Killing the Messenger

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." -Ghandi

Oprah Winfrey recently did a book club study with Eckhart Tolle on his book, "A New Earth". This event was revolutionary in its endeavor, and attracted over 700,000 people to read and study this book simulaneously, tuning in to online study sessions in which Oprah and the author examined and discussed the book in-depth. The idea of 700,000 people reading a book that talks about seeing yourself and others in love (as Jesus and other great masters did), brought me overwhelming excitement and optimism at what the power of that combined energy could do. In reading the book myself, I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity for those of varied religious beliefs to come together and understand that we are all one in God, no matter what we choose to call that divine source, no matter what our varied avenues to arrive at that place of love and compassion.

Shortly after that enormous response that had so many people talking, the attacks began. I was shocked, stunned, and disappointed in so many fellow "Christians", who are still hell-bent on taking the attack stance toward anyone that suggests there might be a better way. This was a book that was changing people's lives, giving them joy, connecting them to God in such a way that it could change the world in the most positive of directions. It did not seem to matter to the attack-based Christian groups that people were laying down their burdens and seeing a higher place, seeing a grander version of life, and living in more joyous gratitude....just as Jesus taught. What mattered more was that it did not fit their doctrine, or their need to control. So, rather than discussing differences and respecting other's right and need to express their own ideas of God, the chosen method was to kill the messenger. Sadly, that sounds exactly like what was done to Jesus so many years ago, and for the very same reason...for having the audacity to suggest that there may be more to God than what the prominent religions of the time had dictated.

Even though I love Jesus, have regular overwhelmingly powerful experiences with him, and even though I seem to have a gift of bringing his presence and that of angels to others in a more direct and more fulfilling way, it sometimes embarrasses me to call myself a Christian. I feel that I am a follower of Christ in trying to be more like him, but sometimes shudder at the Christian label. Ghandi said it very well when he said, "Your Christians are so unlike your Christ".

The very powerful religion of Christianity, in its control-based thinking, has a very ugly wing to it that is not fitting to the way its chief figure behaved. The wing that is not so ugly sometimes chooses to be blind instead, burying its head in the sand to new ideas, controlling its people with guilt and obligations to the church, rather than directly to or with God. It is THE classic power-based relationship.

But I have to look at the reason behind the attacks, which is pure fear. If the message of Christianity is real and is a fundamental truth, there should be no reason to fear because the message will come out supreme under any scrutiny. Anyone who attacks another idea with such an irrational vengence must not truly believe in their own message. Further, anyone who is too fearful to look outside the tight boundaries of their religion to examine some of the miraculous things that are happening through new thoughts (like what happened in Jesus' time), must be afraid that their message won't hold up to a brighter way. Any message that changes the lives of many, often in an instantaneous and dramatically positive way that is founded in love, should be worth at least considering.

I can tell fellow followers or admirers of Christ that his message is deeper (and simpler) than we have been taught previously. So many of us have a greater yearning right now, as paradigms shift in our world to provide energies that can lead us back to joy and abundance..the energies that can lead us back to Eden. Dare to dream, dare to look for a better God than we have allowed, dare to let go of limitations and restrictions that hold us all back. Each one of us that has the courage, like Oprah, to seek and find a greater God, adds to the magnitude of the message, the power of the collective consciousness, the strength of the energy of love which can heal the world. In that action, we are being like Jesus and truly demonstrating the courage he showed.

Click here to go to Oprah & Eckhart's online class series.