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    %SALVATION ADDICTS' MANIPULATIVE CONTROL ACCEPT 880408

     Salvation entails freedom from addicts' attempting to
be in control.  Salvation is as much a communal reality as
a personal reality.  When we are free of addicts' attempts
to  be  in  control  we are free to be  safely vulnerable.
Such freedom can be realized in the context of a community
which is dedicated to promoting both personal and communal
integrity.

     Salvation   can  not  be  achieved  by   manipulative
individual  efforts;   for such efforts tend to  undermine
both  personal  and communal integrity  by  attempting  to
achieve control conceived as essential to salvation.

     Salvation entails the freedoms from: control, threats
of   excommunication,   and  threats  of  other  forms  of
violence, punishment, and manipulative rewards.  Salvation
does not entail conformity to any criteria for acceptance;
it is the freedom from all criteria for acceptance because
it   entails   a   commitment  by  Love   to   participate
unconditionally  in  open  and honest dialogue,  and so  a
commitment  to  accept all willing people as  partners  in
communication, in community.

     Acceptance  need  not imply approval or  disapproval.
Acceptance  need  imply  only  a  willingness  to  be   in
dialogue,   to be members of the same community with unity
which is possible only in open and honest dialogue.  There
is  no necessity to approve or disapprove of other  people
and/or  their behavior.   There is no law  which  requires
that we either approve or disapprove.   It is enough to be
in  open  and  honest  dialogue;  that  is  what  personal
acceptance means.

     All  people are members of the community of humans on
planet  earth.    Acceptance of other people in  open  and
honest  dialogue is the acceptance of the fact that we are
all  finite   creatures  on  our  finite  planet  and  are
interdependent as creatures on finite  planet.   To refuse
to  accept other people in dialogue is part of a  game  of
mutual self deception,  an addictive collusion against the
truth.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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