The Path Ministry

  Topic: Recommended Reading: A Creed for the Third Millennium Today we are reviewing one of my favorite novels, A Creed for the Third Millennium by Colleen McCullough, published 1985. There are a couple of themes in this book that I want to discuss. First, we will talk about the difference between religion and faith and the space we make for both of these concepts in our lives. There is a second, more subtle lesson, as well. This book is set in a dystopian future where, instead of global warming, there is a significant drop in temperature. Glaciers are advancing from the poles and the growing season of all major food crops is substantially shorter. An international treaty has been signed that includes a universal one-child policy, among other things. The people living in this dismal world have lost all hope in the future, for good reason. Judith Carriol works for the government, in the Department of the Environment. She is tasked by the President with finding somebody, one p...

  Topic: Recommended Reading: Stranger in a Strange Land   Today we are talking about the novel Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein, published 1961, and the statement contained within it, which also hangs on the wall here in the Temple of the Path: “All that groks is god.”   This book is about Valentine Michael Smith, one of the Patron Saints of the Path. He was born on Mars, raised by Martians when his parents died, and brought to Earth at the age of twenty-five. He starts out as a rather naïve and trusting young man, but he learns and grows throughout the story as he is introduced to new people and new ideas . Eventually, he becomes an ordained minister, preaching a message of love and acceptance, of sharing yourself with others. Like most messiah characters, he dies at the end, but you do get to find out what happens to him afterwards. One of the things he teaches his followers is that “all that groks is god.”   The word “grok” in the book literall...

Topic: Rabbits in Myth and Legend Today is Easter Sunday, it is the Year of the Rabbit, and we are currently discussing stories. So today we are going to be talking about the Rabbit or Hare as a character in myths and legends from around the world. There are few animals that have inspired as many tales as the Rabbit. A culture hero in some traditions, a god in others, sometimes wise and sometimes not so much, the Rabbit can be found in folklore everywhere that humans and rabbits have co-existed. The Cherokee, Creek, Alabama, and Yuchi tribes view the rabbit as a Trickster archetype. In some stories, it was the Trickster Rabbit who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the denizens of Earth. (As an interesting side note, this particular story -of a trickster who stole fire from the gods and gifted it to mortals- can be found in multiple cultures. My hypothesis about this is that the domestication of fire was a universal game-changer, so much so that it seemed divine in origin.) ...

  Topic: Recommended Reading-Wicked Today we will be talking about the novel Wicked, by Gregory Maguire, published 1995, which is a rather clever retelling of The Wizard of Oz from another perspective. Wicked tells the story of Elphaba, marked as different from birth with her green skin and sharp teeth, who grows up to become the Wicked Witch of the West. She is written as a sympathetic character who devotes her life to fighting on behalf of the oppressed and downtrodden, only to be the victim of political assassination at the hands of a clueless patsy. The Wizard in this novel wants to get rid of Elphaba and get his hands on her book of spells so that he may solidify his position as supreme ruler of Oz. He only sends Dorothy on this errand because he is pretty sure she will fail and the Witch will kill her, and then he will not have to figure out how to get her home. The first thing this book teaches us is that there is always more than one side to a given story. In the film...

  Topic: Giving Money to Broke People I am, by nature, a very generous person. Some of you already know this. Not only do I give and lend money to my friends and family, I also donate to charities and even give money to people begging on the sidewalk. Now, there is a school of thought that you should never give money to broke people, because they might spend it on something you disapprove of. I have been advised instead to go buy them food. Let me explain the problems with that, and why I will continue to give money to poor people. First of all, there are very few things of which I genuinely disapprove, and then only mildly. I would never judge or condemn somebody for doing those things, even though I personally find them distasteful and would prefer not to do them myself. Opiate painkillers are a good example: I know they are addictive and can be dangerous, so I turn to other pain relief methods. But if others are suffering such pain that they need those drugs, it is not my pl...

For those who follow my weblog but not my Facebook page, the Book of the Path is now published on Amazon:.  The Book of the Path

  Topic: Recommended Reading: The Stand Before we get into today’s sermon, I want to offer a brief explanation as to why most of the books on the recommended reading list are works of fiction. I believe that the stories we tell one another can contain valuable lessons. I also believe that, because they are hidden inside stories, those lessons will often make their way past our ordinary defenses against unfamiliar ideas. We learn from reading stories, whether we realize it at the time or not, and the stories we read can have an affect on our worldview. They also give us the opportunity to imagine what it may be like to be a different person, which is good for our Compassion and Patience. As I read and learn, I will add books to the next year’s list of Recommended Reading. Some of them will be fiction, some will be nonfiction. None of them will be required reading, but we will be talking about them and the ideas they inspire. We will talk about some books more than once, includ...