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Showing posts with label Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas. Show all posts
...We do not need to starve ourselves to gain God’s favor. God’s favor is already showered upon every single one of us. We are all dearly loved by our Heavenly Father whose love for us is beyond comprehension or measure. Fasting is also a way of pulling back from the problem for which we seek resolution, laying it all at God’s feet. If God does not do something, we assume, then nothing good will happen. But this assumption is completely false. God does not do anything apart from us. We are God’s hands. We are God’s feet. We are God’s presence. We are God’s ambassadors. As the ancient hymn by St. Teresa of Avila says,
“Christ has no body now but yours.”
His disciples said to him, ‘On what day will the repose of the dead come about, and on what day will the new world come?’ He said to them, ‘That which you look outward for has already come, but you do not recognize it.”
According to the Words of Jesus, as written by the Disciple Thomas, and as Decoded by Keith Giles, et.al., all that we have all been looking for, has been available to us immediately upon the death of Jesus and His Resurrection... And, He had told all of His disciples of this fact, "but you did not recognize it..."
What would our world have been like at this point, over 2000 years later, if His words had been recorded and provided to all of us at that time? On the other hand, throughout these years, many have written either through further research or as each has been led to try to share what they believed... On another hand, the world itself has grown from a struggling primitive land into large cities, many scientific advancements, and better health for many of our countries, which has not spread only because of the government leaders made other choices contrary to what was asked by Jesus the Son of God, who died for all of us...
Over my many years I have read books by those who were agnostic, but doing the necessary work to find his Truth, or those who have had supernational experiences and wrote to share what had happened to them. And, there have been others who have taken the Bible, used their extensive research and arrived at either confirmation or differences of opinion of what was to become their Truth... I have read all of them eagerly and even had read a copy of the Book of Thomas which was published, much like the listing provided in the video on Page 2 of this Post...
For me, after discovering and experiencing the many God Incidents I had found after reading still another book explaining what happened to a woman when her husband died, I have formed a closer relation with God than ever before. But it was this book's commentary which was so well researched and presented that I was able to completely understand both where I was confused about issues that had troubled me; but, also, gained insight into issues that bothered me, but that I had not yet found understanding. For me, this is perhaps, at least as of today, the most important book I've ever read.
Giles has complete and full skills by which he has come to a exploratory statement on each Saying--which are over 100--and takes his readers through his own confusion as well as the other books he has read to help him clarify what has informed his present opinion--and this book. These commentaries were powerful messages in themselves. I often found myself going back to read the original saying and then rereading Giles and vice versa until I, too, agreed with his outcome... I think there was only one that I remained a little confused and, possibly, unsure, that this was a correct interpretation of what Jesus was saying...
I chose to read one or two sayings each day, so that I could spend time needed... As time passed, I decided to go ahead and finish the book so I could post my review. I found, however, that by reading straight through about the second half of the book, that I was able to retain and continue on much more easily and actually better grasp what was said... I noted that there seemed, to me, a build up of the lessons to be learned in this book--I picked this up by listening to a video which can be found, also, on Page 2, that were definitely not in the same order. I have no idea whether Giles made his own decisions on how the sayings should be presented; however, to me, the book as presented by Giles seemed to reflect a chapter buildup, much like a novel would lead to a climatic ending... Whether intended or not, if you can, I would recommend a straight read of the book if your time permits...
Unfortunately, this book will not be for everyone. I can only explain by pointing out that if you have chosen to read only the Bible as your only source of enrichment of God's role in your lives, you may not comprehend what Jesus God has avaiable to each of us, if we but listen and Hear Him... Only each of us can determine whether you wish to learn more about God in our lives. I know the word I want to use, but some will automatically take a politic meaning, which it is not meant to... However, I consider both Giles and his book a progressive message to all who have been working to learn more, and, who, like me, needed assistance from other readers to help us through the mystery of God's Words... I'm including a couple of short sentence excerpts to help you decide... If you want to learn more
None of us exists apart from an inseparable connection with the Divine.
“we are all filled with the fullness of Christ” whether we know it or not. Our Oneness with Christ is what makes us One with everyone else. Whether we are “chosen,” “called out,” “sent out,” or “set apart” changes nothing about our fundamental Oneness with God through Christ—our inseparable Oneness with all of creation through Christ.
Let's get very specific. This book includes everyone, without exclusions of anybody based upon race, religion, or any other thing that we try to say that God is against... One idea comes through clearly. Everybody comes from God and everybody returns to God...
If you are ready, this book may be just, as it was for me, the best book you've ever read. If none of what I wrote or shared on the 3 pages is understood, I encourage you to not get it and then call it a book of lies with a bad rating... For once in your life, listen to God within you, as to whether you are ready to read this book... This is my personal recommendation based upon the world we live in...
“These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke and that Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.” As we’ve already explained, when Thomas says these are the hidden sayings, he doesn’t mean that only a select few chosen ones are privy to their meanings. He is speaking of sayings that reveal the Truth already within all of us. These sayings are “hidden” but not “secret.”
Thomas also makes a point of mentioning that these sayings were spoken by “the living Jesus.” This is important for several reasons. First, because the New Testament will often attribute sayings to the risen Jesus—the Jesus who rose from the dead, or even the Jesus who had already ascended into heaven who spoke as a vision which only certain people could hear or see. For example, when Jesus speaks to the Apostle Paul for the first time on the road to Damascus, this is not the “living Jesus” who Thomas refers to. Not that Jesus isn’t alive in his appearance to Paul, but that the phrase, as Thomas uses here, is a reference to things Jesus said prior to being crucified on a Roman cross.
The sayings of Jesus in John’s Revelation epistle are another example of post-crucifixion sayings, and Thomas wants to contrast his Gospel from them. Why is this important? I believe it is important because Thomas wants us to know that he is sharing with us the sayings of Jesus which were actually heard by his disciples when he was physically alive in the flesh—spoken as he walked, talked, and taught, traveling and teaching in Judea during the First Century. In other words, Thomas wants us to know that he did not hear Jesus speak these things to him in a dream, or in a vision, or after the fact. These sayings in Thomas—at least according to the author of this Gospel—are what Jesus said when he was alive and physically talking to his disciples, which included Thomas.
The point of exclusively including sayings from the living Christ is to project some authenticity to the text itself. We might paraphrase this as something like: “I actually heard Jesus say these things with my own ears and I wrote them all down so you would know what he said.”
Another thing to point out is that the Prologue itself doesn’t seem to have been written by Thomas, but by someone else who wants to let us know that the sayings we are about to read were compiled by Thomas. Why would we assume that? Because it would be strange for someone to write down the sayings of Jesus, and then write about themselves in the Third Person. Why not just say, “These are the sayings of Jesus as recorded by me, the disciple Thomas”? Whenever Paul writes an epistle, he always begins by identifying himself at the very beginning of the letter. Of course, this is not a letter to just anyone, but the principle still applies. People in the First Century tended to identify themselves at the top of the document, to let their readers know who was writing. Interestingly, we see the opposite is true in the four New Testament Gospels where only Luke begins by speaking of himself in the first person, and the other three authors never once identify themselves. We only know the names of those authors by the titles of their Gospels, and these attributions were passed down through early Christian tradition, and are not found within the texts themselves.
So, when the Prologue tells us we are about to read the sayings of Jesus the disciple Thomas wrote down, we should assume someone else added the introduction to let us know where these sayings came from. Now, on to the sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas...
~~~
An early comment: I already noticed that the video included does not have the Sayings in the same order. Some may not even have the same exact words. What I do know is that I had already been reading essays by the author of the book I will be reviewing.
Additionally, this writer has clearly done much reading from other known writers researching this book, which are quoted often and with full footnoting. Given that we already know that words written by those first that followed Christ, early and later, have been edited by others through the years as different versions of the Bible have been created... Personally I have no problem with that, as long as the original meaning of the words heard from Jesus are similar in content... I believe this author, in his ongoing work, has done the best he can to have compared both the Book of Thomas against the Bible itself, as well as later writers who have also shared their thoughts and beliefs about what Jesus, Himself, was saying... And, even then, it is clear that it will be years before we can confidently say "this" book or "this video is absolutely correct... Because, let us remember that Jesus did speak both plainly during the time He was living, but He also spoke in parable for us to ponder and learn better to hear him...later...
One final note on this page, 2. This morning, I heard the news that, in Oklahoma, public classes will be using the "Trump" Bible and that, the results of the 2020 election will be changed from Truth, which we all saw, to Trump's lies...
Additionally, those who may have listened, Harvard University, which has been targeted by Trump in a major attack, had their graduation ceremony recently. Trump is trying to keep all international students out of America!!! Having been on the West Virginia University campus for a major part of my life, I cannot imagine not allowing ALL people to come to learn if they so choose... Recently, you may have seen that Trump personally allowed white families to enter America while he has banned all non-white and is attempting to remove all from our nation...
What you will be reading along with me here, as well as if you are able to acquire this wonderful book, is that God has created all of US...That means in every corner of the world, when a baby was born, He was born with God Himself inside... Yes, there is more to that, of course, but Jesus clearly tells us that lies are not to be used in major or, possibly, even in minor, activities... If we can get out of the flood of lies that are being spewed across the world right now, maybe we can move forward in not needing to lie???
Finally, I saw that the Pope spoke against marriages not between man and woman... Here's what I personnally feel... For thousands of years, some people have been different... Was that because they were terribly hurt by an individual of the opposite sex? Perhaps over and over? We don't know do we? What we do know is that Jesus came to speak of Love, Not Rules or Historical Ritual... I have to wonder, thousands of years ago, hate was the only response to anybody who was different. Historically, wars have been also started during that same time period...and continues today...
Now, if many in the world had chosen Jesus rather than Barabbas and actually grasped and accepted, and acted upon His words at that time, just think how much Love would have come to be over 2000 years--so much so that loving our fellowman, no matter how or why they were different, would be as natural as breathing, don't you think? And few of us can forget that within the Catholic Church there has been a long-standing decision to hide the homosecual and/or female sex abuse by priests... For me, regurgitating an old rule, while ignoring those who broke/break it, is...just...hippocritical... Just my personal opinion, even though I believe Jesus feels the same about hurting our children in any way, especially sexual...
Jesus said: “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away; and those who are dead are not alive, and those who are living will not die. In the days when you ate of what is dead, you made of it what is living. When you come to be light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you have become two, what will you do?”
I don't know about you, but when I read these words by Jesus, I finished reading and thought--What?!
One of the issues I had with the King James Version, of the Bible which was given to me as a gift when I was baptized was that I had no idea what much of the book said or, better, meant... Many years later, I learned from my best friend at that time that in the Catholic Church, most people don't even have copies of the Bible.
More and more I've been thinking about how the Bible has influenced the world over more than 2000 years... In my opinion, for both the good and the bad... At present, and in the past, I've read many scholarly books by those who have completed extensive research in order to create a book like this, which includes both the Words of Jesus, as well as the commentary that has been provided based upon such research. But, even at my age, I am still asking, What?!
Personally I think that Jesus, speaking on behalf of His Father, spoke, often, words that were not meant to be immediately understood...purposely... For one, we have no idea to whom Jesus was speaking... Was it to just his disciples? Or to His followers at that time? In either situation, perhaps, it was just the presence of our Lord that provided the connection between He and His audience... And the words were secondary...
For me, I have always thought of the words and songs I learned as a child... You may remember that Jesus once said that unless we become as children, we cannot come unto Him, or something like that... For me, that was the key... Because I came to learn that He takes each of us exactly where we are in our life. And, if we invite Him in, we are not expected to be able to understand all that God has prepared for His Children. Once I knew He was Alive in Me, I was content and free of fear of any kind... And we began moving forward as I began to grow and learn... So, let's see what Keith Giles' research has said about this Saying...
It is quite likely that Saying 11 can actually be considered two sayings rather than one. We could even argue that it is three sayings in one. But at any rate, the first sentence appears to be about heaven, while the second saying seems to be about the differences between what is alive and what is dead, with a potential third saying focused on what happens when one becomes two.
Let’s take each part of this saying, examining one piece at a time in order to see if we can make sense of what Jesus is trying to show us here. In the first saying, Jesus says that “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away.” What we need to keep in mind is that the “heaven” he is referring to is not a spiritual reality where people often imagine God dwells. We know this isn’t what Jesus is referring to because all throughout the Gospel of Thomas, we are reminded that God is not separate from creation. Therefore, there is no such thing as a “heaven” where God exists apart from the rest of reality. This idea is an illusion that Jesus has come to eradicate. So, it’s possible that on one level what Jesus means to say is our concept of heaven as a separate place where God dwells apart from us is what will “pass away” as we begin to realize the truth of our Oneness and connectivity with God.
However, since Jesus adds that “the one above it will [also] pass away”, we might need to reconsider that explanation. It’s more likely that when Jesus refers to “this heaven” he’s talking about the physical and literal sky where the birds of the air fly. “The one above it” refers to the realm of the moon, sun, and stars above us. This was the common use of those terms, even in the New Testament. When Paul speaks of being taken up into the “third heaven” [2 Cor. 12:2–4], he’s cluing us into the First Century mindset in which the first heaven was the sky, the second heaven was outer space, and the third heaven was the spiritual realm where Almighty God is. So, when Jesus says that “this heaven” and “the one above it will pass away” he’s saying that the first and second heavens are temporary. By default then, the third heaven, which isn’t mentioned by name, is all that will endure for eternity. Why? Because it is the only realm that defines all of reality. Everyone and everything—both God and humanity—exist, right now, together, as one in this third heaven which is all there is or ever will be. In other words, Jesus is saying that the sky we see by day, and the heavens we see by night are illusions that will one day vanish and cease to exist. The physical realm will eventually crumble. All that will remain is the ultimate reality which is understood to be defined as the Universal Oneness of all things.
Now, let’s look at the second saying found here: “Those who are dead are not alive, and those who are living will not die. In the days when you ate of what is dead, you made of it what is living.” As with several other sayings of Jesus from this Gospel of Thomas, the first part of this statement appears to be painfully obvious. Of course the dead are not alive. That’s why they’re dead. But then why does Jesus follow this up by saying, “…and those who are living will not die.”? That statement does not appear self-evident. In fact, it is more than a little confusing. How can Jesus claim that “those who are living will not die,” especially when we have experienced quite the opposite? Could it be that Jesus wants us to understand that death, like the first and second heavens above us, are not true expressions of reality? If so, when he says, “those who are dead are not alive and those who are living will not die,” he wants us to consider another possibility—that death is an illusion—that those who are alive [as we all are when we begin our mortal experience in this world] will remain alive and not die, even if they appear dead for a moment. The illusion of death, like the illusions of the sky and the universe around us, will one day fade away. What will remain is life—the reality of our eternal Oneness with the Creator of all things, and one another.
Jesus concludes this passage by adding, “In the days when you ate of what is dead, you made of it what is living.” What could this possibly point to? What exactly is meant by “…when you ate of what is dead...”? One idea might be that he’s referring to “the days when” we once believed in an illusion of death and separation from God and others. Before we understood the truth of Oneness and Connectivity, we were eating or consuming “what is dead,” In doing so, we “made of it what is living.” Or, in other words, we once believed a lie about reality which tricked us into thinking that what was dead [false] was alive [true]. In contrast, now that we are eating of what is alive, what this makes in us is life—true life—a life that is based on reality rather than illusions. Perhaps this is why Jesus ends this section by asking us, “When you come to be light, what will you do?”
This feels as though it’s flowing directly out of the previous statement where the negative thought of “eating what is dead” is contrasted with what happens when we “come to be light,” realizing how we have been living in darkness. Yet, there is one final question for us to consider which comes back to the notions of division and separation. Jesus rounds out this long saying by asking: “On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you have become two, what will you do?”
Once more, Jesus wants us to continually question our perception of reality. The “day when [we] were one” is the day you were born into consciousness in this present reality. From the beginning—and even before the beginning—you were One with the Source of all life. But, even as you took your first few breaths in this life, you “became two.” You began to believe the illusion of separation was real. Once you have “become two,” or believed in the lie of separation between God and others, “what will you do?” The only hope for you is to return to that place of original Oneness with the One True God whom you can never be separated from—ever. It’s fascinating to me how often we hear pastors and Bible teachers point to the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis as evidence of our separation from God. Yet, the story never once says that eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil created a “separation between God and humanity.” Not once. We read about how they were separated from the Tree of Life in the Garden, which was why they were expelled from Eden. But the story does not say that humanity was ever separated from God at all. In fact, what we read is that God went out from the Garden with them, and clothed them, and cared for them, and watched over them, and their children, just as when they were in the Garden before.
That story also tells us that the lie the serpent told Adam and Eve in the Garden was that they were not already equal with God. What Eve and Adam accepted by eating of the fruit was the lie that they needed something outside of themselves to become like God. How could they be more like God than to be made in God’s image, both male and female? How could they be any more like God than to be filled with the very life breath of God which filled their own lungs and made alive by God’s indwelling presence? We continually suffer from this same delusion of separation from God today, every time we buy into the notion that God is “up there” and we are “down here”—that our sins prevent God from engaging with us, loving us, or accepting us—that God is anywhere other than our own inner being. We are where God is, and God is where we are. We are God’s hands. We are God’s feet. We are God’s voice. We are God’s presence in this world; the Incarnation of Christ where God dwells by His Eternal Spirit. The more we understand this, meditate on this, and live out of this unshakeable truth, the more this truth will transform us and change us into the beautiful image of Christ from the inside out.
At present I am reading The Divine Human which tends to support much of what Giles says... But another option came to my mind that could be the explanation... At least from my personal understanding... In most churches, or outside of a church, an individual meets and asks God to come into their lives... In church that led to a baptism and thereafter we were allowed to participate in Holy Communion... This ceremony was introduced at a time when Jesus was meeting with His disciples, where He broke bread and gave it to each to eat, asking that they do this in remembrance of Jesus. He did the same with wine, also in remembrance of Jesus. Could it be that He was preparing for His death and how individuals were to remember Him was through eating of the symbols of Christ (who later died) and thus we become a living body in which the Living God may reside in all His Glory? If, so what would you do then?
Simply put, if you’re not ready to have your assumptions challenged, surrendering your need to be right about everything, your search for Truth is meaningless. If we’re honest, this is where most of us get hung up . We claim to be open-minded, telling ourselves we’re honest seekers of Truth, but what most of us really want is to have our beliefs confirmed rather than challenged. As long as we’re unwilling to admit up front that we might be wrong about everything, we cannot sincerely consider ourselves to be seekers of Truth. If we’re honest, we’ll concede that we have been wrong in the past, we’re likely to be wrong about some things right now, and are therefore capable of being wrong again in the future.
If we can let go of our need to be right, then and only then can we begin our search for Truth. Because, let’s face it, if you already have the Truth, there’s no need to seek for it, is there? Our desire to know Truth must begin with an admission of ignorance. As Socrates famously said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing.”
So, let us begin our journey by confessing our ignorance, embracing the great Mystery of God as an endlessly unfolding discovery of a Being beyond our feeble imaginations. As the saying here begins, “Let him who seeks not cease seeking until he finds…” and this is our biggest challenge: we give up the search much too quickly. Too often we hear a sermon, or read a book, accepting answers given to us by our spiritual gurus without question.
But what Jesus urges us to do here is to keep an open mind, hold loosely to our beliefs, and never allow the cement to dry. Let us “not cease seeking.”
Even when we think we have found the answers, there are always more things to know and to learn as we grow and mature. We must allow ourselves to be transformed by the Truth that is higher, and wider, and longer, and deeper than we can possibly imagine. How do we know when we have found Truth?
Jesus says we’ll know we’ve found the Truth because “when [we] find [it], [we] will become troubled.”
Are you troubled by the Truth? Or does it comfort you? If the Truth you have received doesn’t at first trouble you, perhaps you have not yet known the Truth at all. Perhaps you have simply found a comforting lie that affirms all of your preconceived ideas about yourself and about God. If the Truth is going to transform you, it must first trouble you and disturb your personal status quo. Once you have been troubled by the Truth, you will experience astonishment.
As Jesus says, “When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished.” That sense of awe and wonder is what many of us are lacking in our spiritual experience today. Why? Because we believe we already know all the answers and have everything figured out. We are not astonished, we are immune to awe, we have no pervading sense of wonder or mystery when it comes to God. Yet, how foolish can we be? How could we possibly encounter a Being who is beyond imagination—the One who dwells in unapproachable light; who spoke the Universe into existence, whose “name is too wonderful” for us to even speak—without falling to our knees in absolute astonishment and breathless wonder?
Do we have God in a box, or bound in a book? If so, what we think of God is not God. As St. Augustine said, “We can know what God is not, but we cannot know what God is. God is best known in not knowing God.” Think about that: “God is best known in not knowing God.” Do you have this sense of the impenetrable mystery of God within your heart? Are you overwhelmed with the transcendent majesty of the Divine? When you think of God, do you imagine a Being whose very nature is too marvelous for our minds to contain? If not, why not? Have you settled for a God who can be defined, explained, outlined, and summarized within the narrow framework of your religious system? If so, what you have may be understandable and describable, but one thing you do not have is any idea who God actually is. Once we embrace the boundless mystery of the Divine, then and only then can we begin our journey.
We begin by seeking without ceasing. We continue by becoming troubled by what we find. We allow ourselves to be challenged, astonished, awed. We then reach a place where we are consumed by the Great Mystery, entering a place of rapturous surrender where, as the Apostle Paul puts it, we find ourselves “seated with Christ in Heavenly places.”
This place is where, as Jesus tells us here in Saying 2, we “reign over the all.” Please note, the phrase actually says: “…he will reign over the all,” not that he will reign over all. Our spiritual epiphanies do not position us in hierarchical authority over other people. This is not what Jesus suggests here. When Jesus tells us that those who ceaselessly seek Truth are troubled, and then astonished, the end result is that we become One with this Truth—with the Divine One—and in that moment we realize that we are connected to all things, even as all things are connected to us. To “reign over the all” is to realize that “the all” is all there is, or ever was, or ever will be. There is no “us and them.” There is only “Us.” Other translations of this saying add “and having reigned he will rest” to the end of this sentence. To rest, in this context, is to accept the peace that comes from the realization that striving is useless, that anxiety and fear are illusions, and that our Oneness with God is unbroken. As the Apostle Paul encourages us: “Nothing will ever separate us from the love of God. Not trouble or hardship. Not persecution or famine. Not danger, nakedness or the sword. Not angels, nor demons, not the future, nor the past, nor any powers, or anything else in all Creation shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is for us in Christ.” [Rom. 8:35-39]
We are One with God in Christ: “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” [1 John 4:16] This is the Truth that both troubles us, astonishes us and transforms us. It is the Truth that has no boundary—no beginning and no end—and it is the Truth that leads us to ultimate rest and an awareness of our Oneness with God, and all things, everywhere.
!!!
I have been reading this book over the last few months and am almost finished, but I feel it is time to introduce all of you to the book... First, I want to share that I am constantly amazed of all that is available through the YouTube site. There you will find somthing on just about anything you want to know. And many have established a place for you to learn and share with those individuals. Keith Giles, author of the book being discussed, is one of them. I recommend that you seek him out there since there is a wealth of information, as well as, it seems, videos that can be used instead of this book...
I found that I prefer my own copy so I can highlight and makes notes. In fact, I had already purchased The Gospel of Thomas but I'm finding this book much more informative... In fact, I've wondered if there were not multiple documents written and maintained by Thomas... If he indeed was the recorder of all that Jesus said, then surely there could be an extensive collection which could be found as time goes by.
One thing I did appreciate is that Giles had made a comparative analysis of what was said and ultimately published in the Bible, as provided in Matthew, Mark Luke and John... After all, given that over 2000 years have gone by and much study and research has occurred, we can, and are encouraged, to know that each of us must continue to seek Truth in each of our lives. And, in my opinion, each of us may ultimately have learned something that nobody else knows--simply because we have been in communication with God...
I have read many books by many different writers, each having written their own experiences. Some have become a separate place of worship... Some have been a single experience of authors and others reviewed here. I truly believe that, even at my age, I will never stop learning more about the true and powerful connection that each of us has with God. If we only recognize that we are indeed "as One..." But I believe that is between you and God as to when that happens, don't you think?
We have once again seen just how many choose to use religion either to promote fear, hate, or prejudice against others who are different in some way... However, if we truly believe that God created us, that means, in my opinion, that there is no way to "use" religion to claim that one group, or even one person, is different and must be treated differently based upon that belief. As Spock would say, "that is illogical."
So, I find it especially important to today, as people are being "disappeared" or murdered either by war or by lack of food, based upon the opinions of a few that we must acknowledge that is not what God wants... I was therefore thankful that another Pope was chosen who will be working to ensure that all people are recognized in all ways needed to ensure God's will for this world
And he has already spoken out about the U.S. Presidency...
And may the world work to support the protestors in America and across the world who are speaking out against what is being done to destroy our democracy and our constitution! As well as Ukraine and so many other wars now underway to separate and divide! We must understand that God's Truth--loving one another--is the only Truth and Power that will bring Peace!
