On Evil

An evil little cock-a-poo

KatherineHonts from San Jose, California, writes:

Do you believe in the devil?

Dear Katherine,

No!

Evil is real, but an external being who causes it is a human projection of part of our own reality into the external world of being. The devil is an excuse, someone to blame, part of the system of control that religious institutions set up to keep themselves dominant.

Belief in an external devil has done more harm than we can imagine. Executing the witches of Salem, Massachusetts, is only one of them.

It is time for the human race to grow up and let go of these childish ideas.


- John Shelby Spong

wonder

It's not just that I'm getting older and cramming for finals.
It's that it becomes more and more real. And the closer you get
into that experience, the less any words describing it make any sense.
And so you're finally reduced to silence, awe and wonder.
John Shelby Spong

Expanding

As I struggled with the realities of losing my father at the age of 12.
I reveled in my heavenly father who would not disappoint me
as my earthly father had done. Without that firm anchor,
I do not know what would have happened to the fragile lad that I was.
It is one thing, however, to need a literal anchor
in a particular storm of life but quite another to cling to yesterday's anchor
because you can not grow up. Life changes, boundaries expound and spirits soar.
That is when one discovers that security is not the end goal of life
and that sometimes one has to risk, to let go, to venture
and to journey and when you do, you discover that
God is more than just a security anchor. God is a future hope,
a dream, and a reality beckoning you to live, to love and to be.
- John Shelby Spong