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 %ROOT EVIL SIN ALIENATE KNOWLEDGE GOOD PEOPLE LOVE+930906
 %IDOLATRY ARROGANCE EXCLUDE JUDGE LEGAL REJECT LAW+930906
     %PRIDE ADDICTION FALSE GODS DISHONESTY MISLEAD 930906

     Following  are some comments about alienative aspects
of  human assumptions,  attitudes,  beliefs,  convictions,
decisions  and  actions.   They clarify what is worthy  of
respect and support, and what is not.

     ARROGANCE  has to do with dishonestly pretending:  to
know more,  be wiser,  have more power, have more control,
and  in  general transcend human limitations  in  ways  we
cannot.   ARROGANCE leads to alienation and so to personal
and communal disintegration.

     KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOOD AND EVIL in the sense of  who  is
good and who is evil was forbidden by God in the Garden of
Eden and recognized by Jesus as leading to alienation, and
so to personal and communal disintegration.

     EXCLUSIVITY as regards people ideas, ideals attitudes
life-styles,  languages,  cultures and beliefs ---leads to
alienation and so to personal and communal disintegration.

     REJECTION of people  of threatening creative insights
and  accomplishments,   of  alternative  perspectives  and
attitudes  ---  cuts the  rejector  off  from  others  and
through  that  alienation leads to personal  and  communal
disintegration.

     JUDGEMENTALISMS  wherein people selectively pick what
they  call  fundamentals  of  their  faith,   culture  and
historic  traditions  ---   in  order  to  arrogantly  set
themselves up as better people than other people whom they
regard  as evil  people ---  leads  through alienation  to
personal and communal disintegration.

     LEGALISM   wherein  people  compulsively  focus  upon
systematic:   rules,  laws,   regulations,   prohibitions,
injunctions,  scriptural chapter and verse,  moral  codes,
ethical  demands,  and their kind ---  through  alienation
leads to personal and communal disintegration.

     ADDICTION  to  any  one  tool,   means,   technology,
knowledge,  ritual,  scripture,  religion,   organization,
person,    relationship,   life-style,   fix,    chemical,
procedure,   and their like ---  is idolatrous and through
the  resultant  alienation from God and  others  leads  to
personal and communal disintegration.

     DISHONESTY   and  MISLEADING  patterns  of   behavior
engender distrust and defensiveness which puts up walls of
alienation  between  peoples ---  and so leads to personal
and communal disintegration.

     PRIDE   which  is  not  combined  with  HUMILITY   is
associated  with ARROGANCE which through alienation  leads
to personal and communal disintegration.

     Whatever  through  alienation leads unnecessarily  to
personal  and communal disintegration does not  merit  our
respect or support.   We need to recognize whatever  leads
to  personal and communal disintegration for what  it  is,
and  to  withhold  respect  and support from  it  and  the
alienative behaviors of those people who embody it.

     We  need to focus attention upon working  openly  and
honestly  together to create relationships which are built
upon the gift of true security which is the freedom to  be
safely vulnerable in intimate personal relationships where
mistakes and errors need not be hidden and kept secret.

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