Greek-to-English translation perspective.

Christianity | Knights Templar | Homosexuality | Freemasonry | Jesus | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

The Sun of God

I've written several times on, or made reference to, astrotheology, which is the study of, or belief, that the Sun, Moon, planets and stars and their movements are the basis for all mythological and religious stories.

Earlier articles include:

• Get your theocracy off my democracy
• Happy Vernal Equinox!
• Let there be Light!
• The God Who Wasn't There

I have come to believe this is not only the basis of the general story of Jesus and other savior-gods who came before and since Him, but is also the source of the Masonic legend of Hiram Abiff, and why the Sun and Moon are such important symbols in Freemasonry.

This doesn't discount the fact that Jesus may actually have existed; it simply calls into question whether the widespread astrotheological beliefs of the ancient Middle East and later Rome were superimposed upon a historical man who was the descendant of King David and rightful heir to the title King of the Jews, and that then superimposed onto religious, spiritual and moral philosophies and commandments.

Heretical? Yes. True? Could be. It vibrates as truth to me.

I live in the country, where the lights of the city don't block out the stars at night. I sit outside in the evenings regularly, basking in their shimmering, subtle rays. I can't observe a sunrise or sunset, or watch the motion of the Moon, Venus and the constellations without the overwhelming feeling that humanity has been doing the same thing for eons, watching the sky with a curious amazement, creating stories to explain what they see.

Until now.

In today's world, we seldom look up. We take the Heavens for granted. To most of us, space is just a place we send satellites and shuttles, and a setting for sci-fi soap operas and shoot-em-ups.

I stood in awe a few months ago, watching a perfect lunar eclipse just after sunset, with hundreds of unaware people near me, first outside a scouting function I was attending at a local elementary school, and then in a Wal-Mart parking lot.... A few scouts came out to watch with me, but to my knowledge, no one there even knew the eclipse was happening until I mentioned it to a few people who then joined me outside. Later, at Wal-Mart, shoppers bustled through the parking lot, not noticing the magnificent light show in the sky, as I leaned against my car watching for another half hour.

Is not the Sun the Giver of Life? It shines upon us, warms us, and feeds us. It is the Light without which we would die. Humanity figured that out long ago, and deified it, calling it (or its human, often kingly "son") Jupiter, Zeus, Apollo, Ra, Osiris, Mithras, Deus Sol Invictus, and finally, Jesus, the Son of God. Some Hindu teachings have 12 names for the Sun, one for each month. Sun-chariots are pulled by 12 horses. Its disk shape is the All-Seeing Eye of God to Freemasons, and together with the (apparent) same-sized Moon disk, it is the Eye of Horus, the child of Osiris and Isis. The child is or becomes the parent, just as Jesus, the Son of God, is also considered God the Father.

It's not easy making this "leap of faith," that the Jesus story as we usually hear it is a myth. I'm as steeped in Christianity as any one of you reading this, perhaps moreso. Sunday School threats of eternal damnation for disbelief still rattle around in my brain, I guess.

But it's never made sense to me. Jesus, the scapegoat. God killing himself on a cross because He loves us, but damning us if we don't believe it. Paul, the former Christian-hater, writing all the rules of Christianity, right down to silly requirements about women wearing hats to church that most Christians ignore. Judas died either by hanging himself, or by falling off a cliff, depending on which book of the Bible you read. Walking on water. Raising the dead. Miracles....

These things are illogical and in most cases impossible, and if someone told you any of this happened in modern times, you'd laugh and call them a kook. Because people don't rise from the dead or fly or walk on water, except in movies and comic books. And myths.

And don't even get me started on the Old Testament Yahweh, the baby-killing, nation-smiting, jealously insecure God in a Box. That God certainly isn't "love."

I read recently there are 30,000 different sects or variations of Christianity on the planet. If any one of them is "right," the other 29,999 are wrong by definition.

But... if it's all metaphorical, allegorical, symbolic — then and only then does it resonate rationally within me.

There you go.... There's my "testimony" as it stands today. I don't expect I'll be invited to give it at the local Baptist church, but so it goes.

Have I been duped by the Devil, doomed to Hell for my non-belief in today's "standarized" version of an age-old world mythology? I don't think so. It doesn't seem that way to me. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his essay "On Self Reliance,"

On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, — "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the devil’s child, I will live then from the devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.

None of this means I don't necessarily believe in a God, or a Great Architect of the Universe, or a Higher Power, or the survival of the soul or survival of the personality after death, nor does it deny the desirability of being moral, upright, compassionate or spiritual. It's simply my attempt to shake off the shackles of a twisted theology based in fear, foisted upon me at an early age, and to replace it with something of value that makes sense.

This, for now, is my Truth. I don't ask that it be yours.

You might enjoy the video below. You can watch it here, or on YouTube.com.



Image: Sunrise over the Atlantic, taken on the shores of Daytona Beach, Florida, July 4, 2005. Released into the public domain.

Masons | Astrotheology | Solar Worship | Freemasonry | Christianity | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Statue of Liberation through Christ: Does it honor God, or is it just a ridiculous eyesore?

As if Memphis isn't already gaudy enough with all that Elvis-worshiping going on at Graceland, a mega-church last summer erected what some might call a blasphemy not only to Jehovah and Jesus but to America and America's goddess.

Behold, the Statue of Liberation through Christ!

It's a $260,000 ridiculous eyesore that blurs the line between church and state, some say. Others call it "a creative means of just really letting people know that God is the foundation of our nation."

Whatever you call it, it's big. Standing 72 feet tall, this confused goddess is the brainchild of World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church and its pastor, Apostle Alton R. Williams. It is a replica of the Statue of Liberty, bastardized with the Ten Commandments under one arm and "Jehovah" inscribed on her crown.

Instead of a torch, she holds aloft a huge gold cross.

And, a single tear is on her cheek. How touching.

In "The Meaning of the Statue of Liberation Through Christ: Reconnecting Patriotism With Christianity," the Apostle Williams explains that the teardrop is God's response to what he calls the nation's ills, including legalized abortion, a lack of prayer in schools and the country's "promotion of expressions of New Age, Wicca, secularism and humanism."

At the unveiling last July 4th, Williams proclaimed, "I decree the spirit of conviction on this intersection. This statue proves that Jesus Christ is Lord over America, he is Lord over Tennessee, he is Lord over Memphis."

Williams is a prolific and opinionated writer. In another book, he said Hurricane Katrina was retribution for New Orleans' embrace of sin.

In yet another book, Williams promotes the theory that the original Statue of Liberty was given to the U.S. by France as a symbol of the emancipation of slaves in the U.S., not as a general gesture of good will. His church is predominantly black, and he bases his non-mainstream belief on the fact that Lady Liberty has a broken shackle around one ankle.

This idea has been debated for years, and the general consensus is that it is not true. The designer of the original statue, sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (a Freemason, by the way) was commissioned to build it. He had engineering help from Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the designer of Paris' Eiffel Tower. The project was a joint effort between France and the United States — France built the statue, and America built the pedestal, soliciting funds from the public to pay for it. It was timed to commemorate the USA's 100th birthday in 1876.

Williams certainly thinks big, and his church certainly qualifies as mega with its 12,000 members. It has a school, a bowling alley, a roller rink, and a bookstore.

I hope the store sells paperweight replicas of the statue. One would look swell on my shelf next to my bobble-head Elvis.

Sources:
New York Times article, July 4, 2006
The U.S. Park Service

Statue of Liberation through Christ | Apostle Alton Williams | World Overcomes Outreach Ministries Church | Christianity | Jesus Christ | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com