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%CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS LEADERS INSTITUTIONS SUPPORTER 030219
%MEDIATE GOD'S GRACE FORGIVENESS WELCOME ACCEPTANCE 030219
%CHURCH SANCTUARY HEAVEN PARADISE ETERNAL LIFE LOVE 030219
%INSTITUTION SLAUGHTER CRUSADES JEWS MUSLIMS OTHERS 030219
%INTOLERANCE WILL POWER DEMANDS COMMANDS REJECTIONS 030219
%COLLUSIVE GAMES MUTUAL SELF DECEPTION FORGET EVILS 030219

     Christian leaders and institutions have often asked a
great deal of their supporters:

     1.  They they  be acknowledged as having the power to
mediate  God's grace,  forgiveness,   and welcome into the
Kingdom of Heaven.

     2.  That   the  willful   slaughter   of  uncountable
millions  of Jews and  Muslims  (with  the   encouragement
of   top   Christian  leaders in the long history  of  the
Christian Church)  should  be  forgotten  without  comment
---   and  the church  which takes   that  forgetting  for
granted  ---    should be  honored and  supported  in  the
absence of repentance?

     3.  That  the   supporters  acknowledge   that    the
Institutional  Church  is  a more reliable  guide  to  the
knowledge  of  God's  will ---   than  are  the  prayerful
insights  of  young  children and women who highly  value:
honesty,  civility,  integrity,  reverence,    gentleness,
peacemaking,  dialogue,  openness, forgiveness,   healing,
and love.

     4.  That their supporters accept the concentration of
wealth  and  ecclesiastical power  into the hands of a few
men  who have  excluded  from  their  religious  councils:
women, children, racial minorities,  political minorities,
and other vulnerable minorities.

     5.  That the  supporters ignore/forget  the teachings
in WORD-AND-DEED  of  Jesus  about:  humility, gentleness,
peacemaking,  being-servants,   and reverence toward those
neighbors who are: poor, sick, hungry, thirsty, powerless,
and   vulnerable ---  for reasons which  are  beyond their
control.

     6.  That their  supporters ignore the evidence  about
the corruption    which   comes  from  the   concentration
of  ecclesiastical  power  into the  hands  of  presumably
celibate men ---   who at an  early age  promises  not  to
become personally knowledgeable about the realms of sexual
intimacy  through any deep involvement in that realm.

     7.  That  ecclesiastical  collusive games  of  mutual
self deception  be  respected,   honored,  and not  called
into  question  by people  who have NOT been  called  into
high and powerful offices by God.

     On  what grounds should such religious leadership  be
honored  and supported?     On the grounds that it  yields
sweet fruits unto the seventh generation?

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