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 %RELATE SCRIPTURE PERSONAL COMMUNAL INTEGRITY LIFE 951119

     Our  personal and communal integrities depend greatly
upon   how  we  relate  to  the  body  of  scriptures  and
authoritative  texts which we claim are important to us---
be  they holy,  sacred,  secular,  epic,  legal,   poetic,
scientific,    prophetic   and/or  of  other   distinctive
characters.

     If  we  worship  our  chosen  scriptures---we  become
trapped  in  the  prisons of idolatry and  the  associated
personal and communal disintegration patterns.

     If  we  selectively quote  scriptures  in  religious,
secular,    political,    scientific,    economic   and/or
professional efforts to achieve security and advantages at
others'  expense---we sacrifice our personal and  communal
integrity  in  futile efforts to achieve  such  unbalanced
advantages.

     If we select,  modify, pervert, confuse, quote and/or
confuse  scriptures to advance our own agendas at  others'
expense---we thereby rob such scriptures of their power to
help  guide  honest  people  who are  seeking  to  promote
personal and communal integrity.

     If  we  seek  to promote both personal  and  communal
integrity   and  so  approach  respected  scriptures   and
authoritative  texts in search of guidance which may  come
to  us through our reading and interpreting them---we  may
find  such  guidance in the light of our  own  experiences
shared openly and honestly in secure communities where  we
give  and  receive  gifts  of the  freedom  to  be  safely
vulnerable   within   intimate  and  mutually   supportive
relationships.

     We cannot use scriptures as technical means by  which
to  achieve our own salvation,  or the salvation of  those
whom  we may choose to favor---for if we seek to so so  we
presume  to be in charge with little or no respect for the
personal and communal integrity of any people who may seem
to stand in our way.  Such presumption leads to alienation
and  to  personal and communal disintegration---no  matter
how sincere,  committed,  dedicated and powerful we may be
or appear to be.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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