Make Your Own Bible

Fundamentalism in religion is primarily the result of a literal interpretation of a sacred text. This is where it starts. This is how it is fueled. It is an approach where compromise is unacceptable, where the whole text has dominance over any individual passage. Consequently, in the fundamentalist’s mind, everything in their sacred text is pure, right, and infallible.

The Christian Bible, the Muslim Koran, the Jewish Torah or Old Testament, are the three primary sacred texts that are often taken by their individual groups of believers as literally true in every word. Hindus have the Bhagavad Gita but they do not worship it in the sense these other religions do their Books. Buddhists have no holy text but instead are guided by sutras or the sayings and teachings of Buddha. Rarely do you see fundamentalists among Hindus or Buddhists.

I have read from all of these sacred texts. The Bible is the only book I have read completely through and it seemed to take me forever to do it; which was years ago. But all of them have beautiful, powerful, wise and insightful teachings.

There are, however, with the exception of the Gita and the sutras, passages of violence and cruelty in all of these texts. There is patriarchal dominance. There is the justification of slavery. There is the subjugation of women. There is prejudice. And these violations of humanity and others are, if you take a literal approach to these holy texts, supported by God, by Allah, and by Moses and Paul.

This is how Islamic fundamentalists justify their brutal killing sprees today. This is how Jewish fundamentalists have no problem committing the wholesale slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. This is how Christian fundamentalists feel righteous in bombing abortion clinics, murdering abortion physicians, threatening and bullying abortion workers, and stopping all abortions for any reason. Their holy books tell them this is how, under certain circumstances, their God operates. And they are to go and do likewise.

One would hope that at some point in the obedience of these fundamentalist believers they would stop and ask some questions. Does the God of their sacred texts really want them to hurt or threaten or destroy other human beings in the name of their God? Isn’t there a higher obligation to humankind in these texts than revenge, violence and hate? And shouldn’t believers follow those loftier instructions instead?

The majority of Muslims, Jews, and Christians do follow a higher standard. The majority do find ways to put aside the questionable passages of their holy texts and focus on the beauty, the wisdom, the grace and love their texts teach.

In the end, don’t we go to religion to more fully inhabit our lives, to open ourselves to the sacred and the transcendent, to learn to manage our terrible urges, to rise to a place of love for our neighbors, to feel the hurts of people in pain and find how we can help, to experience inner healing, to wake out of selfishness, and to in some way protect our world and keep it out of the dark abysses of hate?

Shouldn’t that be the consequence of religion, to empower its followers to care for this world so they might be less apt to destroy it and one another?

Emerson, the wise essayist and thinker, once wrote, “Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”

I take Emerson to mean one would collect the things that stir their soul, enlighten their mind, guide them to bigger and more useful living. I don’t see how that could be any less desirable and certainly much more sensible than for one to accept their sacred text so literally that is allows them to do the worst things possible.

© 2014 Timothy Moody

If I had five minutes to evacuate--what would I take with me?

If I was told there was a bomb in my building and I had five minutes to evacuate my apartment I’d grab a grocery bag and quickly toss these items into it: 1. A photo of my grandparents, Mom and Pop and me, when I was 15 years old. I learned what love is made of from them. I learned what it is to be kissed on and hugged in arms so tender they felt like God’s arms. I discovered self worth from those two angels in human flesh. Of all the people in my life, they were the ones who made me feel I counted. Honestly, whatever capacity I have to love others came from them. 2. A sentimental, dog-eared, stars in the margin copy of Pat Conroy’s, “The Prince of Tides.” It is a book I have read three times and often return to for its wisdom. It is a harsh, profoundly tragic novel, the story of a family so broken and tortured by such flawed and wounded people that it is sometimes difficult to turn the next page. And yet it is the story of such Herculean courage and endurance that you want...

I Saw the Delicacy of Life

I was flying Across the deep And I saw the delicacy Of life Wrinkles on the faces Of the old So pure they glistened Like awards The joy of children Running with abandon Their laughter ringing Like chimes in the wind I saw the soft moving waves Across the sea And the trees releasing Their rainbow leaves Birds joined me on my flight And I saw the surface of their wings Adorned with patterns Glorious and unfurled I saw the tears of the sad And the smiles of the glad The suffering in mourning And the celebration of birth As I descended toward the ground Slowly, slowly, softly I saw the gentle grass of the field And smelled the fresh earth It was a perfect landing © 2018 Timothy Moody

Actions Make a Difference

“We make progress in society only if we stop cursing and complaining about its shortcomings and have the courage to do something about them.” ~ Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Physician/Author Pictured here is Kikuko Shinjo, 89 years old, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast. As a 17-year old nursing student she helped nurse victims of the carnage back to health. Many of them died in her care. She says she holds no grudge against America and encourages interaction between the Japanese and Americans. She has devoted her life to peace, saying, “I want all the people around the world to be friends, and I want to make my country peaceful without fighting.” Today she makes colorful paper cranes and donates them to the Children’s Peace Monument at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

The Unclad Soul

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