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It is clear that President Bush has seen that liberality is where we all want to go.  He sends his representatives to more conservative counties to tell them that they need to liberalize their societies, but still does not see that his conservative base needs to liberality. 

Jesus was a liberal.  His way was to be liberal.  His message was to be liberal.  Liberality is the way, the truth and the life.  No one finds heaven on Earth except a liberal. 

Liberals are lovers.  So be liberal and love ALL that life has to offer. 

I recently read an article by David Korten called Renewing the American Experiment where he called liberals or progressives to create credible stories that express our values, answer critical questions, enlarge and redefine the terms of debate, express our vision of human possible and evoke a sense of national purpose.

            I am inspired not to create a new story but to expand on an old story that will enable liberals and conservative, left and right, to embrace the same agenda and evoke a common sense of national purpose.  To often the liberals and progressive still think in terms of “us” against “them” and this limited way of thinking handicaps us. 

            In my story, I want to start with the Holy Bible.  I would start by deeply understanding the spirit behind the Bible, that which inspires or motives those who wrote it. I would start with the etymology of the words “holy” and “Bible”.  Good dictionaries have shown me that “holy” comes from or means whole (with a W).  “Whole” comes form or means heal or health.  The word “bible” comes from or means book.  Therefore, the title Holy Bible means Health Book.  The Holy Bible, therefore, is just an ancient and primitive attempt at teaching a healthy lifestyle and healthy ways of thinking. 

            Health of body and mind, of individual and nation, of culture and environment, can be and must be the focus of any people if they are to survive and prosper in this world.

The Holy Bible was a beginning, and only a beginning, of our understanding of how to be health of body and mind, of individuals and communities and of economics and environments.  We must strive for a greater understanding of ALL aspects of health and share that understanding with one another; individual to individual, nation to nation.

            I would like to stop here and define liberal.  The Webster’s International Dictionary defines liberal as one who is generous; one who favor greater freedom in political or religious matters.  Liberal suggests one free from prejudices or narrow thinking.  Antonyms of liberal are stingy, mean, bigoted or conservative.

            The International Bible Encyclopedia says, “It is well to bear in mind that a Biblical liberality can spring only out of a noble soul, and is Godlike in its genesis and spirit.”
            Jesus was a liberal. Jesus was a prototype of a liberal.  As liberals we “get” Jesus, to the degree we are truly liberal.   Liberals get the “fruits of the spirit” to the degree that we are loving, joyful, peaceful, longsuffering, gentle, faithful, meek and temperate, which are signs and behaviors of a liberal or healthy people and nations.

            We liberals are no better than the conservatives are; we are just blessed with certain advantages.  Even if we were raised in a mean, vile and conservative environments, somewhere along the way we were inspired or encouraged to be softer, gentler, compassionate and caring.  Somewhere along the way we were encouraged to see the big picture which gave us the faith we have in human evolution and potential. 

To be holy is to be whole, to be one, not divided against ourselves.  To be holy therefore, means we as liberals do not see ourselves as “us” against the conservatives “them”.  Instead, we can see ourselves AS them. 

            The Bible’s Great Commandment says, in part, to “love thy neighbor as they self.”  This is the foundation of all the scriptures and all laws.  If we were trapped in a dark pit of faithlessness, pessimism or greed would we not want somebody to help us out of that pit?    

            We cannot ignore the conservatives.  One message that 911 and the election of 2004 tells us is that if the conservative cannot vote their fearful agenda then they will drive airplanes into our buildings.  We must reach to ALL conservatives, those in our own back yard and in the rest of the world.

            Jesus said, as you do unto the least of them you do unto me.  He also said, ye are gods and God is one.  The not-so-hidden message is that we are one. 

            The Religious Right of America at least plays lip service to Jesus and the spirit of the Bible.  As we gain a better understanding of their spiritual language, we are better able to meet them where they are at instead of demanding they meet us where we are.  We are the ones who ‘get it’ so it is our duty to reach out to them. 

            The language of the Bible is ancient, archaic and primitive but it points us in a direction where we can ALL go.   The language of health of body and mind, society and environment is the language of the future Holy Bible, the language of an understanding what it takes to be perfect, holy and healthy as the Father in Heaven is perfect, holy and healthy.

I keep reading about the terrorist attacks and the governments of the world response.  They want other countries to confront those who preach hate.  Maybe it is time for ALL of use to confront our own beliefs that encourage us to ‘hate’ something, anything.  Hate is NOT the solution to anything. 

            For instance, most Christians teach that we should ‘love the sinner and HATE the sin.’  This is still teaching hate and is no different that the Jewish tradition of ‘love thy neighbor and HATE they enemy.’  Jesus tried to bring a reform to the Jewish tradition when he taught that we should ‘Love thy enemy’ and today most Christians at least play lip service to this idea (even if they do not practice it.)  To the Jewish people of Jesus’ time it was pure blaspheme to preach love of thy enemies just as it is pure blaspheme today to preach love of the sin. 

            The idea here is not to encourage sin when we ‘love’ the sin but to encourage love as a response or reaction to ANYTHING, even sin.  The experience of love is much better than the experience of hate.  If we were to ‘be not concerned about tomorrow’ and seek to find the ‘Kingdom of Heaven (that) is at hand’ which Jesus talked about, then we will seek the greater experience of love over hatred.   For love IS the Kingdom of Heaven.  If we are able to unconditionally love all that life offers then we ARE in Heaven. 

            Yet, as long as we think of ourselves a fleshly beings and not spirit then we are going to be afraid of what life offers us.  BUT, if we think of ourselves a Spirit that is using the body, mind and soul of the person then we will not be afraid of that which will threaten it.  This is what I feel Jesus meant by being “born (again) of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

            It works for me and it works for thousands of others around the world.  It is so much easier to love what life offers if you are just witnessing it.

            This does not mean there is not a time to be ‘of water’ and to identify with the flesh (body) and soul (person).  When we do this, we get the all drama that life offers and it is the drama that makes life richest.  However, when that drama gets to be too much and we need a rest then it is time to identify with the Spirit. 

It is more dangerous to be American today then it was in November of 2000.  There are more people today who hate Americans then there were in 2000 so no matter where we go in the world those who hate us will find us.  If we are the kind of people who expand our minds and our horizons beyond the borders of this country then we will want to travel the world.  But thanks to George W. Bush that is more dangerous then it was five years ago.  No matter how much money we spend on national security our ‘enemies’ will always find a way to defeat it. 

The key to our security is to make friends with those we think of as our enemies.  Jesus said to love our enemies but the conservatives of America do not seem to have gotten that message.  They still preach the hateful doctrine of love the neighbors and hate thy enemy. 

It is time for the liberals of America to stand up and take the moral lead.  We ARE the moral leaders, but we have been too intimidated by the religious right to take that leadership. 

I am starting to create MP3 guided relaxations/meditations. I will post them here at: MP3 Podcast. My goal is to have several relaxation exercises or meditations available to people on several different topics. Please write me with suggestions on topics for these exercises.

I have two so far. Please listen to them and give me feedback. Constructive criticism is VERY much appreciated. It can only help me to improve my service to you.