The Naughty Trinity. Ahem. Knotty, that is.

A time and place where one would have been burned at the stake for saying it doesn't matter if one defines God as three-fold in nature, says Dr. Tom.... and I am reminded, yet again, how truly blessed I am to live in this time and place given the nature of my mouth!

The Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Here's the deal. It is my observation that human nature desires an experience of the Trinity. We desire to experience God/Spirit/DivineMind/Allah as Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence in the universe....we ALSO desire a personal, intimate experience of God/Spirit/DivineMind/Allah, as is evidenced in spiritual practice- pick a religion- through prayer, meditation, devotion...we ALSO desire evidence of the activity of God/Spirit/DivineMind/Allah in the physical world. These desires shape our experience of God, our religious- oh, I mean spiritual- practices, as well as our understanding of God.

We have already agreed that God cannot be defined nor proven. What do we have but understanding developed through our experience of God? Faith? Yes. That leap of faith gives us the sand in the sandbox of theological discussion. For me, the Holy Trinity provides a description of my Divine experience- it helps me wrap my brain around that which is unproveable and yet undeniable! Do I determine, then, that God IS three parts in one? Dude, how should I know?! I do know that in my life I experience the one God in three identifiable ways described in the Trinity- Transcendental, personal, and activity in the world. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Mind, Idea, Expression. YES! YES! YES! The question of defining God this way would require asking God how does God define Itself! I can only define my experience of God and while I will insist with passion and fervor that my experience is true- it is not the only experience of God. Regarding the concept of trinity, however, I observe that across culture and religion, humankind has demonstrated desire to experience God in this three-fold way.

Spirituality and Tiger Gods

We used the Latin derivitive of the word religion, "religio", which means "to do something with scrupulous attention to detail" to help distinguish religion from spirituality. Class discussion and several blog posts have explored the implications made by those who claim to be spiritual and not religious. Debate can be held about the spiritual practices of one who claims to not be religious but by definition is "guilty" of practicing their spirituality religiously. It's of little consequence how a person chooses to self-identify and it seems that those who claim to be spiritual, not religious are making a broader statement of taking conscious responsibility for their beliefs and practices as opposed to engaging in practices and holding beliefs because a religious/spiritual leader has indicated how it should be done. By the same token, a person can choose to be religious about a belief or practice, making for a boring debate. It reminds of the juvenile self-proclaimed outcast who dresses like all of the other self-proclaimed outcasts- by juvenile I'm referring to youth not maturity level, though we could create a discussion on that matter alone.

We also spent time in class discussing the notion that there are "no tiger gods where there are no tigers." The current access to mass media available to billions of people allows the experience of learning about and engaging in religious practices of cultures and peoples vastly different from one's culture of origin. People, for the first time in history, have access to endless information right in the palms of their hands and I think this contributes largely to the notion of identifying as spiritual. People in Western culture want to separate the religion (read dogma) of their forefathers from the ideas of spirituality of other religions that can be explored with a sense of personal freedom and wonder. We all know someone who is religious about finding new ways to be spiritual, new beliefs to explore, and new practices to, um, practice. There are now tiger gods where there are no tigers and in the opportunity to explore religious doctrine and practice lives the opportunity to deepen spiritual awareness and to religiously practice the deepening of spiritual awareness. I am spiritual. And about that, I'm religious. But don't call me a religious person, yo!!! -love, GenX

Religious Tyranny (or making the world a "better place")

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."  -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

We held a very safe class discussion about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, comparing his eventual efforts to engage in religious tyranny (involvement in attempt to kill Hitler, whom he believed to be the anti-Christ) to Ghandi and his peace position revealed in this quote: "I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill." Dr. Tom asked the question if, as Christians, we are to focus on spiritual pursuits, living our lives as purported examples, or work to make the world a better place (even to the point of committing murder). I have participated in more than one Unity sponsored class where the discussion included finding the Divine spark that lived in Hitler as an exercise of grappling with ideas of evil in the world. The discussion is often presented in a tidy manner with little variance in comments regarding views on pacifism as good and evil as errant thought and misuse of Divine power.

I find it difficult to comment on the morality of assassination when I can go to sleep each night with certainty that a bomb will not fall on my sleeping children nor will an army invade my home with intent to rape, kill, or steal us. Were that not my every day assumption, at what point would I feel spiritually justified in supporting the killing of the dictator of said evil? And the bigger question, at what point are those who possess the means to end such activity held morally accountable for looking the other way? It is easier to spout off the higher moral ground 'be peace expressing in the world' when life supports the experience of peace. In considering Dr. Tom's question of what is mine to do as a spiritual practitioner on the spectrum that at one end would find me living in a mountain cave in meditative devotion and at the other end would find me a religious tyrant traveling the world looking for evil-doers to kill, I have to say that while I might from time to time fantasize about both planes of being- I'm just not sexy enough for either extreme. I live in the middle somewhere. I am deeply influenced by my trailblazing aunt, Dolores Huerta, who along with Cesar Chavez founded the United Farmworkers union and has spent her life influencing the government and the creation of laws to protect migrant farmworkers in that I am spiritually called to support, educate, and inspire better living. What is my duty to support, educate, and inspire peace in the world? Do my spiritual convictions allow me to live peacefully with a mass murderer? Let's get down and dirty here. The U.S. government has not been stopped by the voices of the mass in efforts to seek and destroy the likes of Hussein, Bin Laden, Koresh. While some may disagree with the decision and effort, as a society we agree to leave the dirty work to the government and by and large without protest. Do we divide our spiritual conviction from our moral code as citizens? Bonhoeffer did not and he is labeled religious tyrant. We sit in class and say with confidence murder in the name of religion is wrong, yet our own government (by the people, for the people) practices the death penalty and our military participates in assassination missions against those who break the law, the law which reflects the moral conviction held by our society. I feel like we cheat the question by not recognizing the full scope of our context. And for the ability to cheat the question, I am grateful. For the general safety and freedom I experience, I am grateful. It is good to consider how our spiritual conviction determines our activity in making the world a better place and to what extent is the scope of duty defined by these convictions. 

"The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still small voice within." -Ghandi