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   %RELIGIOUS FANATICS ADDICTS COLLUDE SELF DECEIVE 940205

     Religious fanatics are often  addicts who are engaged
in  collusive  games of mutual self deception ---  wherein
they   make   God's  gracious  blessings  to   be   taboo,
forgiveness   unthinkable,   reconciliation  with  enemies
traitorous, conflict resolution treasonous, and honesty in
being true to self and others an intolerable threat.  Such
religious leaders carefully pick the fundamentals of their
extremist   faith,   so  as  to  heighten  the  alienative
differences between themselves and  those people whom they
fear;   and the fear of  whom motivates them to engage  in
alienative preaching. They seek to heighten conflicts, not
to  resolve  them.   They  seek to win  battles,   not  to
transcend them; so they sin rather than win.  They promote
both personal and communal disintegration.

     The essence of  sin is alienation and disintegration,
not  any  failure  to  conform.    The essence of evil  is
alienation, not disobedience.   The devil is unreal in the
absence of alienation and is made real in the  presence of
alienation.      In    the   presence    of    alienation,
misunderstanding  and  ignorance---trying to  win  battles
seems reasonable, because of the collusive games of mutual
self   deception   in  which  alienative  people   indulge
themselves.      In  such  company  many  people  conceive
themselves  to be in charge of their god's army going into
battle  against the alienated forces of evil  people  from
whom they have alienated themselves.  They cannot conceive
that  the  Creator God of Truth,   Love  and   Forgiveness
calls  them  to reconciliation  and  conflict  resolution;
rather than into battle.

     In such a setting were God to appear in the form of a
mere  mortal  telling the truth about  God-the-Creator  of
all,   including  even the least of those present  in  the
city,   and calling all people to come together to  eat at
God's  Table  in  peace  and  tranquility---the  religious
extremists would probably call  such  a  person  a traitor
and have her crucified for blasphemy!

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