Handling erroneous faiths

I am going to write here important advice about wisdom and discernment. The topic is when unorthodox treatment of a mental or mindset disorder may be appropriate but it does NOT mean it is a valid treatment to be used on ANYONE else. And it certainly should not be codified as a health, spiritual or religious belief. Let me start with an example of good mindset with good intention gone awry.

A few months ago the Asian Indian girl who was born with extra arms and legs came to the attention of the global media. Science had progressed to the point where today people understand that the cause of this bodily deformity was the presence in the womb of a twin sister who became only partially absorbed into the viable fetus that would become this little girl. She is a beautiful child and is loved by many and received good care. Some in India thought she was the reincarnation or manifestation of a many limbed goddess from their Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses. They point to drawings and sculptures of this goddess. Her parents however recognize that she is a little girl who is entitled to a chance at life and so they sought her surgery and received it (bless the hearts of those who donated their services in obtaining and giving this surgery).

Now here is what I want to teach you. Did it occur to anyone that the reason there was in the Hindu pantheon a multi-limbed goddess is that long ago a human child like this girl was born too? Many thousands of years ago in primitive times, when Sanskrit and the Hindu faith was still in the future, a little girl with these limbs would have been born. In those times a deformed child might have been killed, or at the very least, allowed to die as she could not procure food, work, or migrate on need as all peoples in that time had to do. Yet in their great kindness and insight, for some reason her family, clan and village would have designated her as “sacred.” By recognizing even through their eyes who did not yet have a scripture or dialogue with God that all people are children of God, this child was saved from death, and tended to lovingly during her natural life, by her people who called her a goddess. It is remembrance of this historical fact and event that informed the Hindu pantheon and scriptures. So this is an example of where God would certainly “approve” that they thought this little girl was a goddess rather than calling her a demon or deformed un-human and abandoning her to death, or kill her outright. God would have approved the mindset that was needed in order to save the life of this one girl. God would also have approved the mindset that allowed the recognition that all people, even one deformed, come from God. So in this one situation the people, while factually in error because they could not understand their own biology, of course, discerned a correct EMOTIONAL and SPIRITUAL response. And it would have been great if people remembered this story as one of the great first kindnesses in human history. But the problem is that it became codified in a false tangent in faith where as memory of this deed was passed down (and heard by neighboring villages who did not actually witness the reality) this became a one correct solution turned into an incorrect perception for many. It became a legitimate encounter with God and early human kindness that turned into what humans always seem to seek to do, a formula.

Let me make an aside for further perspective. Years ago researchers found Neanderthal bones that gave them a huge insight. They found bones of a man who would have been adult in age but with crippling deformations that he would have had either from birth or for many years. Yet he survived in a time when “only the strongest survived.” They were able to have for the first time indirect proof that Neanderthals “took care of an injured man for years.” Now, imagine if things had gone along the lines of the event I described above. Today’s Homo sapiens might now believe a myth or a religious tenet about the broken limbed god who traveled with his fellow gods even as he could not walk or eat properly. Instead, through science humans learned a wonderful chapter about their ancient history through the factual evidence of bones; evidence that informed folks today about the hearts of our Neanderthal ancestral cousins.

So just as with the little girl who would have lived long time ago with multiple limbs, and who was revered and tended to by her village, this Neanderthal man would have been either born with defects or obtained injuries in his life, yet was tended to by his kin.

Both of these events inform humanity about love of God and love of neighbor. The problem is not with the deeds that these people performed to save their loved ones, even if there had been more to it than just love of family and kindness. The problem is the mindset of subsequent humans who try to apply what is good for the one into a formulaic process. It is human nature; during those times people were very much at the mercy of the elements of weather and of the ability to find food and shelter. They sought to understand what was beyond their control. They assigned gods to different elements and different actions of humans. It was only when the true one God revealed himself to Abraham’s ancestors, from Adam through Moses that the face of God started to be understood. But as Pope Benedict XVI has commented people have sought God throughout the world at all times, and have legitimately found various aspects of God in their faiths. I would explain to you that the people who tended to the little girl in India a long time ago correctly discerned that she was “of God” (though in truth not a god) and that “love of neighbor” was more important than superstition and fear of a poor deformed child. I think disability rights people of today would recognize exactly what I am speaking about. Everyone is a child of God, a gift of God with a soul and hope of eternal life born within him or her, and love of neighbor is how one demonstrates love of God with one another.

So the problem is that people tend to take great flashes of insight and turn them into formulas for control and for evading the simpler but truer meaning of the encounter with God. India ended up developing the cruelest of caste systems among humanity that ever existed. India codified people who lived and loved, and the issues of people in conflict, into their faith and into occult arcane practices such as astrology. Rather than, as Christianity did, take the events and teachings of Jesus and have them inform the emerging modern social structure, a child with a deformity would become a multi-limbed goddess, and their encounter with God would have been misunderstood as a one time event (a goddess avatar appeared on earth) rather than part of an anti-caste belief system of mercy. This is why the message of the early Apostle Thomas and disciples did find root in a small part of India, because people recognized the liberation of belief in one God with infinite mercy for all people, not just by caste, and not bound by human actions and the movement of some rocks around the sun. But this is also why Christianity was severely oppressed and limited, because once a human power structure is in place people are loath to give it up. People were wrapped in the chains of polytheism, idolatry, astrology and the most oppressive caste system that ever existed in humanity. The worst slave in Rome was better treated than the lowest caste member, who ended up there from sheer birth.

So what do people do? They do the best they can and deal with the cards that they are dealt (and I don’t mean tarot cards, I am just using the old West expression that you do the best you can with the circumstances and tools that you are given). This is why when advising friends or acquaintances who are set within their erroneous but strongly felt belief system it is sometimes correct and valid to utilize the best of the erroneous beliefs to get them out of the jam. But it should be done with the recognition that this is a ONE TIME prescription for a specific case, rather than an endorsement of an erroneous set of beliefs. Here are some examples.

I was pleased to learn years ago that Indian youth who are chained by their parents’ astrology, caste and reincarnation/karma beliefs have “within the system” some remedies. As a Christian I cannot just walk into a family and tell them that everything they believed is bunk. Even if that was not rude (and interfering with the solo journey that all must make in finding God) I could not convince anyone in time to save a given situation. If Indians prohibit their children from marrying because “an astrologer told them that their first spouse would bring bad luck to the patriarch of the family” then how could I convert the entire family to Christianity and tell them to abandon their belief while the children where still young enough to marry? (And perhaps it would take so long that the Second Coming of Christ would already have occurred ha ha). You do the best with what you are dealt and are as respectful with the people as possible. So this is why I have no problem with a young Indian male or female “marrying a tree (that is not going to have a long life, if you know what I mean)” if that then satisfies the erroneous family and the sorcery workers that this was the “first marriage.” The problem is actually believing that astrology predetermines human free will and actions. But you must understand that these people are so small in their faith of one God that they will “make” their dire beliefs come true if ignored. They will engage in either unconscious self fulfilled prophecy or conscious sabotage in order to regain the control. They will make the bride’s life miserable and blame her for everything if the children did not find an “out” such as the boy marrying a tree first. So I was comfortable with recommending that as a remedy when these cases arise. However the “faith” is so infested with control and error (remember the caste system, by the fruit so shall you know the tree) that it is very difficult to be reasonable with these people. I learned you can’t “out astrology” them by pointing out that they are only looking at “bad signs” and ignoring the many, many more “good signs.”

My hope is that this little girl who recently had the surgery can help to give some wisdom to people chained in erroneous prejudice and oppression. Yes, God visited and loved the Indian people long ago, but he did not do it by sending an avatar or goddess of a huge pantheon to act out human love, drama and war on earth. You do not have to throw scripture and wisdom away in order to clear your eyes and ears and see the truth of what happened and how God shed grace everywhere, even if later that grace was misunderstood and worse, contorted for oppression.

This is why I am not against arranged marriages if done kindly and in circumstances where otherwise a marriage might not take place. In the modern “natural selection” of social combat, how many people will ever get married if they are compared against a Bollywood star, or Beyonce? Was it so wrong that some societies evolved a system where everyone had a spouse and potential for children, so that no one would be alone? Where those circumstances still exist, why not have arranged marriage? But where they do not exist, is it not time to let go of it? Because as I demonstrated above it is not kindness and love that drive the interpretations of astrologers and marriage advisors in arranged (aka manipulated) marriages.

So there are times that the only thing a person can do is marry a tree just to shut up the people who do not have godly mindsets, true wisdom and kindness in their hearts. Though the success rate is small so long as those people are in their lives. What happens to the child when the child is “born in the wrong caste or under a ‘bad sign’?” I have been totally comfortable with biting my tongue and advising people within the strictures of their own profane beliefs if the larger goal is legitimate happiness and authenticity. But I have to be honest with you, brothers and sisters, I’ve seen very poor outcome of that open mindedness on my part.