Actual Christianity

Merry Christmas To All My Readers,

I sincerely hope my readers did your best to not play a role in this enormous commercial and capitalist holiday called Christmas that is dressed up as a celebration of a spiritual teacher who repeatedly emphasized that we should let go of all attachments including money. It is remarkable that there isn’t a larger effort from Christians to disassociate Jesus from the holiday celebrating materialism and attachments. They are so diametrically opposed that objectively speaking they should have nothing to do with each other. I know it’s not easy but it’s a habit that needs to be broken by anyone claiming this faith/ideology.

An authentic day that is faithfully celebrating Jesus would be a day where we all collectively as humans, call someone we’ve long held grievances with to make peace with them, telling them we forgive them, to tell someone you love them and appreciate them, to give to a poor person who needs help, to sincerely accept your unity and oneness with all humanity, surrendering to the holy spirit for guidance…. not giving a PS5 to someone. Objectively speaking, the first several examples are more in line with what Jesus taught, not the latter example which does not fulfill any of Jesus’ teachings. If we were to re-associate the practices/trends currently performed on Christmas day to different days, it should instead be July 4th. July 4th perfectly encapsulates both this country and everything this country stands for which is capitalist and materialistic by every metric. This should be the day these sorts of traditions take place.

This would be a great opportunity and prompt for Christians to reflect on how faithful they are to these teachings as well. It would allow many to see in very public fashion who among us is hesitating or outright refusing to follow Jesus instructions to forgive, to accept others as one with us, or to give to those who are suffering. If those traditions are refused, then it would be an important moment of introspection for Christians to help them realize how well they’ve been doing upholding the practices of the faith they so proudly boast as part of their identity.

Despite what mainstream Christianity teaches, what makes you a faithful follower of Jesus and his teachings is not proclaiming that you love him or declare him your lord and savior, which for many falls into lip service. It is whether you follow his very clear and explicit set of directions so that one can trigger a spiritual ascension to a higher consciousness referred to as heaven, and metaphorically referred to as the “kingdom of god” within all of us. It would be incredible if every December 25th, we had an enormous swath of the population experiencing this spiritual awakening by following his very easy small set of instructions. I assure you this would be better than whatever new Playstation is released.

That being said, ideally this is also something that should be happening every Sunday in Church.. This is a topic I’ve touched on briefly in the past, but Christian/Gospel music should be an unstoppable artistic force, guiding entire congregations toward spiritual ascension every Sunday by weaving metaphysical insights, steps and the core teachings of Jesus into songs. Instead, what I’ve witnessed in church throughout my life is a repetitive variation emphasizing “I love Jesus!” or “He is my lord and savior!” without reinforcing the deeper spiritual truths and practices he actually pointed his followers toward. I rarely hear Gospel lyrics that remind people to announce in their consciousness that they are one with all other humans (their brothers and sisters), to remind people to make peace and forgive others, or to invoke the holy spirit directly for guidance in their lives, which is unfortunate. Gospel music that is truly aligned and in tune with what Jesus taught would never be focused on the worship and praise of Jesus because this is not something Jesus ever asked for. In fact it would have tagged him immediately as a narcissist if he did.

It should also be noted that not only did Jesus not accept or declare himself as God, but when he was excitedly embraced and worshiped by his newfound fan base during his life, he shut this down immediately due to the level of excitement and unsolicited worship he was receiving from students whose lives he transformed. After receiving any praise or worship he would humbly tell them ‘Why do you call me Good? Only God is Good” not only emphasizing that he should not be worshiped but that praise should be redirected towards the correct direction.

Worship and praise of Jesus is purely the byproduct of the institutionalization of Jesus and his teachings into a formal organized religion, as well as the upgrading of his state from an enlightened teacher into God despite never claiming to be God himself, as he often made the distinction between himself and God frequently.

Authentic gospel music would be reiterating and reemphasizing the teachings of Jesus in lyrics, such as loving others, forgiving others, yielding to the Holy Spirit, relinquishing all control, thanking and worshiping our source/father, taking care of the least among us, accepting our oneness with all our brothers/sisters.. etc. Let’s see some gospel music that repeatedly reinforces in the minds of all who sing that we are all one and we are all brothers/sisters not just neighbors. A pop gospel song with lyrics that asked the Holy Spirit to make all illusions of separation between all of us evaporate. “I accept my unity with all my neighbors, we are family”

I’ve touched on numerous topics this Christmas article but the TLDR is:

• Make Jesus Day (Christmas) the day we all collectively as a species perform his teachings no matter how hard they may be. Any push back to forgive is your ego, that includes forgiving someone who hurt you. You should have no beefs or grievances by the end of December 25th.
• Move all the materialistic practices currently practiced on Christmas to July 4th, the day symbolizing our country the best. I’m being slightly tongue in cheek here but the point is this. If those sort of things are going to happen, they shouldn’t be happening on a day that completely contradicts what Jesus taught. It’s a tad ironic that people get livid and indignant about terms like ‘Happy Holidays’ being floated around in December, but aren’t even engaging in the very practices he taught.
• There needs to be a shift in Christian music as a whole from lyrics that currently focus on worship of Jesus, to instead worshiping God the Father as he instructed, while also reinforcing the ideas that he taught.. Forgiving others, invoking the holy spirit, celebrating and accepting unity with others even those who aren’t exactly like us, relinquishing all control to our father and source, etc. The list goes on. This will not only reinforce the ideas that Jesus taught in the minds of Christians everywhere but it will help them practice them. There is certainly a shortage of modern Christian pastors that spend a lot of time teaching those same ideas to their parishioners.. It is either politics or spending time worshiping Jesus which he did not instruct or command
• Mainstream Christianity has done such a good deviating Christians from the actual teachings of Jesus that they think that Jesus taught them to worship him, when he never made such a claim, in fact he explicitly deflected that worship as soon as it was received, which truly solidified him as someone who was egoless and one with all. An achievement that all can experience including yourself, as the experience of being “one with god” was not exclusive to him but is attained the moment you awaken to oneness with the universe, aka heaven, enlightenment, or any of the numerous names given to this very real metaphysical experience in which you completely transcend your ego. The fact that the topic of spiritual awakening and terms like ego are rarely heard in Modern Christianity is a testament to the fact that they are completely disconnected to what Jesus taught. As Jesus was always teaching all of us how to transcend and awaken from our egos. To experience that euphoric bliss of an egoless existence now, not when we die despite what your favorite minister has incorrectly taught you. These very real teachings and consequences of his teachings are what now get dismissed as new age or mysticism in modern Christianity which just further illustrates that Christianity in its current form has little to nothing to do with Jesus. We can change that folks. Let go of all religion, all religious affiliations, accept the fact that we are all one, not separated by artificial man made labels/factions, etc. A true follower of Jesus lets go of religious labeling and instead chooses to just follow the teachings/practices he laid out. Our egos desperately want to feel like we are part of some unique club that separates us from others but we are not separate from others. We are all in fact literally one. This realization will hopefully shut down any political movements that seek to separate and draw borders between ourselves and others. For a country whose Christians claim this is a Christian state, they cannot say this while also endorsing political policies that push out people who aren’t exactly like them, which unequivocally violate the most basic teachings of Jesus.
  
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