Fear, Hate and Politics, Part 2

I received a lot of email traffic concerning last week’s message [Msg-5-Oct-2015; Fear, Hate and Politics] – quite a few saying “Hurrah!” and quite a few indicating how disappointed in me they were. Several days later, at our weekly ACIM study group, we read from Chapter 24, “The Goal of Specialness.” Specifically, we were reading from Section IV – “Specialness versus Sinlessness.”

Last week’s message and the email comments I had received were still fresh in my mind. That entire study session’s readings, plus the comments from all the attendees, just stabbed me in my heart.

From 24-IV, paragraph one (sentences 1-7), from paragraph 4 (sentences 1-4), and from paragraph 5 (sentence 2):

“1:1-7: Specialness is a lack of trust in anyone except yourself. Faith is invested in yourself alone. Everything else becomes your enemy; feared and attacked, deadly and dangerous, hated and worthy only of destruction. Whatever gentleness it offers is but deception, but its hate is real. In danger of destruction it must kill, and you are drawn to it to kill it first. And such is guilt’s attraction. Here is death enthroned as savior; crucifixion is now redemption, and salvation can only mean destruction of the world except yourself.”

“4:1-4: Earlier I said consider not the means by which salvation is attained, nor how to reach it. But do consider, and consider well, whether it is your wish that you might see your brother sinless. To specialness the answer must be ‘no.’ A sinless brother is its enemy, while sin, if it were possible, would be its friend.”

“5:2: Only this is certain in this shifting world that has no meaning in reality: When peace is not with you entirely, and when you suffer pain of any kind, you have beheld some sin within your brother, and have rejoiced at what you thought was there.”

And there I was: “Rejoicing” with all who wrote “Hurrah!” Mentally condemning all who wrote otherwise, as simply not understanding what I was trying to communicate: namely, condemning those who willfully fostered hate, anger and fear for there own political purposes.

Yet, here I had been, on the high horse of Felix (my ego), doing exactly the same thing. I was no different than those who I was enjoying hating. I had been assuming I was spiritually right and correct, all those who disagreed were mistaken and wrong.

Bless Felix’s pea-pickin’ heart. He had gotten the best of me – yet once again.

My concluding remarks in last week’s message can be repeated here – in a wholly different context: ACIM teaches me that all my thoughts can be distilled to being either of Fear or Love. No exceptions! It also proclaims that Fear is the opposite of Love. I must always steel myself to pause and think about where my fears are coming from. When I do this, I inevitably understand that my fear is always coming only from between my ears. I can learn to control that with the help of the Holy Spirit. All I have to do is earnestly ask for His help in seeing another way to look at situations or people.

That’s hard for me at times because I love hating haters. God smiles and shakes His head – I’m still a work in progress.

I’m very grateful to all who wrote about how disappointed you were. Your comments enabled the Holy Spirit to prick my heart and allow me to witness the truth that Felix was proclaiming. It allowed me to see – pretty quickly – what I had done to me. Although I had written honestly from Felix’s point of view, I had lost sight of the fact I no longer enjoyed a sense of peace. I was in a state of righteous anger – please emphasize “anger;” other than providing some egoic justification, “righteous” has nothing to do with it.

Again, thank you.

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#1 Nov 2015

Copyright 2015