The word religion does not mean what many think. “RE” means “back.” “Ligion comes from the Latin “ligare” which means “tie.” (Ligaments). Literally, it means “tie back.” All systems be they of belief or non-belief tie back (bind) those who follow them. When we take an oath (which, by the way, Jesus tells us never to do) the law of the land binds us to it.
The word “ecclesia” which conventionally is translated as “church” is a word too small for the idea being expressed which is “community.” When I went to churches, like Jesus, I got the boot. At one church I quoted the poet, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” As one the minister and the congregation said, “WE WILL NOT HAVE THAT HERE!”
I flagged a passing cab as I was physically removed. The driver said, “What happened there?” After I told him he said, “My God, they are all losers.”
There is a saying, “The nearer the church/synagogue/temple the farther from Allah/The Buddha/God.”
Without THE BIBLE, whether we accept it or do not, we would not have the printing press. No atheist was concerned about the least among us being able to read and write until industrialists realized they needed people to be able to read to be able to work in their factories. Before that only Christian Evangelists cared about the least among us being able to read. Why? So the least among us could read THE BIBLE.
Unfortunately people start with THE FIRST (I prefer that to old) COVENANT (I prefer that to TESTAMENT) which leads them to believe (many) they must circumcise their sons. That is only for the literal children of Abraham. THE SECOND COVENANT (I prefer that to THE NEW TESTAMENT) is Jesus who, when asked, “Does circumcision have a value?” replied, “If it had a value the father would beget them that way from the mother.” (GOSPEL OF THOMAS).
That “JEWISH ZOMBIE” is far removed from the walking dead. Where the Science Fiction writer say a zombie an artist and a scientist (Dame Isable Piczek) sees an Event Horizon: https://shroud3d.com/sculpture-petrus-soons-and-isabel-piczek-theory-resurrection/isabel-piczek-article/ .
Henri Langlois: “An art form requires genius. People of genius are always troublemakers, meaning they start from scratch, demolish accepted norms and rebuild a new world.” Jesus was a trouble maker who built a new world from nothing (as each of us is called to do).
“A great artist lets himself go. He is natural. He swims easily in the stream of his own temperament. He listens to himself, he respects himself. He has a deeper fund of strength to draw from than that arising from rational and logical knowledge.
“The function of the artist is to disturb. His duty is to arouse the sleeper to shake the complacent killers of the world. He reminds the world of its dark ancestry, shows the world its present and points the way to its new birth. He is at once the product and the preceptor of his time….In a world terrified of change, he preaches revolution – the principle of life. He is an agitator, a disturber of the peace, quick, impatient, positive, restless and disquieting. He is the creative spirit of life working in the soul of men.”—Dr. Norman Bethune
If you do not know who Bethune is look him up. His definition of the artist fits to a T First Covenant Prophets while in calling for a new birth he echoes Jesus’ statement we must be born again.
The word “pagan” at that time simply meant uncommitted, not in the army of Rome.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”― W.H. Murray, THE SCOTTISH HIMALYAN EXPEDITION.
Told in high school I would starve to death in two weeks if I left school that day I knew only one way to learn whether I would or would not. In getting up and walking out I made that commitment.
Asked to be a person’s teacher Jesus replied, “You have ONE teacher, the FATHER. Let no one call you teacher.” If we aren’t doing that than we are not trusting Jesus and not trusting the Father.
“You have no need that any man should teach you.”-1 John 2:27.
“Most teachers say you should go to school to get your degree to have something to fall back on. Aside from being a huge lie, that also creates a very high level of mediocrity, because nobody who really believes that is going to take the leap of faith required to be a serious artist. Stay out of school.”–Ellis Marsalis to his sons Branford, Delfeayo and Wynton.
Curiously enough, it was a science fiction story, “HE WHO SHRANK” by Henry Hasse which I read around 15 or 16 that opened up my mind to the reality of infinite levels of being.
Jesus calls us to do good to those who do evil to us and to pray for them. That clearly means we are not to bomb the Hell out of any one.
Contrary to what so many say, no one has to become a Christian to be saved.
“The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men and women into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions and sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.”—C. S. Lewis.
I take out the word “little.” There is nothing little about being anointed.
The word “Christ” means “anointed.”
“We get three educations. The first is from our parents; the second is from our schoolmasters. The third is from life. The last makes liars of the first two.”–Montesquieu.
“I had wonderful teachers in the first and second grades who taught me everything I know. After that, I’m afraid, the teachers were nice, but they were dopes…I have a lack of ideology, and not because I have an animus against any particular ideology; it’s just that they don’t make sense to me…they get in the way of thinking. I don’t see what use they are…University and uniformity, as ideals, have subtly influenced how people thought about education, politics, economics, government, everything…We are misled by universities and other intellectual institutions to believe that there are separate fields of knowledge. But it’s clear there are no separate fields of knowledge. It is a seamless web.”-Jane Jacobs whose books, from her first, THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN CITIES to her last, DARK AGE AHEAD, are must reading.
“Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” ― Francis Bacon, The Essays.
“There is more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in all the creeds.” And there is… there is more doubt in honest faith, believe me, than in all the Bradlaughs and all the Marxist textbooks.”—Aldous Huxley, THE DEVILS OF LOUDON. ( THE DEVILS is a fine movie but Huxley’s book is much more rewarding).
“School is an institution built on the axiom that learning is the result of teaching. And institutional wisdom continues to accept this axiom, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary,”–Ivan Illich.
“Of all the teachings of history the clearest is this: that those who seek to realize ideal aims by force of law are always unscrupulous and always cruel.”—Lord Eustace Percy.
“So we shall let the reader answer the question for himself, ‘Who is the happier man? He who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on the shore and merely existed?”– Hunter S. Thompson (FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS) in his high school year book at 17.
When I walked out of high school I not only risked those waves I, by trusting in the “Jewish zombie” am able to walk on them.
“We have the seed of God in us,” writes Meister Eckhart, “Pear seeds grow pear trees. Hazel seeds grow hazel trees. God seeds grow God.”
Yes, they do.
LUKE 18: 8. “Do you think when I return I will find faith?”
That “Jewish zombie” is one helluva smart cookie. The strongest put I read the above is, “Do you think when I return I will find so much as one person believing?” My reply was and is, “If in my time, me.”
An eternity where we have to obey a supreme leader would be Hell.
Allen Ginsberg asserted that “The only poetic tradition is the voice out of the burning bush. The rest is trash, and will be consumed”
He is right.
Reg Hartt Friday, November 13, 2026 at 10:16 AM
