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Religious
Science is a religion of joy; it is a religion free from fear and
uncertainty; it is a religion of faith, a faith justified by results.
Everyone is instinctively religious, and everyone has an intuition
within them which, should we follow it, would lead us inevitably to a
place not only of an inner sense of certainty, but to a place of the
outer condition of security.
The
Divine Spirit is not limited, nor does It wish to limit us. Its
whole intent is to give us a more abundant life. The time has come
when religion must be made practical, and when faith in the Invisible
must be consciously developed free from dogma, superstition and fear.
- Dr. Ernest Holmes
It came to my attention this past
week that certain Christian Organizations were making calls to people
and using the "Same-Sex Marriage" issue as a way of
encouraging people to vote. Now, by law, these organizations
cannot promote a political candidate without endangering their
non-profit tax-exempt status ... however, it does not take a rocket
scientist to understand the intention behind these calls or who their
political candidates are ... divisive, judgmental religious folks and
divisive, judgmental politicians all share the same small-minds ...
minds that have a limited understanding of the Infinite Life that God
created ... and they are continually looking for like-minded individuals
in order to further their agendas.
The great concern of these people is that
gay and lesbians will get married ... but most of us are aware that many
are already married or have been married at some time. If they
happen to be in politics, religious work or sports, and they have been
discovered to be gay or lesbian, their names have appeared on the
headlines of newspapers and their pictures displayed on television ...
because most of them are married to women or men who are not gay or
lesbian ... most of them married in Christian churches and belong to the
Christian religion ... in other words, they are gay Christians.
And some of them are possibly card-carrying, dues-paying 700 Club
Members. The politicians and religious zealots don't pay too much
attention to this. People with a limited, narrow-minded view
firmly entrenched in false ideas of right and wrong seldom waste too
much effort on compassion.
Both the politicians and the
religious zealots use their distorted understanding of the Bible to make
their case ... but there is nothing in the teachings of Jesus that
support their reasoning. If anything, the Bible is very clear that
gay and lesbians have existed since ancient times. The Old
Testament cultural laws were against them ... but the teachings of Jesus
summed up in "Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself" ...
taught us to ignore human judgments of right and wrong ... and to see
everyone as God sees all of us ... through the eyes of Love.
As the world moves from the old
superstitious religious dogma of the past, these marriages between gay
and lesbians and heterosexuals will diminish, if not disappear.
Marriage is not supposed to be a "hiding place" nor a
"closet" ... and I am not stating that these gay and lesbian
people married to heterosexuals do not love their partners ... many do
very much ... but these marriages are not the "marriage of the
mind" ... the state of being "equally yoked" that we know
is the true intention of marriage.
There are now six
provinces in Canada that allow same-sex marriage; two countries, Belgium
and the Netherlands ... Spain may be next ... and one of the 50 states
in the United States. I believe that same-sex marriage rights will
continue to make great progress around the world ... why? ... because
God Is Love ... and Love denies no one.
And
So It Is!
Maximum Love,
Rev.
Hank Bates
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