A while back on a Sunday quite on accident, I caught a moment or two of Jerry Prevo’s televised sermon. He was mentioning noteworthy women, asking them to stand up and accept applause for their deeds as they had done some deed to his church. The very notion of naming a church irritates me, and in the midst of his sermon was fear. I caught it when he said that “Through acts of kindness we find assurance in his grace” Since these little rants are where I take the liberty of voicing my personal opinion, or forcing it upon you - pick one. I have to tell you that this kind of thinking pisses me off. Just like the phrase, 'Careful what you wish for' bugs me, too. The problem is NOT whether we DO or DO NOT get what we ask for; the problem is that we think we really know what we need and sadder yet, we think that HOW we ask for it makes a difference. Hidden beneath all these carefully worded intentions and wishes lies a message, “The Universe (God, The Divine, etc) is out to get me and if I'm careful enough and put the right clause at the end of my request, and I dot all my I's and Cross all my T's and wear the right crystal or light the right candle, or make the right donation I just might get it.'”

The tragic offshoot of most ogranized religion is the Fear of God factor. Most of us give lip service to the idea of a loving presence but live our lives as if this presence is an egomaniacal professor, proofreading our work and issuing grades on our life. I am guilty too with my hell in hand basket joke! Just look around, we do it with everything. Look at how many of you Fear the Mercury Retrograde for the exact same reasons, or slap around the word Karma like it is some sort of retribution curse. Everything that happens, we find a cause; we seek someone or something to blame. I do it, you do it, and we all do it because it's what we do. We chose to blame it on “Human Nature” when in truth it’s Human Nurture that breeds this sort of thought. I'm certainly not saying that we don't need help (most certainly we do), but it's not going to come from the very mind that created all this fear, it's got to come from somewhere else; we've got to have access outside of our own fearful thinking.

I frequently get into discussions with individuals with regard to their beliefs. I’m constantly “seeking” if you will. I joke that I’ve made religion my personal science project. A comment that is sure to tick off just about any born again of anything. I am a believer; of course I’m spiritual of course! I believe more perhaps than anyone in a higher source of energy, my eyes are open to the manifestation of a higher power at all times. The religious person is not generally a student. The religionist seeks mostly to worship, to bow down before an immense deity and supplicate their way to some paradise. The spiritual seeker on the other hand is not merely looking to worship, they are looking to bond; seeking that which many religions have in their teachings but have forgotten about - to be one with the Creator or higher form. For that end being a thrall (mindless slave), bowed down in frightful worship accomplishes nothing. Again, information and application are the keys.

The seeker is a student and is not making a commitment to a "faith". He has the leeway to take teachings from a particular source and when he thinks he's learned what they feel is enough, they are able to integrate what they have learned with other teachings. After saying "Thank you for bringing me this far", the seeker again searches for new teachings. It's that simple. People are like computers; the programming that will work for one brand won't work for another. In this instance the seeker is writing his own program from scratch, not just down loading someone else's programming into his mind. In a way a seeker makes a commitment to their soul to reach a higher plane no matter what the educational burden.

I recently completed reading The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired to Our Genes where Hamer discusses that its actually coded into our DNA to “seek” faith, and we have a predisposition to be attracted to this believed higher power. Hamer states that, "Self-transcendence provides a numerical measure of people's capacity to reach out beyond themselves—to see everything in the world as part of one great totality. If I were to describe it in a single word, it might be 'at-one-ness.'" So this dude has formulated a way to test your DNA for how spiritual you can be? Wow huh?

So perhaps I am doing what I try not to do and “judging” but to the credit of those that judge (and don’t’ fool yourself we all judge) at least perhaps once a judgment is made you also exercise your acceptance, and then forgiveness. In the defense of all both seekers and religionists – it is their path in this life, it does not mean your path or mine is better or worse, perhaps they are where they are to help you learn a lesson to move on to where you need to be.