Thank you Reverend Therese Donlan Lee for entrusting me with assembling this program. Our guest speakers are each one pillars of faith in our wider community.

The Association for Global New Thought (AGNT) has initiated a series of online salons based on various topics. The New Thought on the News salon began in January 2018 and occurs monthly at 5:30 PM Pacific daylight Time. I have found this timely and powerfully engaging.  I have been involved in the New Thought movement for about eight years now and was initially drawn to it by articles written in the local paper by Rev. Justin Epstein, who was the minister at Unity of Hilton Head at that time. Rev. Epstein had deep connections to Hinduism and particularly to the work Paramahansa Yogananda. I had had a long-standing interest in Hinduism. I also had a decades long involvement with interfaith work. After attending his services for a little while it seemed to me that Unity was an ideal faithpath to promote interfaith understanding.

Since my early teens I’ve considered myself an activist, particularly with respect to environmental issues and indigenous rights, and have found it important to keep abreast of the news and issues that most concern me. For much of the time that I have been involved in the New Thought Movement I have encountered resistance to my activist proclivities and my interest in worldly events. A central concept of New Thought is the importance of consciousness in manifesting the world we wish to see. Many long time practitioners of new thought hold that the answer to the problems in the world is through prayer and meditation and that ultimately our task is not to change the world so much as it is to see it rightly. I do agree about the centrality of consciousness in manifested reality, but I also believe that one should stand in their belief and be present as a harbinger of positive alternatives to unsatisfactory circumstances. Only in the last several years have I witnessed stirrings of a different point of view among New Thought adherents. There are now a number of ministries that I am aware of that hold that it is important to remain conscious of what is going on in the world and that when we find ourselves in circumstances where it is appropriate we must stand up and speak out. In fact, last year I attended a marvelous event sponsored by Rev. Darlene Strickland’s Unity of the Blue Ridge with the theme of Our Love Is Power, Standup, Speak Up, Show Up. The choice of Marianne Williamson as a keynote speaker signaled the sincerity of the organizers as change agents.

This New Thought on the News salon is based on the premise that we must attend to the news, to the issues in the world, but that we must interpret them from a New Thought perspective, and not accept the slant that is presented to us by the media, which has a vested interest in exploiting fear and uncertainty in order to sell their products. The moderator of this program is Dr. Barbara Fields who serves as the executive director of AGNT, and who served as program director for the first modern Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1993.

​The inspiration and central reference for this series is a book by Jim Kenney entitled Thriving in the Crosscurrent: Clarity and Hope in a Time of Cultural Sea Change. Mr. Kenney is a longtime friend of Dr. Fields and was global director of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions up to and including the parliament which was held in Barcelona in 2004. There are some preparatory tutorials for this salon based on Mr. Kenney’s book and there are some very useful diagrams provided which clarifies the concepts, click here for links to those materials.

Mr. Kenney presents the central concept of the sea change as having four foundations: interdependence, paradigm shift, cultural evolution, and the emerging global consensus of values. His book is rich with visual intuitions and potent metaphors. Among these, in keeping with the idea of sea change, is the notion of cultural values presenting as waves, and that there are periods of transition, where the wave of old values are descending and the wave of new values are arising, and that, necessarily, this period of transition generates turbulence. One of the key understandings of what we are seeing in the news these days in the strident voices calling for a return to older ways, to fundamentalist values, and the demonization of those involved in the ascendancy of these new values, are the manifestation of this turbulence. A choice metaphor of his is that of the “eddy”, which anyone who has ever spent time in a river is familiar with and uses this apt metaphor for the counter motions observable in the general flow of change. Perhaps the overarching theme of Mr. Kenney’s work is that cultural values are inevitably moving ever upwards and outwards, evolving, as they approach the realities that human culture must face. Although he arrived at this viewpoint independently, he frequently references Steven Pinker’s book The Better Angels of Our Nature which presents a great deal of data supporting this view.

A prime example of this evolution of cultural values is the institution of chattel slavery, which was universally accepted and defended well into the 19th century, it is now generally recognized that slavery is everywhere and always wrong. Another example is patriarchy, which since the 1960s has rapidly diminished in its scope and power. All of which is not to say that these problems have ended, but that they are rapidly moving out of the realm of issues of central concern. Another key point that Mr. Kenney presents is that although this cultural evolution continually trends upward in the history of our shared world, there are times when this evolution is greatly accelerated. He posits, and I agree, that we are living in just such a time.

Regarding the salons themselves, the general format includes an introduction by Dr. Fields of this month’s topic, introductions to guest speakers by cohost Stephen Pope, a recap of the foundational perspectives by Mr. Kenney, followed by presentations and responses by guest speakers and the hosts. The salons are presented via Zoom and those watching the live presentation have the opportunity to chime in and express themselves on the various points presented. Guest speakers have included such luminaries in the New Thought Movement as Dr. David Alexander, Rev. Temple Hayes, Rev. Kevin Ross, Dr. Kenn Gordon thus far; and scheduled for upcoming salons are Dr. David Goldberg, Dr. Roger Teal, and Dr. Michael Beckwith. Click for bios of these and other leaders in AGNT.
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I am deeply grateful for this initiative by the AGNT which is both timely, deeply engaging and very energizing. I wholeheartedly recommend this salon to readers of this post and suggest that they check out the other salons made available by the AGNT. Click to view previous sessions of the New Thought on the News solons.
 

Unity of Hilton Head held its second annual Interfaith Harmony service in alignment with Governor Henry McMaster's proclamation of January as South Carolina's Interfaith Harmony Month. Among the faiths celebrated were Bahá’í, Islam, Judaism, Native American, New Thought, and Taoism. Here below 21 slides each of which have a Time Stamp in upper left hand corner if you would like to quickly navigate to that segment of the video which was made from the audio and these slides. Here's the link to the video: Unity of Hilton Head Interfaith Harmony Service.

​I did not come to Unity, the denomination of New Thought religion I identify with, by way of Christianity, I was attracted to the byline “one God many paths”. Although I had been raised in a Christian home I had difficulty with many of the ideas and stories in the Bible from a very early age and left the church of my family by the time I was twelve. Most of the difficulties that I had with the Bible, came from the Old Testament with all of its smoting, vengeance and warfare and most especially with the book of Job. The idea that God could allow such suffering in pursuit of winning a bet with the Devil was mortifying. As I began to explore Unity, which describes itself as a school of “Practical Christianity” I focused on the New Testament, particularly the teachings of our way-shower Jesus. Five years ago I took an SEE (Spiritual Enrichment and Education) course on prayer which used as its text “How to Pray Without Talking To God” by Rev. Linda Martella-Whitsett and decided at that point to pursue becoming an LUT (Licensed Unity Teacher) which involved taking twenty-five, ten hour courses among other requirements. Last year I took the SEE course on the metaphysical interpretation of the Bible and I finished with a much deeper appreciation for this sacred text as well as a higher tolerance for those elements which on a literal level I found abhorrent. Just this past month I completed the last of those twenty-five course with the on the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament.
 
My teacher and guide in this course on the Hebrew Bible assigned as part of our learning materials a series of YouTube videos on the books of the Hebrew Bible that were simply astounding. In introducing what it was they had in mind doing their work on the Bible Project, the content creators made the point very clearly and reiterated it often, that the Bible forms a single book, a single story with many elements and is filled with a number of literary devices, symbols and teaching techniques. This was an eye-opener for me in that of course I knew that most Bible-based believers would make this claim but these folks backed it up with some very clear analysis. The reason this is so important to me is that through this lens I began to understand something which had perplexed me for a long time in my interfaith work regarding what Muslims would call “the People of the Book”. Certainly we understand that the Bible is shared in part by three religions. The first five books which comprise the Torah are the central Scriptures of the Jewish faith. The rest of the Old Testament is important in part or in whole to most if not all Jews. Part of the difficulty between Jews and Christians has been that the Jews often do not regard the New Testament as an extension of their sacred text. As I understand it some of them do accept Jesus as a prophet while not considering him the Messiah they had long been, and still are looking for.
 
All of this came into focus again for me while at a presentation by a Muslim on his faith as part of an Interfaith Harmony monthly series at Pastor Jack Bomar’s United Church in Beaufort, SC. I am not enough of an expert on Islam to be able to verify in any way the things he said but I was struck by a claim he made that Islam was not considered a new religion by Muslims, but rather an extension of and a re-focued approach to the Bible as a whole as Scripture. In his understanding the prophet Mohammed was just that, another prophet of God, and he was quick to point out that the Koran mentions Jesus, whom they revere as a Prophet, many more times than it mentions Mohammed himself. In fact Jesus has his own book in the Koran as does Jesus’ mother Mary. He pointed out that in almost all ways Muslims and Christians agree on who Jesus was and is, including that he had a miraculous birth. However as with their Jewish cousins, Muslims do not see Jesus as the Messiah and most specifically they do not see Jesus as God incarnated on earth.
 
I must confess that as a young hippie I was exposed to a lot of born-again Christians and their very clear-cut and dogmatic view of the world, particularly their notion of being “saved”. I found it deeply offensive. Fast-forward a number of years to where I am now, as a Truth Unity student, and also heavily involved in the interfaith movement. Through some life circumstance as well as my efforts to reach out I am now breaking bread with and trying to reach common ground, with my fundamentalist Christian brethren (correct choice of word in that this is primarily through a Men’s breakfast group). I’ve always seen fundamentalism as a reactionary movement, partly driven by fear and partly seen as a radical solution to the problem of evil we see in the world today.
 
One of the very great gifts I have received in this SEE course on the Hebrew Bible, particularly in reading the books of the prophets, is to see that this is a very old trend. Throughout the entire history of the sacred text we call the Bible there have been those who would see that the culture they were living in had divorced itself from the spiritual principles which it was taught and that the consequence of this split would inevitably be some kind of a disaster as punishment for these sins. As a side note Unity emphasizes the Latin root of the word “sin” as an archery term meaning merely “to miss the mark” and does not encourage people to fear bolts of lightning from an angry god for such transgressions.
 
The Old Testament prophets pointed out three ways in which “wickedness” was manifest, firstly the worship of false gods, and this included Mammon, my understanding of which was a God to whom you would appeal for money and power. Secondly was the abuse and exploitation of the poor, and thirdly the descent into unbridled sensuality including such things as drunkenness, and debauchery and the indulgence in feasts of rich and exotic foods, etc. All of these things lead humankind away from its spiritual roots, and as always there are consequences for losing sight of our true source and nature. After calling out the people on the ways in which they had moved away from their God they generally continued their prophecy with often very explicit out-picturings of the catastrophes coming, such things as being conquered by Babylon or plagues of disease and vermin. Seeing this so clearly in the Old Testament has helped me to understand the fundamentalist Christian in a way that’s not just dismissively seeing them as reactionaries, bound by fear, but in fact part of a long lineage of the visionaries and doomsayers who see themselves as continuing this tradition. This is related in a way to the Christian understanding of the New Testament being a continuation of the story of God’s relation with humankind in history.
 
This line of understanding I think is crucial in coming to grips with fundamentalist Islam. I want to be quick to note that the vast majority of the two billion Muslims that inhabit this earth are peaceful, have a desire to be good in the sight of God and to serve their fellow man. But just as fundamentalist Jews were behind the crucifixion of Jesus, and fundamentalist Christians were behind the Spanish Inquisition and the genocide of nine-tenths of the population of the New World, Islamic fundamentalists are capable of great violence in their quest to purify the world. Their mission is to deal with evil and violence in the world, no matter how paradoxical their methods may seem. Among the things that the prophets were concerned with was with the breaking of the covenants with their God and with the use of lying and cheating as means of amassing wealth and control. In just this way fundamentalist Islam sees Christianity as being a very hypocritical and evil outworking of the principles in “the Book”.

Many people do not know that on the opening page of the official ISIS website is mention of the Sykes-Picot agreement, a secret treaty entered into by France and Great Britain in 1916 to divide up all of the Islamic former territories of Turkey between themselves. The most explicit avowed goal of ISIS is to overturn Sykes-Picot. This crucial fact is something I never see mentioned in western media when talking about radical Islamic terroism. Anyone who has seen Peter O’Toole’s great film Lawrence of Arabia knows that this Colonel T. E. Lawrence had been charged by the British government to build an insurrection army to defeat the Turks (which he did most successfully) and that he had been authorized by his government to assure the Arabs that they would be rewarded with home rule in their various lands. From ISIS and Al Qaeda's perspectives, and even from those of non-radicalized Muslims, this great betrayal was clearly a ruse to gain control of and to exploit the peoples of these lands. Certainly the extraction and export of petroleum for almost the sole benefit of the West confirmed their darkest fears.
 
Many of those Islamic fundamentalist Imams see themselves as legitimate heirs to the tradition of the prophets of the Old Testament. Not only are they quick to point out the iniquities (in most cases the very same iniquities of those of Old Testament times) but to prophesy the inevitable outcome of the “wickedness” of the West. Beyond the grievances I’ve outlined is the outrage of the more conservative members of these cultures when confronted with the Western values that are portrayed in motion pictures and in advertisements for consumer products. This includes the blatant sexuality, the gratuitous violence, the un-tempered extravagances of the very wealthy, and in the clear, unmistakable exploitation of the poor and of the land, the Earth itself, for the profit of the very few. I have no doubt that this understanding they have of the continuity of the story of the peoples of “the Book” could go a long way towards fostering understanding between one another. It could be the basis of much needed dialogue amongst these peoples, who between them (Christian, Muslim and Jew) comprise nearly two-thirds of all the believers alive today on earth.
 
With my opening paragraph confession about my reservations and reluctance to invest time in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, it might seem as logical, perhaps inevitable that this class on the Hebrew Bible ended up being my last SEE course, and certainly that is a factor. But I have come to believe in the Divine manifesting in my life through perfect timing. I am deeply grateful that it was my last class in this course of study. Even as recently as a week before I heard that young man speak with such conviction about his Islamic faith, I would not have been ready for the great gifts that have come to me through this study. The term “The Peoples of the Book” came from the Prophet Mohammed and was used in part to justify special treatment, exclusion from taxes for one, not afforded to the Pagans which were a majority in these lands at that time.  My hope and prayer is that this understanding may become a basis for defusing the great dangers that radicalized monotheists pose for our shared world.

CommUnity Newsletter is a publication service of Unity of Hilton Head and serves seven Unity Church/Centers, five in South Carolina, one in Georgia and one in North Carolina. As the editor/designer of this publication I dedicate two pages of each issue to Interfaith news and commentary. I'll add them as they come out. Click on image to open each issue, these files are largish and may take a minute or so to open.​