The Power of Fear
Throughout this post I am going to talk about fear and how it has been used throughout history and religion to keep its followers in check. This will talk about religion, but please bear with me and read it because I would like to hear your comments about this matter. I judge no one, but the people who cause emotional damage within these religions and organizations.
I am going to try to keep preaching to a minimal because I know that a lot of you have differing faiths from my own, or you might not have any faith at all, but that is irrelevant. In my faith I believe that God loves everyone, irrespective of their beliefs…if you’re Atheist, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Kumite, Jewish, Gnostic, Agnostic, Witness, Moonie, etc…our lives on earth are merely learning experiences that help us work towards perfecting our souls. We try out different beliefs, races, and backgrounds to learn different things and experiences different prejudices. Hopefully, by the end of it we have become better people with pure souls.
I think we can all agree that one of the main things that religions preach is the love of God. We, as His creations, are supposed to love Him with every fiber of our beings. The Bible teaches “love God with your whole mind, body, and soul”…Mahikari repeats this sentiment as do many other religions.
Most religions, as well as Christianity and Mahikari, also preach that God loves all of His creations more than any of us could ever fathom. The love of God is unmatchable. There is nothing stronger, right? I once spoke with a member of Mahikari who said, “Imagine how much you love Kara and multiple that times 100 Billion and that is how much God loves us.” I started thinking about that and came to the conclusion that God must love us all an awful lot. The only problem with this whole theory of perfect love is that all religions stress that if you do not follow their way of life that you will be wiped out or burn in hell.
Is it just me or is there something wrong with that? It seems to me this is a blatant contradiction. God loves us more than we could ever fathom, but if you don’t follow a specific religion He will send you to hell or kill you? Does that sound loving to anyone else? Or does that sound like the Nazi dictatorship of WWII? I love Kara very much, but no matter how angry she made me, or how much she disobeyed me I would never wish eternal damnation on her or harm her in any way. If God could do that to His children then I would have to logically say that I love Kara more than God loves any of us. Spare me the whole God is perfect love, but strict. Strict is an understatement when we are talking about eternal damnation or being cut off from God. When you really love someone you don’t want them to ever hurt or experience pain, no matter what they do to anger you or no matter how many mistakes they make.
I suppose my question is, “Why do all these religions ask that you love God, but then turn around and make Him out to be an unlovable tyrant who takes no prisoners and will wipe out anyone who does not follow His word?” God is perfect? A God who can coldly murder the human beings He created because of technicalities (race, religion, background, not taking appropriate Kenshu classes, etc), pettiness, greed, and jealousy is not a perfect God. There is no arguing this; jealousy, greed, pettiness are not perfect qualities. So why has God been portrayed this way? This brought me to one of three conclusions…
1. If the religious perception of God is true: God is a hypocrite.
2. There is no God.
3. Or God is perfect love and past religious perceptions of Him are incorrect.
I am going to have to believe 3 is the correct answer. I can’t believe God is a hypocrite because if He is He is not worth following, let alone worshipping. I can’t believe that there is no God because I feel His presence. I have to believe that God is pure love. Pure love means that God contains no negative human traits that we carry. The Bible says that God is jealous…that is a human quality and a far from perfect quality. The Goseigen says that God wiped out the Jews because they failed to construct Solomon’s gold covered temple, which is greed and pettiness. So then what can we conclude?
Here’s my theory…fear is the ultimate form of mind control. Fear fills churches not love. Why do I say this? Because it is impossible to love someone and fear them at the same time. I know so many people, but one woman in particular, who went to dojo constantly because she was told she had so many sins and impurities backed up, her misfortune was proof of that, and if she wanted God to forgive her and life to get better she had to erase this negative karma through light. The poor woman must have been scared to death, but that is not the point, the point is why was she coming to dojo? Because she loved God and wanted to serve Him? Or because she was afraid of the repercussions through physical compensation if she didn’t erase negative karma?
Fear renders people paralyzed. It is fear that keeps the battered wife with the abusive husband, fear that prevents the molested child from turning in their perpetrator, fear that keeps people coming to dojo week after week when the fulfillment has gone…Kumite go to dojo for the wrong reason.
Anne, Steve, JeJune, ZT, Lara, Joe, Kit-Kat, Darcy…be honest did you become so adamant about dojo because you loved God? Or because of the fear aspect?
Initially, I am sure it was because you thought Mahikari was going to have a positive impact on the world, but after that, when you realized the most Mahikari did for the world was yoko garden small plots of land…when you got tired of offering light and money only to be asked to offer more, why did you keep going? If you can truly say you went on because you loved God then I give you mad props, but I know I can’t say that. Some of you might not have even wanted to go, like myself, but when my mom said I would suffer physical compensation I made sure I went.
Religions tell their followers that non-believers will meet a tragic end because it keeps their members in submission. They fear what will happen if they leave, so they stay and continue on with their church’s activities. If God is love and is going to love you no matter what you do, no matter how much you screw up…then why go to church, dojo, or mosque? Why not just enjoy life and do whatever you want? That is why those threats are added in…because without them people wouldn’t come to those facilities and donate all their time to these religions/groups/sects/organizations.
Without those fears people are left to live their lives as they see fit.
In the Bible there used to be text about reincarnation, but at the Council of Nicea they were removed. This was because half of Christians believed in reincarnation and the other half believed in one shot. In the end all Bibles were taken and burned and new editions, removing text about reincarnation and adding text about donating money and making 10% ties to churches were added...at the time government ran the churches and all money was flowing back to them…just the way Mahikari money does.
More emphasis was put on sin, the devil, and hell; which is funny to me because the word sin, in ancient Aramaic simply meant to “miss the mark” as if one was shooting a bow and arrow. Not such a bad thing, people make mistakes. The old texts from the Bible have been popping up, but the new Christian church rejects everything that is not currently written in the bible as written by Gnostics (Christians who believe in reincarnation and science mixed with faith over faith alone)…the point I am trying to make is that those things were added in to make people fear…the other aspects about reincarnation were removed because the church knew that if people thought they got second chances they would not be as devoted to the church and donate money.
If you’re a Mahikari member and you are reading this you really need to ask yourself, why do you do the things you do? Is it because you love God? Or because you fear Him? If the answer is the latter, is that the way you want to live your life? Afraid of the wonderful, loving creator who made you? He wants your devotion motivated by love, not your devotion motivated by fear. It’s not a happy way to live, nor a healthy way.
Live life to the fullest, experience, learn, and grow. You can’t do that within the dojo walls. You live how they tell you to live, you experience what they want you to experience, you learn only what they want you to know (unless you pay for more), and you grow as much as they allow. It’s the truth, you must know that. You’re trapped in a bubble, a bubble called Mahikari. When you pop the bubble and finally realize that God loves you so much that He allows you to live as many times as necessary in order to grow and become better…your love grows and overpowers your fear.
To those of you who do not believe in God anymore because Mahikari has done that much damage to your faith, don't worry...you don't have to believe in Him because He believes in you. He knows you have grown from being in Mahikari and it has helped you become more caring, loving, and compassionate individuals, despite the emotional scars it has left. That's the great thing about a truly perfect, loving God; one that is not tainted by money-making religious practices.
Throughout this post I am going to talk about fear and how it has been used throughout history and religion to keep its followers in check. This will talk about religion, but please bear with me and read it because I would like to hear your comments about this matter. I judge no one, but the people who cause emotional damage within these religions and organizations.
I am going to try to keep preaching to a minimal because I know that a lot of you have differing faiths from my own, or you might not have any faith at all, but that is irrelevant. In my faith I believe that God loves everyone, irrespective of their beliefs…if you’re Atheist, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Kumite, Jewish, Gnostic, Agnostic, Witness, Moonie, etc…our lives on earth are merely learning experiences that help us work towards perfecting our souls. We try out different beliefs, races, and backgrounds to learn different things and experiences different prejudices. Hopefully, by the end of it we have become better people with pure souls.
I think we can all agree that one of the main things that religions preach is the love of God. We, as His creations, are supposed to love Him with every fiber of our beings. The Bible teaches “love God with your whole mind, body, and soul”…Mahikari repeats this sentiment as do many other religions.
Most religions, as well as Christianity and Mahikari, also preach that God loves all of His creations more than any of us could ever fathom. The love of God is unmatchable. There is nothing stronger, right? I once spoke with a member of Mahikari who said, “Imagine how much you love Kara and multiple that times 100 Billion and that is how much God loves us.” I started thinking about that and came to the conclusion that God must love us all an awful lot. The only problem with this whole theory of perfect love is that all religions stress that if you do not follow their way of life that you will be wiped out or burn in hell.
Is it just me or is there something wrong with that? It seems to me this is a blatant contradiction. God loves us more than we could ever fathom, but if you don’t follow a specific religion He will send you to hell or kill you? Does that sound loving to anyone else? Or does that sound like the Nazi dictatorship of WWII? I love Kara very much, but no matter how angry she made me, or how much she disobeyed me I would never wish eternal damnation on her or harm her in any way. If God could do that to His children then I would have to logically say that I love Kara more than God loves any of us. Spare me the whole God is perfect love, but strict. Strict is an understatement when we are talking about eternal damnation or being cut off from God. When you really love someone you don’t want them to ever hurt or experience pain, no matter what they do to anger you or no matter how many mistakes they make.
I suppose my question is, “Why do all these religions ask that you love God, but then turn around and make Him out to be an unlovable tyrant who takes no prisoners and will wipe out anyone who does not follow His word?” God is perfect? A God who can coldly murder the human beings He created because of technicalities (race, religion, background, not taking appropriate Kenshu classes, etc), pettiness, greed, and jealousy is not a perfect God. There is no arguing this; jealousy, greed, pettiness are not perfect qualities. So why has God been portrayed this way? This brought me to one of three conclusions…
1. If the religious perception of God is true: God is a hypocrite.
2. There is no God.
3. Or God is perfect love and past religious perceptions of Him are incorrect.
I am going to have to believe 3 is the correct answer. I can’t believe God is a hypocrite because if He is He is not worth following, let alone worshipping. I can’t believe that there is no God because I feel His presence. I have to believe that God is pure love. Pure love means that God contains no negative human traits that we carry. The Bible says that God is jealous…that is a human quality and a far from perfect quality. The Goseigen says that God wiped out the Jews because they failed to construct Solomon’s gold covered temple, which is greed and pettiness. So then what can we conclude?
Here’s my theory…fear is the ultimate form of mind control. Fear fills churches not love. Why do I say this? Because it is impossible to love someone and fear them at the same time. I know so many people, but one woman in particular, who went to dojo constantly because she was told she had so many sins and impurities backed up, her misfortune was proof of that, and if she wanted God to forgive her and life to get better she had to erase this negative karma through light. The poor woman must have been scared to death, but that is not the point, the point is why was she coming to dojo? Because she loved God and wanted to serve Him? Or because she was afraid of the repercussions through physical compensation if she didn’t erase negative karma?
Fear renders people paralyzed. It is fear that keeps the battered wife with the abusive husband, fear that prevents the molested child from turning in their perpetrator, fear that keeps people coming to dojo week after week when the fulfillment has gone…Kumite go to dojo for the wrong reason.
Anne, Steve, JeJune, ZT, Lara, Joe, Kit-Kat, Darcy…be honest did you become so adamant about dojo because you loved God? Or because of the fear aspect?
Initially, I am sure it was because you thought Mahikari was going to have a positive impact on the world, but after that, when you realized the most Mahikari did for the world was yoko garden small plots of land…when you got tired of offering light and money only to be asked to offer more, why did you keep going? If you can truly say you went on because you loved God then I give you mad props, but I know I can’t say that. Some of you might not have even wanted to go, like myself, but when my mom said I would suffer physical compensation I made sure I went.
Religions tell their followers that non-believers will meet a tragic end because it keeps their members in submission. They fear what will happen if they leave, so they stay and continue on with their church’s activities. If God is love and is going to love you no matter what you do, no matter how much you screw up…then why go to church, dojo, or mosque? Why not just enjoy life and do whatever you want? That is why those threats are added in…because without them people wouldn’t come to those facilities and donate all their time to these religions/groups/sects/organizations.
Without those fears people are left to live their lives as they see fit.
In the Bible there used to be text about reincarnation, but at the Council of Nicea they were removed. This was because half of Christians believed in reincarnation and the other half believed in one shot. In the end all Bibles were taken and burned and new editions, removing text about reincarnation and adding text about donating money and making 10% ties to churches were added...at the time government ran the churches and all money was flowing back to them…just the way Mahikari money does.
More emphasis was put on sin, the devil, and hell; which is funny to me because the word sin, in ancient Aramaic simply meant to “miss the mark” as if one was shooting a bow and arrow. Not such a bad thing, people make mistakes. The old texts from the Bible have been popping up, but the new Christian church rejects everything that is not currently written in the bible as written by Gnostics (Christians who believe in reincarnation and science mixed with faith over faith alone)…the point I am trying to make is that those things were added in to make people fear…the other aspects about reincarnation were removed because the church knew that if people thought they got second chances they would not be as devoted to the church and donate money.
If you’re a Mahikari member and you are reading this you really need to ask yourself, why do you do the things you do? Is it because you love God? Or because you fear Him? If the answer is the latter, is that the way you want to live your life? Afraid of the wonderful, loving creator who made you? He wants your devotion motivated by love, not your devotion motivated by fear. It’s not a happy way to live, nor a healthy way.
Live life to the fullest, experience, learn, and grow. You can’t do that within the dojo walls. You live how they tell you to live, you experience what they want you to experience, you learn only what they want you to know (unless you pay for more), and you grow as much as they allow. It’s the truth, you must know that. You’re trapped in a bubble, a bubble called Mahikari. When you pop the bubble and finally realize that God loves you so much that He allows you to live as many times as necessary in order to grow and become better…your love grows and overpowers your fear.
To those of you who do not believe in God anymore because Mahikari has done that much damage to your faith, don't worry...you don't have to believe in Him because He believes in you. He knows you have grown from being in Mahikari and it has helped you become more caring, loving, and compassionate individuals, despite the emotional scars it has left. That's the great thing about a truly perfect, loving God; one that is not tainted by money-making religious practices.
posted by Asher Kennedy at 1:21 PM
3 Comments:
I would have to say that a lot of my actions were prompted by the stories we heard in the dojo about people who had suffered misfortune after leaving. I don't know if they were true, but at the time if Kanbu had told me the sky was falling I would have believed them.
When I was a Tai member...especially after coming back from Tai training...I was so pumped up about the teachings that I think I believed I was doing it all for God...but now that I look back on it I was always keeping track of my divine service, thinking I was securing my place in the next civlization.
My actions were more motivated by whether or not I could go on to be a part of this new holy civilization rather than whether I was pleasing God. As long as I was safe from the Baptism of Fire I didn't care.
When first joined Mahikari…my main focus was not on the spiritual aspect, but on the healing aspect. I have diabetes and have had diabetes my whole life. I was told by the doctor that I would never be able to have children because my kidneys were too weak. I couldn’t adopt because adoption agencies are reluctant to give children to anyone who isn’t 100% healthy. When I joined it was for two reasons
A. My girlfriend was involved and wanted someone to attend with her.
B. She convinced me that I might be able to get well enough to have children through light.
I have one son (Julian) and another child on the way…to be named Braden if it’s a boy or Ashlynn if it is a girl. My kidneys have been able to cope with childbearing, but I don’t attribute that to okiyome as much as I attribute it to me taking care of myself, drinking nothing but water, and eating healthy. Anyway, after a while I got sucked in more and started believing the teachings because okiyome seemed to be working…though the only indication we have of okiyome working is relaxation of the body or pain…not much to base our belief on because I don’t think there are many other ways for the body to feel.
So as you see my motivation wasn’t to please God, merely to get well and suit my own needs. When they started preaching about the other teachings…I started to fear God, not that my Christian upbringing hadn’t already instilled some sort of fear in me, Mahikari made it all the worse because unlike Christianity which says once you believe in Jesus Christ you’re saved…Mahikari said that even Kumite were not safe from the Baptism of Fire if they did not receive enough light and donate enough to show gratitude. So I suppose you’re right…I was either motivated by fear or self-interest.
I bought into it because I was looking to become closer to God. And to do His work. I was told that great miracles would occur and I would have "DIVINE PROTECTION"...well you know how that goes... instead of having the TRUE POWER OF CHRIST, I was given an amulet that CANNOT HEAL BROKEN BONES!...lol There is a great passage in the bible where Jesus casts out a legion of demons into a herd of swine, and they are destroyed. It reminds me that Mahikari had no such Divine Power and makes me think even more than all it does is traffic in dead spirits. I joined to help mankind, not spend all day worrying about the direction ancestors flowers are pointing and whether or not I am pleasing a multiplicity of little gods with their own agendas and tempers.
Post a Comment
<< Home