The first task I face each morning is responding to comments on a channel called Off the Left Eye. The variety of messages is wide indeed, from a row of smiling emojis and effusive appreciation for a video, to outrage over the notion that more people can go to heaven than that person deems worthy. What stays consistent is the goodwill of the response team, and our commitment to spreading what we hold to be loving ideas. 

 

The other day a writer made me think. He said that he appreciates our concepts but still struggles with statements in the Old Testament. 

 

I nestled into my chair. The bible is my home turf. 

 

The passages he listed, though were troublesome. They spoke of slaves as casually as if they were furniture to be inherited. In all my years of teaching Sunday School I had skipped over these. I paused to pray. The explanation I offered was perhaps a stretch. I invited him to think of slaves as those parts of ourselves that we need to control. Not sentient people, but qualities within our own character. I am not sure how it landed with him. The truth is I am not sure how it satisfies me. I quoted a bedrock passage from True Christianity 56.

 

"God cannot condemn anyone, curse anyone, throw anyone into hell, predestine anyone's soul to eternal death, avenge wrongs, or rage against or punish anyone. People are even more insane if they actually believe this, let alone teach it. In reality, God cannot turn away from us or even look at us with a frown."

 

It turns out that God prefers smile emojis too. 

 

Another verse he felt uncomfortable with was about abominations. After a search I found a seemingly random list of infractions. Eating eagles? Insects? Consuming a peace offering on the third day? I stepped back into the reassurance that God does not rage, or punish, or scowl. I confess that I put forth no insights for this conundrum. 

 

Maybe God is asking me to take time to ponder. My thoughts were bending, though I hoped they would not break. How does a merciful God jive with these claims about enslavement, and being abominable? Another passage, less cloudy than the ones in Leviticus, shed some light. 

 

"The temptations in which a man overcomes are attended with a belief that all others are more worthy than himself."

 

So that is one benchmark I can look for. If I feel humbled, as opposed to entitled, I am making progress. The passage went on to offer an alternative to insanity.

 

"The thoughts which the man has had in temptations are those to which can be bent the thoughts which he has after the temptations; and if the latter cannot be bent to the former, the man has either yielded in the temptation, or he again comes into similar ones, and sometimes into more grievous ones, until he has been reduced to such sanity that he believes he has merited nothing." Secrets of Heaven 2273, Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Perhaps my reluctance to offer answers is actually a good sign.