My Goofy Spiritual Life ~6~ Church of Beatles

I was eleven years old when I first saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I hadn't started my period yet, hated my friend, Pam, because she had.  I cherished my collection of Barbies and still played with them. Enjoyed a fine collection of Archie comics and Bazooka Bubble Gum wrappers, owned a Mickey Mouse phonograph and listened to Tale Spinners.

My hair was long and blond and full of split-ends. I'd never had it professionally cut or styled.  Nobody I knew went to beauty-parlors but old ladies.  I had curly hair in an era when straight hair was just around the corner from being the rage.

I wore rag-tag clothing, other than the three 'dresses' for school; never wore shoes, accept the loafers with lacy white socks for school. Tooled around town on a pink Schwinn bicycle and roller skated everyday.

Womanhood was still a long way off, but the Beatles made me become impatient to become one. I clearly remember thinking childhood was now an inconvenience.

The day after their premier on Ed Sullivan I joined a Beatle Fan Club and started writing letters to George once a week.  I used words like “Gear and Mod,” told him how much I loved him, how I wanted to have his children, and that I could leave home in just a few years...and wouldn’t he please wait for me to grow up?

George replaced my dreams of owning a horse.  Instead praying that Jesus would "produce" a horse in the backyard, I prayed to meet George.

I collected Beatles memorabilia.  Including bubble gum cards and teen magazines.  I taped pictures of George all over my bedroom.  I slept with my transistor radio waiting for music or news on the Beatles. I was completely out of my mind about the Beatles and George Harrison.

I counted the days that A Hard Day’s Night would play at the Buena Park Theater. And I dreaded the rumors that during the filming of the movie my beloved George had hooked up with one of the actresses. Her name was Pattie Boyd and she was beautiful—a model! I didn't know George had already moved Pattie into his house. Had I knowm that I think my head would have exploded.

Everyday I tuned into KFWB radio station for movie sightings. It opened in LA before Orange County and that was hard to swallow. Even though L.A. was 30 miles away, it may have been a 1000. It seemed like years before the movie finally came to Buena Park and its little box theater, which was located across the street from the Hollywood Wax Museum (now called Movieland Wax). But it finally arrived and I, with roughly two hundred other Beatle fans waited impatiently for the doors to open in a line that snaked around the building. I dressed for the occasion, felt as if I was going to really meet George. I wore an over-sized orange angora sweater with a blue dress.

Ready for George!

VERY READY FOR GEORGE!

The tension was high outside the theater. The owner didn’t know what to do with so many kids. We were pushing and shoving, and one kid landed on his chin on the asphalt, spewing blood everywhere. He wailed while everyone else chanted, “Beatles! Beatles!” 

I don’t know what the seat count of the Buena Park Theater was, and it’s gone now, so there’s no way to find out, but I know for a fact that they over sold and kids were forced to sit in the isles. I wasn’t one of them..

The lights went down and there was a strange hush that floated through the theater. This was the calm before the storm. For the first time the theater forfeited the cartoon and went right to the movie. Pure, sheer pandemonium broke out. Everyone stood up and started screaming, sobbing, clawing at each other like some kind of drunken pagan brawl. We were behaving exactly like the girls on the wide screen.

“George!” I screamed. “George!”

I didn’t hear one line of dialogue. Barely heard the songs. But it didn’t matter. I was elevated to a new dimension—I’d seen George right before my eyes, a moving, living, talking, breathing human being. No longer just a photograph. The emotion I felt towards him wasn’t anything like I’d ever experienced.

And, other than getting hit in the eyeball with an Atomic Fireball, I had one of the best moments in my life.

George Harrison played a pivotal roll in my switching from Christianity to Eastern Religion. It really started around the time of the Maharishi Yogi. I was very interested in George's religion, and wanted to understand meditation and sitars.  When the Beatles went to Rishikesh, India to study mysticism in February of 1968, I was only 14 years old and in the ninth grade (which was middle school). Given that I lived in a small farming town, and there wasn't access to much information, other than through magazines and radio news, I hadn't a clear picture on what this this trip he'd taken meant to the Beatles.  But I began to change, like most of the youth of my time. It didn't matter where we lived, we all wanted into the counter culture and a larger world-view.

At that time, I had a knock-out body, a Coppertone tan, and Sgt. Peppers playing in my head.

Bikini, Bible and Butts!

When All Things Must Pass was released in January of 1971, I was in a vulnerable spot with my Christian walk.  I'd left the Jesus People group and was on my own, still trying to make sense of the God of the King James Bible. But "My Sweet Lord," spun me around in another direction. As soon as I heard the album, I really wanted to understand what George Harrison was singing about.

Hm, my lord (hare krishna)
My, my, my lord (hare krishna)
Oh hm, my sweet lord (krishna, krishna)
Oh-uuh-uh (hare hare)

Now, I really want to see you (hare rama)
Really want to be with you (hare rama)
Really want to see you lord (aaah)
But it takes so long, my lord (hallelujah)


Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My, my, my lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (krishna krishna)
My lord (hare hare)


I remember talking to one of my Christian friends about the lyrics to this song, but he said it was devil worship. That was a radical explanation and I rejected it.  What would become my signature in later years--research, I went to the Buena Park library and asked them for anything they had about eastern religion. I left with a copy of the Upanishads and The Vedas. I remember the librarian looking at me like I was nuts, but that suited me just fine.  I took the books, home, made an altar, lit some incense and tried to meditate.

If I thought the Bible was difficult to understand, I had a huge theological awakening when I started reading the core teachings of Hinduism: The Vedas.

My Goofy Spiritual Life

I'm lightening this blog a little to see if I can get more followers.  My impression is, the blogging community (in general) doesn't want another Christian blog, and the ratio of people who understand the life of an ex yogi is limited.  I thought I'd start with a lighter rendition of my spiritual life.

One thing about the Grace of God is something that may have been painful is glorified in his name...and, yes, you can laugh one day.

I’d grown up in the late fifties and sixties in a family that was agnostic at best.  Dad was purportedly a Methodist, though there isn’t any evidence. My mother was Catholic, and the story we got was she was kicked out of the church for marrying a Methodist.  Even on her deathbed she forbade us from calling in a priest. "

The only person in my immediate family who ever talked about God was my Grandmother on dad’s side.  But “Daisy” spoke in broad impressionistic terms, and bragged about how many Bibles she owned, including the Book of Mormon.  I’d never seen all these Bibles, but she spoke with such conviction that I believed her.  Her relationship with God seemed to be in owning Bibles, not reading them. Thus, my earliest ideas of God included books and banishment.

A Cultural Revolution was brewing while I was growing up in a cow-poke town.  Christianity was changing, yet I was unaware of the it.  The only cool thing I had going was that I lived in California.  But not L.A. No, a stinking, mosquito ridden town named Buena Park that got the name "Good Park," in Spanish for reasons never known, not even to the Buena Park historical society.

We were a city of cows. Dutch cows that produced more milk than the national average. Who knew all that cow flatulence caused a green-house effect around our town?  The mosquitoes were so thick we never went to bed without a good dousing of "Off."  My father sprayed RAID every night in every room, and for added protection, each of his developing children slept with a No Pest Drip (now banned for home use) above their heads.  Currently, the only legal usage for No Pest Drip is inside of dumpsters.

When I was twelve my world was still very limited by cow pastures and tract homes, and ideas about super consciousness were years away. There wasn't anything sparkling mystical about bobbed wire fences.  All the glitter came from my fantasy world, a safe, elevating place where I was "somebody." All my play time was about me.  The ultimate Ego. I was the "star of the show," the "mother in the game of house," the leader, and the chooser of what games were played.

For all my visions of grandeur, I lacked a plan to achieve the throne.

~ to be continued~~ Follow me for updates!

Lesson Number One: No Drugs in SMURF

Information was slow, but we had pictures and read articles of the Beatles experimenting with drugs and meditation. Suddenly we couldn’t do anything without drugs to “heightening our experiences,” including religion.

The draw to the guru was his promise of “spiritual experiences,” and we were all interested in mind bending experiences, such as those that LSD produced. LSD was a chemical, but meditation was a natural high.

The brain releases dopamine, and the medulla, which is the seat of yoga, is where this natural chemical is distributed. Meditation releases dopamine, and dopamine is associated with the pleasure systems of the brain.

Meditation is the single most important requirement of being involved in eastern religions.

I know for a fact that many of the teenagers who showed up at the temple in Fullerton, California, between 1968-1974 were stoned and attending for the hippy cultural phenomenon and knew nothing about the pantheistic teachings they were embarking. This was about "experiencing something" not a ritualistic path to God. That came later. I know this because I was one of them, and I can name many others (if I had to) that didn't know any more about this church other than they had a guru and guru's led people into cosmic experiences. Period.

I also know that teenagers were running away from their Midwestern farms and showing up at the anchor church in Hollywood, California, without a penny, and expecting to start their lives on the monastic path.

The monastics didn’t know what to do with the drug problem because they did not advocate drug or alcohol abuse of any kind. They were not in cahoots with the Beatles to have their linage of gurus put on the record album, if anything they sought legal rights to have them removed. The backfire boon was a spike in interest with young people, for which *** was unprepared to handle.

You have to understand that *** has always been a Hindu monastic organization. This means that the monks and nuns take vows to live a sequestered life, including celibacy. They have little experience in worldly affairs once they enter the monastery. They are isolated from the world at-large, and highly protected by senior monastics about what they wear, eat, read, watch on TV or general interaction with householders (people who were not monastics). Thus, young people showing up for a higher consciousness experience were gently coached out of using drugs and dressing like hippies and slowly convinced to live monastic mirrored lives according to a strict set of rules and regulations.

The church was very conservative at that time, even with strict dress codes. For years jeans weren't allowed in the church, and even as late as the mid 90's most people dressed for church. I don't recall members ever coming in less that dress clothes. Ushers wore suits and women wore blue skirts and white blouses. As far as I know they still have this uniform for lay members. This church was as far as hippies as one can be, other than they had a guru.

In the late 1960's some of our parents were concerned that *** was advocating drugs because their children who were taking drugs were going to this temple. My husband’s parents recruited other parents to investigate the charges, and came away that the church did not advocate drug use of any kind and it would not be tolerated.

In the beginning of our discipleship we didn’t stop using social drugs, and smoked pot on the way to church service and the way home. The church just became an extension of our hippy culture.

SRF did not approve of this behavior in any way shape or form. Let me be clear about that--they did not and DO not advocate any drug or alcohol use. It was in the minds of the young people that eastern religions were part of the psychedelic scene.

My friends that were attending were also using some form of mind altering drugs or drinking alcohol. Separating a cultural phenomena, like the 1960's, from the factual disciplinarian teachings would take years to level out amongst many that I knew.

Some didn’t get out alive and died of their addictions, anyways.

The Guru Criteria

It’s common psychotherapy babble today to talk about our rotten childhoods and how many of us were ruined by them. Our childhoods can also be influenced by the religion of our parents. There are many Christians who suffered under toxic family religion passed down generationally.

During the 1960's young people rejected the religions of their parents in search of a religion that would give them the freedoms that they wanted to experience. The Jesus Revolution was one such rebellion. Rather than shuffling into a drafty cold church and forced to sit on hard benches and listen to someone talk about sin, the young people took Jesus outside, into the parks, to celebrate in a joyous manner, focusing on his message of love rather than damnation! They were against the established religion, the blandness and hypocrisy, and rather drew on the counterculture to create a movement. Then there was another shift...

When music became the signature of the boomers, the Beatles' music (in particular) opened up undreamed of spiritual possibilities. We wanted to emulate our rock heroes, and that’s when many of us experimented with drugs. We also wanted their kind of spiritual experiences, and at that time the Beatles were studying with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. More than that, we wanted a religion different from our parents, and something they wouldn't understand. This would set us apart in a generation that defined ourselves as "not trusting anyone over 30."

“All Things Must Pass,” started my inquiry into eastern religion. The *** line of gurus showed up on the now famous Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Many of us were scrambling to read the founding guru's book, The Autobiography of a Yogi.

That is how we (and some friends) ended up at Self Realization Fellowship–by wanting to be part of a counter-culture movement that had already passed most major city players. Guru’s were not aplenty in conservative Orange County at that time. The Dutch cows had just left.

In 1967 Self Realization Fellowship bought a church building in Fullerton, California. In a small community, word got out amongst the younger crowd that the gurus on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album had set up shop nearby, and this was the only criteria for us to attend. This seems a very irresponsible way to chose one’s religion, but many things are done in youth that we come to regret.

Now, in today’s world, new-age, eastern alternative religion is everywhere and it’s no longer counter-culture the way it was then. Self Realization Fellowship isn’t the same either. Over 30 years I witnessed many changes to accommodate the modern world-view.

But this isn’t about the church per say, as there are toxic Christian religions, as well. My goal has always been to educate about eastern religions, specifically those that have a guru-figurehead, someone (or people in a group) whom we allow to control us, usually subliminally.

Because I got involved at 18, I was young and impressionable enough to have lasting effects of the relationship. I took a vow at 19 that I would accept the guru as my own, and I renewed this vow many times over the years in secret ceremonies.

There is no greater sin than the one I committed. I denounced Jesus Christ for an Indian guru and I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I always loved Jesus, and believed through the teachings of the guru, that what I was doing was in harmony with Jesus, that East could meet West in a harmonious way.

"Those with toxic faith use it to avoid reality and responsibity. It often results in perfectionism; people are driven to perform and work in an attempt to earn their way to heaven or at least to gain favor with God. Like other addictions, it cause great damage, but the addicted continue to purse it." Toxic Faith, Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton

Sin-sational!

Our world is so full of sin. Today I watched a woman sobbing on TV because her beautiful daughter was struck down by a car at her college, driven by someone who ran a red light and didn't stop. Now her life is destroyed by the senseless, selfish, horrible act of sin. Yesterday, a semi-truck driver was driving recklessly, lost control and careened into several cars, slid into three stores leaving several dead, including a father and daughter, and many injured, and today a hostage murder situation in New York.

Sin is everywhere, not just what's in our hearts. We open the newspaper, and read about robberies, homicides, affairs, drunken drivers, and criminals who seem to run the world. Not so. We must not be deceived by the publicity that sin receives. Sin, by its nature, is sensational.

We must remember that we ourselves are not sinless and cannot expect others to be. We might not sin in the horrific ways noted in the news, but sin comes in many shapes and forms, and the most dangerous is rebellious pride.

I generally gear my writings toward those who follow misleading spiritual teachings, because that's what I did for 30 years, or to those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. When I say, "don't believe," I mean that person who only believes Jesus Christ was a man, a saint, a guru, or a rabbi, but not the Son of God, our Savior.

So, coming from this direction, the number one question asked to try and "trick" a Christian in relationship to sin and suffering is: "If God is all-powerful and could stop sin, and so loving (as you claim) why does he allow sin to harm people in the first place?"

God is all-powerful and is all loving. God allows sin because free will is necessary for the true worship of God. God gives human beings the freedom to either worship him or reject him.

The idea of worship is problematic for many but, think about it, we "worship" many things in our human lives, such as food, relationships and money. These objects of worship are not questioned. Yet, worshiping a God who is the creator and sustainer of our lives is downright offensive to some.

People (in general) want to do what they want to do, period, with no accountability in their lives to anyone, and certainly not to a God. They would rather worship their own reflection. There is a large sector who believe in their own moral obligation, that they have the strength of mind to "do the right thing" in every situation and that a God to watch over them is not necessary and not believable, anyways. What we believe or don't believe matters to God. Just because a person does not believe in sin, does not mean it isn't accrued.

What happens when we sin? God will attach criminality to our accounts, which is a moral worth attached to the acts of our rebellion (sin). Whew. That doesn't sound good, does it? Criminality? I've never heard that word on Sunday! Sin is, simply put, death. That statement is so heavy!

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord," (Rom 6:23).

Sin = action. Something is going to happen with the sin in our lives if we're not "washed" clean by the blood of Christ.

Conversely, dharmic religion does not believe in sin or that it can be pardoned by Christ, or that we'll live a sinless life in heaven with Him. They believe in karma (cause and effect) which is burned away (provided you no longer create karma). Through many lifetimes of work, hence, Yoga postures, diet restrictions and non-attachment, a person frees the soul from ego to fade back into God, losing all its original, unique self-awareness. Why would we want this? One reason, control. Or so we think.

So, if we buy into sin, what's the root cause of all this suffering? As Christians we know it's related to the fall of mankind through rebellion. But, this explanation has taken on a fairytale narration over the past 50 years, and more recently by unbelievers who "scoff with scientific impossibility!"

What most people believed for hundreds of years came under critical examination during the 1960's when drugs and eastern influences barraged our youthful culture. They began to rebel against everything their parents believed to be true, including Christianity, and sin was replaced by the idea that we could make up our mistakes by living many lives to get it right. This idea of expanded consciousness meant personal freedoms never before considered. Sin was taken from behind closed doors to the streets, and we began demanding the "right" to sin.

I, myself, gave up Jesus Christ for an Indian guru. Baptized by the Holy Spirit at 16 was thrown away for a false prophet. There is no sin greater than the one I committed. It was easy enough to do it because I wanted something "different" and "special," a "personal experience of God," having been told by this guru that I'd never had one. I was promised by him that I had control of my destiny, and that I was part of God, that I was God, a "bubble" in the sea of God. That everything living and inanimate thing was Gods vibration that linked all of us to God's consciousness. It sounded so, well, wonderful, so 1960's. Beatles! Om. Peace. Amen! I bought into this philosophy (blasphemy), hook, line and sinker without ever questioning it, without ever opening my Bible and carefully taking into careful, soul consideration what I was willing to throw away.

Satan offered Eve the "tree of knowledge of good and evil," and promised her that she could know all that God knew. Sound familiar to my own experience? Modern man tends to think "he (or she's) different" and that those old scriptures are not relevant to their lives, and yet, like me, turn their lives over to idol scriptures that are even older, such as Hinduisum.

As you can see, the desire to be God is very innate in our natures, and that's why promises of "God like status," is so desirable.

Though I wasn't raised in a Christian home, I knew about sin, and wanted nothing to do with it's condemning nature. My best friend from age 5-11 was what we called a "Bible-Banger" in those days and she told me on a regular basis that everything I did and said was a sin.

My guru promised me utopia. No sin, simply karma. No worries.

Though sin has always been prevalent in ages prior, it wasn't dismissed as something implausible until the culture rebelled, as I did, against the "establishment." This extraordinary change in our cultural beliefs continued to meld into many forms, from basic eastern religions, such as Hinduism, to "New Age" religions or "blended religions" that teach both Christian and Krishna in the same sentence (as did mine). Peace, love and Harmony. No sin. No worries.

But, let us remember this scripture: "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matt 1:21).

Jesus Christ was sent to this earth to save "his people" from their sins. If this is the cornerstone of Truth, how can sin be omitted, ignored and denied? How can anyone say, "I believe in Jesus Christ," but not sin?

Sin, then, was "sifted" out of popular religion, as distasteful, and has even become absent in some Christian churches. Talking about sin is not popular. We use more socially acceptable words like, "broken," "addicted," or "dysfunctional to describe living in sin. Without being aware of sin, we sin easily. If we don't learn what sin is, then how do we know when we're sinning?

The Lord spoke to Cain in this way: So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” (Genesis 4:6)

Love is Blue

Why the title? If you're old enough to remember that song it will bring back memories of the late 1960s. It was made famous by Paul Mauriat and was a number-one hit in the USA for five weeks. Blue means many things, including going into the blue, or into the unknown, which many of us do when we accept Jesus as our savior. You might argue with someone until you're blue in the face, or someone might appear out of the blue. You might be in a blue mood, so I suppose love can be blue if you've been dumped.

All of this is fun stuff, but seriously, I thought loving Jesus was a given. Once you loved him, you loved him--and he loved you, but what does that love look like--or feel like on both sides?

How can we be sure we're on the "loving" track with JC? How do we know that we're pleasing Jesus with our love for him? Is it enough to say we love him? I don't think it is, which is weird because I used to think that's all it took to be a Christian--be saved and get a fish decal for the car. Instead Christianity has redefined many areas in my life, and love the most profoundly.

Love is a noun, but in the Bible it's a verb--an action word. It's not static. Love is something that is done, commanded by God.

Love is not attraction.

Love is not sex.

How many of us have heard the sayings, "you can't make someone love you," or, "I fell out of love," as if love is a danger zone, a pit you might stumble into by accident. Love is an act of will.

There are hundreds of references in my concordance for the word love. So, I'm going to start where most people are familiar: Matthew 10:27, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus makes this command, but God also commands it many times in the Old Testament, "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." Leviticus 19:18 is one example, and so is, Deuteronomy 6:5-7 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

God commands us to love, impress that love on others, and talk until we're blue in the face about love.

We've been brainwashed to believe that love is an uncontrollable "feeling." Just about every form of entertainment leads us to believe love really comes from out of the blue, that we're hit with love when we least expect it.

If we go back to Matthew 10:27, we note that not only does Jesus ask us to love others, but to love ourselves. We miss this command, don't we? How many of us are contemptuous of ourselves? How many of us compare and put ourselves down? Jesus knows that if we accept ourselves unconditionally it can transform our lives. I've always been critical of my reflection in the mirror. Now I say, "Wait! God loves me! He made me. He thinks I'm perfect! If God loves me I can love me. I'm perfect!"

We no longer need to wear a mask that says "I'm more than human," (as in eastern religion) or "I'm less than human," (as in self loathing). To be more than human is to never make a mistake. To be less than human is to believe that you are the mistake. Jesus puts a "new and beautiful frame" around us. By His forgiveness we can let go of the shame we've carried and silence the critical voice. We can see our past mistakes, and understand them to be part of what led us to Christ. I often say our testimonies are very powerful, and testimonies are an act of love.

We can learn to love our neighbors, even if they do not put an optimal price on a manicured lawn and their dogs bark all night long.

It is possible to love the unlovable because God shows us it's possible through his mercy. God's love is priceless and unfailing.

Let me make this one point clear. Love is not taking abuse. We can forgive and love someone from afar, and continue to pray that one day you'll be reunited in equal love.

The greatest love we can offer anyone is prayer.

Can't Buy Me Love...

Photo of Suzanne Tamin ...

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I've taken into account the new Google Trends as part of my daily news and views to keep me connected. I've always been interested in issues bigger than myself, and that's why I began my search for God at the tender age of five. My quest for Him certainly led me to eastern religion where connectedness is understood and respected.

I don't believe we have to discount connectedness if we're Christians. I know I'm a bit hard-nosed about many subjects that relate to eastern thought and religion, but sometimes I have to stop before I throw out the baby with the bathwater. Sometimes we have to concede, especially when our world repeats itself, that at times it does feel like a wheel. Hardly a new thought comes around, certainly no new sins. The same drama plays out day and night, night and day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. If you think you're bored just reading that sentence, think of God! He knows we're going to step right into that pit and drown in that dirty sin before we even do it, and if he was like us, he'd be so sick of our stupidity that he'd delete us from his cell phone.

But he's not sick of us, or our mistakes, in fact, he loves us, and we certainly wonder about that, don't we? How can he love me, or her, or that dimwit down the street who keeps running his loud generator even when the lights are on? He can't love the neighbor with the barking dog? No way can he love Uncle Bill and his yellow teeth!

Yes he does! He loves us in ways that are too gianormous for us to begin to understand. We have nothing human to compare it to, not even the love of parents toward their children, because we've all read about someone whose murdered their entire family. Mother's murder their children. Children murder their parents. Fathers murder their sons. Lovers murder each other. Brothers murder each other, starting with Cain and Able. Human love can't sustain ultimate love; human love is always conditional and generally carries a price tag.

This really didn't start out to be about Love. I digressed a bit, so let me reign my thoughts and get back to Google Trends and how it proves the point of connectedness and human repetition.

If you read Google Trends you'll learn about things as soon as they happen, which can make you look pretty smart, or stuck up, depending on your friends. The next thing you might question, if you're a Christian is how does God manage to be involved and help all the Christians in the midst of skirmishes, wars and tsunamis? The work of the Lord is daunting. It's also frighteningly horrific what the devil manages to accomplish in one day. Every day someone somewhere is murdered, killed in a traffic accident, dies of cancer, killed in a war, taken hostage or raped. Everyday someone is selling sex and someone is buying it.

Often I'll hear of something dreadful that happened somewhere and think, oh, at that time I was at the store, or writing, or taking a shower, or making dinner or sleeping, and yet these desperate souls were in the midst of horror, pain, life or death. Here I am in my safe world, minding my own business, thinking, oh, how blessed I am not to have had (fill in the horror) happen to me. But doesn't everyone say, "Why is this happening to me?" when it's happening?

It's the mystery of life, isn't it, this wondering how this is all wound up and how it's going to end. Will we be living when Jesus rocks the skies? Or, will we waft up from our dusty bones to be born yet anew and join his flocks? Is there a roll call? Will I finally be my ideal weight? Will the grey be gone and will I need glasses? How will this Apocalypse be organized? Will there be computers to keep all the data straight? How will we get from here to there and how will I find my loved ones? What's to become of all those sinners who refused to believe, and are we going to watch in horror as they descend into the bowels of hell?

We just don't know exactly what we'll experience, and its likely very few people think of the end of time beyond the possibility of a stray atom bomb.

Sometimes I'm guilty of living solely in my little bubble world of Mission Viejo, not thinking about a thing beyond the four walls of my home office. Then there are days that I'm quite literally swept up into world affairs. Yesterday was one such day when I became obsessed with a beautiful Lebanese pop star who was murdered by her Egyptian tycoon lover. Her name was Suzanne Tamin, someone I'd never heard about, yet I was soon intrigued about a middle eastern media frenzy. I watched all of her videos on Utube, even her funeral procession which was quite dramatic with family, friends and fans jostling her coffin over their heads like a moss pit.

Here was without question one of the most beautiful women in the world, living on the 22nd floor of the Jumeirah Beach Resort in Dubai, a woman who could have anything by way of her lover, construction magnate Hisham Talaat Moustafa, and yet she apparently wanted out of the relationship--or she scorned him, or whatever happened, and that will become apparent in the weeks to follow. She was brutally murdered.

This is where I began wondering where God was when her throat was slit eight inches by a hired assassin.

The better question we should ask is, where was Satan? Holding the knife. The young woman was married, involved in an affair with a powerful man who apparently could have anything money could buy, but as the Beatles used to sing, "Can't Buy me Love," Hisham Moustafa could not buy whom he loved and adored.

Sounds a little like David and Bathsheba, doesn't it? For my unbelieving friends (I know I have a few!), here's a story all Christians would love to bury. This is an unspeakable truth about one of our greatest Bible heroes. David. The second King of Israel. How could this mess have come to light? I say this, that God in his glory reveals these things to us so we do not lose hope.

The great prophet Samuel brought David out of the fields where he tended sheep and anointed him with oil. From that moment on the Lord came upon him. He became a great leader and warrior.

Even with all his Glory he became tempted and sinned. In the words of Matthew Henry:

David had Bathsheba's husband murdered so that he could have her. He committed adultery with with the wife of Uriah. He endeavoured to father the spurious brood upon Uriah. When that project failed, he plotted the death of Uriah by the sword of the children of Ammon, and effected it. He married Bathsheba. Is this David? Is this the man after God’s own heart? How is his behaviour changed, worse than it was before Ahimelech! How has this gold become dim! Let him that readeth understand what the best of men are when God leaves them to themselves.

Sin is all over this story about the Lebanon singer. Adultry. Lust. Obsession. Murder. Sin is what keeps our world in horrific bondage, and it's up for viewing through Google Trends.

Celebrity Religions

Looking into a New Religion - Part II: Celebrity Religions

In today’s world most people bypass the Bible in their search for spiritual answers. Sadly, the Bible is out of vogue. It’s never quoted as a source of happiness, a road map for life or the ultimate truth–instead, daily we’re filled with messages coming from every media source that the Bible is just another ancient religious manuscript amongst so many to choose from.

“Do your own thing,” is no longer counter-culture but mainstream.

There is a billion-dollar industry based solely on celebrity “branding” that reaches farther than jeans, perfume, hairstyles and purses. There’s a website called, Celebrity Religion, and if you read through the religions associated with current Hollywood luminaries, you’ll be hard pressed to find Christians amongst them. But you will find atheists, Sunni Islamist, Scientologists, Tibetan Buddhists, Agnostics, Kabbala followers and yogis. Influential celebrities are telling us via every media outlet that the God of the Bible isn’t relevant today, or doesn’t exist at all. It isn’t subliminal messages, no, we’re way past subtle.

The celebrity system jump started the trend. To name a few major events that changed Evangelical America, we need only look back to the 1960's. In 1964 Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Black Muslims, recruited Cassius Clay, heavyweight champion of the world into the Nation of Islam, and in 1968 the Beatles went to Rishikesh India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Celebrity religious branding was launched.

All these years later, fans now look to celebrities for the answers to everything–life, diet, beauty, God.

Recently, celebrity queen regnant Oprah Winfrey decried Jesus, stating there are “many paths,” and on national television denouncing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Now, she's promoting Echart Tolle's teachings, which amounts to regurgitated, revamped eastern religion--enticingly repackaged under "A New Earth. Awakening to Your Life's Purpose." His claims to "I AM" are lifted right out of the teachings of Krishna, an Indian incarnation of God.

How many Christian women are still buying her magazines and watching her show? How many fence sitters, nonbelievers and teenagers are influenced a celebrity? If we're going to stand up for Jesus Christ we must mobilize and write sponsors. Too tired? Too busy? Perfectly wonderful for Satan...and the beat goes on.

Network television is a major source of misinformation about Christianity, but it doesn’t stop with TV royalty denying Jesus.

Cable channels are churning out reenactments touted as scientific proof, flat out refuting established Christian doctrine. They load the show with college professors and writers (selling books) to back their claims. The History Channel, for example has aired many Biblical stories, such as the Garden of Eden and the story of Cain and Abel, making claims that there’s no plausible truth to them. Many of their productions push the “secret message” stories, such as lost or hidden “books” claiming much of the truth of Jesus was hidden from Christians. Their boldest video is regarding the Cross, that the symbol was well established before Jesus, and it was represented as life and “adopted by the Christians.”

The History Channel is owned by A&E. A&E Television Networks (AETN) is a joint venture of The Hearst Corporation, ABC, Inc. and NBC Universal.

Entertainment.

Notice now the connection with celebrities and religious information, what we’re being told as truth, and whose selling the lies.

If it only ended there...

Stay tuned for this continued series.