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   %COMPULSIVE FRAGMENTATION DIVISION SPLITTERS SIN+980626                                                                     
   %CHRISTIAN JEW ROMAN GREEK PAGAN POLYTHEIST GODS+980626                                                                     
    %ESTRANGEMENT ALIENATION EXCOMMUNICATION DEVILS+980626                                       
   %QUESTION INTEGRITY HONESTY DEMONS FEARS FAILURE 980626                                                                  
                                                                                                                               
     The   history  of  religious  people   has   included                                                                    
seemingly endless efforts  by them to define themselves as    
"other" than and "purer" and "better" than "others" who do                                                               
not conform to some  set  of  expectations,  rules,  laws,            
traditions,  rituals,   etc.   "Belonging"  has often been                                                                     
defined  in  exclusive  terms;  rather than  in  inclusive                       
terms.                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                               
     The more "faithful" religious people have been ---the                                                                    
more prone they have been to be exclusive in making claims                       
that they are the most favored people of  an exclusive God                       
who  does  not tolerate  human  creativity,   differences,                         
diversity and non-conformity.    Such exclusive extremists            
have  defended their gods in ways which reveal  that  they      
do not know that true security entails the free giving and                        
accepting   of   gifts  of  the  freedom  to   be   safely         
vulnerable---within intimate relationships which are open,                     
honest and inclusive.                                                                  
                                                                                                                               
     As  people  learn  how  to truly  exchange  gifts  of                                               
security   --- they   come  to  be   free   of  compulsive                                                                     
dispositions to  question each other's integrity,  honesty                                                               
and  motives.   When  they have been liberated  from  such                                                                     
compulsive dispositions they are free of desires to split-          
off,  divide, alienate, estrange and/or demonize --- those                                        
other  people whom they do not know or  understand.   They                                                    
are no longer dominated by fear,  uncertainty, anxiety and                                                     
collusive   games  of  mutual  self-deception  ---   which 
undermine any  possibility  of them enjoying personal  and               
communal integrity.                                                                
                                                                                                                               
     Religious  people who compulsively go  to  alienative                                        
extremes  in trying to prove to themselves and others that    
they are more "faithful", "purer"  and "better"  than some                                                                     
other   group  of  people ---  are  often  much  like  the                                                               
"others"   who are trying to do the same thing --- because                          
they are all dominated by fear,  uncertainty,  anxiety and                                                     
collusive  games  of  mutual  self-deception.     They are 
exclusive  and alienated --- because they are not balanced                       
in inclusive  ways   which   facilitate  healthy  personal      
relationships which are open,  honest, integrative; and so                                                              
truly secure.                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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