The Path Ministry

Core Tenet #4 & Scientific Literacy Today we are talking about Core Tenet #4 regarding scientific literacy and how it applies to two topics that are often misunderstood by the average layperson: the distinction between sex and gender, and genetically modified organisms. GMO’s are actually everywhere. Unless you somehow own a tame wolf, coyote, or fox, your dog is a genetically modified organism. The strawberries you find in the store, unless they were picked wild, are genetically modified organisms. Oranges and most other citrus fruit are the result of thousands of years of genetic modification. Bananas were barely edible before human intervention created the berry (yes, bananas are berries) we know and love today. Prior to its domestication and modification, corn would have about ten kernels per ear. If we really had to label foods that do not occur “naturally” as a “GMO” you would have to stamp half the produce department. It is called “selective breeding” and we have been do...

  How to be an Antiracist, Part Two This week we are revisiting a book we have discussed before: How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. We are going to be unpacking a couple more ideas from the book and delve into them a little; we will talk about current racism as well as the history of racism in America and how it continues to hurt our brothers and sisters of all different colors. One of the worst things about growing up in a redneck state full of white supremacists is that I never had the pleasue of meeting and making friends with people from diverse backgrounds. Everyone I went to high school with was either white or Latinx, all the white kids were members of the same Mormon church and grew up together, and most of the Latinx kids went to the Catholic church and kept to themselves. Because of all of this, I am able to really see modern American racism for the first time in my life. It is ugly, and it is beneath those of us who choose to walk the Path.  Having a Black...

  September 17, 2023 Integrity & Self-Reflection The topic of this sermon is a quote from Aristotle and its relevance to practicing the Virtue of Integrity: “The most important relationship we can all have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. To know yourself, you must spend time with yourself, you must not be afraid to be alone. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” I lived alone for the first time at the age of forty-two. Until then, I lived with people: family at first, with four siblings plus my parents, and then there were romantic partners, some of which became spouses, and various housemates. Because I did not know what it would be like, I was afraid of being alone. Eventually, I was kind of shoved into a position of living on my own, and during that time, I learned a great deal about myself that I never would have learned otherwise. I recommend spending some time in solitude and self-ref...

  The Body and the Soul Some time ago, during one of our more philosophical conversations, my daughter, our own Deanna, reminded me of a statement I have seen online: “You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” This idea fits well with Path doctrine regarding bodily autonomy. Core Tenet #3 tells us that our bodies belong to us, as vessels for our true Selves, and what we choose to do with them is our own business. This quote has often been misattributed to C.S. Lewis, but the idea that your Self resides in your spirit rather than your physical incarnation has been around for hundreds of years. One of the first and possibly clearest iterations of this idea came from a paper written by Rev. Dr. R. Thornton in October of 1881. He wrote: “ We should have taught more carefully than we have done, not that men are bodies and have souls, but that they are souls and have bodies. ” It was denounced as a Spiritualistic idea, not a Christian one, but the Path is a Spiritua...

In Memoriam: Doloris Rae Rowe Aldous November 11, 1950 to August 25, 2023 Our beloved mother shed her mortal shell at around nine in the morning on Friday, August 25, at her home in Mountain Home, Idaho. She was diagnosed with kidney cancer in the spring of 2022 and fought it for a long time, but it eventually spread throughout her body until it took her life. Doloris was born at home in Thornton, Idaho on November 11, 1950 to Doris and Tom Rowe. Of the ten children born to her parents, eight survived to adulthood, and Doloris was the fifth. The family lived in Thornton until Mama was eight, when they moved to Blackfoot. On November 10, 1973, about one month after her father passed away of a massive heart attack, she married our father, Myles, and they went on to have five children. She graduated from Blackfoot High School in 1969 and earned an associate degree in business management from the University of Phoenix when she was in her sixties. Her first job was driving a potato tr...