11,500 Children Have Been Killed in Gaza. Horror of This Scale Has No Explanation

Tears. I am weeping.... and weeping.......... And we mustn't turn away. We must look and speak out and share and act to stop this madness, this utter insanity. We must.... Molly

The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. (photo: Reuters)

By Gideon Levy

two hundred and sixty names of babies whose age was 0; names of babies who didn't get to celebrate their first birthday, nor will they ever celebrate anything else. Here are some of their names: Abdul Jawad Hussu, Abdul Khaleq Baba, Abdul Rahim Awad, Abdul Rauf al-Fara, Murad Abu Saifan, Nabil al-Eidi, Najwa Radwan, Nisreen al-Najar, Oday al-Sultan, Zayd al-Bahbani, Zeyn al-Jarusha, Zayne Shatat. What dreams did their parents have for them? Then there are hundreds of names of one- and two-year old children; toddlers three or four years of age; children who were five, six, seven or eight, up to the youths who were 17 when they died.

Thousands of names, one after the other, out of the 11,500 children killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza over the last four months. The list flows like credits at the end of a long movie, a mournful tune in the background. The Al-Jazeera network posted the list of names known to it over the weekend, a total of half the 11,500 who were killed, according to Hamas' health ministry. A child killed every 15 minutes, one out of every 100 children in Gaza.

Around them remained the children who witnessed the deaths of their loved ones, the parents who buried their babies, the people who had extricated their bodies from the fire and rubble, thousands of crippled children and tens of thousands forever in shock. According to UN figures, 10,000 children lost both parents in this war, a war in which two mothers die every hour.

No explanation, no justification or excuse could ever cover up this horror. It would be best if Israel's propaganda machine didn't even try to. No stories of "Hamas is responsible for it all," and no excuses pointing to Hamas hiding among civilians. Horror of this scope has no explanation other than the existence of an army and government lacking any boundaries set by law or morality.

Think of these babies, who died in their cribs and their diapers, of the children who tried to run for their lives to no avail. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the 10,000 tiny bodies lying side by side; open them and see the mass graves, the overcrowded emergency rooms, with ambulances spewing out more and more children who are rushed in, unclear if dead or alive.

It's happening, even now, just over a one-hour drive from Tel Aviv. It's happening without being reported in Israel, without any public debate over the violent rampage Israel has allowed itself to wage in Gaza this time, more than ever before. This is also happening without anyone in Israel reflecting on what will come of this mass killing, on what Israel might gain from it and what price it will pay for it. Don't bother us, we are killing children.

The clichés are hackneyed and pathetic: "They started," "there is no choice," "what would you have us do?" "The IDF is doing everything it can to avoid the killing of innocent people." The truth is that Israel doesn't care, it doesn't even take any interest. After all, Palestinians don't love their children, and in any case, they would have only grown up to become terrorists.

In the meantime, Israel is erasing generations in Gaza, and its soldiers are killing children in numbers competing with the cruellest of wars. This will not and cannot be forgotten. How can a people ever forget those who killed its children in such a manner? How can people of conscience around the world remain silent over such mass killing of children? The fact that Israel is not deliberating this issue internally, with no tears or conscience in evidence, only desiring more of this war, until a "final victory" is achieved, does not bind the world. The world sees and is shocked.

The truth is, it's impossible to remain silent. Even Israel, so absorbed in its grief and its concern for the fate of the hostages; Israel, which itself sustained horrors on October 7, cannot ignore what is happening in Gaza. It takes seven minutes to display the list of thousands of dead children, passing at the same speed as their miserable lives did. By the end, one cannot remain silent; these are seven minutes that leave you choked up, distressed and deeply ashamed.

Please go here for the original article: https://www.rsn.org/001/11500-children-have-been-killed-in-gaza-horror-of-this-scale-has-no-explanation.html

My Letter to My Washington State Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

I am aware that Washington State Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez was among the 62 democrats joining republicans condemning South Africa's case against the mass murder being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. Here are the 148 Republicans and 62 Democrats who expressed their "disgust" at South Africa’s suit accusing Israel of genocide. They also praised White House spokesperson John Kirby for calling the case "meritless, counterproductive, and completely without basis in fact whatsoever." (https://twitter.com/prem_thakker/status/1749929697457127591)

I am so sickened, disturbed, outraged, and heartbroken for each and every person who is complicit with the ongoing obliteration of the Palestinians. The below is my letter to my representative ― who absolutely does NOT represent me.

For more on this story, please also go here: https://truthout.org/articles/62-house-dems-join-gop-in-condemning-south-africas-genocide-case-against-israel/.

May we all stand strongly and in every way humanly possible for an end to this madness, an end to genocide, an end to the horrors that are being perpetrated each and every day. ― Molly

Hi Marie,

My husband has already written you and now I am compelled to also do so for the first time. 

First, I would like you to know that I supported you when you ran against Joe Kent. I was very excited about your candidacy. 

Second, I will no longer donate or advocate for you today in the wake of learning that you voted with Republicans and far too many Democrats to condemn South Africa's strong stand against Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people. 

I am extremely outraged, disturbed, disillusioned and saddened by your complicity with mass murder. Over 26,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and this is likely an underestimate. 

It is unconscionable that you are failing to strongly stand with South Africa and those of us in our nation and worldwide who condemn the mass murder that is occurring each and every day. As a mother and grandmother, I am horrified by all who are not fiercely advocating for a permanent ceasefire NOW but who instead turn their backs on such horrifying injustice, brutality, suffering, heartlessness, and evil.

Tragically, democrats are playing right into Netanyahu's hands by their complicity with the genocide. Biden and other democrats are at huge risk of losing upcoming elections because of their support of Israel's intentions and actions to obliterate the Palestinian people. And, of course, Netanyahu would absolutely prefer to see Trump sitting in the White House. 

As long as you and Biden and other democrats act as Netanyahu's puppets, that horrifying prediction is likely to become a reality. And no one can say that you weren't warned of the horrific impacts of your choices to be complicit with genocide. 

I pray that you will wake up, completely change course, and do the right thing. The children of Gaza and the world are watching. And as are millions of voters.

Molly Strong

Vancouver, WA

JEREMY SCAHILL: NETANYAHU’S WAR ON TRUTH

I have long held independent journalist, unembedded war reporter, author and courageous truth-teller Jeremy Scahill with the highest respect, appreciation, and gratitude. This is a well articulated and incredibly important article. ― Molly

"Propaganda and weaponized lies can only obscure the dead bodies, the forced starvation, the mass killing of children, and the utter destruction of an entire society for so long. Over time, it becomes increasingly difficult to conceal the nexus between the actions taken by Israel after October 7, the mendacious narratives it deployed, and Netanyahu’s desperate struggle to retain political power and his personal liberty. The 1,200 Israeli and international victims of October 7, and the more than 27,000 Palestinians whose deaths were justified in their names, deserve an unvarnished rendering of the truth." ― Jeremy Scahill

Israeli soldiers detain blindfolded Palestinian men in a military truck in the southern Gaza Strip on Nov. 19, 2023. Photo: Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images

Israel’s Ruthless Propaganda Campaign 

to Dehumanize Palestinians

 

By Jeremy Scahill

tWO WEEKS BEFORE Hamas commandos led a series of raids into Israel on October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu stood before an empty chamberOpens in a new tab at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The Israeli prime minister brandished a map of what he promised could be the “New Middle East.” It depicted a state of Israel that stretched continuously from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. On this map, Gaza and the West Bank were erased. Palestinians did not exist.

“What a historic change for my country! You see, the land of Israel is situated on the crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe,” Netanyahu bellowedOpens in a new tab at a handful of spectators in the large hall, nearly all of whom were his loyalists or underlings. “For centuries, my country was repeatedly invaded by empires passing through it in their campaigns of plunder and conquest elsewhere. But today, as we tear down walls of enmity, Israel can become a bridge of peace and prosperity between these continents.”

During that speech, Netanyahu portrayed the full normalizing of relations with Saudi Arabia, an initiative spearheaded under the Trump administration and embraced by the Biden White House, as the linchpin of his vision for this “new” reality, one which would open the door to a “visionary corridor that will stretch across the Arabian Peninsula and Israel. It will connect India to Europe with maritime links, rail links, energy pipelines, fiber-optic cables.”

He was speaking on the grand stage of the U.N. General Assembly, but no world leaders bothered to attend. Outside, some 2,000 people, a mixture of American Jews and Israeli citizens, protested his attacks on the independence of the Israeli judiciary system. The scene served as a reminder of how deeply unpopular his far-right governing coalition, not to mention Netanyahu himself, had become in Israel. At that moment, it seemed that Netanyahu was pushed against the ropes, in a losing battle to continue his political reign.

Just days later, as Hamas commandos penetrated the barriers encircling Gaza and embarked on their deadly raids targeting several military installations as well as kibbutzim, everything changed in an instant. Everything, that is, except the primary agenda that has been at the center of Netanyahu’s long political career: the absolute destruction of Palestine and its people.

Just as the Bush administration exploited the 9/11 attacks to justify a sweeping war in which it declared the world a battlefield, Netanyahu is using the horrors of October 7 to wage the crusade he’s been preparing for his entire political career. With his grip on power fading last fall, the October 7 attacks provided him with just the opportunity he needed, and he hitched his political survival to the war on Gaza and what could be his last chance to eliminate Israel’s Palestinian problem once for all.

In that sense, Bibi was saved by Hamas.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu shows a graphic illustrating his “New Middle East” during his speech at the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2023. Photo: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Intelligence Failures

Four months in, Netanyahu’s war of annihilation against Gaza has become a guerrilla war of attrition. Not a single Israeli hostage has been freed through military force, and Hamas has shown an enduring resilience and ability to pick off Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The Israeli public, outside of the ideological true believers intent on occupying and settlingOpens in a new tab Gaza, is showing signs of fatigue and desperation. Many family members of captives are growing louderOpens in a new tab in their demands for an immediate deal with Hamas that centers the lives of their loved ones over the political agenda laid out by Netanyahu and his clique. Some have demandedOpens in a new tab new elections or Netanyahu’s resignationOpens in a new tab. Protests against the war, though small, are beginning to grow inside Israel, with some demonstrationsOpens in a new tab echoing global calls demanding a humanitarian ceasefire and an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

As the death toll in Gaza surpasses a conservative estimate of 27,000 lives, many of the core narratives deployed by the Israeli and U.S. governments to justify the slaughter are coming under increased scrutiny; some have been definitively debunked. In Israel, this is a delicate line of inquiry. That Hamas killed large numbers of Israelis is not in doubt. But how they managed to do so while living under the lauded and vigilant eyes of the Mossad, Shin Bet, the Israeli Security Agency, and the IDF is the subject of mounting public attention.

There have been several credible reports that Israeli intelligence analysts warned that Hamas operatives appeared to be training for raids into Israel. The New York Times and other outlets have reportedOpens in a new tab on the existence of a 40-page internal Hamas document code-named “Jericho Wall.” Purportedly obtained by Israeli intelligence, it is said to lay out detailed plans by Hamas to conduct precisely the type of assault against Israeli military installations and villages that occurred on October 7.

While warnings from Israeli analysts who reviewed the document were reportedly brushed aside by senior officials, last July a signals intelligence officer urged the chain of command to take it seriously. Noting a recent daylong training exercise by Hamas in Gaza, the analyst asserted that the training precisely mirrored the operations laid out in the document. “It is a plan designed to start a war,” she pleadedOpens in a new tab. “It’s not just a raid on a village.”

Please continue this article from the Intercept here: https://theintercept.com/2024/02/07/gaza-israel-netanyahu-propaganda-lies-palestinians/

Brené Brown: The Infinite Power of Our Light

Photo by Molly

The Infinite Power 

of Our Light

Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.

 
― Brené Brown

https://brenebrown.com/

Jack Kornfield: The Very Questions That Go To the Very Center of Spiritual Life

Photo by Molly

The Very Questions That Go To the

Very Center of Spiritual Life

If you have the privilege of being with a person who is conscious at the time of his or her death, you find the questions such a person asks are very simple, "Did I love well?" "Did I live fully?" "Did I learn to let go?"

These simple questions go to the very center of spiritual life. When we consider loving well and living fully, we can see the ways our attachments and fears have limited us, and we can see the many opportunities for our hearts to open. Have we let ourselves love the people around us, our family, our community, the Earth upon which we live? And, did we also learn to let go? Did we learn to live through the changes of life with grace, wisdom, and compassion? Have we learned to shift from the clinging mind to the joy of freedom?

— Jack Kornfield,

Excerpts from A Path With Heart:

A Guide through the Perils and Promises 

of Spiritual Life

Reflections On the Profound Gifts Of Trauma Work, Of Awakening, Of Love

Little Molly, 1952

Reflections On the Profound Gifts Of 

Trauma Work, Of Awakening, 

Of Love 

It may have been somewhere in my teen years when my mother told me that I didn't walk until I was 22 months old. She said that I sat in my playpen and whined. I probably also sat in this walker and whined, too. My mom didn't know that there was something terribly sad and wrong about leaving me in a playpen and not responding to my "whining." 

Many years later when I was in the last week of a 28 day stay in inpatient alcohol and drug treatment, my mother made an appointment for a session with my counselor on the outside. It wasn't until I got out of treatment that this counselor told me what had happened in that session. And that is when I realized that my narcissistic mother hadn't traveled 2,500 miles from Michigan to help and support me. She had come all this ways to let everyone in my life here in Oregon know that it wasn't she who was the "bad" one, it was me. 

In her efforts to convince my counselor, who wasn't buying it, of how I was born a "bad seed," she disclosed the time that I had forced her to nearly kill me after I simply would not stop crying — no matter what she tried! — and made her put a pillow over my face and nearly suffocate me to death. I would have been about the age in this picture above. I was born that bad. My counselor went on to tell me that my brother and I were lucky to have physically survived our childhoods.

My mom was not well. She was desperately overwhelmed with being a mother of twins without support, with her expectations centered around image management and perfectionism, and with her young lifetime of generations of unaddressed ancestral and cultural trauma. My mother had had no experience or modeling from her own mother and father of how to respond to my needs and my brother's — and to the full range of our emotions — in ways which were appropriate, which strengthened our bond, and which created an environment of safety and predictability and security. Compassion, empathy, and unconditional love were out of reach for my mother whose heart was walled over with layers of trauma and loss.

That was then.

All this said, my beautiful, tortured and terrified mother — whose self-loathing manifested in a grandiosity and entitlement that demanded everyone around her meet her needs — was absolutely doing the best that she could. That awareness, grounded in an understanding of trauma and a deep experience of compassion, doesn't excuse or justify anything. What it does is free me of carrying the deadening weight of unforgiveness and bitterness and resentment and countless generations of trauma.

* * * * *

It has been a long journey back to myself, back to the essence of who I am, after a childhood where, to survive, I had to learn how to be the pretty object for my mother to show off. The requirement was to be this object, this extension of her, rather than myself.

Francis Weller is spot on when he describes the work of the mature human as being that of holding grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and being stretched large by them. And there has indeed been so much grief and so much gratitude. They are interwoven, with one not being possible without the other. At least this has certainly been my experience.

The gifts of trauma work are profound, and potentially even for those among us who are the most deeply wounded and lost. Because the work of healing and transforming trauma leads us back to Love.

Incredibly, the last seven years of my mother's life unfolded as a great healing between us. At age 87, my mom experienced a partial awakening following a breakdown and suicide attempt. Through antipsychotic medication, dementia that enabled her to forget what she could not have bared to remember, and through being immersed in love... my mother's heart became accessible. For the first time. And I was able to give, and she was able to receive, the love she had always been so starved for and also defended against for a lifetime. It was a miracle.

And a miracle that I could love my mom. After everything. After everything. I was able to love my mom. And when the self-loathing buried for decades would surface as her narcissistic barrier dissolved, I was able to meet my mother right where she was at. Each time she would say something like, "I'm just trouble," I understood how old this place was and how she'd always felt like so much trouble for her own mother to care for. 

I didn't tell her not to feel that way. I didn't should on her. I listened and witnessed and simply said, again and again, "Mama, you're actually not trouble for me. You are my treasure." And she would look deeply into my eyes. And her body would relax. And a smile would creep across my mom's face. And she returned my deep gaze into her eyes, smiled, squeezed my hands, and called me her "precious darling."

Love is the most profound and powerful medicine.

* * * * *

I did a lot of grieving in my therapy session this past week. And right alongside my grief is gratitude, the depths of which there are no words to adequately describe. I was just feeling so much for family members and friends who are struggling, for the people in Gaza and at our borders, for little Molly and little Nancy (my mom), and for all of us who have and who are experiencing pain and loss and trauma.

And I get to feel! I get to feel the full range of my emotional world and all the gratitude that comes with being so alive, so deep, so heart-centered and human, so me!

And my therapist reflected how each time that I feel this sadness or outrage and whatever I am allowing to emerge and flow through me, I am wrapping my childhood self, little Molly, in my arms as a loving mother would her beloved child. And I am letting my younger self, and my adult self, know and integrate more and more deeply that it's all okay. It's okay to be right where I am at — to be really sad, or really angry, or whatever is arising. It's all okay. These are the messages that my child-self and my adult self have been absorbing for some time now — You are safe, you are precious, you are loved just the way you are. (Funny how the person who comes to mind in this moment is Mr. Rogers...)

And I am free. I can be an increasingly fully embodied human being living this whole-hearted life. And I can experience an indescribable depth of compassion, not just for myself and my mom and those I know, but for us all. Compassion, connection, and love because it is not easy to be human. I keep coming back to the words of e.e.cummings — "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." It really does!

Coming from a place of such disassociation and addiction, bone deep fear and shame, and so many generations of trauma, it is a profound, an utterly profound gift to feel. And to Love.

This is the gift of trauma work, of awakening. Thank Mystery/God/Goddess/Spirit and all the many helpers along the way for this amazing gift of opening to the essence of who I've always been and who we all are. I recognize that now. This beauty, this sacredness in us all. I weep with gratitude... And love. There is no greater medicine, no greater need than to love and be loved.

May more and more of us pour into ourselves and those around us and our hurting beautiful world an ever growing and evolving depth of compassion and love. After all, we are all connected, all related, all family.

With blessings and love,

💗Molly

Jim Palmer: There Is Nothing More Important Than Love

This is so wise, beautiful, and true.

💗 Molly

Photo by Molly

There Is Nothing More Important 

Than Love

That moment when it hits you that your life won't last forever and you think about the people you love deeply and thinking about it aches, and you don't know if it's because sometimes you love people so much it hurts, or because you wonder if you missed opportunities to love them or could have loved them better, and you are reminded once again that there is nothing more important than love.

The greatest single need and desire of humankind is love. To love is the greatest power and freedom we possess. Every thought, word, and action motivated by love, transforms our reality. Love is the highest expression of what it means to be human. The chief characteristic of true enlightenment is love.

The best I know to tell you is don't leave love left undone. Go all the way with love. There may be things you don't accomplish, attain, or achieve in your life. Do not let shrinking back from love be one of them. If you are fortunate, you discover that love is the only thing that really matters, love heals everything, and love is all there is.

On your way out of this world you will look back and see it was always about that... it was always love."

— Jim Palmer

From Notes From (Over) the Edge: Unmasking

the Truth to End Your Suffering

https://www.amazon.com/Notes-Over-Edge-Unmasking-Suffering/dp/149372052X

Jim Palmer: 14 Things the Misguided Religious Establishment Doesn't Want You To Know

Thank you Jim Palmer for this. So well articulated and wise and needed.

And I love this: “A healthy religion is one that helps us own and integrate the shadow side of human nature for the good of person and planet.”

Just imagine if all religious and spiritual beliefs and teachings were rooted in inclusivity rather than othering and judgments and shoulds and fear.

I envision a world where we humans increasingly are taught, absorb, and reflect empathy, compassion, and love towards all living beings and our Earth Mother. Just imagine if we humans were able to live being held with respect and love, if what was reflected back to us from birth onwards was mirroring of the beauty of our sacred essence. Just imagine. 🙏 Molly

As you know, I once was an evangelical megachurch pastor and my pastoral career stretched over many years. Eventually, I could no longer teach Christian doctrine with a good conscience and realized this teaching was not truly changing people’s lives… and so I walked away from the whole enchilada.

Below are 14 things that the misguided religious establishment doesn't want you to know. Speaking for myself and my personal experience, I was not able to see or admit these things to myself. I truly got into ministry initially because I wanted to make a difference and help people, and I relied upon the belief-system I learned as the proper framework to achieve this. It took a lot of post-religion reflection to see the ways this belief-system was hurting people.

I offer the below list in hopes that you might disentangle yourself from harmful beliefs and attitudes impacting your life.

14 things the misguided religious establishment doesn’t want you to know:

1. Toxic religion is rooted in fear, especially fear about the afterlife. It leverages the false doctrine of hell to win converts and demand holiness. The fear of God's disapproval, rejection, abandonment and punishment is another hallmark of toxic religion.

2. Clergy have no innate authority. Holding a church leadership position or having a theological degree does not imbue a person with special divine authority or superiority. The terms "anointed", "called", or "chosen" or titles such as "pastor", "priest", "bishop", "elder", "evangelist" or "apostle" do not confer any innate authority on an individual or group.

3. We hold sacred what we are taught to hold sacred, which is why what is sacred to one community is not sacred to another.

4. The stories in our sacred books aren’t history, nor were they meant to be. The authors of these books weren’t historians but writers of historical fiction: they used history (or pseudo history) as a context or pretext for their own ideas. Reading sacred texts as history may yield some nuggets of the past, but the real gold is in seeing these stories as myth and parable, and trying to unpack the possible meanings these parables and myths may hold.

5. Prayer doesn’t work the way you think it does. You can’t bribe God, or change God’s mind through obedience, devotion, or groveling. The underlying theistic premises of prayer are untenable.

6. Anything you claim to know about God, even the notion that there is a God, is a projection of your psyche. What you say about God—who God is, what God cares about, who God rewards, and who God punishes—says nothing about God and everything about you. If you believe in an unconditionally loving God, you probably value unconditional love. If you believe in a God who divides people into chosen and not chosen, believers and infidels, saved and damned, high cast or low caste, etc. you are likely someone who divides people into in–groups and out–groups with you and your group as the quintessential in-group. God may or may not exist, but your idea of God mirrors yourself and your values.

7. Nobody is born Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Protestant, etc. People are born human and are slowly conditioned by narratives of race, religion, gender, nationality, etc. to be less than human.

8. Theology isn’t the free search for truth, but rather a defense of an already held position. Theology is really apologetics, explaining why a belief is true rather than seeking out the truth in and of itself. All theological reasoning is circular, inevitably “proving” the truth of its own presupposition.

9. Becoming more religious cannot save us. Religion is a human invention reflecting the best and worst of humanity; becoming more religious will simply allow us to perpetuate compassion and cruelty in the name of religion. Because religion always carries the danger of fanaticism, becoming more religious may only heighten the risk of us becoming more fanatical.

10. Becoming less religious cannot save us. In fact, being against religion can become it’s own fanaticism. Becoming less religious will simply force us to perpetuate compassion and cruelty in the name of something else. Secular societies that actively suppress religion have proven no more just or compassionate than religious societies that suppress secularism or free thought. This is because neither religion nor the lack of religion solely nullifies our human potential to act out of ego, greed, fear, hostility, and hatred.

11. A healthy religion is one that helps us own and integrate the shadow side of human nature for the good of person and planet, something few clergy are trained to do. Clergy are trained to promote the religion they represent. They are apologists not liberators. If you want to be more just, compassionate, and loving, you must do the personal work within yourself, and free yourself from the conditions that lock you into injustice, cruelty, and hate, and this means you have to free yourself from all your narratives, including those you call “religious.”

12. Religious leaders claims that their particular understanding and interpretation of their sacred books should be universally accepted. Religious leaders often say, “My authority is the Bible.” It would be more accurate for them to say, “My authority is what they taught me at seminary the Bible means.” People start with flawed or false presuppositions about what the Bible is, such as: the Bible was meant to present a coherent theology about God or is a piece of doctrinal exposition; the Bible is the inerrant, infallible and sole message/"Word" of God to the world; the Bible is a blueprint for daily living. Too often religious leaders make God about having "correct theology." There are a lot of unhappy, broken, hurting, suffering, depressed, lonely people in church with church-approved theology.

13. If your livelihood depends on the success of your church as an organization, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that you will mostly define and reward Christianity as participation in church structures and programs. Christian living is mostly a decentralized reality or way of life, not a centralized or program-dependent phenomenon. Church attendance, tithing, membership, service, and devoted participation, become the hallmarks of Christian maturity.

14. You are capable of guiding your own spiritual path from the inside out and don't need to be told what to do. You naturally have the ability, capacity, tools and skills to guide and direct your life meaningfully, ethically and effectively. Through the use of your fundamental human faculties such as critical thinking, empathy, reason, conscience and intuition, you can capably lead your life. You have the choice to cultivate a spirituality that doesn’t require you to be inadequate, powerless, weak, and lacking, but one that empowers you toward strength, vitality, wholeness, and the fulfillment of your highest potentialities and possibilities.

— Jim Palmer

https://www.jimpalmerauthor.com/

Jim Palmer: 7 Rules To Disobey

Oscar Wilde wrote, "Disobedience was man’s original virtue.” I know he is using "man" as a reference to all humankind, but I think it's worth noting that it was a woman (Eve) who did us all a big favor by biting into that fruit of human agency. So maybe it's fair to pair up Wilde's quote with what Historian, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich wrote, "Well-behaved women seldom make history."

With that in mind, here are 7 religious rules that every person should disobey:

Rule #1: Put your faith in the doctrine they teach you in church.

Rule #2: Don't fraternize with people who hold different beliefs.

Rule #3: Mistrust what you most deeply feel.

Rule #4: Limit your experience of God to organized church.

Rule #5: Never question a person with a theological degree.

Rule #6: Believe you need to be cured from your own badness.

Rule #7: Resign yourself that the big payoff happens after you die.

Rule #8: Assume the Jesus of Christianity is the real Jesus.

Rule #9: Make bible knowledge the litmus test of true spirituality.

— Jim Palmer

https://www.jimpalmerauthor.com/