Reimagining it All

Last updated on: September 15, 2020 at 7:28 am by Karl J. Forehand

Reimagining it All 2020-09-15T07:28:36-06:00 Karl J. Forehand

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When I was a pastor, I remember having conversations about how hypocritical church people were. We would always laugh it off is some way, but it is not as funny anymore. When I look around at my world, the people I see that show the least compassion, the people that are okay with violence as a long as it’s against the others, the people that fail to keep the great commandments to love, and the people that often fail to care for the least of these are those very same Christians. Politics trumps spirituality, so to speak and just like others such as Gandhi have noticed, Christ is worth following, but His followers sometimes make it unbearable.

When I was attending church regularly, I was systematically taught to be afraid of certain things. Atheists, new age, homosexuals and pretty much people of all other religions were just some of what I was supposed to “careful” around because they might influence me or lead me astray. When fear is inbred into a religion, it becomes quite easy to condone shunning, shaming and even violence in some cases. Christians condemn Muslims extremist, but then claim the Bible to be inerrant while it promotes the same things and worse.

My testimony is that over the past few years as I have refused to sponsor any narrow, specific view of the truth, my world has opened to so many beautiful people. One of the most beautiful friends I have claims to be an atheist. I just met someone the other day that calls herself a witch. I have many mystical and contemplative friends that all believe something different and they are beautiful, loving people. Most likely all of us are wrong to some extent, so why try to wrangle everyone into our narrow view, so much that we allow all kinds of ugliness.

I want us to reimagine everything that has to do with religion. After all, religion is man-made. We have always claimed it was God-given, but the balance of history should show that we were wrong about that. On that great and glorious day when we truly re-imagine how we understand the Divine and how we interact with each other, I just hope we consider these things:

No allowance for hatred
No allowance for discrimination (of any kind)
No acceptance of violence
No hierarchy (no paid pastors or priests, minimal organization)
No belief statements or creeds
Politics are never the answer and empire cannot save us
War, fighting and violence never solve prolems
Love and compassion are the guiding principles
Learn to listen

I have committed that until we have a system like that, I am not joining the system. I will peacefully speak against anything that is not love and endeavor to live my life in a way that is authentic and present. I will be the person I want the world to become.

Be at Peace,

Karl

Support us on Patreon * The Desert Sanctuary Website

Karl Forehand is a former pastor, podcaster, and award-winning author. His books include Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father’s Heart and the soon-to-be released Tea Shop. He is the creator of The Desert Sanctuary and Too Many Podcasters podcasts. He is married to his wife Laura of 32 years and has one dog named Winston. His three children are grown and are beginning to multiply!

The Tea Shop releases on September 22nd – Pre-order now!

Previous Post

September 11, 2020

Becoming the Message

Next Post

September 16, 2020 Old Doors, Old Practices

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abuse Addiction Advent adventure Alpha Male Animals Answers Attachment Attitude authenticity Authenticty Authentiicity Awareness being Bible Black Community BLM body awarenss book Books Bravery Bullying Bypassing Certainty Certianty Chamge change children Christianity Christmas Church Comfort community Compaasion Compassion Complementarian Complementarianism Conditioning Consciousness Contemplation Control Conversation Converstations Covid-19 Creation Darkness Death Debate deconstruction demons depression desert Devil Disciples discussion Divine dreams Easter Eclipse Empathy Essence evolution evolve faith fatherhood Fear fiction Flood Focus Focusing Focussing Future Genesis Goals God Gratitude grief growth Guns Hate healing Health Heart Hell Holiday Hypnosis ignorance Improvement infallible Inner Child Integrity Intuition Jesus Jezebel Journey King LGBTQ+ Love MAGA Marriage meditation Men Mercy Message metaphysical Mindfulness Misogyny Mourning Music Mystic mystical Narcissism Nationalism Nature New Year Novel Nutrition Organization other Pain Pandemic parenting Pastors Patriarchy Patriotism Personal Growth Plan Poet poets Police politics Power practice praise Prayer presence pro-life Problem Solving Progress prolife Prophet prophets Purity Culture Purpose Queer Questions Racism Rape Rapture reconstruction Recovery Religion Resolutions Restoration Resurrection Retribution Reviews Root Cause Sanctuary Satan SBC Scripture Seeking Self-Care Self-esteem Seminary Sex Shadow shame social justice social media solitude Spirits Spirituality stillness Story Survivor Thanksgiving Theologians Theology Tradition Trauma travel Trump Uncategorized Unchurching Universe Violence Vision Voice Volunteer Vulnerability War Women Word worship Writing

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the first book of the New Testament?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Mark Luke Matthew John

Books by This Author Books by The Desert Sanctuary

See All Titles »