Idolatry

February 26, 2004

May apostate praise return to its first love, above the symbol seize the spirit, speak the "new tongue"--and may thought soar and Soul be.

Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy

We found we'd worked on Idolatry once before and refer our readers to notes summarizing the meeting of [#topicd=20020425#]. There we handled the topic broadly and formally — for us — with a number of definitions and some interesting examples of idolatries. This time our intension was to become aware of what idols we were worshipping, find our God base in the midst of its symbolic representations and live that.

A newcomer to our group and to Christian Science was present; so we needed to get him up to speed on some of the basics before we turned to the topic.

Once we did, members offered three areas where they'd spotted some idol worship.

1) One noted that he often leaves interactions with friends "loaded with self-criticism"about what he's just said or done. "OK — so I'm not the smoothest person to deal with but this feels way over the top."He found it useful to categorize the problem as idolatry — he was leaning on a dualistic, material belief of himself and others, so, "the sky's the limit on what could go wrong."Usually nothing does — but there is a slow leakage of energy and spontaneity out of the friendships; then withdrawal. He's now working to under-gird such interactions — before, during and after — with the Truth of being.

2) Another member noted a tendency to regard his body as a material entity which he manages with Christian Science — emphasizing good and eliminating evil. "But it feels placatory — like I'm worshipping a statue called My Body."Recently, however, he's seen this: "We're now in the Kingdom of God. He sees my whole being as perfect. I can just relax into this and stop all the nervous affirming and denying — which induces nothing more than a temporary hypnotic belief in health anyway."

3) Another member owned his devotion to a certain body type for romantic/sexual attraction and selection of actual lovers and boyfriends. "There's been nothing but suffering from this narrow focus. I've ended up robbed, beaten and left for dead."His solution for now is physical withdrawal from the scene, but romantic fantasies continue. His work in Science is clear, however. Whether positive or negative, an idol needs to be seen as such and its concurrent divine idea accessed and lived instead.

A member commented that in view of what we'd just heard we could perhaps understand the horrendous imagery of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. An extreme focus on a personal, idolatrous sense of the Christ naturally leads to a desperate Jesus figure rushing about trying to save the world, but being reduced to a bloody pulp. "Personal saviors, co-dependents, hypochondriacs and sexaholics are all making the mistake of setting themselves up as idols needing to be struck down. Death then kindly arrives on the scene to promise a relief it can't deliver."

"What's the solution, then?"

"Why, Science of course!"

While we were on movies, a member reported on The Dreamers. The prevalence of naked flesh got him thinking about the Garden of Eden. "It's an update of Genesis II."Two incestuous kids have their idyllic world upset by a third kid (the serpent) who helps drive them from the stasis of Eden. Permissive parents and authoritarian government together constitute Yahweh.

"Do you mean to tell us you're calling adorable Michael Pitt the serpent?"

"Don't you suppose Eve found the original serpent pretty attractive? Anyway — I don't necessarily see the serpent as evil. In the movie, as in Eden itself, there was an extreme need to break free from suffocating confinement in a dualistic garden with a dualistic 'god' issuing orders to helpless mortals."

"But look, this is just a myth — you aren't implying it happened."

"It happens all the time!"He went on to point out to those assembled occasions he knew of in their lives where "expulsion from Eden"was the best thing that ever happened to them.

"What about Judas? He's accorded sainthood in certain churches."

"And why? Because he moved the Jesus story along to its outcome, ascension or oneness."

"I think the key is not to idolize the serpent or Judas — or our problems — but to see them as the way Principle looks to benighted human understanding as it breaks though and moves us to a higher perspective."

The proposed "Defense of Marriage"constitutional amendment came up.

"Why all this obsession by the right wing with what they call a 'slippery slope' into polygamy and marriage with children? Do they mention animals too? If those are their concerns, then put those in the proposal and leave us alone."

"Well, they're red herrings of course. And anyway, polygamy and child marriage are Bible based relationships. I bet eventually the Christian fundamentalists will want those rights back!"

"I'd be Ok with an amendment that limited civil, government-approved marriage to two adult humans."

"But that would get in the way of Christians who want to follow the Bible and marry multiply or with children."

"Civil, government-approved unions between two adults would apply to everyone. Any Christians who wanted to follow biblical polygamy, or whatever, could still do so within the confines of their own churches, and these ceremonies would have no legal effect."

"There's another slippery slope I'm worried about. The amendment is much more serious than just a limitation on Gay people's right to marry. It's another shot in the holy war by self-proclaimed Christians to convert the US into a Christian nation, after the image of the biblical scraps they follow".

"What scraps?"

"Well, mostly Old Testament stuff and some of the scarier parts of Revelation."

"They see everyone who does not subscribe to their particular obsessions as non Christian. They may be coming after us Gay people now — but as Bonhoeffer said of the Nazis, they'll eventually get to everyone else. Boy, will the Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and intellectual fundamentalists be shocked when they, too, are placed in the holding pens."

"Oh please! This is the U-S-of-A. That could never happen here."

"Wait — he has a point. If we're leaning on laws, constitutions and human reasonableness such things could certainly happen here."

"That's why work in Science is so important — to protect us all from such outcomes."

"We have to be like Jesus when Pilate asked him, 'What is truth?' He didn't answer, because he was through with discussion and speech; he was now having to be the Truth. We need to get beyond idolatrous conceptions of marriage, constitution and government. The oneness they all point to needs to be lived by workers in Science for the benefit of mankind."

We couldn't come up with a topic for next week — so we'll have one of our rare No Topic weeks — letting each member work on his or her own topic(s). "Let's see if a general topic emerges from the individual work."

The Bible

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God:

Unto the pure all things are pure:

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy

Progress takes off human shackles. The finite must yield to the infinite. Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the inspirational, and from the mortal to the immortal.

The question then as now was, How did Jesus heal the sick? His answer to this question the world rejected. He appealed to his students: "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" That is: Who or what is it that is thus identified with casting out evils and healing the sick? They replied, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets."

Yearning to be understood, the Master repeated, "But whom say ye that I am?" This renewed inquiry meant: Who or what is it that is able to do the work, so mysterious to the popular mind? In his rejection of the answer already given and his renewal of the question, it is plain that Jesus completely eschewed the narrow opinion implied in their citation of the common report about him.

With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!" That is: The Messiah is what thou hast declared,—Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and Love, which heals mentally. This assertion elicited from Jesus the benediction, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven;" that is, Love hath shown thee the way of Life!

Before this the impetuous disciple had been called only by his common names, Simon Bar-jona, or son of Jona; but now the Master gave him a spiritual name in these words: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter; and upon this rock [the meaning of the Greek word petros, or stone] I will build my church; and the gates of hell [hades, the under-world, or the grave] shall not prevail against it." In other words, Jesus purposed founding his society, not on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God-power which lay behind Peter's confession of the true Messiah.

Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy

Mind is its own great cause and effect. Mind is God, omnipotent and omnipresent. What, then, of an opposite so-called science, which says that man is both matter and mind, that Mind is in matter?

If God is Mind and fills all space, is everywhere, matter is nowhere and sin is obsolete. If Mind, God, is all-power and all-presence, man is not met by another power and presence, that—obstructing his intelligence—pains, fetters, and befools him. The perfection of man is intact; whence, then, is something besides Him that is not the counterpart but the counterfeit of man's creator? Surely not from God, for He made man in His own likeness.

Christian Scientists should beware of unseen snares, and adhere to the divine Principle and rules for demonstration. They must guard against the deification of finite personality. Every human thought must turn instinctively to the divine Mind as its sole centre and intelligence. Until this be done, man will never be found harmonious and immortal.

St. John spiritually discerned and revealed the sum total of transcendentalism. He saw the real earth and heaven. They were spiritual, not material; and they were without pain, sin, or death. Death was not the door to this heaven. The gates thereof he declared were inlaid with pearl,—likening them to the priceless understanding of man's real existence, to be recognized here and now.

The great Way-shower illustrated Life unconfined, uncontaminated, untrammelled, by matter. He proved the superiority of Mind over the flesh, opened the door to the captive, and enabled man to demonstrate the law of Life, which St. Paul declares "hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

The stale saying that Christian Science "is neither Christian nor science!" is to-day the fossil of wisdomless wit, weakness, and superstition. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."

Take courage, dear reader, for any seeming mysticism surrounding realism is explained in the Scripture, "There went up a mist from the earth [matter];" and the mist of materialism will vanish as we approach spirituality, the realm of reality; cleanse our lives in Christ's righteousness; bathe in the baptism of Spirit, and awake in His likeness.

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