The Camerado Chronicles -- Part One -- Chapter VII

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15 June
I-70 west thru Land of Lincoln

"It takes a living savior to save a dying world." --decal on the
back of a truck that passed me outside Effingham

I guess the gloves came off last night, to use a hockey metaphor.
If so, my intention today is to put them back on and play nice again.
Very soon I intend to leave all the contentiousness behind so this
discussion can get into truer, more ethereal places. I don't like to
make my point by bashing someone else's, and I'm uncomfortable
with the amount of space I have spent doing that.

But I do think it was necessary. For one, mainstream Christianity
needs to be able to take what they dish out, and they've dished out
enough rejectionof the rest of the spiritual world to fill many, many
notebooks (there are literally shelves of books at the typical Christian
bookstore explaining --always in Biblical terms-- why everyone else
has it all wrong, and what a good little evangelist can say to "reach" a
Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Taoist et al). For another: as Phillip Yancey's reaction at the end of the passage I transcribed yesterday
suggests, the counterpoint to Christian world supremacy raises some interesting questions, ones that I see thoughtful Christians
grappling with, primarily in their literature. I'm serious --if your exposure to Christianity leaves you with the impression that these are
people who think they have it all figured out, and you're curious enough to spend time finding out otherwise, check out Yancey's Soul
Survivor and Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. You may not agree with all their conclusions --which are still typically from the Biblian
perspective-- but their frankness and inquisitiveness is refreshing.

I think there are a lot of people like that in today's churches. The human need to be "right" at the expense of someone else's "wrong"
is hardwired into our minds, which can only see things dualistically. To use the Gospel's own symbolism, it is the heart that comes to
comprehend God's truth, which is not dualistic and therefore does not depend on someone else's "God's truth" being false. Plumb the
depths of their words, beyond the realm of the mind and into the heart, and I assure you that all the Gospels of the world are the
same Truth spelled differently.

I sincerely believe there are many Christians in the churches of today who would understand and believe this, if they knew it were an
option that does not reject Christ, if they knew that they could go deeper in their faith if they put down their Bibles for just a moment
and look beyond. Look into the Word of God beyond.

I have to imagine something very exciting would happen if Christians everywhere did that; the "American church today" that Phillip
Yancey's Indian cohort was complaining about would become a very different place.

But would the church be receptive? By that I mean the leadership, the shepherds of today's flock. What if the "Word" got out? What
if we all found out that the Truth of God is accessible to anyone, anywhere, at anytime? That it is immediate (without a medium)
and does not require someone to stand over you with a thick wooden ruler to measure your faith...or rap your knuckles when you do
something wrong?

Isn't that exactly what the Reformation was all about? The Protestants told us the Truth of God is accessible to everyone --through
the Bible. You have to understand what a revolutionary idea that was at the time, and why the Roman Catholic Church fought so
hard to squash it. The Reformation was a threat to the Vatican's absolute control over the spiritual lives of medieval Europe; for a
time, in some places, the Reformation was very successful at liberating the people's spirit from what amounted to a massive,
international "state church."

But the classic problem with "re-forming" corrupt institutions is that the new form becomes comfortable in power, then bureaucratic,
then dogmatic, and then corrupt just like its predecessor. When the two pigs in Orwell's Animal Farm, Snowball and Napoleon, finally
gained control of the farm, they moved into the farmhouse and started acting just like the human oppressors they deposed, smoking
cigars and playing cards or whatever the hell it was they did. The points is, power corrupts churches just as it does governments,
and in the 21st century we are generally too savvy to miss that or ignore it. You say today's Bible-believing churches don't covet
power like the pre-Reformation Vatican? Maybe not, and definitely not in such an overt, centralized manner, but look at the political
agenda most of them support, and tell me the leaders of these churches didn't want to see all of us living under their interpretation of
Christian law. Like Snowball and Napoleon, the Christian leaders of today are the Pharisees of yesterday.

But I don't think another Reformation is what the American church needs --I think what I'm calling for is more like a
de-formation. The modern Western Orthodox church says, "It's not about religion, it's about a personal relationship with Christ"--
then goes on to tell you exactly what that "personal" relationship is all about.

Poppycock. I want to see that church based on spiritual relationship actually come to fruition. I say we need Christians who are
interested in hearing what an old Hindu ascetic and liberator of the oppressed has to say about Christ, and possibly even give it some
credence over a TV evangelist who's done nothing but get fat and make money. We need a Christian who will sit down with a Jew,
break bread together and honor God, each in her own way, in loving communion with each other. We need a Christian who will say,
"Yes pastor, I know that's what the Bible says, but with all due respect sir, that offends my deepest convictions about who Christ is
in my life and what He tells me about other people, so I am choosing not to align myself with that philosophy." We need a Christian
whom, regardless of his personal feelings about homosexuality, will befriend an ostracized gay man in his community, and when his
Christian friends, aghast, ask why, he says, "Because Christ in me recognizes and honors Christ in him." This is the Christian
church I envision, and I believe the principles inherent in Christotheism can help bring this about, one person at a time.

And I don't believe in this because I think it can "save the world"--and it's debatable whether or not, as that truck today suggested,
this is a "dying world;" if you ask me, the only thing that's dying is our bodies, and ain't nothin' gonna save those!

I believe it because the Word of God has been telling me this, in varying pitches and volumes, for almost 12 years. I've just begun to
learn how to use the fine tuning knob on my "Word processor" to be able to give verbal expression to these incoming messages, but
the messages have been there all along. When I think about expressing this kind of Christianity, I feel exactly as I described the
experience of the Word of God a few chapters ago, and that's all the validation I need. This is just my "open road." Yours will be
different; maybe similar, or maybe completely different. All I can say, dear reader, is if you feel you've been stuck in a room too long
(as I was for most of those 12 years), please, seek out that open road and take it, take it!

* * * *

Crossed Ol’ Man River again today into St. Loo; first Krispy Kremes of this tour followed shortly thereafter in southwest ‘burbs (they
didn’t really do much for me actually; maybe I’m getting past the addiction). Also came to realization that I was in Waffle House
country again, first time in almost two years. I know what’s for breakfast tomorrow, sho ‘nuff.

Here on I-44, traversing the northern foothills of the Ozarks, there is an interesting
war going on between adult bookstores and Christian organizations. In several
places since entering rural Missouri, there have been very high profile billboards
advertising stores that sell adult books and videos, including one that looked like a
whole wild West movie façade, “Big Louie’s,” with a saloon called "Purgatory".
And at every one of these locations, plus some in between, there is an accom-
panying billboard –sometimes in oddly intimate proximity—that has a message
like “Pornography Hurts Families” or “Pornography Victimizes Women and
Children –Take a Stand for Jesus Christ” etc. They are all sponsored by various
groups like Christians For Decency or Pulaski County Missionary Alliance.
Nobody can stop and get a porno along I-44 without being exposed to one of
these messages.

I actually agree with the Christians here, and it comes from personal experience.
Pornography has done little to help gender relations in our society, and it has done
nothing good for me as a man. I got hooked on Playboy when I was about 9 or 10,
and it stayed with me through adolescence and into adulthood. Cigarettes? Not
even a flicker of temptation in me. Alcohol? Yeah, at times I’ve had problems
with binge drinking, but I could go months without having any (and recently,
years) with no problem. But them there nekkid wimmin, I had to have access
to those. It was actually a way of taking the sharp edge off of loneliness, and in
that way it helped keep me disengaged from people –isolated. I didn’t need to
make more of an effort to bond with people, cuz I could always stay home and,
um, share an intimate evening with several attractive, perky, two-dimensional
women who made no demands on me relationship-wise. Do you think maybe I
came to expect that this is how all women in my life should be? Perhaps not the
greatest role models I could have had for the opposite sex.

So that’s my take on pornography. All that causes or enhances our feelings of isolation as human beings is what I feel God
compelling me to oppose, and pornography has been one of those negative factors in my life. Aubray and I had to go through two
separate incidents that opened a huge gulf of trust between us before I realized what I was doing. And it is the tactile sense of pain
that my actions caused that helped me reform my thinking, much more than a Thou Shalt Not kind of abstract morality. I still feel the
lure –sometimes I linger too long around the softcore stuff in the magazine section or checkout stands at grocery stores, or I
contemplate the endless fount of smut that’s free for the taking on the Internet-- but I know I can’t open up to that, no more than an
alcoholic can have that one drink, because, for me, it is spirit-stealing. I do not have Christ on my mind when I am doing porn, and I
don’t even have another real person. I have only myself and my fix. It’s that simple.

Does that mean I want to see all the porn shops along I-44 closed down? Not at all.

They have

the right to be there to

serve those who disagree with me, people who have

come to different

terms with it, or must go through their own

struggles to come out

reformed. And the church

groups have every right to spread their message as well to

try and

influence the public’s thoughts

and behaviors. I realized this as I thought

about the places I was driving by, and it was

one of

those Taoist moments of

complete acceptance: everything is just as it should be, just as it is. The

dynamic

tension

is good.

Maybe I need to have a Taoist moment about Christianity too.

Didn’t exactly strike a chord of reconciliation today. But again, maybe that’s not what

was called

for. I know at some

point I need to turn our attention to the common

adversaries that Biblianity

and Christotheism share, what both seek to

overcome. But I

keep coming up with more stuff that

separates the two sides into competing camps.

Is that just the way

it is, and just as it should be?

I mean, co-existence is inevitable.

The Catholic Church survived the Reformation just fine,

and

coexists, albeit

contentiously, with the Protestant churches almost everywhere they both are.

Likewise I harbor no

delusions that the Biblian churches would not survive the “de-

formation” I’m

rallying for. Nor would I want them to

disappear. In their proper

place, they can serve a very

useful role in society, and I’d like to expand on that

thought but

I'm falling asleep so I’ll pick up

there tomorrow.

Bon nuit

-Stratford,

Mo.

a Fish Out Of Water production

Next -- Chapter 8