Leaderboard

Have a happy, peaceful Christmas and a joyful new year. Be safe and blessed.

Indeed. Seems Adam-ness alone was incapable of generating much more than feral children. Re: the original topic of reasonable bases for rejecting written things as God-breathed… Most of us modern folk seem to have inherited a crippling underestimation of the value and impact of story AS story in the cultivation of wisdom, especially regarding ancient sacred texts. Both fantasy and literalism are easily debunked and mocked by mere objectivism, which then naively dismisses the very real vitality of myth. I find that ideas like James Fowler's Stages of Faith seem to offer helpful approaches to noticing and evaluating patterns in the different ways we interpret text and life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Fowler Sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, the presence and importance of stage-to-stage patterns of inner maturation (and lack thereof) seem ubiquitous throughout not only the modern Bible, but most of the world's sacred texts. Plant metaphors seem especially common as most direct and vivid examples of how inner life unfolds within (Unfortunately, it also seems, nothing stops almost anyone from mis-applying easily noticeable patterns of nature as a way to violate, manipulate, and exploit using plant terminology.). We can also see matching patterns in both interpretation and application in spite of the specific language set or mythology being used. The texts of all major world religions seem to have groups of adult folks interpreting and applying them from every phase of inner growth. Most worldview conflicts occur not only between similar stages of maturity (like fundamentalism versus fundamentalism), but also between different stages of immaturity (like fundamentalism versus empiricism versus de-construction). Tragically, perhaps, an almost wholesale rejection of the reality (and measurability) of such manifold patterns of inner maturity does seem like a quite natural consequence in societies where the very humiliations necessary for such growth are also seen as dangerous enemies. Our capacities to touch, hold and handle the fires of shame determine how resistant we are to life’s gauntlets of wisdom. Like a flaming sword that keeps us from returning to our original nature.

I noticed this Bickle group likes using catchy phrases, like the 24/7 Prayer Room. In 2017, I presented a paper at an International Cultic Studies Association conference about breaking the power of cult symbols (and catchy phrases), using TWI as an example. Attached is the PDF of that paper for your enjoyment. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc. and Happy New Year! Charlene Breaking the Power of Cult Symbols.pdf