When we moved from the little town of Coos Bay, Oregon
to the suburbs of Oregon’s “big city”, Portland, we
attended a Methodist church. Not because the
family’s beliefs had changed, but because it was two
doors from our home and we knew that we’d attend more
regularly in a church that was close by.
That was in a
time before the “our way or no way” mentality that seems
to have permeated so many traditional churches – it was
the basic beliefs that mattered, not the minutia. But
even at that, the traditional churches that I’d grown up
with ceased to serve my needs by the time I was in
college, and I stopped going. Oh, I tried from time to
time, sometimes to please my mom, other times because I
wanted my toddler son to have some spiritual foundation,
but I felt disconnected.
In the late sixties (after the “Summer of Love”) and
into early seventies, though, everything seemed to take
on a spiritual overtone – at least it sure did for me.
Back then, passing a joint around with friends felt like
a form of communion. And of course after 1967, “love one
another” became the imperative by which many of us tried
to live – not so far away from what Jesus had asked of
us, in line with “God is love.” And though I didn’t
attend church, my beliefs had held firm – if at odds
with the traditional churches. After all, I also found
comfort and enlightenment in the words of Alan Watts and
Baba Ram Dass. The mystical experience I’d had when I
was baptized had always stayed with me. Jesus had
remained my foremost teacher and source, as well as my
steadfast companion. But that was all internal, and not
terribly well focused. A couple of events gave me focus
and changed my outlook.
In a class at work in the late seventies, students were
asked to name the historical figure most important to
them. Most named people like John F. Kennedy, or Abraham
Lincoln. But my friend and coworker named “Jesus
Christ”. That simple statement transformed my
perspective, as I suddenly saw Jesus as a real man from
history, rather than an ethereal character from a book -
and I felt a renewed interest in Jesus, the man. Not all
revelations come in thunderbolts.
The other event is harder to share, but I’ll try. By the
early eighties, the shine had gone from the imperatives
of the summer of love. Many friends, indeed my
generation, had turned away from those beliefs and, not
only that, began to denigrate the whole period. Anything
bad was blamed on the “excesses” of that time, and
rather than try to reshape their experience or reign in
the excesses, many just rejected it all, the whole of
it. Looking back, I see this as a sad time. I guess I
looked everywhere for comfort except to Spirit during
this time.
It was after an all night binge that I turned on the TV
looking for something to watch, and stumbled into a very
different television ministry – Terry Cole-Whittaker. I
was blown away. Nobody I’d ever heard explained things
the way she did – which was somehow the way I’d always
understood them since that mystical baptism experience
as a kid. And there was a whole auditorium full of
people who apparently felt the way I did. This was my
introduction to New Thought Christianity, and the
beginning of the end of my self-destructive habits.
(Terry Cole-Whittaker may have saved my life.)
A while later I discovered that a classmate of mine from
high school had a New Thought Ministry, called the
Living Enrichment Center. I went to check it out, and
the first Sunday I attended the congregation stood and
sang Kate Wolf’s Give Yourself to Love. I really knew
I’d found a spiritual home. That church later folded
under a cloud of financial issues, but all that I
learned (including how to teach myself and interpret for
myself) remained valid. Mary Manin Morrissey has since
moved on and speaks all around the country – but she
once told me that her goal was to take people to a level
where they didn’t need her messages, but could rely on
themselves as their own best teacher.
And so I know that God is my source, and I believe God
wants nothing but good for all of us. Even those who
don’t know Him. Jesus remains my foremost teacher and
guide, and I think we’re supposed to try to follow in
his footsteps, guided by forgiveness and loving
acceptance. He is accompanied by Buddha, Ram Dass,
Ernest Holmes and all who teach of God’s love and
compassion. And I think all of this informs my musical
direction, from the lyrics of our own music to the
selections we choose to listen to, or cover. Maybe even
some of the parts I play, on Dobro, lap steel, bass or…?
Basically I’m just trying to walk the walk, with musical
accompaniment.
Namaste
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