Elaborating the Platitudes

Marshall’s Hierarchy of Care

• Take care of yourself
  o Drink in moderation & don't smoke
  o Eat right
  o Exercise
  o Get enough sleep
  o Meditate and/or pray. Whatever works
  

• Take care of your family
  o Be together
  o Eat meals together
  o Listen to each other
  o Give thanks together
  o Play together

• Take care of others
  o Be flexible with your schedule
  o Be prompt and reliable
  o Be spontaneous in your ministry
  o Make sure the lines of communication are open between you and your supervisor, co-workers and patients
  o Whatever you do, view it as a service and that the support and care you can give to others is paramount

• Take care of your country
  o Be an informed voter
  o Vote
  o Work for equality
  o Work for peace
  o Work for social tolerance

• Take care of our world
  o Drive at the speed limit
  o Maintain your car to maximize efficiency
  o Plan all routes to minimize mileage
  o Recycle and minimize output of non-biodegradables
  o Turn off unused lights, turn down the heat

Profound Platitudes & More!

What I Believe:
· I believe someone like Jesus lived 2000 years ago
· I believe he was executed for being controversial and speaking his vision of the truth
· I believe his claim that the kingdom of heaven is within each of us
· I believe the discipline required to seek the kingdom of heaven within us is akin to the Buddhist practice of sitting and breathing
· I believe Jesus was the son of God as I believe we are all sons & daughters of God
· I believe the sum of all living things is God
· I believe that being present in the moment is being in the presence of God

What I Don’t Believe:
· I don’t believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God
· I don’t believe in the initial covenant of God that required animal sacrifices
· I don’t recognize Jesus’ execution as being “a perfect sacrifice”

5 Profound Platitudes:
· Take care of yourself, first. Get enough sleep. Don’t drink too much. Eat right & exercise. You’re no good to anyone unless you are well.
· Take care of your family. Make sure the lines of communication are open. Talk to each other but above all listen to each other.
· Take care of others. Whatever you do, view it as a service and that the support and care you can give to others is paramount.
· Take care of our world. It’s all we have and it is quite possible we could bring about its demise and our own termination unless we consciously work not to.
· Neither the past nor the future exists. Be awake and open to the Now and the infinite possibilities it offers.

God Defined:
· God is that which connects each one of us to every other living thing on this planet.

Where fundamentalist Christianity fails:
· Because it is the only way, millions of people will fry eternally because they believe something else.
· All the prayer, love and hope in the world can’t change that, because millions of people have and will continue to believe something else.

Today’s Issues (the ones that get under their skin):
· Who cares if two men want to marry each other? It’s better than two men who want to kill each other!
· I don’t value tissue inside a woman’s body over a living breathing sentient autonomous human. Keep the government out of women’s bodies.
· Stem cell research does not kill a living breathing sentient autonomous human. But it could perhaps help one.

The Simplest Way

Christians are angry because they have no proof. They desperately want the End of Days to be here because once the Book of Revelations begins to unfold in real time, they will have their proof.

It seems that all the trouble they get into centers around the idea that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. Because of that belief (actually fact to them), evolution can’t be an accepted theory because it contradicts the Bible.

The dinosaurs were wiped out not by a meteor shower but most likely by Noah’s flood. I’m sure the dimensions God gave Noah fell short of housing two Dilophosaurus, two Tyrannosaurus Rex' and a pair of Brachiosaurus to boot. Hence they were left behind to fend for themselves as water began to cover…the entire planet!

The problem Christians run into is in trying to convince the rest of us that the Bible is inerrant while providing no proof. How does one convince someone that something is absolutely correct without having it hold up under scientific scrutiny?

Furthermore, just what is this Bible anyway? If the Christian God is the trinity of Father, Son & Holy Ghost, where does the Bible fit into that equation? If the Bible is God’s Word, is it supposedly God itself?

It seems to me most fundamentalist Christians love their Bible more than God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost combined. Now I find myself asking the question, Can Christianity exist without the Bible? At the risk of committing total heresy, I believe it absolutely can. For the concepts of Christianity are simple and universal. It’s that damned book that gets in everybody’s way.

I think when Jesus is described pointing to his own chest and stating “the Kingdom of Heaven is in here” he meant not simply his own chest, his own heart, but within each human body, within each living creature, each and every heartbeat, brainwave and involuntary nervous system.

To walk in the spirit, from moment to moment, free from wants and desires, open to the opportunities to serve others, open to the possibilities that present themselves rather than attempting to adhere to some contrived to-do list, is the simplest way to go.