CAPTIVATING- This “post” word of the day means to capture one’s attention or imagination; charm, bewitch, enrapture etc. Likely, each of us has been captivated many times in our lives. Merchandise presented in an alluring manner is a common method used for promoting sales. We find the beauty of fresh flowers growing in a neat bed as very captivating. Influences flourish everywhere in our daily lives in an attempt to lure us in one direction or another. One of the most common settings for attempted captivation is a “revival” such as those for which the famous late Billy Graham was noted. Papal audiences are possibly the most captivating of all. Every evangelist, preacher and/or priest world-wide, makes a ‘pitch” at captivating us with some oration. In the realm of so-called Christianity, that message is usually an attempt at drama of some sort for purposes of holding our attention and influence peddling. Almost every Sunday morning, my priest begins his homily about that days biblical readings by saying something like this; “I’ll tell you what these readings mean to me”, or “these readings are hard to accept, but here’s how I interpret them”. I love honesty. He freely admits that someone else may have a somewhat different interpretation and/or understanding. However, when it gets down to the basic liturgical ritual, there is no deviation, that is in the Roman Catholic Church. In the Byzantine Rite, there is gross deviation from RCC ritual, as there is in all other “Catholic” rituals. While i’m not real conversant with other denominational rituals, I have attended many and no two resemble any other. I suspect that reflects an intent of the preacher to present as captivating service as possible. For what purpose? Obviously, to project his/her views on the audience. The problem arises when we realize that each of those preachers teach and preach about a subject(s) with differing interpretations and intensity. Each of them is trying desperately hard to influence us; each using the same “text book”, but each reaching differing conclusions. It is a captivating thought indeed when we realize that there are 33,000 so-called Christian denominations in the world, each with many, maybe thousands of priests and preachers, and each of those expounding about a person named Jesus and literally no two saying the same thing.How can that be? Because even in the “text book” they use, the bible, Jesus is presented in many differing ways. At times, He is presented as teaching Love as Paul proclaimed; at other times, He preaches hellfire and damnation. How is that possible? I believe without doubt it is the result of the perpetual alteration of the bible by biased authors. Their obvious intent in alteration is to captivate an audience and induce it to “their way” of thinking.The basic problem arises when we realize that seemingly no on knew nor wanted to know who Jesus really was. Their juvenile idea of a human-like God sitting on a throne, with whom they could bargain, no longer prevailed. Jesus told them about a different kind of God. They didn’t like nor want that message; so they killed the messenger. It’s no different today; if burning at the stake were still legal, most of us would long since have been reduced to ashes. It is an astonishingly captivating thought to realize that even through we call ourselves a “Christian” nation, no two of us know the same Jesus. Were like a bunch of hibernating snakes; “I wont bite you if you wont bite me”. But we awaken and we do bite. We are not Christian at all. We all are competing with the most captivating passage and influence we can muster, and why? Money, Power, Control (influence). Size does not determine who’s right, only who wins. Observing all this confusion, distortion, and extortion, compelled me to attempt solution to this massive problem. I began with recognition of the basic problem; no one had ever defined the essence of God. In defining the “essence” of God, it became captivatingly evident to me that the spirit (Holy Spirit) of God by necessity had to be imprinted on everything in existence. As such everything is united by a common spirituality. All peoples, Hindus, Muslims, Jews Buddhists, Christians and all others worship the same Supreme Being. That concept is justification for my call for recognition of the World-Wide Communion Of Spirituality,. We all are sisters ans brothers. As such, we must stop fighting. It’s our only way to peace. I have published my complete, irrefutable philosophy in a little book, Wilderness Cry-A Scientific and Philosophical Approach to Understanding God and the Universe. I encourage each of you to read it. Bet you’ll find it captivating. Amazon, Kindle, ET AL, All comments welcomed. handg@comcast.net
WILDERNESS CRY by Hilary L Hunt MD 