The Power of Prayer
I haven't talked about spirituality much here. I think Craig has that subject on lock. Easily. But besides that while I consider myself a Believer, I am definitely NOT a modern Christian. I believe that faith is a crock and easily used by people who have the breath of the Spirit...but absolutely NOTHING more. Whenever I read the New Testament, what I see is Jesus consistently rolling his eyes at the idiocy of his discipiles.
And don't get me started on Paul.
But yet and still I recognize the strength and power of people to use the Spirit in wondrous ways. To say that the power of prayer has been understudied is an understatement. My father, also a critic, sent this to me.
Posted by at January 31, 2005 12:36 PM
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Lester, we desperately need to talk about spirituality as there are some VERY wicked and apostate things afoot in the U.S. and in the world in faith's clothing. As I'm a true believer that two things held us afloat during the during the darkest decades of our sojourn here in the belly;
1. the real and adamantine spirituality of our elders
2. the unwritten wagontrain charters of segregated black communities (much more on this later)
The problems inhering to the minstrelsy passing itself off as spirituality nowadays are legion. Right off the top, ignorance and lack of a genuine culture of spiritual competency. In a nutshell, we don't know that we don't know. There are no standards keepers anymore...,
There is no way in the world that the annointed old ladies whose influence graced my youth would countenance the rampant jack-leggedness afflicting our communities. The kernal of genuinely developed spirit that maintained our psyches has somehow been seriously diminished. I think mass media has played a pivotal role in this diminishment.
As you're aware, I am a student of orthodox christian praxis. Something I've never mentioned to you is that I was brought to this praxis by an annointed lady of the old-style black baptist church. A ministers wife, actually a denominational bishop's wife, she and her husband left the church after recurring denominational scandals and a life altering ecumenical encounter with orthodoxy in the context of African Christianity.
In my opinion, there is a two-fold epidemic disease afflicting spirit in the U.S. - with Matrix-like qualities that predispose those who are afflicted from ever even noticing there is anything wrong. First that aspect that is topical and exemplified by the present administration, and second, the ancient and perenial root cause of backsliding and apostasy.
Malignant Egophrenia
The Sickness of Faith
Lester, we desperately need to talk about spirituality as there are some VERY wicked and apostate things afoot in the U.S. and in the world in faith's clothing. As I'm a true believer that two things held us afloat during the during the darkest decades of our sojourn here in the belly;
1. the real and adamantine spirituality of our elders
2. the unwritten wagontrain charters of segregated black communities (much more on this later)
The problems inhering to the minstrelsy passing itself off as spirituality nowadays are legion. Right off the top, ignorance and lack of a genuine culture of spiritual competency. In a nutshell, we don't know that we don't know. There are no standards keepers anymore...,
There is no way in the world that the annointed old ladies whose influence graced my youth would countenance the rampant jack-leggedness afflicting our communities. The kernal of genuinely developed spirit that maintained our psyches has somehow been seriously diminished. I think mass media has played a pivotal role in this diminishment.
As you're aware, I am a student of orthodox christian praxis. Something I've never mentioned to you is that I was brought to this praxis by an annointed lady of the old-style black baptist church. A ministers wife, actually a denominational bishop's wife, she and her husband left the church after recurring denominational scandals and a life altering ecumenical encounter with orthodoxy in the context of African Christianity.
In my opinion, there is a two-fold epidemic disease afflicting spirit in the U.S. - with Matrix-like qualities that predispose those who are afflicted from ever even noticing there is anything wrong. First that aspect that is topical and exemplified by the present administration, and second, the ancient and perenial root cause of backsliding and apostasy.
Malignant Egophrenia
The Sickness of Faith
Posted by: cnulan at January 31, 2005 02:24 PM