Inner Anarchy -- Over the Edge
And other thoughts by Jim Parker
A [Conservative] Religious Guide to Sabotaging Your Life:
1. Begin with the premise that there is something hopelessly and incurably wrong with you.2. Believe that your humanity is an affront to God, an obstacle to overcome, and an evil to repress or eradicate.
3. Pin your hopes on the afterlife, and don’t get too interested in the herelife.
4. Mistrust what you most deeply feel.
5. Give others the power and authority to determine what your beliefs, values, opinions, goals, desires, and views are.
6. Fear, reject, condemn, and close yourself off from anything that doesn’t fit with what you got from the above.
7. Focus on behavior modification, checklists, do’s and don’ts, obedience, and keeping the rules when it comes to living your life.
8. Give up or kill off all your needs and desires as a sign of spiritual maturity and call it "dying to self."
9. Make sure everything and everyone in life is assigned a label or put into a box.
10. Label science, psychology, and art as “secular,” “carnal,” or “worldly,” and stay away from it.
11. Consider talk of love, unity, harmony, peace, beauty and oneness as childish, foolish, idealistic, or dangerous.
12. Draw a line between "sacred" and "secular" and divide up the world accordingly.
13. Divide humankind up into "us" and "them," and stay away from "them" and judge “them” from a distance.
14. Lock up and throw away the key to your sexuality and get busy focusing on something that is holy.
15. Put forth a valiant effort to project and maintain an image that lines up with the expectations of your religious community, and hide the ways you don't.
16. Don't ask questions, rock the boat, challenge authority, think for yourself, or listen to that voice inside... just keep doing or believing even if it violates something deep inside of you.
- Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge
15 Things Jesus Didn’t Say
15 things Jesus Didn’t Say:
“For God was so disgusted with the world and you that he gave his one and only Son.”
“I have come to bring you a new religion.”
“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have correct theology.”
“If anyone would come after me, let him disparage all other religions and their followers.”
“If you love me, you will regularly attend a church of your choice… within reason.”
“Blessed are the tithers for they shall be called the children of God.”
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in Heaven after the earth goes up in flames and is destroyed.”
“You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor,’ which means the people with whom you attend church and relate to in your Christian sub-culture.”
“In my Father’s house there are a limited number of rooms. But no worries, there is plenty of room in Hell.”
“The kingdom of God has come!… Well, not exactly. I mean, not completely. Let’s face it, the really-real kingdom comes after we die. Hang in there. It won’t be long.”
“And you will know the truth and the truth will make you superior to all the other simpletons who never learned Greek or Hebrew.”
“You are the light of the world… well… in a sinful-filthy-scum kind of way.”
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you a checklist of things to do and not do in order to remain in God’s favor.”
“For God so loved the world… you know like theoretically… as in, God loves the big ‘W’-world. But when it come to you specifically, there are quite a few things that would need to change for God to actually and specifically love… or even like… YOU.”
“He appeared to his disciples over a period of 40 days and spoke about how to incorporate his life and teaching as a 501(c)3, and go into all the earth to build mega-churches in his name.”
– Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge: Unmasking the Truth to End Your Suffering
23 of my own religious rules I broke, and glad I did
23 of my own religious rules I broke, and glad I did:
1. Whatever it is you believe, it must pass the mind’s test of logic and reason.
2. Don’t trust or follow what you feel deep inside.
3. Don’t try this apart from the institutional structures and programs of church.
4. If it has anything to do with God, ultimate reality, and the deepest longings of your soul, count on it being near impossible for someone like you to figure it out.
5. Don’t fraternize with non-believers or people of different religious or spiritual beliefs.
6. Just assume that what others say the Bible says is actually what the Bible says, especially if the person saying it is someone who is supposed to know that sort of thing.
7. That deep feeling of love, peace, freedom, joy and contentment can’t be God. Instead, you should probably start feeling guilty about where you are falling short with God.
8. Reduce your life only to those things that you can fit into the “God” category. If necessary, justify other things by creatively establishing some remote correlation.
9. When you become progressive or more enlightened, look down your nose (in compassion of course) upon those poor souls who have yet to reach your level.
10. Assume that everything you’ve been told or currently know is all there is to truth and anything refuting it must be wrong. In other words, you’ve arrived with virtually nothing left to learn except for trying harder with what you already know.
11. If you keep applying the same formula or beliefs and it doesn’t produce the result it promised, assume the problem is you.
12. Don’t waste your time with the small stuff, do something big or join something big.
13. Have a social justice persona. Remember that the image can suffice even if you don’t really have the time or inclination to respond to people in need along the everyday paths of life.
14. Make sure a majority if not all of your conversations are overtly connected somehow to “God.” Unless the word is actually used or some closely associated word, the conversation doesn’t really count in terms of eternal value.
15. Be at least slightly skeptical and conflicted about truly enjoying very ordinary moments in your life like the feeling of the warm sunshine on your face, playing a board game with your daughter, walking your dog, taking photographs, enjoying the quiet, lounging around with your family – that kind of meaningless stuff.
16. Proceed as if figuring out truth is a matter of your intellect.
17. Make sure at all times there is some burning question you have to answer or some enlightening understanding you must attain before you can rest.
18. Don’t take personal responsibility for the insanity of your beliefs and practices that were damaging and destructive. Blame and resent others.
19. Measure and judge others based on where you are. Just assume if it’s a place where you currently are, everyone else should be there. If it’s something you now believe, everyone else should believe it. If it works for you, it should work for everyone.
20. Draw your conclusions from the data gathered through your physical senses. For example, come to a determination about others based on their appearance, attitude, and actions.
21. Just accept at the outset that your humanity is your enemy.
22. Equate God’s blessing with improved circumstances or existing in a constant state of “good feelings.”
23. Don’t ever let yourself fully give into love and freedom.
15 Things Jesus DID Say
15 Things Jesus DID Say:
“There’s only one litmus test to authenticate if someone gets what I’m about – love.”
“The kingdom of God is here and now, which means it’s not somewhere else and later.”
“If you’ve reached perfection on your journey, feel free to judge others. Otherwise, be quiet.”
“My peace is not as this world gives. Your strategy to control circumstances in order to be happy won’t work… ever.”
“You religious people have your nose buried in the Bible, feeling all smug about your spiritual maturity. But you wouldn’t know my truth if it knocked you in the head.”
“There is no mountain, sacred place or church building where God expects to be worshiped. True worship is a way of seeing – it’s spotting and honoring the divine in all things.”
“You think you are doing well because you have not been hauled off to prison for murder, but your harsh and critical spirit is no different.”
“Embracing my truth will make you a heretic in most people’s minds and you will be persecuted. No worries; you’re on the right track in my kingdom.”
“God and I are one, you are included.”
“I have to die. Otherwise, you’re going to create a religion around my human personhood and personality, rather than embrace and give expression to my spirit and truth.”
“Don’t say you love God and then hate people. Those two things can’t be true at the same time.”
“You and God are not separated and never have been. You are connected to God like a branch to a vine – the essence and nature of God is the sap running through your veins.”
“You can’t reduce my way to a book. The same spirit that filled and led me fills and leads you. Follow that spirit.”
“You think your humanity is an affront to God. If this were true how could I be one with God?”
“You look into the sky to find some God that sits on a throne. You want to see God? You’re looking at him. Now, see that same God as yourself.”
– Jim Palmer
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