The Unclad Soul

Here on this Good Friday when Christians remember and observe the difficult journey of Jesus to the Cross I hope his followers will go deeper into the meaning of that scene. I have said I don’t believe in an actual bodily resurrection of Jesus.  But the Cross remains for me a fundamental part of my understanding of authentic religious truth.  It carries for me a definition and a demonstration of love that moves and challenges and instructs me.  It says, here was an example of genuine human love, so unfettered with moral demands or religious requirements or doctrinal expectations that it was simply offered with nothing but compassion for everyone even those who brought love to that cruel place. Let us remember that Jesus was misunderstood, too; mostly by the religious crowd of his day.  He did not fit into their theological definitions, their moral guidelines, their political agendas or their class structure.  He was considered a misfit, a trouble maker...

Standing in front of one of the German death camps while filming a documentary for British television several years ago, Polish/British philosopher Jacob Bronowski said: “This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.” Conformity, everyone believing the same things, doing what you’re told to do no matter if it doesn’t make sense or is immoral or inhuman; believing you alone have all the truth; learning to hate others, to do violence even when you know it isn’t right—these are the trademarks of people who have lost their freedom and their heart; who have become duped into believin...