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    %SAVE SELF BEHAVIOR AVOID BELIEF SALVATION EVIL 930501

     All  too  often  through behaviors,   teachings,  and
rituals  we have  been taught that it is up to us to  save
ourselves by how we work, behave,  feel,  believe, recite,
avoid, reject, fix, or rescue.  We are taught that we were
born defective  in original sin;  but that  through  moral
self  perfection  we  can  save  ourselves,    or  through
conformal beliefs/faith we can save ourselves,  or through
avoiding evil associations we can save ourselves.

     Dichotomous religious leaders  have often taught that
there is only one right and proper path to salvation,  and
that  they hold the keys to that path.  For a  price  they
will  let us enter upon  their  one and only true path  to
salvation.   The  price  is  usually to  their  advantage,
and  to  our disadvantage.   We must turn control over  to
somebody  else.   We  must reduce our  self-esteem;    and
others get our self-esteem.    We  must do violence to our
unique   selves  and pretend  to be other than  we  really
are.   We must give  up our   honesty  and  our   personal
integrity           to           conform         properly.
There is  always  a  high  price to  be  paid  in  seeking
salvation  upon the terms offered by dichotomous religious
leaders.

     There once  was a non-conformist teacher  who  taught
that we should  love others as we love ourselves;    which
means   we  cannot  love  others  much,   unless  we  love
ourselves  much.   We  cannot take  care of  others  well,
unless  we  take  care of ourselves well.  He taught  that
our salvation was not to be achieved by us:  through  what
rules we obey,  what taboos we  respect,   what creeds  we
recite,   what size gifts we give,  or through any  of the
other things which  preoccupy  many religious leaders.  He
offended  many  religious  leaders  and  their   political
friends,   and they conspired to  get  him crucified in an
effort to control him in the manner of the control methods
of addicts and codependents.

     In  these  latter days many religious leaders portray
the  non-conformist  teacher  as being the  heart  of  the
message  of  the  religious  and  political   leaders  who
conspired  to crucify him.   Such modern religious leaders
do  not   focus  upon   telling  the  truth  clearly  with
personal  integrity;  but   rather   upon   conforming  to
prescriptions    and prohibitions.  Such modern  religious
leaders  do  not seek to elicit  from people   the   truth
about   their   own   unique  experiences;     encouraging
instead  recitations of doctrinal formulas which they  ask
people to conform  themselves  to.  Such religious leaders
do not visit  people in the prisons of  their   addictions
to  moral  fixes,    codes,     laws, prohibitions,    and
taboos.   They  prescribe  rules  and regulations  as  the
means  to  salvation  to be  fulfilled through what people
do to achieve their own salvation.

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