Yard Sign Confusion

Thoughts on truth vs. Truth and Good News

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall.” - Mahatma Gandhi

I realize that the picture(s) below should come with a trigger warning for some and the rest of my post should have a trigger warning for others.

In my ongoing Unity studies, I was asked to identify “Good News” about Jesus and I struggled. I really *struggled* - and then I saw this sign in my neighbor’s yard and this week’s post materialized:

The Good News is that neither of these statements are Truth.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Jesus. I love stories about Jesus. I am inspired by the devotion, love and dedication to Jesus shared in the stories of saints and martyrs. I cried in nearly every episode of the Chosen. And yet daily, in my neighborhood and amongst people I love, I am bombarded with a Christian Nationalist characterization of one of the greatest examples of living Love that has ever walked the Earth – And it isn’t the Jesus that I know.

As for the image of the yard sign, “Jesus in my Savior Trump is my President” I would like to be like many of my liberal friends and say, “What the *F* do these two things have in common?” Unfortunately, I know why they are put together by a growing aspect of the population and can’t feign ignorance. Why? It has less to do with my teenage years as a fundamentalist born again Christian and more to do with my nearly two decades with a neo-Hindu-Christian group that I now classify as a cult at worst and coercive high control group at best.

As I left the group, I found solace in an online community made up mostly of former Christian fundamentalists who had or were deconstructing. (Thank you, Clint Heacock of the Dismantling Doctrine Group). Here I learned not just about mechanisms of high control groups, but also more sinister plans from those involved with Seven Mountains Mandate and the Christian Dominionist movement. I now see too much in organized religion AND see how groups of all sorts work in the shadows of control and manipulation. It shows up in yard signs that at first make no rationale sense to someone who loves Jesus and just can’t stomach Trump and the surrounding politics.

The Good News is that NEITHER of the statements in the yard sign are Truth.

Like all amazing teachers, Jesus had a message. My Guru had a message. Unfortunately, messages and teachings get lost when the man who has a message that turns to a movement, turns to a monument (See my Substack on Erick Butterworths 5Ms).

Nothing is unbound from Spiritual Law. Countries rise and fall, leaders come and go, and my soul – your soul – remains throughout time and space. We are all spiritual beings having a human experience and, in this life, I have been blessed with the privilege to serve and share with others. Trump may have been elected, but he does not have power over my soul or my response to his decisions. He does not lead with my values or represent the Truth of the message shared by Jesus the Christ. His shadow as a leader asks me to shine brighter. He will not be president forever. What I (we) do now, sets the stage for the near future. I can choose differently. I choose to continually bring love to each conversation as I am able. There will be consequences for any shadow. No one is free of the law of Karma. My soul has no president.

Jesus is not my Savior. This is good news!

Jesus doesn’t save. His *example* gives us a message from which we can learn and in essence “save ourselves”. This is the biggest untruth we are sold in almost every religion. A God (or Guru) OUTSIDE of ourselves CANNOT present us with enlightenment. We don’t have to wait for someone “out there” to flip that switch! It is within us already. Here are some big take aways from the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of Truth:

Here are just a few pieces of Good News that warms my own heart today:

1.WE ARE DIVINE, AS IS! The Divine is within us. We all have a Christ nature! (Krishna Nature)

2. GOD IS PRINCIPLE. If God is everywhere, what is NOT God? God doesn’t sit outside of us. This is the Truth taught by Jesus and the Truth taught in Vaishnav Hinduism (God is within everything and everything is within God).

3.IT REALLY IS ALL ABOUT LOVE. Jesus showed us that it isn’t about the rituals, or the human interpretation of divine law that ultimately becomes dogma in religion. It doesn’t have to be complicated! It is about the experience of love. The practice of Love. What did that look like? It looked like kind words, kind actions, purposeful actions and actions that serve. That is it. Simple. Just Love.

5. NO BEGGING NEEDED! We don’t have to beg and plead to an external God for healing. Look at the man by the pool in Bethesda. He didn’t have to beg and plead when Jesus arrived. Jesus just asked him a question, “Do you want to be healed?” The man didn’t have to beg Jesus. He just took up his mat and ‘went home’. There is something deeper going on here. No one had to beg and plead for their healing. I can’t say I understand it, I just know that the miracles and healings didn’t come about through begging. It is really beautiful, actually, the example that the Christ within us can recognize the strong example of Christ in another (Jesus) and such an example supports us in our healing – mental, emotional, spiritual. We have agency. Whether the body heals or not, we are always whole!

6. IT IS SIMPLE. Jesus showed us that spirituality is SIMPLE. What he taught was profound, not because of the complexity, but the simplicity in its availability. Christ consciousness (Krishna Consciousness / Higher Consciousness) is within each of us, NOW.

I have been around a great teacher and witnessed many, many miracles. And yet I have also witnessed how the over focus on miracles becomes the distraction from the Self which we seek, leading one down the rabbit hole of darkness that can envelope the soul we sought to free. Jesus reminds us, through his example, that HE doesn’t save us, we save ourselves by simply doing that which helps us remember who we are in TRUTH.

Through Grace, which is available to all:
LOVE is ABUNDANT and because we are already ENOUGH, we are already FREE.

Our Soul is never bound by anything but the body and the bi-products of our mind.