Rick Land & Russ Tapp: Blog

That statement is the title of chapter 15 in Jack Spong's book "Here I Stand".  Let me get one thing out of the way.  I do not believe that there is any such thing as liberal or conservative. I don't care what we hear in the news, or read in the papers and magazines.  There is only right and left brain. We assimilate everything through our literal left brain or right brain ability to reason.  It is simply a fact of life.  We are born this way. I have spent years studying Eastern and Western astrology and oriental philosophy coupled with basic physics.  There are numerous details about the way we think which I will not even begin to discuss here - but suffice it to say - that we all must learn to accept the fact that our individual brains have very specific and predictable ways in which they operate.  This ignorant and barbaric behavior among left and right brain folks simply proves that we as human beings are light years away from basic acceptance, compassion and intelligent relations. 

I chose this quote from Jack Spong's book to illustrate several key issues that bother the heck out of me. He was asked to sponsor a group discussion concerning "why worship was having such difficulty in our day" for the 1982 triennial convention.  He chose this title as the subject of his opening lecture prior to the general time of discussion. He verbally illustrated the ways in which both our worship patterns and our God concepts have changed throughout human history. "The sun was an object of worship, for example, until the mind determined that this object of worship was a material substance burning at an incredible rate and putting out an enormous amount of heat and light.  With that knowledge, the ability to sustain the worship of the sun disappeared.  This was an essential theological and liturgical principle that would be a cornerstone of all my future work".  He is actually laying the ground work to describe the "worship wars" in the Episcopal Church over their individual PERCEPTIONS of the new Book of Common Prayer.  The philosophical difference between the "right and left" back then are the same differences we are seeing in government and all over the place!  I just heard that the two extreme right wing "tea party" factions are warring among themselves. 

I was a witness to the "worship wars" among southern baptists and saw, with my own eyes, the blacklisting, name calling and venomous hatred which occurs when two left brain entities come into conflict over undefinable concepts.  It is both funny and horrible. I was also raised in the extreme fundamentalist Nazarene denomination and that gives me the inherent right to discuss this subject with some authority and experience. It is the nature of left brain/literal groups to continually fuss and splinter off one another - I have watched it for years.  There always seems to be a lower level of hatred, fanatical fear, intolerance and systemic paranoia for some left brain individuals to discover. So what is my point? Observe the evolution of hatred and eventual genocide in the Nazi Party. Observe any form of dictatorship whether it be in a small country in South Africa or a mega church in the United States. The personalities are the same and there are most certainly individuals who will fall for the power, persuasiveness and authoritarian manner of those leaders. It is human nature.  It is just a matter of time before their systems fold from within and another splinter group evolves out of the group into another dark philosophical "layer" below.

We are now seeing the irreparable damage that is done when any "literalist" or authoritarian leadership takes hold of an organization, government or group.  The extremes cause a "ripple effect" and it is rare that the organization will ever return to normalcy, ever. The deep division that takes place among individuals can rarely be healed.  The deeper, dark, natural suspicions and fears of some individuals escalate rather than subside.  I can hardly bear to recall those dark days in the Southern Baptist Convention when suddenly everyone had to take sides and the walls came crumbling down.  Now some of the "left brain" seminaries are squabbling over issues like glossalalia, healing, signs and wonders to name a few. Again the lines are drawn and the war continues.

Perhaps the greatest irony of all is the fact that Jesus' vitriol was almost entirely directed at the fundamentalists of his day. The Pharisees, the "left-brainers". Now-a-days they yell and scream about the inerrancy of all scripture and fight for their indivual perceptions of "truth" while we all watch folk run and hide. Almost anyone can start a church these days and if you have the gift of being left-brain and are persuasive enough, there are folks who will join your club. 

I want to share someting from my personal life to illustrate thsi point.  The western astrological signs (Aries etc.) indicate behavior and  eastern signs indicate how the brain functions. To really know a person you must recognize both.  I have struggled for years trying to comprehend the minds of many of the men in religious leadership that I have worked with. Dr. W.A. Criswell, for example was a Saggitaruis/Rooster. He was born under two of the most high-strung signs, was nervous, frank, candid and totally carried away with himself. On an very simplistic level - it is easy to delve into the deepest darkest recesses of an individual by studying astrology. But boy, you talk about a serious threat to modern religion! I probably worked closer with Dr. Criswell that any other staff member at FBC Dallas.  We performed hundreds of weddings and funerals together. He was extremely dependent upon his organist for cues, momentum and direction.  He would actually yell at me across that huge sanctuary in front of 2000 people. We had just finished the "invitation" one sunday and I was contemplating the postlude and I suddenly heard him yell out "organist come alive over there!".  I looked out over that 5 manual console and there was some poor soul still kneeling in prayer beneath him - it did not bother him to yell out to me to keep playing quietly!!!  I endured many of his verbal "explosions" - but there were many others who fell victim to his accusations of being skunks, lousy liberals and infidels.  Again it was both funny and horrible.  It was not unusual for his wife Betty to lock him out of the house when he became ridiculously incorrigible or to spend weeks not saying a word to him.  At the height of the "baptist inquisition" back in the 80's it became obvious that he was nothing more than a loud puppet for a regiment of powerful religious control freaks.  Our beloved past president "W" fell victim to the same thing.

These behavioral patters are very common down through history if you know what to look for.  Dr. Criswell believed with all his heart that the bible was literally "god breathed" and anyone who contradicted that premise was an infidel...period.  There is a profound tragedy behind this story. At the heart of his astrological "wiring" - this man should never have been a pastor or even come close to anything theological. He would have been extremely successful as a pirate, prospector, performer, or peace corp volunter, but his intermidable frustrations within himself led him to open the door to the same levels of "literal" thinking as most of the religious control freaks we see in the news and at the head of  mega churches. These people wreak havoc on everyrthing they touch. Last evening, Pat Robertson expressed the belief that the folks in Haiti had a pact with the devil. As we look about us we can easily spot these people.  However, there is a point that goes far beyond these unhappy and often "sexually frustrated" men.  They have plenty of followers who are like small vulnerable children that wander in and out of church doors and institutions like zombies - ever in search of some new truth or "word from the lord".  This is a human tragedy that is unavoidable. We easily look back over history and see these powerful individuals who destroy civilizations, make a mockery of the human condition and use vulnerable people like toilet paper.  The great irony in all of this is so unbelievable I can hardly speak of it - Jesus was the arch enemy of the legalists, the "law keepers and literalists of his day".  Now these very same people defend the entirety of the bible as the only source of truth known to mankind.

Hang on to your hat - we will be discussing one of the most frustrated control freaks of biblical history, the apostle Paul.