Jim Palmer's Blog

I am often sent questions about a number of different topics related to religion, God, spirituality, life, philosophy, deconstruction and personal growth. I recently was asked a question about why Atheists won't "leave the religious alone." What follows is my response? "Jim, why won't atheists just leave the religious alone?"*It’s difficult to know the context of this question, and what you specifically mean by “just leave the religious alone.” For the purpose of my answer, I’ll assume you mean something along the lines of, “Why are atheists always finding fault, being antagonistic, and debating with religious people?”The premise of the question is problematic insofar as it implies that all atheists think and act the same way, namely that they all pester or badger religious people. At the outset, let’s just say that the percentage of atheists who do what is alleged are relatively few. To be generous, let’s say that 25% of all atheists participate in some behavior once a week that would qualify as an action that led to the asking of your question.In my experience, the reasons why an atheist might not “just leave the religious alone” are as follows, which I will divide into two categories: (1) Good Reasons Not to Leave the Religious Alone, and (2) Bad Reasons Not to Leave the Religious Alone.(1) Good Reasons Not to Leave the Religious Alonea. Part of my professional work involves counseling people who have been deeply damaged through their involvement in religion and toxic religious indoctrination. A growing area of interest in the mental health field is Religious Trauma Syndrome, which addresses the psychological damage attributed to the influence of fundamentalist, legalistic, authoritarian, repressive, fear/shame-based religion. It’s a logical response to have a posture of opposition and resistance toward something that was damaging to you personally or that you believe is damaging to other people. If a person has been damaged through their involvement in religion or has seen its damage in the lives of other people, it’s unlikely they will be indifferent on the matter of religion. Further, they may not sit quietly and say nothing when religious people espouse their views. It’s more likely they will speak their mind.b. It’s abundantly clear that religion is often a weapon of hate, destruction, injustice, corruption and violence in the world. I don’t think it’s necessary to substantiate this claim because it is self-evident from a cursory examination of history and daily news headlines. For this reason, most atheists do not think that religion should ever just gets a pass, and would feel complicit in the problem if they too easily let religion off the hook.c. The subtitle of the notable and late atheist, Christopher Hitchens’ book God is not Great, is How Religion Poisons Everything. Many atheists believe that religion in any form does more harm than good, and is an obstacle to progress. Religion has often been an adversary of science. Many core religious beliefs (innate human badness; narratives of apocalypse; special revelatory knowledge; expectation of divine intervention; fear-based conformity; religious separatism/tribalism; self-denial as devotion; self-reliance as sin) chip away at the ideas of personal agency and responsibility, self-efficacy, critical thinking and virtue ethics. To the extent that a person believes that religion is fundamentally flawed, threatens progress and “poisons everything,” they will not roll over and play dead in a society where religion has influence in every segment of life - education, government, politics, social media, etc.As a matter of conviction, many atheists feel they must counter and criticize religion.(2) Bad Reasons Not to Leave the Religious AloneIn the United States, freedom of religion is a constitutionally protected right provided in the religion clauses of the First Amendment. Freedom of religion is also closely associated with separation of church and state. People are free to hold, express and practice religious beliefs, and people are free to hold, express and practice secular beliefs. In the United States, you have the legal right to believe and practice Christianity, Atheism, Judaism, Humanism, Islam, Stoicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. It’s a good idea that we all remember this.Let’s face it. In any large group of people some percentage of them will be fanatical, zealous, extreme, militant, insulting, divisive, intolerant and injurious for any number of personal, psychological or circumstantial reasons, and this is not any less true of atheists. My personal view whenever it is possible is that it is more constructive to appeal to logic, reason, evidence, science, and consilience in a spirit of respect and goodwill in dialogue where two opposing views are present… as opposed to insults, belligerence, combativeness, inflammatory rhetoric and hostility.Atheists also need to realize that not all religious people are fundamentalists. An atheist's particular view or experience of religion is not representative of every person's idea and experience of religion. Though religion has often been the source of hatred, division, corruption and violence in the world, it has also inspired compassion, beauty, justice, service and love.Having said all that, in my view Atheists and people of faith have meaningful reasons to work together and cultivate constructive relationships. Bede Griffiths wrote, “Atheism and agnosticism signify the rejection of certain images and concepts of God or of truth, which are historically conditioned and therefore inadequate. Atheism is a challenge to religion to purify its images and concepts and come nearer to the truth of divine mystery.” I did a podcast interview on The Farkas Files in which I addressed the question: What can Atheists teach the religious? I wrote an articleon the idea of atheists connecting with the interfaith movement, and wrote another pieceon non-theist, humanist spirituality. Just this past week I did a podcast interview with the GracefulAtheist who says about himself, "Having had faith I still respect and care for those who remain in their faith."Hope that helps! Jim

The crippling impact of religion involves the way it convinces people how weak, incapable and helpless they are.This morning I read the following;"The key to accessing God's power is to understand how much we need Him to do anything that's of real value in life. The truth is, whether we realize it or not, we're all desperate for God every minute of every day. I am weak, but He is strong."This belief and attitude are one of the greatest obstacles and deterrents to personal growth and development. I address this mentality often in the religion recovery work I do with people.The truth is that you naturally have the ability, capacity, tools, and skills to guide and direct your life meaningfully, ethically and effectively. Through the use of your fundamental human faculties such as logic, critical thinking, empathy, reason, conscience and intuition, you can capably lead your life.You have the ability to take action, be effective, influence your own life, and assume responsibility for your behavior. You have the capacity for initiating, executing, and controlling your own volitional actions in the world. Where you feel incapable of doing so due to internal restraints, you can seek help and assistance.You are capable of self-management, which is your ability to regulate your emotions and resulting behaviors in ways that are useful and beneficial for oneself and others. You are equipped to take personal responsibility for your happiness and well-being and cultivate a life of meaning and fulfillment. This includes self-care, coping with unmet wants or needs, persevering when faced with obstacles, and aligning your actions and choices with your values and what matters most to you in life.Do we do all this perfectly? No. Do we do this alone? No. We can look upon ourselves with acceptance, patience, and compassion, and not demand perfection from ourselves. We are capable of cultivating loving and caring relationships. We are capable of seeking professional help and support when we need it. All of these actions are a sign of strength and not weakness.The idea that you are powerless and inept to guide and manage your life is false.I have a spiritual counselingpractice in Nashville, TN. Several years ago, I began doing work with people from all over the world through video calls. There are several reasons why people contact me for spiritual counseling, including:- Making sense of God outside of religion.- Seeking a more expansive, meaningful and human spirituality.- A life crisis has caused them to question their personal or religious beliefs.- Searching for answers to life’s existential questions such as the meaning and purpose of life.- Interested in exploring faith and spirituality beyond the boundaries of their religious background or tradition.- Want to address the root cause of suffering in their life.- Desiring a whole relationship with themselves through self-discovery, self-acceptance, self-trust, and self-care.- Needing to unshackle themselves from toxic religious beliefs.- Wanting to break through self-sabotaging inner dialogue and self-imposed limitations holding them back.- Seeking to explore a non-religious spiritual path or secular philosophy for lifeIf you have an interest in individual Spiritual Counseling or Personal Growth, contact me and I'll send you more information.© Jim Palmer Author, 2019. All rights reserved.

Does shedding religion mean discarding the Bible?Curious about my spiritual life outside of organized religion, people often ask me if I read the Bible. In my second book, Wide Open Spaces, I devote an entire chapter to how my view of the Bible has evolved. For many years I read the Bible daily as a personal spiritual discipline. I also studied the Bible academically in seminary. And then of course I taught the Bible several times a week for many years as the head minister of a church. These days I don’t sit down and read the Bible as a regular practice. That doesn’t mean I don’t think people should. And it doesn’t rule out that I might read it more regularly in another season of life. I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to how people relate to the Bible or how they choose to incorporate it into their lives. Of course the caveat would be that is unacceptable to use the Bible to rationalize or justify hatred, bigotry, misogyny, injustice or any other injurious way against other human beingsChristians look to the Bible as their authority on the subject of God and for answers to life’s big existential questions, as well as guidance on matters of ethics, morality and the directing of one’s daily life. The Bible is Not Great for the Reasons it is Purported to BeThe Bible is a series of books written, edited and assembled over thousands of years. People claim the Bible is special because, despite the diversity of authors, time periods and places it was written, it presents a seamless story about God. If the Old Testament writers and editors were hoping to present a coherent, comforting, stable view of God, they failed miserably. In the Old Testament. God is presented as capricious, cruel and narcissistic. What's fascinating to me is that whoever wrote and edited this content didn't feel any need to alter this picture of God or put a more positive spin on it. It's also important to point out that Old Testament stories and themes predate the OT writings. In other words, they were not entirely original to the OT writers. So you can't necessarily pin these stories and ideas entirely upon them. It's interesting to me that they felt the need to continue telling and perpetuating these stories and themes with their own twist. Jesus was not a Bible teacher In many religions, authority is based in a sacred book or Scripture, and often, by extension, to those who are deemed most knowledgeable or equipped to interpret and understand them. Jesus’s religious tradition, Judaism, was very much a religion anchored in a sacred text, the Torah and the rabbinic commentaries. In Notes from (Over) the Edge, I write extensively about how Jesus challenged this system. From what we know about Jesus, however, he was a sage and story-teller, and typically did not take his point of departure from texts of Scripture. In his core sayings and parables, the Scriptures are conspicuously missing.The province where Jesus spent most of his public life and drew most of his support was in Galilee. This was a region noted for its more cavalier or indifferent attitude toward the religious traditions of Judaism. The crowd who followed Jesus, for instance, was declared to be under a curse because they were ignorant of the Torah or Holy Scripture. Yet there is no evidence that Jesus took on the role of a Bible teacher to remedy their Scriptural deficiency. In fact, the only people he chided for their ignorance and misuse of Scripture were the orthodox elite.Neither did Jesus write anything, or instruct his apostles to record what he said or did. It was not Jesus who commissioned the writing of the New Testament. Instead, Jesus confronted the religious elite, finding them guilty of what amounted to Bibliolatry – the glorification of a scared writing. Jesus said to these religious leaders, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."Jesus was continually challenged, “By what authority do you say this or do that.” He never answered by appealing to the authority of the Bible. He laid no claim to a vision from any kind of special revelation. In fact, what makes Jesus immeasurably greater than any religious guru is precisely the fact that he spoke and acted without authority and that he regarded “the exercise of authority” as a pagan characteristic. Jesus chastised the religious leaders of his day for burying their noses in their sacred text, and missing the plain and simple truth.Jesus’s perception and teaching of the truth was direct and unmediated. He did not even lay claim to the authority of a prophet. Unlike the prophets he did not appeal to a special prophetic calling or to a vision in order to legitimize his words. Jesus never used the classical prophetic introduction, ‘God says…’ What gave weight to the words of Jesus were the words themselves. Jesus was unique among the men of his time in his ability to overcome all forms of authority-thinking. The only authority which Jesus might be said to have appealed to was the authority of the truth itself.There is no single orthodoxy Throughout history and spanning the world, people have related to the Bible in many different ways. It would be a gross misrepresentation of even Christian history to say that there is only one way to view or relate to the Bible. People will often say, “My authority is the Bible.” It would be more accurate for them to say, “My authority is what they told me at church the Bible means.”There are at least 14 Factors that influence what one comes up with in the Bible:1. Your views regarding the inspiration of Scripture.2. Whether you would favor a literal or figurative interpretation of a given passage.3. Your knowledge and awareness of other “related” Scriptures dealing with the same issue, including the immediate context and the broader context of the entire body of Scripture.4. Your knowledge and understanding of the background and motivation of the writer.5. The way in which a given interpretation fits into your over-all theological belief system.6. Your level of understanding of the original language in which the text was written.7. The various interpretations and commentaries to which you have already been exposed.8. The ways in which you process information. Some of you tend to emphasize reason and logic, while others depend more on personal experiences and intuition.9. The degree to which you are willing to accept logical inconsistencies as part of your belief system.10. Your willingness to change your views in the light of new information.11. The degree to which you are satisfied with your current views.12. The amount of time you are willing to devote to your theological study and inquiry.13. The unwillingness to consider alternative interpretations that diverge from your religious tradition.14. Your overall view of God that has been conditioned by many different life experiences and relationships.Based on the above variables, does it surprise anyone that there are many different ways the Bible is interpreted? This is especially problematic because many people view the Bible as something to be “right about.” In my most recent book, Inner Anarchy, I challenged the traditional Christian interpretation of Jesus, and offered an entirely different framework from which to understand him, his life and his message and teachings. I build this framework from the Scriptures themselves but with a different hermeneutic. Humans have always done stupid things and pinned them on GodI do not believe the purpose of the Bible is to create a belief-system about God. In my view, the Bible tells the story of humankind’s relationship to and with God, the divine or ultimate reality. The Bible opens with a picture of God and humankind in harmony and one, and then the story takes a disastrous turn when human beings begin operating out of fear, alienation and disunion. The story continues with humankind trying to hash things out through religion. At times that story is beautiful, and at other times it’s ugly. We discover in the story that humans can be inspired by their beliefs in God to love each other, and at other times to rationalize about anything, including killing people in the name of “God’s will.” That’s all part of the story. We still do this today. Jesus shows up in the context of his people, his day, his times, and his religious tradition. His central claim was, “I am the truth,” which was meant to abolish the false notion of separation from God, and to unveil the long forgotten reality that God and humankind are one. Jesus taught that this truth was the secret to unfurling the kingdom of God on earth.Jesus taught it was necessary for him to leave the earth in body so that his followers would not create a personality cult around him, but instead learn to listen and follow the same spirit within them. But as the story and human goes, some of the earliest Christ followers organized themselves according to the same mentalities of their previous religious orientation. The bulk of the New Testament is essentially a set of letters written by a few of the most prominent early Christians, addressing various issues that came up as different Christian groups tried to work out their devotion to Jesus in the context of their times. Sometimes this was done beautifully, and at other times it was a train wreck. But it’s all part of the story.Maybe we should not write off the BibleIs it possible that the Bible, rather than God's binding word to humankind to be believed literally and followed legalistically, is a fascinating work of literature that explores themes of deep psychological significance?What if the Bible is a collection of meta-stories - ancient stories that evolved over thousands of years by combining the distilled truth out of hundreds of smaller stories until they were finally written down in their final form.What if the Bible is a collection of writings, giving different snapshots of humankind’s relationship with the ultimate questions of life assembled into one volume? What if these snapshots tell a story that we somehow find ourselves in at every turn, including moments of profound beauty and goodness, and moments of deep heartache and sorrow?What if the story includes chapters where people are getting things horribly wrong and justifying hatred and atrocity in God’s name, and other chapters where people are getting it right and living as powerful expressions of love in the world?What if it’s a human story, a timeless story, and a cultural story happening, evolving and intertwined all at once?What if there is an unnamed brilliance, depth and mystery to the story that requires one to look deeper, read between the lines, and listen with your heart?What if the primary plot or theme of the whole story is strangely fulfilled in the birth, life, and death of a divine nobody?What if the story has the power to inspire love, peace, beauty, healing, wholeness, harmony, and goodness in the world, and transform humankind’s relationships with ourselves individually and collectively, with others, and with life itself?In my view, the story of the Bible could have value for all of humankind, regardless of your religious tradition or no religion at all, if taken this way. We can all agree that one’s religious, spiritual or philosophical beliefs can either be used as an instrument of division, hatred and violence, or harmony, solidarity, and love. The bottom line is that wherever you read in the Bible that people are acting in division, hatred, oppression, injustice, or violence in the name of God, then it should be taken as the part of the story where we corruptly co-opt God for our own self-serving and less than noble purposes. We should learn from this; not keep repeating it.Is theology dead?Contemporary theology is unquestionably in a state of crisis for multiple reasons. One of them is the relationship of dogmatic theology to its biblical ground. We know that the Bible was written in and from a view of the world that was reflective of its particular culture and time. Scientific knowledge and sociocultural evolution has rightfully dropped those outdated views. It has opened up a different understanding of the Bible altogether from being some sort of theological treatise for carving out an orthodoxy about God to a story of humankind’s relationship to the divine from which we must each work out it’s meaning and significance for our own lives.The world of the 21st Century is very different from the world of the 1st Century and even of the 19th Century. Yet, too often Christian understandings are still based on the worldviews of those antiquated time periods. For example, we no longer accept that there is a religious explanation of natural events and processes. We understand a great deal about life and cells, about the laws of physics and of the atom, the origin of the universe and the movement of the stars, about space and time, about the evolution of life forms and the earth’s geological formations, about forces and matter, about causation and result.Christianity has yet to come to terms with the world of the 21st Century and as a result has lost what is central and essential in Christianity. When the Christian church is faced with the fact and implications of 21st Century thought, it panics and retreats backward into a theological fortress where it has tried unsuccessfully to defend an outdated worldview that is incomprehensible to many of us. By failing to interpret Christianity to our generation in terms and concepts that this generation could understand, Christianity has lost its power to speak authoritatively and meaningfully to us, and that has resulted in a Christianity that is increasingly seen by many as irrelevant. The Bible Requires A Different Kind of QuestionPeople argue back and forth about the Bible on the question of whether the Bible is true. But true in what sense? Historically true? Scientifically true? Transcendently true? Is the Bible to be taken as rules to follow or evidence for the existence of God? I find the value in the Bible relates to a question that would go something like this:What does this particular piece of biblical writing (cosmic story, historical narrative, prose and poetry, commandments and laws, God/Jesus/Spirit-themes) tell me about how human beings work out questions of ultimate meaning and deep psychological significance, and what can I/We personally learn and gain from this? For example, in my mind it's nonsense to argue over a literal Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden, and the Fall of Man. However, I find it meaningful and instructive to investigate what these stories represent and why. The field of the Philosophy of Religion is the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions. The philosophy of religion is different from theology in that theology's critical reflections are based on religious convictions. The Philosophy of Religion is an intermingling of philosophical inquiry with religious themes and the broader enterprises of philosophy. The importance of philosophy of religion is chiefly due to its subject matter: alternative beliefs about God, the sacred, the varieties of religious experience, the interplay between science and religion, the challenge of non-religious philosophies, the nature and scope of good and evil, religious treatments of birth, history, and death, and other substantial terrain. A philosophical exploration of these topics involves fundamental questions about our place in the cosmos and about our relationship to what may transcend the cosmos. The meaningfulness of religious language, philosophical reflection on the concept of God, and exploring of religious experiences are all part of this area of inquiry. William James described religion in this way, "Were one to characterize religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say that it consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto." I do believe there is an unseen or nonmaterial reality that human beings experience. A piece of art or music moves us, deep feelings of love and belonging arise in close relationships, peak and euphoric experiences make us feel exhilaratingly alive, there are moments we are filled with awe and wonder, and we touch beauty, joy, sadness and sorrow. These are but a few ways we encounter an unseen or nonmaterial reality that cannot be adequately explained with test tubes and formulas. In my mind it's a leap to say that this "unseen order" is limited to only one particular and right religious or belief-system. In a previous blog post I wrote extensively about a non-religious, even secular spirituality. I can accept the William James definition of religion, however I feel obliged to say that there is never a valid justification, including a religious one, for: - The hypocrisy of claiming to know God but demeaning people - Disparaging people of other faiths as a sign of devotion to yours - Casting judgment upon others while giving yourself a pass - Dividing the world up into “us” and “them” - Fostering fear of God - Telling people they are inherently bad - Repressing individuality and demanding conformity - Casting disapproval on those who question - Perpetuating a superiority class structure of “clergy” and “laity” - A performance-based system of earning God’s love and approval . - Assigning maleness to God and esteeming men over women - Allowing differences of beliefs to prevent working alongside others to alleviate suffering in our world - Praying for divine intervention without taking direct action - Claiming a close relationship with God while perpetuating discord and hostility in human relationships - Using religious beliefs to rationalize or justify hate, violence, injustice, oppression, discord, bigotry, misogyny, dehumanization, or the affliction of human or planetary suffering

(On the menu bar there’s a "Let's Talk" page. It's a place where you can ask me questions about things you are pondering or working through in your own journey. Each Wednesday I’ll write a "Let's Talk" blog post that addresses your questions. Today’s post is the first one. Just because your particular question isn’t addressed in this post doesn’t mean it won’t. I’ll do my best to answer every question.) “Jim, I’m confused. Are you a Christian?” I’m asked this question often. My background is in Christianity. I self-identified as a Christian as a high school senior, and was the Student President of a campus ministry during my college years. Following college, I earned a Master’s degree in theology, became an ordained minister, and served many years as the pastor of a Christian church. Though it’s not uncommon for me to speak of Jesus, I also point out where I believe the Christian religion misrepresents Jesus, and even causes spiritual and psychological damage in people’s lives, and causes division in the world. My understanding of Jesus has also evolved over the years. I think for these reasons some people are uncertain if I am a Christian or still a Christian.Let me first answer the question with a question: What makes a person a “Christian”? What definition are we using? Is it someone who has the proper Christian theological beliefs? If so, who decides the theological litmus test? It’s estimated that there are 43,000 different Christian denominations worldwide, which represent many different interpretations of the Bible and doctrinal beliefs. To be fair, traditional Christian theology has been summarized in creeds such as the Apostles' Creed and Nicene Creed. But even this is based on the idea that the Bible was written so a single and coherent theology could be developed, a view that not every person accepts. And further, there are many historians who question the politics and motives that influenced these early church councils and the decisions they made about the canonization of the Bible and the accepted theological beliefs. But even if someone could claim having correct Christian theology, what if that person’s life didn’t resemble anything like the life Jesus lived or the values he taught? Would that person be a Christian? And what about a person with an intellectual or learning disability? Can they be a Christian? Is a Christian someone who prays the “Jesus prayer”? And would their motivation for doing so matter? What if they said the prayer to make their girlfriend happy or the peer pressure of what everyone else was doing? Does regularly attending church make you a Christian? Christianity is considered a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. But did Jesus intend for there to be a Christian religion. I address this matter in great detail in Notes from (Over) the Edge, and Inner Anarchy. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with people choosing to associate and meet together to encourage one another in the ways they understand Jesus to be significant and relevant for their lives. In my view, Jesus holds universal relevance and significance, regardless of one’s religious, spiritual and philosophical background. I fleshed out this view in this post. But that doesn’t mean a person will necessarily self-identify as a “Christian.” The “Christian” label has now come to mean so many different things, some of which are appalling. Increasingly people are choosing to be more descriptive about their beliefs rather than identify with a label. Another problem with the “Christian” distinction is that it often necessitates the opposing label of “non-Christian,” which can be equally discomforting. You end up with the same problem of definition. Who is the “non-Christian”? How would you label a person who lives the values Jesus espoused but does not attend church or have a well-defined set of beliefs about God or Jesus? But the question here is, am I a Christian? My answer is yes, maybe, and no. If being a “Christian” means embracing what I wrote here, then yes I would feel good about thinking of myself privately as a Christian and connect with other like-minded people who felt the same. But would I identify myself with the “Christian” label publicly? Maybe. If Christianity was widely thought of in the above terms, I might be willing to use the label publicly. However, until that day comes, I don’t see myself pushing the “Christian” label for myself publicly, which is the “no” part of my answer. In too many cases “Christian” means something that I don’t advocate, and the term can be unnecessarily polarizing. I get criticized on both ends when it comes to what I say about Jesus. On the one hand there are those who have “shed religion” and shed Jesus with it. For many of these folks, the mention of Jesus reminds them of everything that was wrong and even damaging about their beliefs and involvement related to their particular Christian experience. On the other hand, the typical person who holds fixed and strongly-opinionated beliefs about God and Jesus, in this case Christians, are sometimes not too fond of what I say about Jesus. This is because my beliefs don’t always line up with their particular Christian orthodoxy. There are also those who have crossed paths with enough Christians to have concluded that the whole Jesus-thing is something to steer clear of. Many atheists and agnostics don’t really see any point in giving a lot of credence to Christianity. After all, there’s not a very kind historical record of what has often happened in the name of Jesus. The Crusades of the Middle Ages come to mind. Westboro Baptist church is another. There is no shortage of examples of how Christian religious fundamentalism has done great harm in our world. I don’t believe Jesus needs to be a polarizing figure. Over the years I have shared what I believe the message of Jesus is and There are a lot of people for whom their rejection of or ambivalence toward Jesus is because of the Jesus they were exposed to through the filter of fundamentalist Christian religion. That’s unfortunate because the Christian religion does not always accurately represent the life and message of Jesus. As I said, Jesus did not start the Christian religion, and if Jesus were alive today I don’t think he would claim the label. In fact, if Jesus came around today and lived and taught the way he did 2,000 years ago, some Christian folk might be the first ones to crucify him. Jesus was not a religious person, and vehemently opposed religion and the way it separated people from God, and divided them against each other. Rather than asking, “Are you a Christian?” I believe a better question would be: Are we living the kinds of values that Jesus lived? Religion at its worst is a game of who’s in and who’s out, who’s right and who’s wrong, and who’s “us” and who’s “them.” Religion is at its best when it joins hands with any and all people who affirm and live values such as: the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity, and compassion in human relations; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

(Every Wednesday I answer a question submitted through my “Let’s Talk” page. Here’s today’s edition.)“Hey Jim, sometimes I get overwhelmed still, with all these doctrines, theologies, philosophies and different ways of thinking that I forget to listen to that little voice in my own head. I'm constantly reading articles and listening to podcasts and it brings me out of touch with my own reality and it's overwhelms me with information overload! I find myself getting stressed out, and I know that's not what God wants for me. My question is, how do I simplify life in this age of over complication? How can I stop searching for the "right belief" and just learn to be? This is all really taking me out of the moment, I have so much trouble with the here and now when I'm constantly trying to philosophize life. I mean, is it even possible to know truth while we're humans? It seems to all just be subjective opinions. I really look forward to hearing back and thanks for giving us an opportunity to ask questions.”Thanks for your question. Here are a few thoughts that come to mind.First off, you should be commended for being a person with highly developed self-awareness. That’s extraordinary! Self-awareness is the first step in creating what you want and mastering your life. There are many things you are aware of: (1) forgetting to listen to that little voice in your head; (2) dependency upon these external sources of spiritual data that leave you out of touch with your own reality and produce feelings of overwhelm; (3) realization that something is off when spiritual pursuits cause stress; (4) desire to simplify your life and spiritual journey; (5) the need to let go of the need to construct “right beliefs” and find spiritual fulfillment from inhabiting your real, authentic and innermost self; (6) spotting the conflict of being present to your life as it unfolds and simultaneously stepping out of your life to philosophize about it; (7) recognition that the whole concept of “absolute truth” isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be.Well, all I can to all that is: Congratulations! You already know everything necessary to move forward on your journey. Let’s take each of those 7 things you already know and formulate an action step for each one. These are just suggestions. Brainstorm and explore more that are meaningful for you:(1) Keep a daily “little voice journal” and jot down a few deep thoughts and feelings that bubble up from that place inside you. Perhaps don’t think of that place as your “head” but something more along the lines of your innermost self and heart.(2) Shift your spiritual focus from consuming data to other pursuits such as: what makes you come alive; what satisfies you most deeply; what fills you up; what brings you joy what centers you; what need in the world moves you to action; what areas, fields, or subjects are you interested in exploring; what makes you feel connected to yourself; what forms of self-expression are the most gratifying; what would your sense of adventure tell you to do; where in life are you inspired to be a tangible expression of love, acceptance, and compassion; what nurtures a greater love for yourself and others.(3) Whatever you are doing in your quest for a deeper spirituality that is a source of stress, STOP doing it. My only caveat is that some aspects of personal growth can involve getting out of your comfort zone and can be uncomfortable. But I think you know the difference.(4) Identify and implement 3 ways that you feel would make the biggest difference in simplifying your human existence, approach to life, spiritual journey, or daily routine or flow.(5) I wrote in Notes from (Over) the Edge,“Has debating your theological positions gotten you any closer to bringing an end to your suffering? Is there more peace and freedom in your life as a result of being “right”?You’ve been told the importance of “knowing the Truth,” and how there’s a menu of options to scrutinize and choose from. You’ve been warned to choose cautiously, the necessity of getting it “right,” the consequences of getting it “wrong.” Is the truth behind door #1, door #2, or door #3?You must rethink your entire way of approaching the matter of Truth. Currently you have it framed in the idea of having “correct beliefs,” and you think this is what matters. But how would you even know if you achieved having “correct beliefs”? Who decides? For the Christian, “correct beliefs” to one denomination or church are “wrong beliefs” to another, and both will argue that their interpretation is the right or “biblical” one.Forget the heady and ego-gratifying search to “know Truth.” Divest your energy from the drama of being right. Correct beliefs are the Booby prize. What you are after is the end of your suffering.Dismiss the idea entirely that the road to Truth is paved with correct beliefs. A belief is a state of mind in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true. You are not going to uncover the Truth by constructing new beliefs in your head because Truth is not a belief in your head.Truth is not an idea, a doctrine, a theory, or a position. Truth cannot be found in a book or on a screen. Truth is not a concept in your mind. It can’t be transmitted through words or grasped by the intellect. Truth is not an answer to a multiple-choice, true or false, or fill-in-the-blank question. There is no essay brilliant or long enough to elucidate it.You cannot know the Truth through your mind. It is that simple. Quit trying.Jesus spoke of a peace that is not as the world gives, and one that is beyond all comprehension. He said that when you know the Truth you will be free, which includes freedom from the never-ending conundrum of constructing correct beliefs.If you could have gotten to true and lasting peace through the work of your mind, you would have done so by now.The fixation of comprehending spiritual things on a cognitive level is largely a Western idea. Westerners insist on packaging up the infinite and unknowable into a system of intellectual ideas, propositions, concepts, and beliefs. It’s a bonus if you can reduce it into a short creed and fit it onto on the back of a church pamphlet.Westerners idolize the mind and imbue it with powers that the mind simply does not have. We think that somehow the mind defines the limits and boundaries of life. We take offense to the thought that the mind has significant limitations. Outside the West, the idea that God and Truth is something you work out in the machinations of the mind would be considered ridiculous.”It is fine to enjoy and gain insight from various thoughts and readings that are spiritual or philosophical in nature but don’t make a goal to create a new belief system or pour concrete over your latest discovery. You might also find this useful. (6) The idea of “being present in the moment” sounds right but can be a little elusive and frustrating when seeking to apply it. It can come across as though one should stop and have some sort of deep or spiritual experience. Instead, consider the possibility that the spiritual life is simply responding to situations as they require. If you need to walk from your kitchen to your bedroom, it’s not necessary to stop at each step and “be present in the moment” and have a “spiritual experience.” Life itself is spiritual and no moment needs you to do anything to add the spirituality to it. There are some moments, such as catching a beautiful sunset, when you experience deep feelings and feel a greater connection to God and life. But no not suppose that such a moment is more “spiritual” than walking from your kitchen to the bedroom. It’s only that the two situations were different, inviting two different responses. Your life is your spiritual path… every part of it.(7) Rather than become fixated or caught up in the idea of “absolute truth,” let yourself simply be curious and mindful of the unity of knowledge that exists in our universe. I have found that the more I explore different fields of study/branches of knowledge or am more observant and reflective of my daily experiences that I bump into profound and universal truths that are meaningful in many different ways. Don’t make a new religion from what you learn and find, just be grateful and allow these discoveries to become a part of who you are and your experience of the world.So, the bottom line is this… you’re doing great, you’ll be fine, and you have a level of self-awareness that will help guide you forward. The best thing you have going for you is… YOU! Trust yourself. That little voice has a lot to say. Listen to it.

“Jim, how can there be peace among the world’s religions if each of them believe that only their view of God is right? You often talk about tolerance and inclusivity but didn't your Jesus say he was the ONLY way?"Great question! It is true that the claim of exclusivity – only our way is the right way – fosters disharmony and division among the world religions. In my view, virtually all religious, spiritual and philosophical traditions and belief-systems share beliefs in common, and perhaps even the most important beliefs such as the preeminence of love, compassion and the golden rule. But despite this, religion continues to divide people in our world. The way I see it, there are three options: One option is to continue with the status quo of dividing people and pitting them against each other based on differing religious/spiritual/philosophical beliefs. In my view, this option is disastrous.Another option is to take what’s common among all religions and create one unified belief-system that everyone is happy about. This is known as syncretism, which is the merging or assimilating of many different belief-systems into one new system. I don’t believe this option is practical because most people ascribe great meaning and significance to the distinct and unique elements of their particular tradition. The option I suggest is to agree to coexist peacefully in a world of religious, spiritual and philosophical diversity.When it comes to religion, I believe cooperation is better than competition. A deeper look into Darwin’s view about evolution reveal that it is cooperation and not competition, which is the essential trait that ensures the human race’s survival. There are some who believe that intelligent beings might have evolved many times over the long history of the universe but then destroyed themselves because they lacked cooperative genes. The only ones that could survive were those that had the urge to get along. If this is right, the drive toward supercooperation is not just an interesting sideline in the story of evolution. It lies at the heart of why we are here—the kind of real answer that is critical for the future of humankind and all living things.If we go with the coexist-peacefully option, I feel responsible to address what seems to be the claims of exclusivity within the Christian tradition. These claims are particularly tied to these words attributed to Jesus in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”In my view, this is one of the most misunderstood statements of Jesus. The traditional Christian interpretation of these words of Jesus is based upon a mentality and framework that I believe to me flawed. Christianity essentially built a religion around the person of Jesus – the actual, historical, human person, Jesus. What’s interesting about this is that Jesus himself dissuaded people from worshipping him and creating a new religion around him. There are stories of Jesus’ first followers doing this, which Jesus scolded. When Jesus spoke of his imminent death his followers were distraught, but Jesus explained that his death was necessary so that people would become less dependent upon Jesus the human person, and learn to live in harmony with the spirit that was within them. In a nutshell, the same spirit, life, transcendent nature and guiding values that were within Jesus are within all of us.The John 14:6 words of Jesus are traditionally interpreted within this framework of dependency upon Jesus the person. A paraphrase would be, “I – me the physical, historical, human person, Jesus – am the way and the truth and the life. The only way to connect with God and know ultimate reality is through sole allegiance to me – the physical, historical, human person, me.” In other words, it’s all about Jesus the person.On another occasion Jesus made this statement, “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Notice that Jesus did not say, “I will make you free,” but that “the truth” will make you free. In my view, the correct interpretation of Jesus words’ John 14:6 would be, “The truth that I have lived, the truth that I have demonstrated, the truth that I have borne witness too, the truth of who I’ve been right before your eyes – is the way to truly know what is real.” Jesus is not making some statement of exclusivity whereby the world must become Christian, and build and perpetuate a Jesus-religion as the one and only true religion. I do not believe this is what Jesus meant.So the $64,000 question is: What truth is Jesus referring to? If Jesus meant to say that the truth he expressed is the truth that sets us free and the way to know God, what is that truth? In my view, what is abundantly clear about Jesus was his message that you can be both divine and human. In other words, there is no real separation between God and humankind, ultimate reality and humankind, the whole and humankind, Love and humankind, transcendence and humankind. Other ways of saying it are: we are all God’s children, each of us is a part of the whole, the same eternal spirit of life runs through us all.This is the basis of the “Namaste” term. Regardless of the different ways we make God and ultimate reality meaningful to us, we can hold the following mindset toward one another:The Divine light in me acknowledges the Divine light in you.The God/Goddess in me greets and meets the God/Goddess in you.I honor the spirit in you that is also in me.I greet that place where you and I are one.I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and of peace.Jesus also said once, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Once again, in my view Jesus is not speaking of his physical self but is speaking of the truth he lived and demonstrated. In other words, Jesus was saying, “When my truth is lifted up – when people see that there is no separation between God and humankind – then all of us will be free to live in love, peace, harmony and well-being together as one human family.”I have been writing about this view of Jesus for years, most notably in Notes from (Over) the Edge, and Inner Anarchy. It’s no secret that I believe Jesus holds universal significance and relevance, regardless of one’s religious, spiritual or philosophical tradition or belief-system. In my view, we can stop scapegoating religion for our world’s problems and acknowledge that we can embrace our own particular tradition, but learn from each other. The assumption tends to be that an openness to different beliefs will compromise our own, but I have discovered instead that it expands and deepens my beliefs in very meaningful ways.I’ve stated elsewhere that I believe this is possible if we could unanimously adopt the following five notions:Every person can fully embrace and follow their religious tradition, spiritual interests, or philosophical views without creating division, destruction, hostility, or hatred. Every person can find a rationale and motivation within their religious tradition, spiritual interests, or philosophical views to be an instrument of goodness, peace, love, and compassion in the world, and affirm the inherent, equal, and unconditional worth of every human being.Every person has the right to follow their own inner guidance in choosing their own religious, spiritual, or philosophical views and practices. Every person can participate in a process of personal growth, self-actualization, and fulfillment of one’s highest beliefs and aspirations, and encourage the same for others. Every person benefits when each of us follows our own unique inspiration for building a world that works for everyone.We need to shift our thinking about religion from a competitive mindset to a cooperative one. Whether than focusing on the question of having the “right” beliefs about God, what if we asked questions like this:Do my beliefs promote harmony?Are my beliefs a source of joy, goodness and beauty?Do my beliefs inspire kindness and compassion?Do my beliefs motivate love for all people and living things?Do my beliefs hold a space for people to coexist peacefully?I know what some people are thinking: “Jim, what are you smoking?” “Is this some kind of Utopian fantasy?” “Never going to happen.” “Wishful and deluded thinking.” “As long as there is religion, there will be division and hostility.”I’m not going to give up holding this possibility. I believe we are capable of it. We have perfected the art of religion as competition. In my view, the challenge and opportunity before us is cultivating religion as cooperation, the one characteristic we most need if we hope to survive.

(Each Week I answer a question submitted through the "Let's Talk"contact form“Jim, I’m not sure any more about what happens when we die. Do you still believe in life after death?”I really enjoy these easy and simple questions! First off let me say the obvious – the question of life after death is not something I can adequately cover in a short blog post. This and other existential questions often become distressing for those who find themselves questioning and doubting the explanations and answers given through their religious tradition or belief-system. It often results in an existential crisis, which is that moment when an individual questions the very foundations of their life: whether this life has any meaning, purpose, or value. It can cause a frightening uncertainty about life’s biggest questions, and a sense of disorientation, confusion, or dread in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. An existential crisis is often provoked by a significant event in a person's life – trauma, major loss, a life-threatening experience, loss of one’s faith. Sometimes it’s this kind of existential crisis that causes one to seek me out for spiritual direction. These are not matters that are sorted out quickly, and requires quite a bit of personal work. Human beings want answers to life’s biggest questions, which include: Where did we come from? Why are we here? What is the meaning and purpose of life and our existence? Is there a God? What is death and what happens when we die? A person’s sense of security in the world is typically tied to their particular religion, belief-system or philosophy because it supplies answers to all the important questions about life and existence. This is one reason why the shedding religion process can be volatile – it’s unsettling to lose that security and certainty. Somehow someway we want that security and certainty back, perhaps with different answers, but back nonetheless. Here are a few considerations, when it comes to the question of life after death. The afterlife or life after death is the concept of a realm, or the realm itself (whether physical or transcendental), in which an essential part of an individual's identity or consciousness continues to exist after the death of the body. According to various ideas about the afterlife, the essential aspect of the individual that lives on after death may be some partial element, or the entire soul or spirit. Belief in an afterlife stands in contrast to the belief in no-existence after death. From a strictly scientific point of view, the only correct answer to the question of life after death is that we don't know. Science is limited to concepts that can be either supported by evidence or that can be disproved. There is no solid evidence for life after death, nor can the existence of life after death be disproved. So real, objective science has no answer to this question. If there is life after death, it involves a soul of some kind. (We know exactly what happens to our bodies when we die.) Similarly, there is no evidence for the existence of a soul, and the existence of a soul has also never been disproved. Until someone figures out a way to gather evidence to support the idea of life after death, or until someone figures out a way to prove that there is no such thing, science cannot supply a definitive answer. Answers to existential questions cannot be proven by empirical evidence, which is evidence or results that can be observed or confirmed by our senses. If it is raining outside, you can “prove” it is raining because there is empirical evidence – you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste the rain. In terms of this kind of empirical evidence, you would have to actually die yourself to know with absolute certainty for yourself what happens at death and if there is life after death. But even this is assuming that if there was life after death that it would be a continuation of some form of individual consciousness so you could know it. For example, if life after death involved shedding one’s individualized identity or self and returning to the wholeness of the universe, there might not be a basis for “knowing” anything as you know things now. In other words, there might be some form of life after death but you would not be consciously aware of it. So the short answer to the question of what happens when we die and life after death is that you can’t know for sure… at least not the kind of sure that comes from the proof of empirical evidence. Even though there are those who claim to have passed to the “other side” and returned to tell about it, it still cannot prove the claim for you unless you yourself have this experience. You can choose to take their word for it and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with considering that as evidence for life after death, but it would not be the kind of direct empirical proof (observation, direct experience, sensory validation) that science typically depends upon to determine the veracity of something. That’s not to say that there aren’t reasonable justifications for the idea of life after death. There are many thoughtful explanations that people feel support the likelihood of life after death. People find such reasoning from diverse sources, including science. But that’s different from saying that it can be proven and known with certainty. This is why some people fear death even though they hold a belief in life after death – because there’s always that question of how you can really know with absolute certainty. There are different answers to the question of life after death. A few of the explanations include:Nothing. Nothing happens when you die. You have this life only; when it’s over, that’s it.Return to Source. Each person returns to the wholeness of the universe.Embodied Spirits. We are embodied spirits, having both a physical and spiritual dimension. At death, the body dies but the spiritual dimension or consciousness continues to exist.Universalism. Everyone in the end will be “saved.”Reincarnation. Living beings are seen as having an endless series of lives achieved through a continual process of reincarnation into which all are locked until they can be freed through enlightenment.Eternal Life and Eternal Judgment. Eternal life as eternal spiritual bliss (Heaven). Eternal life as a new heavens and new earth. Judgement as annihilation. Judgement as eternal conscious torment (Hell). I could continue on with further explanations, different views, and even tell you what my own current personal beliefs are about life after death, but it seems it would be most useful to touch on the matter of how to address or deal with existential questions as a whole. Consider the possibility that you don’t have to orient your life around existential questions and having answers of certainty.Who says you need answers to these questions to live a deeply meaningful, fulfilling and whole life? Consider these two options: Option #1: There is life after death; Option #2: There isn’t. In what way(s) would your current life be different, depending upon which of these options you decide upon? Rather than tormenting yourself with questions about the afterlife, which can’t be answered with certainty, why not become more interested in the herelife and all the possibilities that this life offers now. Instead of angst about life after death, what about a renewed vigor for life before death. As J.R.R. Tolkien, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Mark Twain wrote, “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” And Jim Morrison, “No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.” This involves creating a different relationship to life itself. It’s shifting away from seeing life as: a conundrum to be figured out; a threat to overcome; a problem needing to be solved. Instead, one can decide upon any number of other possibilities of understanding life: a gift to be embraced; a mystery to enjoy without fear; a pilgrimage of personal growth; an invitation to actualize oneself as fully as possible; an opportunity to know and experience a communion beyond the boundaries of the individual self; directing your life in accordance with a meaning and purpose that aligns with your innermost self; becoming, embodying and being what you believe to be the greatest truth, such as love; finding meaning in the moment and what's right in front of you, and responding in grace as each situation of life requires. I discuss these possibilities in more detail in my online Life After Religion course, and help people develop the mindsets and tools necessary to approach life in this way. Questions of the afterlife can be a byproduct of a basic terror of death, which some people have. I recently read a book that you might find useful: Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Fear of Death by Irvin D. Yalom.

JesusPerhaps no person in history has been the subject of so much controversy and debate. It began two thousand years ago, when religious and political powers conspired to brutally execute him. Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically. After that point, agreement is difficult to find; opinions about the life and message of Jesus differ sharply. My own understanding of Jesus has been a long and winding journey. You might say that I have my own “Finding Jesus” story that has passed through many phases.RELIGION'S JESUS I was raised loosely in the Catholic Church, attending Mass most Sundays. I made it through my First Communion and First Confession, but drifted away and did not pursue official Confirmation by the Church. I had no personal interest in God or religion until life’s existential questions began troubling me in my late teens. I first came to know Jesus as “Religion’s Jesus.” I accepted Jesus as my savior and became a born-again Christian the summer before I went off to college. Throughout my collegiate years I was a leader in a Christian campus ministry. Along the way my understanding of Jesus was shaped by traditional Christian teachings, which could be summed up in the Nicene Creed. I was heavily vested in this view for many years of my life, including earning a Master of Divinity degree, and many years as a professional Christian minister and church pastor. I experienced a crisis of faith when I acknowledged to myself that I was empty, broken and unhappy inside despite my religious devotion. I observed this same dissonance in many of the people I led and cared for in my church parish. As a result, I left professional Christian ministry to sort out my spiritual struggles.RELIGION-FREE JESUS The next stage in my understanding of Jesus, I’ll call the “Religion-less Jesus” phase. I knew something was not adding up in terms of my Christian belief-system. Jesus himself said that knowing the truth sets a person free, and yet I was anything but free. Discontented, restless, afflicted, fragmented – yes, but not free. I began deconstructing my Christian belief system. Belief by belief, I questioned and examined every teaching and doctrine. Walt Whitman wrote, “Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.” My own version of Whitman’s sentiment was to re-examine all my Christian beliefs based on the preeminence of love. I used the scripture, “God is love” to scrutinize my dogma. I realize this may sound quite simplistic, perhaps even childish, and certainly unbecoming of a person who studied the Bible in Hebrew and Greek, and understood the finer points of proper exegesis. But for all my theological sophistication I had no inner peace, and so I decided upon a much simpler method for accessing the validity of my beliefs. It’s at this point of my journey that I began writing books, the first of which was, Divine Nobodies: Shedding Religion to Find God (and the unlikely people who help you). This endeavor of questioning and deconstructing my beliefs resulted in the demolition of my Evangelical Christian belief-system. And yet in all the theological rubble, there was still a Jesus standing there. I could not seem to deconstruct Jesus out of the picture. This left me in a quandary. Jesus had once been necessary as the central piece of the theological edifice I called Christianity. But if I no longer believed in that theological edifice built around him, then who was Jesus and did it really even matter. This quandary led to a question that guided my spiritual journey for the next few years: Is there a credible way of understanding Jesus apart from traditional Christianity?My first step in this direction was a chapter I wrote in my second book, Wide Open Spaces: Beyond Paint-by-Number Christianity. In that chapter, I explore what I believed to be the unreasonable motto of modern Christianity – the WWJD-question: What would Jesus do? I pointed out the insanity of this proposition – binding people to the notion of living as Jesus did while also asserting that Jesus is God, therefore making his life unattainable by mere mortals. This ultimately led to the question: What makes Jesus and me different? Through some theological gymnastics I managed to come up with an answer, which stated that any person could actually do what Jesus did, without compromising the notion of the divinity of Jesus. Phew! But my explanation in Wide Open Spaces seemed incomplete and for me raised more questions than it answered. It became a splinter in my mind. I devoted my third book, Being Jesus in Nashville, to more fully exploring the premise of the WWJD-question. I did so by devoting a year of my life to test the notion that I was capable of doing anything Jesus did, including the miraculous or supernatural works that are attributed to him. Being Jesus in Nashville is the story of what unfolded over that year and what I discovered. Though I took no specific theological position, I blurred the lines of Jesus’ divinity enough for the comfort of my Christian publisher. I was accused of being a “heretic” who had “abandoned orthodox biblical theology.” The manuscript was rejected and my book contract swiftly cancelled. This “Religion-less Jesus” phase ended with a paradox. I was more interested in Jesus than I ever had been, but conflicted about referring to myself as a “Christian,” at least not on the terms of my own particular Christian persuasion. SPIRITUAL JESUS Let me say that I think it is unfair to pit “religion” against “spirituality” as if they are two completely different and unrelated things. There is a robust “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) movement that can sometimes imply that organized religion is devoid of true personal spirituality. I believe this is an unfair criticism, and is not true across the board. I refer to this next phase of my Jesus journey as “Spiritual Jesus” because I discovered a deeply significant and meaningful understanding of Jesus that did not require that I necessarily identify with the institution or organized Christianity. Jesus himself was a Jew and raised in a family and culture of Judaism. As such, Jesus both affirmed Judaism for its goodness, but also confronted the ways Judaism had been corrupted by the religious establishment. Not to be comparing myself to Jesus, I did imperfectly walk this line myself. On the one hand, the world can thank Christianity for having established and preserved a witness to Jesus down through history. But there are ways I believe that the Christian establishment misconstrued and corrupted the relevance and significance of Jesus, and I explore these in detail in my fourth book, Notes from (Over) the Edge. Then in my fifth book, Inner Anarchy, I offered an alternative way of understanding Jesus, based on a different interpretation of the Jesus story in the Bible. This book was controversial from the start because of the sub-title: Dethroning God and Jesus to Save Ourselves and the World, which I explain in great detail in a FAQ about the book. During this phase I was heavily criticized on all sides. Some of my Christian tribe criticized, even demonized me for my non-traditional views of Jesus, while others took issue with my continuing to talk about Jesus at all. I have since written several blog posts in attempt to clarify my position, and answer my critics:Did Christianity get Jesus right?Why I Speak of Jesus (why I'm not a Christian)Jim, are you a Christian?I’m not sure I succeeded but I discovered in the process, mainly through private messages and emails, that there are many people who were at a similar place as myself with respect to Jesus – having misgivings about Christianity and traditional Christian theology but not wanting to throw out the baby with the bathwater. UNIVERSAL JESUS The more I pressed into an alternative way of thinking about Jesus, I discovered a universal significance and relevance to Jesus that I have found quite meaningful. In most instances, religious division is based on the premise that someone has to be right and someone has to be wrong. Or stated another way, when it comes to the world’s religious, spiritual and philosophical belief-systems, everyone can’t be right. In recent years I have challenged this notion. In my view, virtually any open-minded person can see that despite differences and distinctions among the world’s religions, there is agreement on what I believe to be the most profound level – values such as love, compassion, harmony and the golden rule. I also believe there is much more cosmological agreement between science and religion than people may think. In a nutshell, it is my view that all religions, spiritualties, and philosophies (including science, humanism, agnosticism and atheism) can peacefully coexist, enhance one another’s understanding of the universe and life’s existential questions, and find a rationale for building a world that works for everyone. For my part in this, coming from a Christian background, I am wanting to influence my Christian tribe to shift from a message of exclusivity about Jesus to a message of inclusivity. I don’t believe Jesus came to start a new religion to compete with all the others. I see Jesus as one who lived, demonstrated and bore witness to the truth that humankind has never been estranged from God, and the only issue to work out now is to end our estrangement from one another. Jesus taught that love for God is synonymous with love for one another, and anything less is missing the point and fake religion. There is no reason why we can’t maintain our own uniquely meaningful ways of understanding God, find and make meaning for our place and purpose in the universe, and express and satisfy our own spiritual or self-transcendent proclivities, without it being a source of division, hostility and hatred in the world. I have written several blog posts, speaking to this subject: Why Jesus matters, regardless of your beliefsScapegoating ReligionHow can there be religious tolerance if Jesus is the ONLY way?In recent years I have become more aware of people who would consider themselves non-theists or atheists, and still ascribe significance to Jesus. There are two books by the same name that I read on this subject:Christianity without God by Daniel MaguireChristianity without God by Lloyd GeeringThis is a summation of how I have come to understand Jesus. I don’t believe this is a violation of the Jesus in the Bible, nor a rejection of the person Jesus associated with the Christian tradition. Every generation, every Christian denomination, every church, even every Christian “finds Jesus” differently. This doesn’t make one person “right” and another person wrong.” In my view, if love, compassion, harmony and the golden rule are non-negotiable then we can all learn from and appreciate how each of us finds Jesus. I don't believe it's possible to ever "find Jesus" entirely, or even understand him completely. Perhaps this is why he endures as a person of universal interest and intrigue. Jesus was an interesting combination of paradoxes in terms of who he was and how he lived. He was loving and compassionate. He was confrontational and contentious. He was meek. He was scrappy. He was instructive, nurturing, empowering and inspiring. He was subversive, undermining, inflammatory and a renegade. He spoke of the kingdom of heaven within us. He rebelled against the kingdom of men that oppressed the people. He was a warrior. He was a poet. You really can't pick and choose the parts you like and those you don't. He was all of that. Jesus might well be the world's most famous missing person. What Jesus was and what was made of him are two different realities. Once you clear away the spin and hype, you discover a lot of remarkable things about Jesus. Jesus died as a political provocateur and disturber of the alliance of convenience between the Roman occupiers and the corrupt Jewish leaders. The Romans did not waste crucifixion on nobodies. Jesus was a somebody. It wasn't a surprise that Jesus was killed, only that he was not killed sooner. Jesus' rhetoric and way of life was a threat to the occupiers and the priestly caste that benefited from it. Jesus spoke of a different kingdom and stirred the hopes of the people. Hope is the energy of revolution. Hope and excitement can disturb the pseudo-peace on which tyranny depends. The truth that Jesus shared and demonstrated debunked the foundational premises on which those religious and political systems were built. Jesus called for people to stop listening to them and start listening to the spirit of truth within themselves. He attacked the credibility of those systems and told people to find their authority inside themselves. Each time Jesus opened his mouth, he was pulling out another wooden Jenga block, making these religious and worldly powers vulnerable and unstable. Jesus himself was no threat—he had no position of religious or political power and wasn’t campaigning to be the worldly president—but his truth made him a one-man wrecking crew. Jesus is the world's most famous missing person because the religion that bears his name worship him as God, and have mostly lost who he was as a human.Marcus Borg wrote, "Jesus was from the peasant class. Clearly, he was brilliant. His use of language was remarkable and poetic, filled with images and stories. He had a metaphoric mind. He was not an ascetic, but world-affirming, with a zest for life. There was a sociopolitical passion to him—like a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King, he challenged the domination system of his day. He was a religious ecstatic, a Jewish mystic, for whom God was an experiential reality. As such, Jesus was also a healer. And there seems to have been a spiritual presence around him, like that of St. Francis or the present Dalai Lama. And as a figure of history, Jesus was an ambiguous figure—you could experience him and conclude that he was insane, as his family did, or that he was simply eccentric or that he was a dangerous threat—or you could conclude that he was filled with the spirit of God."

I recently wrote a post entitled, "Can you have a good day without God?" The piece was motivated by my coming across a Facebook post, which was presented as a message from God that read, "Good morning, this is God. I will be handling all your problems today. I will not need your help. So relax, and have a great day." It was hard to know where to begin to address this absurd sentiment, but I gave it a shot in that blog post. This morning I came across this statement, "The key to accessing God's power is to understand how much we need Him to do anything that's of real value in life. The truth is, whether we realize it or not, we're all desperate for God every minute of every day. I am weak, but He are strong."For many years I have seen how this "I am weak, but He is strong"-mindset does damage in people's lives. I have come to refer to it as "religious codependency," which is excessive emotional or psychological reliance on "God." The crippling impact of religion involves the way it convinces people how weak, incapable and helpless they are. This belief and attitude is one of the greatest obstacles and deterrents to personal growth and development. The truth is that you naturally have the ability, capacity, tools and skills to guide and direct your life meaningfully, ethically and effectively. Through the use of your fundamental human faculties such as logic, empathy, reason, critical thinking and moral intuition, you can capably lead your life. Based solely on the merits of being human, you are equipped to take actions, make choices and decisions, and consistently do what is necessary to cultivate a life of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. You are capable of self-management, which is the ability to regulate your emotions and resulting behaviors in ways that are useful and beneficial for yourself and others. This includes coping with unmet needs or desires, and persevering when faced with obstacles and difficulties. This week I received one of the assignments from an individual who is enrolled in my Life After Religion Course. A portion of her assignment read, "Religion cut across my self development as a young person as it discouraged me in thinking for myself and trusting myself. I started believing that my thoughts and especially my feelings could not be trusted. I began a war against my body and mind. Everything had to go through the filter of the belief system which was very authoritarian and male dominated. I was made to feel ashamed of being a woman. It essentially disconnected me from my body, mind and spirit by a deep shame and self hatred. The wound is, lack of self trust and belief in my own strength, power, and goodness, and shame of being who I am." For many people, religion indoctrinated them with a lot of limiting, destructive and self-sabotaging ideas. A few of them are: I am inherently bad. I can't trust myself. My heart is wicked. I deserve punishment. I don't measure up. I am powerless. Self-denial is holiness. I need forgiveness for who I am. I need saved from myself. I am worthless on my own. Staying in an abusive relationship is spiritual. Clinical therapy is a lack of faith. Self-care is selfish. The world is evil. If I mess up I will lose my salvation and go to hell. People I deeply love are in hell or will go there. Everything outside my church culture is a threat. I can never be good enough. Feelings are dangerous and not trustworthy. I am not capable of thinking for myself. Conformity is true discipleship. Questioning is a spirit of rebellion. I must be perfect. My struggles mean I am not trusting God. These and other toxic religious beliefs can destroy your life. Even after "leaving religion" these destructive mindsets stay in you. They don't just magically disappear because you stopped going to church or dumped your theology. It requires a dedicated effort to address and move past them. But the idea that you are powerless and inept to guide and manage your life is false. Some of the most important work I do with people through my Life After Religion Courseand through individual counseling with people recovering from religion, is help rid them of these self-sabotaging beliefs.

Over the course of publishing five books and connecting with my readers and social media followers, I began doing individual work with people who are recovering from the harmful effects of religion. Many people contact me who are experiencing a crisis of faith, deconstructing their long-held theological beliefs, going through a process of deconversion, and recovering from spiritual abuse, religious trauma and toxic religious indoctrination. Most days I have Skype calls with people in the USA and around the world who are dealing with these kinds of issues. After years of doing this individual work I created an online course, Life After Religion: A Personal Journey Out. It’s an online self-paced course that addresses subjects such as: - making peace with your religious past - dealing with the loneliness and fallout of leaving one’s faith community - rooting out toxic religious beliefs and mindsets - navigating spiritual crisis and the destabilization from losing one’s belief system - new ways of approaching life's existential questions - cultivating new tools and mindsets for personal liberation - exploring what spirituality is for you Shedding religion is typically a volatile but liberating experience. Many of the religious beliefs and practices that people leave behind open new doors for personal growth, and a more authentic and meaningful spirituality. It can also leave a void. Some people express missing the closeness and intimacy they once felt with God.Breaking free from a toxic religious background is one of the most difficult things a person will ever do. You don't have to walk this path alone. This is why I created the Life After Religion course. There is only a nominal cost for the course because I wanted to make it accessible to anyone. You can enroll and start the course at any time at this link. I mentioned that I also do individual calls with people about these issues. I sometimes refer to this as "spiritual direction" because the nature of the interaction is more personal and individualized. People are not only addressing the negative impact of spiritual abuse and religious trauma, they are also wanting to explore and cultivate a deeper and more authentic, meaningful, human and non-religious spirituality. Some of the issues we work on include: - unshackling oneself from toxic religious beliefs - cultivating self-trust and self-reliance - exploring spirituality beyond religion - recovering, inhabiting and expressing your authentic self - creating a plan for personal development - charting a new meaningful, purposeful and fulfilling direction in life When I do this kind of individual work with people, I begin the process with a personal inventory, and then we determine a direction for our calls. I typically encourage people to sign up for either a series of 3 calls or 5 calls, which allows us to substantially address a person’s struggles, needs, interests and desires. You can book these individual calls on my website at this link. When you scroll down the page you will see the call packages. When you register for one of the call packages, you will schedule the first session online, which prompts me to send you the personal inventory to start the process. It’s often the case that a person who takes the Life After Religion course is interested in individual calls during or after the course. You can book these calls online the same way at this link.