5 Stars — Re-Boots Christianity for Americans
David Ray Griffin is a GIANT as a theologian and leading proponent for “process” theology, which holds that God is not a transcendent eternal and unchanging being but God is immanently involved in the world, God’s very being unfolding in space and time, nature, history and culture. The author's view (which I share) is that history is internal to God, and God is internal to worldly events, but they are not identical. (This keeps God from being considered evil because of the world’s evil). Read the book for the nuances.
This book is the stake in the heart of the Christian evangelical right that sold out to the Zionists and the Deep Stake. Others, such as Pastor Chuck Baldwin, share Griffin's disdain for the politicized (“agent of Rome”) Christian right, but Griffin is alone at the top of the intellectual mountain on this point.
The kingdom of God, here on Earth, is our potential, in direct contrast to imperium Romanum (or in Griffin's book, imperium Americanus). American empire has become demonic — he divides an entire chapter into three forms of demonic related to foreign policy — false flag attacks, nuclear weapons, and climate destruction. Other issues have been addressed in other works, see particularly his work on endless wars in The American Project.
In brief, I interpret Griffin to be saying that Christianity done right is patriotism done right — it is the duty of every Christian to demand that their government be right with God, with community, with family, with the Earth. It is not the author's intent to conflate foreign policy with Christianity, but rather, as I understand it, to define Christianity such that the moral depth and breadth of Christianity pervades every aspect of how we live and how we govern. A good Christian is a good citizen who keeps their government's behavior consistent with both Christianity and the Constitution.
This is not an easy book to read — its erudition takes the form of a scholastic tour replete with citations and interpretations — but patience is rewarded. Here are my notes, see especially the four forms of salvation as the end.
+ The Church cannot be an organ of the state.
+ Bible is full of contradictions and is not infallible.
+ There is no conflict between science and religion.
+ God is a creative loving power not a controlling destructive power.
+ God is not “male” nor is patriarchy justified by region (I would add to this — matriarchy — and the moral compass of women — fits better with God.
+ Divine power is persuasive not coercive — it exists in the context of others powers including free will and imagination.
+ Prophets [I have a note, i.e. not priests] are a bridge between human consciousness and the cosmic God.
+ God intended a neighborly economy — an economy of kinship and kindness [to which I would add, a localized economy without fences or ursury].
+ Jesus was an anti-imperialist, not an enabler of Rome. He saw peace with plenty, love as the ultimate power, a new socio-economic order that was JUST.
+ There are many ways, not one way, to respect to Golden Rule of life.
+ Civilization's downside is it's enabling of and demand for a war system.
The heart of the book, the catechism or summary for me, is the author's discussion of four dimensions of salvation via Jesus properly understood:
+ Salvation 1: be the best in the here and now — evolve in honor of God.
+ Salvation 2: find meaning in being here, not the afterlife.
+ Salvation 3: demonstrate fidelity now for sanctification after life.
+ Salvation 4: Achieve wholeness with Earth, man, God, cosmos — ONE.
I worry about the author's conclusion that we need a global democracy (presumably not one manipulated by the Rothschilds as the US fake democracy is manipulated today). Here I prefer Lionel Tiger, Elinor Ostrom, Nassim Nicholas Taleb: God is best found LOCALLY. Localization, not globalization — and an end to top-down dictats from empire, is how I think we can best reconnect to the Earth and our destiny as a species.
The book ends with a discussion of the Golden and Silver Rules (the silver rule focuses on not doing harm that you would yourself not wish to bear), and offers ten commandments for US foreign policy:
- Don't murder people.
- Don't deprive people of food and water.
- Don't steal people's oil and other natural resources.
- Don't steal people's personal property.
- Don't deprive people of their freedom.
- Don't cause people needless pain.
- Don't terrorize people.
- Don't rape people.
- Don't humiliate people.
- Don't treat people as mere means to your ends.
Although I have reviewed a number of books on ethics and religion in the past, and more recently on biology, energy, and extraterrestrials, I never expected to come to the conclusion that God, man, and angels as well as energy and ethics and extraterrestrials (a form of mental energy both good and bad) are ONE. This is NOT what the author (David Ray Griffin) believes, he calls this pantheism and uses the word pan-en-theism to define his sense of it all — my bottom line is that I am finally seeing the whole, and this book helped me think.
As a side note, although the author David Ray Griffin is one of the top theologians in the English language, he is also one of the top intellectual critics of the false flag event known as 9/11. This has disconcerted those who are very intelligent, but are unbalanced in their ability to deal with cognitive disconnects. 9/11 was the JFK assassination on a global scale, and there is in my own mind absolutely no question but that WHEN 9/11 is fully disclosed, including the roles of Dick Cheney and Benjamin Netanyahu and Larry Silverstein and Mel Greenberg and others, THEN the USA will begin its marchtoward becoming America the Beautiful.
We cannot Make America Great Again without restoring our Christianity in the full and proper sense of the word. This book is an excellent starting point for anyone who wants to be right with God and have their country be right with God as well.
See Especially (Primary Review Category):
Religion & Politics of Religion @ Phi Beta Iota
See Also (Related Review Categories):
Complexity and Resilience (200)
Consciousness & Social IQ (300)
Cosmos & Destiny (39)
Democracy (277)
Leadership (84)
Nature, Diet, Memetics, & Design (259)
Philosophy (166)
True Cost and Toxicity (158)
Truth and Reconciliation (120)
Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution (334)
Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized (242)
