Father Erik, an ordained priest of our church, posted to our seminary forum about the racial protests going on in Ferguson, Missouri after a white police officer fatally shot a young black man.
Father Erik writes:
…the presence of clergy amongst the protesters …[reportedly has had] a recent calming effect. As the article says, where tear gas and rubber bullets did not work, having a significant presence of clergy engaging persons seems to have a positive effect in reducing additional violence. http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii/how-clergy-in-ferguson-succeeded-where-the-police-failed
…A pastor local to me stated that when the MO State Police got involved one of their commanding officers helped calm the crowds by walking with them in a protest march. If that is an accurate report, we see another example of face-to-face human interaction having a positive, peaceful effect over and above the use of gas and bullets.
As the movie “The Five Element” observed, violence begets violence.
Now I’m neither a peace- or war-monger. I feel there are times when violence must be met with violence. But it is never a long-term solution.
I find it encouraging that clergy began to show a significant presence (over 100 as per the report) and that this has begun a positive shift. It seems it might collectively give us something to think about.
So too, the larger social issues are worth consideration. These are national and even international problems, so our individual effective response is limited. To my mind a popular bumper sticker summed this dilemma up nicely: “Think Globally – Act Locally.”
My gut instinct is that we are most effect close to home, where we can look someone in the eye. Voting is important, and being active in our local communities is important.
The following is a YouTube link to a sermon which addresses these points (I think it was the one that mentioned the MO State Police too).
Another reason to become an ordained minister, rabbi, or other clergy
You can be one of the peacemakers. There is work to be done in ministry. If you have heard the Call to serve as a spiritual guide, a member of the clergy, to become an ordained minister, reverend, rabbi — now might be your time to answer that Call.
Here is another article on the subject, Clergy calm tension on the streets of Ferguson — where you can see several photographs of ordained clergy in Ferguson, both men and women ministers, priests, black and white, all working together to bring peace. It’s worth remembering that the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an ordained minister, Doctor of Divinity, and a peacemaker with martyr-like stature surpassing Ghandi.
He never supported violence — and he went on a very famous protest march.
Was just reading Matthew 24 again looking at the “signs of the times”: Wars and Rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, false prophets, etc. Â Elsewhere in the Greek Bible there are prophecies of pestilence (Ebola?) and slaughter of Christian martyrs.
Finally the US started to help the ancient Christians in Iraq, and the Yezidi sect (descendants of Zoroastrianism), but is this just the beggining of the end? Are we all marching to Armageddon? Just don’t know…
Iraq Jihadists Remove Crosses from Churches, Burn Manuscripts
Jihadists who took over large areas of northern Iraq Thursday have forced 100,000 Christians to flee and occupied churches, removing crosses and destroying manuscripts, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako said.
“There are 100,000 displaced Christians who have fled with nothing but their clothes, some of them on foot, to reach the Kurdistan region,” he told Agence France Presse.
“This is a humanitarian disaster. The churches are occupied, their crosses were taken down,” said Sako, the leader of Iraq’s largest Christian denomination, which is aligned with the Roman Catholic Church.
He added that up to 1,500 manuscripts were burnt.
Pope Francis later called on the international community on Thursday to protect the mostly Christian communities of northern Iraq fleeing the jihadist advance.
A statement delivered by his spokesman said the pope joined the urgent appeals for peace from bishops in the Middle East and called on the international community to “ensure the necessary help” reaches people fleeing fighters from the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
The 77-year-old pontiff “calls on the international community to protect all those affected or threatened by the violence, and to guarantee all necessary help” to those forced to flee their homes, “whose fate depends entirely on the solidarity of others.”
“The Holy Father renews his spiritual closeness to all those who are suffering through this painful trial, and makes the impassioned appeals of the local bishops his own,” the statement said.
The Islamic State (IS) group, which swept across much of Iraq’s Sunni heartland two months ago, attacked several towns and villages east of its main hub of Mosul, the country’s second city.
Among them was Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest Christian town with a population of around 50,000, and several surrounding areas that were previously controlled by the Kurdish peshmerga force.
Fleeing residents reached by phone as they tried to enter the neighboring autonomous region of Kurdistan confirmed the jihadist takeover.
AFP could not immediately verify the current status of those towns, which witnesses said have been completely emptied of their usual population.
“Daash (IS) militants last night attacked most villages in the Nineveh plains, firing mortar rounds and seizing some of them,” Sako said, speaking from his base in Kirkuk.
“The government is unable to defend our people, as is the Kurdistan government. They need to work together, receive international support and modern military equipment.”
“Today we appeal with lots of pain and sadness, to all people of good will, the U.N. Security Council, European Union and relief organisations, to help those people who are facing mortal danger,” Sako said.
“I hope it is not too late to avoid a genocide,” he added.
Show solidarity with Christians in the Middle East who are suffering ethnic cleansing at the hands of the murdering ISIL “the Islamic State”. These are descendants of ancient Christians who settled in Iraq and Syria 2000 years ago — which is 600 years before the religion of Islam even existed. Now they are being killed or forced from their homes by the tens of thousands. Besides killing their Christian victims by beheading, the Islamic State army are also crucifying some victims. Videos of both methods surfaced last week.
Many Twitter and Facebook people have changed their profile photo / image / icon to this black and gold image. Friend Christine Chase is displaying this symbol and tells here what it means:
“In Iraq, the homes of Christians are being marked with this by ISIS aka ISIL and their Sympathizers. It is the Arabic “N” for “Nazarene”, marking the people so identified as Christians. In much the same way the yellow star marked Jews in Germany. I and some others have adopted it as our avatar as a sign of solidarity with those so marked.”
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood under the Morsi government forced the Egyptian Coptic Christians (whose ancestors were there since the beginning of Christianity 2000 years ago) wear black crosses on their clothing, and black crosses were spray painted on their houses, cars and shops. The guy that made the video that supposedly caused the Benghazi Libyan hit on the US consulate there was a Coptic Christian from Egypt. I used to go to church with ancient Copts (because they are Eastern Orthodox like the Greeks, Russians and Ukrainians.  Copts are so cool. It’s ashame they are being chased out of Egypt in droves.
Luckily the Egyptian Army kicked out the Muslim Brotherhood and the Christian citizens have a better chance, although their churches are still getting burned and their houses are still getting marked with black crosses. My daughter says she wants to wear a black cross in honor of the persecuted Christians and we discussed putting the Arabic “N” as shown above onto our front door. Yeah, we’re Nazarenes, you got a problem with it? we will be saying.
Wish we could do more, something tangible to help those suffering in Iraq on the Ninevah plain especially. I am still sick just thinking of that video showing the Islamic State freaks blowing up the 1600 year old church that surrounded the 27oo year old(!) tomb of Jonah (the guy swallowed by the whale in the Old Testament). They blew it up two weeks ago, just like the Taliban blew up the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan, the only standing Buddhas in thee world. Muslim extremists are on the rise everywhere it seems. They are perpetrating ethnic cleansing in Africa (Boko Haram kidnapping the school girls), the Middle East, and no doubt want to keep going.
This witty article was published this week in the good ol’ Memphis Flyer, one of the weekly papers for which I used to co-write an “advice” column. It was called The Dream Zone, which I co-wrote with Lauri Loewenberg for a decade before the Internet “killed the newspaper star”. I miss that pre-Internet era sometimes… our column appeared in over 30 papers around the country every week. I did not own a cellphone when we started, and barely had email. Lauri and I wondered if this guy is making fun of us, but we don’t care if he is.  (smile) He certainly brings up some bizarre dream interpretations with a supernatural twist, and chose obscure trivia regarding our ordination and online spiritual school. But I enjoyed reading every word, fondly remembering the bygone days when I was a “columnist” and the word “blogger” didn’t exist yet. Sigh…
Looking Back at a Time When We Cared About Your Dreams
by Joe Boone
When you approach a bridge, just make a sign against the evil eye. It’s that simple.
Readers of the Flyer got such awesome advice from a syndicated column called “The Dream Zone” that ran in the back of the paper in the early 2000s.
The Dream Zone was the work of two leading dream experts, Lauri Quinn Loewenberg and Dr. Katia Romanoff.
While the Dream Team (I apologize) split up in 2012, [I don’t remember spitting up — we are still here, just the 30+ papers we used to be in are barely surviving since the Internet took over the world] they fielded some wild stuff from the minds of sleeping people. All you had to do was write a letter about your confusing dreams, and these two would tell you what it really meant.
For instance, Shelly from Prophetstown, Illinois, had a scary recurring dream about her dad driving over the top of a bridge and almost wrecking his car into the river.
That one is pretty obvious:Â [I interpreted this one!] “The fear of crossing bridges is an ancient one. Our ancestors feared there were trolls and other nasties under bridges. This was really just a fear of the unknown. Just cross your fingers before you move onto the bridge. Crossing your fingers is also a practice used by our ancestors to ward negativity and nasties in general. It was called ‘making the sign against the evil eye,’ and may indeed have a calming effect on the often-fearful subconscious. Try it some time for your bridge fright and rest assured you are using an ancient tried and true technique of your foremothers and forefathers.”
There you go. Problem solved.
Today, Loewenberg, a “certified dream analyst,” appears on all sorts of television programs and holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She was formerly a student of Dr. Katia Romanoff, who leads the Esoteric Theological Seminary from which you can get ordained in a boatload of priesthoods — the Chaldean Patriarchate of Babylon at Baghdad, for example — and sign up for the New Order of the Knights Templar or Third Millennium Angelic Alliance, which works “hand in hand with the angelic-warriors and divine messengers.”
These days, your weird dreams are your own damn problem. But back in the days before the internet could interpret your dreams with some fancy computer program, newspapers were full of syndicated columns of every variety. Columnists and cartoonists were pooled into services that papers could license from the syndicate.
According to a recent article in Editor & Publisher magazine, in the 1930s, there were 130 syndicates offering features and columns to more than 13,000 newspapers throughout the country. That number has dropped precipitously since then with the 2011 merger of United Media and Universal Uclick resulting in a single large syndicate offering some 100 features.
Everyone remembers News of the Weird, which we stopped running about two years ago. As if Memphis wasn’t weird enough. You don’t need to import weird to Memphis. Right next to the Dream Zone is Advice Goddess, whose face will be familiar to readers of a certain age.
Public-radio car gurus Click and Clack had a syndicated column, which I assume was 90 percent just them laughing.
But let’s return to the Dream Zone.
Carol, 43, from Ohio, wrote in June 2004 to complain about her dream in which she was house-hunting and almost got it on with the devil. To her chagrin, she woke up before things got properly sinful. Loewenberg told Carol that if she were really on the right track in her life, there would have been consummation. So, by logical extension, you’ll never know you’re on the right track in life until … oh dear.
Somebody who became an ordained Rabbi via our seminary sent me the following.
It’s Okay. Don’t Cry for Us Israelis
By Naomi Ragen
I’m sitting here in Jerusalem after a week of heartbreak over three murdered teens, followed by two weeks of sirens, bomb blasts, and finally, the funerals of young IDF soldiers, of whom one-third are students who should be taking their final exams, instead of risking their lives. I’m reading on the internet about what a horrible person I am as an Israeli and as a Jew, and what a terrible, immoral country I live in.
All this criticism comes mainly from the European press: The Guardian, the BBC, papers in Italy, Norway, France, and don’t forget America: The New York Times, CNN. And I’m thinking: Gee, the British should understand. After all, they lived through the blitz, Nazis raining bombs indiscriminately down on them, the way Hamas is raining bombs down on us. And when the brave pilots of the RAF aimed their bombs at Dresden killing 300,000 men, women and children, they didn’t throw down leaflets telling people to politely evacuate; didn’t send their soldiers to knock on doors to see if they’d followed the leaflets instructions (as CNN complained Israel failed to do at an UNRWA school, which was possibly hit by a Hamas rocket that didn’t make it out of Gaza to Israel, anyway.)
And I think of the rest of Europe, who rounded up our grandparents and
great-grandparents, and relatives –men, women and children—and sent them off to be gassed, no questions asked. And I think: They are now the moral arbiters of the free world? They are telling the descendants of the people they murdered how to behave when other anti-Semites want to kill them?
As for Americans, represented by the New York Times, that bastion of high-minded hypocrisy and mediocre journalism parading as the “newspaper of record,†one has only to read the article by Professor Auerbach in the New York Observer (Two Weeks of Shallow, Facile Moral Equivalency From the New York Times) to see how Jodi Rudoren and other Times apparatchiks have learned to close their minds and love Hamas. After all, there are CHILDREN DYING. It doesn’t matter that the Palestinians have educated an entire generation to be little Nazi-wannabes, who worship death and hate Jews, murdering their souls, and are now callously putting their bodies in harm’s way to use for touching photo ops. We shouldn’t be shocked by this omission by the Times. After all, The New York Times was one of the last news outlets to bring to the attention of the reading public the Nazi atrocities in Europe. Read the Times during the nightmare years, and see if you can’t find a pattern here.
And so, as an Israeli, brought up with Jewish values, and an American, taught to love freedom, justice, democracy and fair play, I have to tell all of you — Europeans, Americans, and last of all Muslim terrorist sympathizers and barbarians — that what you are saying no longer moves anyone of good moral judgment and intelligence. The current crisis in Gaza is so morally clear-cut, so absolutely a case of self-defense, that I must say to you, as someone finally said to Senator McCarthy: “Sir, have you no shame?â€
I prefer that you — writers of these lies and libels — hate me and my country, if it means that you can save your tears for other people’s dead. We aren’t greedy for sympathy. After all, we got so much after the Holocaust, we prefer other people to have their share now. These days, we prefer to live, rather than have people cry over us and the injustices done to us.
So by all means, cry for the Palestinian people – men women and children- whose duly elected leadership has callously left them without protection from just retribution for Hamas’ terrorist crimes. Who took the Gazans’ aid money and are living in Qatar in five star hotels building shopping centers for themselves. Who built terrorist tunnels under the Gazans’ homes, mosques, hospitals and schools, and recruited the sons of Gaza to die for Allah, while the Hamas militants sit in bunkers waiting for the U.N. to rescue them.
Don’t cry for us, or our families, or our children, or grandchildren. Not this time. Not ever. Not if we can help it. Because this time, thank God, we have a country. We are armed. This time, with God’s help, we know how to protect ourselves from Nazis and their high-minded media cheerleaders.
I would like to end this with an expletive and a hand gesture towards the
people I’m addressing. Please choose one you think would be fitting. I can
think of many.
Please keep in mind that I think the “bloodline” is a red herring and irrelevant
to the underlying question of the marriage of Jesus with Mary Magdalene, a union
that mirrors a model for Sacred Partnership, the “union of Sacred Complements.”
All my life I’ve said the traditional Marian rosary, and occasionally still do,
but in 1994 I was shown to create a rosary of seven decades of seven prayers to
honor Mary Magdalene and the “Sacred Union.” The number “7” is sacred to the
Divine feminine, but is also the “union” of the traditional numbers associated
with “masculine” (3) and “feminine” (4).
Mary Magdalene by Katia Honour. Prints can be purchased on RedBubble
I wrote up the prayers and mysteries for the “Magdalene rosary” several years
ago and posted the information on my website. The mysteries include 7
Scriptural Mysteries of Mary Magdalene and 7 Legendary Mysteries.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On the eve of Mary Magdalene’s feast day, I want to share with you a slightly abridged version of the epilogue from my book, Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile
Epilogue –a Reading for Mary Magdalene’s Feast Day
WHO DO WE SAY SHE IS?
“Who do you say that I am?â€Â  (Matthew 16:15)
When Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do men say that the son of man is?â€Â they replied variously that some people thought Jesus to be John the Baptist; others claimed he was Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. Then Jesus queried them further, “Who do you say that I am?†And Simon-Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God†(Matthew 16:16).
There were obviously many varying views about Jesus even in his own time, and there are many still. Some people see Jesus as a historical figure, a Galilean rabbi with a staff in his hand, an itinerant preacher and healer. Some see him as a cultural revolutionary, even a Zealot or an Essene. Finding negligible evidence for Jesus as a historical figure, others think he was the composite of many myths of the son-god tortured and sacrificed at the vernal equinox—an Adonis, Ba’al or Tammuz, Dionysus or Osiris.
Similarly, we have a variety of views about Mary Magdalene, both traditional and heterodox, expressed over two millennia in Christian art and lore, as well as her connection to a number of powerful myths from the ancient world. I am aware of the most ancient tradition of the Church that the title “h Magdalene†was given to Mary, the sister of Lazarus–not  referring to a town destroyed for its immorality, but as a title of great honor and prophetic significance. We contemplate her presence in art, artifact, and folklore. And we examine the record of the historical Mary Magdalene, who allegedly witnessed the resurrection of the Savior and was sent to tell the good news to the other disciples and to the brothers of Jesus. And we have studied legends and myths of the bride of the sacred king sent defiled and defamed into exile to protect her from the dangerous talons of the malevolent dragon.
Magdalene by Gallery Zograf from Deviant Art. Reminiscent of Icons of the Early Christian Church
And who do we now say that SHE is? Was she an actual historical person? A disciple of Jesus, shod in sandals? A wealthy patroness? Perhaps a princess in her own right? Or was she a whore? Or even, as the Gnostics taught, a mythic incarnation of the Holy Sophia? Was she the soul-mate and spouse—the “Sister Bride‖of Jesus in a union similar to that of Tammuz and Ishtar or of Isis and Osiris? Or was she perhaps a sacred prostitute, a priestess representative of the Goddess? Was she a frenzied redheaded demoniac? A favored daughter of Benjaminite lineage? Was she, like Wisdom herself, both scorned and beloved? Could she have been a wife and a mother? How can we know which face is hers, when no one has lifted her veil?
The struggle to reclaim the real Mary Magdalene remains fraught with danger. Will we—once again—refuse to recognize in her an incarnation of the Divine, the other face of God? An important question remains to be answered: What position will the Mary called “the Tower†occupy when she is reinstated—as she must be—in the celestial throne room in heaven and in our communal psyche on earth? Will she be honored as apostle or as Bride?
Will she be blessed and embraced as the historical counterpart of Peter? Or of Christ?
Who do we say that she is?
One answer, that she was an apostle equal in status and authority to Peter, seems to satisfy many clergy and scholars of Christian denominations. The right-handed and orthodox affirm Magdalene as the Apostle to the Apostles—a title of considerable honor, although her role was apparently short-lived, given that she carried a single message to the brethren of Jesus on that first Easter morning, and that her testimony was not at first believed. Modern scholars seem content with their proofs that Mary was not a prostitute and with reclaiming for her a position of prestige and authority as the first witness and messenger of the resurrected Lord. It is a limited role.
But the other answer, confirmed by left-handed intuitives who see visions and dream dreams, asserts that Mary Magdalene was the Sacred Bride so long exiled from our consciousness. This vision of the sacred reunion of the beloveds is not new. The image of the holy braiding of flesh and divinity was always at the heart of the gospel—God incarnate in flesh, both male and female.
Reclaiming Mary as Bride brings water to heal the parched earth, causing flowers to bloom, healing broken hearts, setting prisoners free.
My three daughters and I received a bunch of new Christian curriculum items for our homeschool and as usual, we enjoy adding in the Holy Mother, aka “Goddess” to any and all Bible stories we think She belongs. Believing in the Divinity of the Feminine as much as the Masculine, we “restore” the Divine Mother aka God-the-Mother into the stories alongside God-the-Father where She was probably supposed to be mentioned, but for various historical reasons down thru the ages, was left out or removed. We also bring out the women and girls in all Bible stories, giving both hero and heroine figures equal time.
Not only Bible stories need this balancing act, but most of the ancient and classical stories reduce women to sexuality based roles, because well, humanity wasn’t as far along mentally and emotionally as we are now. Western women at least truly have “come a long way baby,” the proof of which can be seen simply by observing any current country that suppresses its women in the name of their Holy Book / religion.
Stories we have fun with are putting Noah’s wife Norea back into the narrative, and his daughters-in-law. Eve and Adam’s daughters are enjoyable to ponder about, as is the true reason Sarah could have a baby at such an advanced age yet still be considered one of the most beautiful women in the world (Pharoah was ready to kill Abraham in order to steal Sarah for his harem). True reason is because she was a close direct descendant of Methuselah (Noah’s father) and inherited the ability to live longer years, like Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. You’ll recall that Aragorn’s people could live to be 200, not as long as the elf princess he loved, but long indeed. Abraham was also a descendant of Methuselah of course, and he is said to have lived to be almost 200.
Face that launched a thousand ships
In ancient literature we have worked out Helen of Troy’s equality and non-damsel-in-distress role, using our exciting new text books The Children’s Homer and Black Ships Before Troy.
Our Christian based curriculum, despite being mainstream church style, even includes an awesome version of the Gilgamesh Epic. Pagan literature is required reading in the Veritas Press courses and I am glad they are not afraid of it. They include it all. The awesome (and sumptuously illustrated) Gilgamesh Epic they recommend makes the heroine be a beautiful singer instead of a prostitute. Mary Magdalene was unjustly called a prostitute, and so was Enkidu’s beloved Shamhat. Rahab the prostitute in the walls of Jericho story comes to mind, and since she isn’t being hired by anyone, I also wonder if she really was a prostitute or just an unmarried woman with a family. Women who had children without marriage were often called whore and prostitute. As recently as the 1960’s this happened in my own family. Rahab is the heroine of the Jericho walls story, and is also an ancestress of Jesus himself. Why would they put her in his family tree if she was selling herself regularly? Why would they want to make the Son of God also a Son of a Whore? Mary Magdalene was not even called a prostitute in scripture, but European Christian authorities made sure to turn her into one a thousand years later. There is surely more to this meme of the prostitute heroine so often found in ancient literature and scripture.
New Neighbors by Margaret Starbird
Speaking of Mary Magdalene, we also received a new (wonderful) children’s book by famous Magdalene author Margaret Starbird. New Neighbors is written for children and although not about the Divine Feminine like Margaret’s adult books, it certainly teaches that girls and boys both thrive when both genders are given equal status, equal focus. Thank you Margaret for another gem. I still plan to mail our copy of New Neighbors to you so you can autograph it for the girls. (Sorry I haven’t done so yet, they won’t give it back to me!)
My 11-year-old daughter read the book out loud with my 8-year-old sitting right beside her looking at the pictures, and the rest of us listening. For each new page my daughter would turn the book to face us so we could see each new illustration. She was so proud to be the one reading out loud (usually it’s Mama doing the reading), and my youngest sat right next to her devouring the storyline. The next night at story time, she took a turn and read it herself. She needs all the reading practice she can get, and I love that my 8 year old can read something by an author her mother has studied with for years. Kinda freaky in a way… I remember giving my now-20-something daughter her first copy of Margaret’s bestseller The Woman With the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail. Heck, I remember giving my own mother that 1993 book for the first time.
It’s been an interesting week. I also got inspired by this Zen Parenting article by Leo Babauta. How to Keep Your Cool as a Parent. Not only does it teach us parents some awesome cool-as-a-cucumber techniques, but you can use the same strategies to help the kids deal with their own anger fits, frustration fits, etc. I printed that sucker out for me, and realized I can use it as yet another homeschool lesson.
We’ve dug into so many new books this month, you’d think it was winter.
Summer school is fun, they have decided. We were going to save our Veritas Press homeschool history cards and books for next Fall, but just couldn’t resist digging in.
If each of the seven days of Creation were an epoch — an Age – then maybe we are living in the 7th Day, the Day our Creator(s) rested? No new life forms are being created during our era (“And on the seventh day He rested”) unlike the previous 6 ‘days’ when everything was created and evolved via millions of years. God is now perfecting his-and-her creation by resting, letting evolution proceed, and like the Great Scientist she/he is — observing.
**I wonder what new age will begin after this 7th Day evolution testing / perfection era is over. Esoteric Christianity teaches since the Greek Bible shows Jesus resurrected aka awakened on the 8th day, this caused the earliest Christians to worship on Sunday instead of the 7th Day Sabbath of the Jews. Sunday was not chosen because it was the first day, but because it is the day AFTER the 7th Day, the New Age “Eighth Day”. It was the day of awakening, of enlightenment, of evolution of consciousness.
The cool theory about earth’s inhabitants currently living in Creation Week’s “Seventh Day” is explained by astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross in his new book, Navigating Genesis.
Fox News’ Lauren Green spoke to Ross about his search to bridge the gap between science and religion, beginning with finding the true age of Earth.
Ross says … there were three different definitions for the word “day†in Genesis one and two when describing day and night, as well as days and years.
“I realized that this word ‘day’ must have multiple, literal definitions…” …Those include part of daylight hours, all of the daylight hours, a 24-hour period, and a long, but finite, time period.
While there might be several interpretations in English, Ross says in biblical Hebrew, the language of Moses, “yom†is the only way to describe long periods of time.
“So I see no contradiction between the time scale and astrophysics and what I see there in the Bible,†Ross said.
“No problem with the Earth being 4.5 billion years old and the universe 13.8 billion – it’s consistent with Biblical texts that tell us the mountains and hills are ancient and aged-old,†Ross said. “It’s making it quite clear that we do live on a very old Earth.â€
Ross, who founded Reasons to Believe, suggests that the world’s inhabitants are still living through the seventh day described in the Bible.
“We are living in that time period when God is not creating new life forms for example which we have reasons to believe is an opportunity to test creation, [and] evolution models,†Ross said. “We can do real-time evolution experiments in biology to see if we see a difference between what is going on in the human era and what [existed] previous to the human era.â€
The author Dr. Hugh Ross is also an ordained minister
This kind of “esoteric” aka “inner” and hidden interpretation of the Bible gives our alternative clergy rich material to teach in their churches and synagogues. (Find out how you can become an ordained minister or rabbi and teach this stuff, too).
Anger toward religion may have provoked deadly attacks on priests in Phoenix last week
The person who brutally attacked two Phoenix priests might have a lot of anger toward people and things associated with religion, a Phoenix Police Department spokesman said.
Police also said they are looking for a man who was seen entering a residence attached to Mother of Mercy Mission Catholic Church, where one Phoenix priest was shot and killed and another badly beaten Wednesday night.
The violent nature of the crimes – the Rev. Kenneth Walker was shot multiple times and the Rev. Joseph Terra was brutally beaten – leads police to believe the attacker is angry at churches, priests or religion in general, said Sgt. Darren Burch of the department’s Silent Witness program.
Burch said there was a lot of anger and venom involved in the attacks in the rectory of the church on Wednesday.
“Somebody in our community knows about an individual in his 40s that has that type of anger, that type of violent nature, those tendencies and that’s the perfect tip that we need,†Burch said.
Terra remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Burch said the attacker might have previously outwardly exhibited anger toward religion or priests but might have become more withdrawn and not as visibly agitated since the attack.
A flyer issued by the Phoenix Police Department said police were looking for a white man, 40 to 49 years old, who was seen entering the residence at the church near 1500 W. Monroe St. about 9:11 p.m. Wednesday.
Police continue to urge anyone with information about the suspect or the crimes to call Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS (480-948-6377), or 480-TESTIGO (480-837-8446), or 800-343-TIPS (800-343-8477).
Silent Witness is offering up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and/or indictment of the suspect or suspects in this crime.
My friend (and teacher these 20 years now!), Margaret Starbird writes:
I hope this finds you thriving in the light and enjoying the fresh greening of the land —
For anyone interested, I just posted a new blog article “A Timely Lesson” on my website: http://www.margaretstarbird.net/blog.html . [Text included below in case the link leads to a newer article]
I hope you’ll pass this on to anyone you know who might be interested in sharing these thoughts from my on-going “quest” for Mary Magdalene, the Lost Bride of the Christian story.
Â
peace and light,
Margaret
copyright 2014 by Margaret Starbird. All rights reserved.
06-02-14
A Timely Lesson
In 1983 Ann Requa, a dear friend since my college years at the University of Maryland, told me about Holy Blood, Holy Grail, that she thought I needed to read the book, and that I could probably find a copy in my local library. A few days later I looked the title up in the lubrary’s card catalogue, found it listed, and discovered it in the stacks. The front cover said Holy Blood, Holy Grail, as expected. But the back cover asserted that Jesus was probably married and that his wife and progeny survived the Crucifixion and fled into exile as refugees in Gaul. At the time in 1983 I was still “singing in the choir†and teaching catchism classes for the Roman Catholic Church, and I was definitely not inclined to accept any notion that I perceived as so clearly blasphemous.
But some important illuminating incidents didn’t make the “cut†for that book, including one I didn’t fully understand at the time, but which has grown on me over the years and has become a very important key understanding of the tragic consequences of the “Lost Bride.”
One Monday afternoon in 1986 while I was doing my usual chores, I sent out a special request—asking God to have the mailman deliver something to my mailbox that would confirm or deny the assertion of Holy Blood, Holy Grail that Mary Magdalene was the “Bride of Christ.†I had no idea what I would consider a proof or denial of the theory—but I asked for it anyhow.
When the mailman had passed, I ran to the box to see what he had left there. To my befuddlement, the only item in the box was a small package, about 7†by 10â€, from a company that  advertised ant farms. Opening the container, I remembered having ordered the item weeks before so I could teach my children about the almost legendary work-ethic and industry of ants. The advertisement for the “farm†stated that viewers could watch the community of ants through the plastic walls of the box — tunneling and moving food particles through the network of tunnels the worker ants would create. I was sad that I hadn’t received an answer to my prayer for the confirmation or denial of the “married Jesus†hypothesis, but I decided maybe my request had come too late — probably the mailman had already packed his bag and started on his rounds.
When the kids got home from school, they were excited the ant farm had arrived. They bent their heads together over the instructions and unpacked the package to set up the ant farm. There was a narrow box with clear plastic panels on each side, a package of sand and a small packet containing the live ants! Carefully we assembled the project, added the ants and watched as they began scurrying to and fro digging their first tunnel. Sure enough, over a period of hours, the ants built tunnels and started carrying food particles from place to place. The kids watched with fascination for a few minutes, then went on to other activities, returning at intervals to see how the ants were doing with their project. As advertised, the ants continued to scurry around behind their plastic walls tunneling and carrying food particles.
At breakfast the next morning, the kids inspected their ant colony performing its activities — and rushed in again after school. For several days the ant farm was a magnet for attention. Neighborhood children were invited in to watch the ants. Everyone was enjoying observing ants busily scurrying around inside their plastic box, tirelessly tunneling and carrying food particles hither and yon.
But by the end of the week activity gradually slowed and then finally ceased. The ants had apparently worn themselves out and one at a time had begun to die off. After another forty-eight hours, we sadly agreed that the experiment was over and that it was time to trash the ant farm. We had gotten the message that the ants were an industrious community, but somehow they had failed to thrive. We carried the plastic box out to the back yard and dumped the experimental ant farm onto the ground, hoping any survivors might find a new colony and home outdoors.
Much later I realized that I actually HAD received an answer affirming the “sacred marriage†in the mailbox that Monday afternoon. The meaning was clear. The ant community had failed to thrive because they had no “organizing principle†at the heart of their “farm.” The goal of any community, its “reason for being” is the continuity and nurturing of life. They had no Queen and therefore, no reason for their labor, no progeny to nurture, no “vocation.†All their activities were ultimately just “busy workâ€â€”and wasted.
I believe the earliest Christians established their community with the partnership of Jesus and Mary Magdalene at its heart — modeled on the “Song of Songs,†where the devoted relationship of the “Beloveds†was a mirror of God’s passionate love for his people. While Jesus represented Yahweh as “Bridegroom,†(an epithet confirmed in various Gospel passages), Mary Magdalene represented the people of Israel, the “Daughter of Sion,†as Sister-Bride and Beloved. Their union was celebrated at all levels of human experience, exemplified in the “Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber,†in early Christian communities.
In his letter to Corinthians 5:9, Paul states that Cephas and the brothers of Jesus and the other apostles all “travel around with their sister-wives.†Where did Paul get that phrase, if not from the original Christian community that modeled itself on the “Song of Songs,†derived from an ancient rite of “sacred marriage,’ where the Bridegroom frequently refers to his Beloved as “My sister, my spouse: “You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride†(SoS 4:9); “a garden enclosed is my sister, my bride†(SoS 4: 12); and “I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride†(SoS 5:1).
English translations of Paul’s letter invariably call these sister-wives “Christian sisters†even though the phrase in the original Greek does not contain the word “Christian†at all.
Why did the Jerome and later translators of the Greek Gospels wish to obscure the knowledge that the closest associates and kin of Jesus traveled with their “sister-wives†as missionary couples, bearing the “Good News†to the farthest outposts of the Roman Empire? When he sent them forth “two by two,†Jesus was apparently sending couples, not pairs of males, according to Paul, the earliest witness to Christian practices.
It’s a good thing Noah didn’t misunderstand God’s instructions about bringing the animals into the ark “two by two†as the early church fathers apparently misunderstood the instruction of Jesus to preach the “Way of the heart†in a couples’ ministry!
He never supported violence — and he went on a very famous protest march.
