So many of us have learned that, in spiritual community, disagreement is a problem. We're supposed to be positive. Be loving. Anything else is ego. But what if complete agreement is not actually what love requires? In this Sunday Gathering sermon, we share a message called "Rethinking Disagreement in Spiritual Community," where we explore a powerful question: Is disagreement really unspiritual—or have we misunderstood what love looks like when something isn't right? If you've ever felt the tension between being loving and being honest, this message is for you.

Want to join us for a Sunday Gathering? Access is included with a Course Companions membership.

References: The Strange Taboo Against Disagreeing https://circleofa.org/library/the-strange-taboo-against-disagreeing/ The Chain of Miscreation https://acimce.app/book/Cameo-14#Cameo-14:1

3Chapter 9, Section III The Correction of Errors: 2 When you correct a brother, you are telling him he is wrong. ²He may be making no sense at the time, and it is certain that if he is speaking from the ego, he will be making no sense. ³But your task is still to tell him he is right. ⁴You do not tell him this verbally if he is speaking foolishly, because he needs correction at another level, since his error is at another level. ⁵He is still right, because he is a Son of God. ⁶His ego is always wrong, no matter what it says or does. [CE T-9.III.2])

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Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links

What if one of Christianity's core teachings is actually holding people back from love? In this episode of Exploring A Course in Miracles, Emily and Robert Perry sit down with Brian Recker, author of Hell Bent, to explore how the doctrine of hell shapes belief, behavior, and our image of God—and why it undermines a truly love-based spirituality. Brian shares his journey from a fundamentalist upbringing to becoming an evangelical pastor to ultimately questioning the fear-based theology he once preached. Together, they discuss the lingering impact of early religious conditioning, the hidden role hell still plays in modern Christianity, and what it could look like to rebuild the Christian story on a foundation of love.

___________________________

Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links

Everywhere we look in our world there are so many tragedies it's easy to ask, "Where is God in all of this?" Does He even know about our suffering and, if He does, why doesn't He do more? These are the questions that cut right to the heart of our deepest doubts and struggles with religion and spirituality. But this is also where A Course in Miracles can help, because the Course offers a series of teachings that - when you put them together - provide an answer to this long-standing question that actually makes sense. If you've ever wondered how a loving God could allow so much pain, you won't want to miss this Sunday Gathering message from Emily Perry.

___________________________

Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links

In this episode of Exploring A Course in Miracles, Robert and Emily explore the meaning of Holy Week through the lens of A Course in Miracles. Holy Week marks the final days of Jesus' life—from his entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to the crucifixion on Good Friday, to the resurrection on Easter Sunday. It's a week that didn't just shape Christianity—it changed the course of human history. But what does it mean for us now? In this conversation, we explore:

• The deeper spiritual meaning behind the events of Holy Week
• How A Course in Miracles reinterprets the crucifixion and resurrection
• What it looks like to live these teachings in your own life

___________________________

Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links

In this episode of Exploring A Course in Miracles, Robert and Emily Perry explore an often overlooked dimension of the Course's history: the influence of Black voices and Black religious culture. Recorded during Black History Month, this conversation brings forward connections that have rarely been discussed in the Course community. From Helen Schucman's early spiritual formation in a Harlem Baptist church to the appearance of African American cultural influences within the Course itself, the episode uncovers surprising threads woven into the story of A Course in Miracles. Among the topics discussed:

• The profound influence of Idabel, the Black Baptist housekeeper who helped shape Helen Schucman's early spiritual life
• How an African proverb entered the Course through a remark by an elevator operator
• The connection between the Course and James Weldon Johnson, a Harlem Renaissance writer and civil rights leader
• Helen Schucman's poem "Glory Train," inspired by the tradition of Black spirituals
• What the teachings of A Course in Miracles may offer in conversations about equality, healing, and spiritual liberation

This episode also reflects on the unique way the Course presents a vision of radical spiritual equality—a vision that rejects hierarchy and affirms that everyone without exception is equal in God's eyes.

___________________________

Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links

In this sermon, Emily Perry explores the difference between true forgiveness and spiritual denial. When Course ideas like "this world is an illusion" or "there is nothing to forgive" are used casually, they can sound like avoidance—or even cruelty—in the face of real suffering. So how do we hold the Course's lofty metaphysics without bypassing pain, suppressing emotions, or dismissing injustice? Drawing on key passages from the Text and Workbook, Emily offers a practical three-stage framework that is an invitation into a mature, grounded spirituality: one that looks directly at what hurts, refuses to camp in it, and opens to the Holy Spirit's genuine healing.

___________________________

Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links

Overeating and food addiction are often hidden struggles—wrapped in shame, secrecy, and the exhausting cycle of "this will fix it" followed by guilt. Drawing on restored material from Helen Schucman's notes in the Complete and Annotated Edition of A Course in Miracles, Robert and Emily Perry explore the one powerful passage in the Course that directly mentions overeating—and what it reveals about the "scarcity fallacy." This episode is for anyone who has ever felt stuck, ashamed, or alone around food—and for anyone facing any form of addiction.

___________________________

Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links

In a time when empathy is increasingly being framed as a weakness—even a danger—this sermon asks a deeper question: what happens to us when we stop listening to one another's pain? Drawing on current cultural trends and the teachings of A Course in Miracles, Emily Perry explores the difference between conventional empathy, which often bonds us through shared suffering, and what the Course calls true empathy—a way of relating that does not join in pain but instead recognizes and strengthens the truth in one another. True empathy invites us to step aside and allow the Holy Spirit to relate through us, offering a form of compassion that heals without binding us to the past.

___________________________

Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links

In this episode of Exploring A Course in Miracles, Robert and Emily Perry explore one of the Course's most challenging and liberating teachings: love without sacrifice. Drawing especially from Chapter 15 of the Text, this conversation looks at how many of our relationships are quietly shaped by what the Course calls demands for sacrifice. We often believe that love means giving things up for one another—but according to the Course, this pattern can lead to resentment, guilt, hidden anger, and a cycle that keeps both people trapped.

Together, Emily and Robert unpack:

• How we unconsciously equate love with sacrifice
• Why sacrifice inevitably breeds resentment and guilt
• How guilt becomes the hidden currency in our relationships
• Why we demand that others not leave us—and what that costs us
• How this dynamic shows up in real relationships, including a moving story from the Circle community
• The Course's radical alternative: releasing others from our demands so that both can be free

The episode closes with a powerful practice from A Course in Miracles for releasing loved ones from our demands and stepping into relationships grounded in forgiveness rather than control. If you've ever felt burdened by your relationships—or sensed that something called "love" didn't actually feel very loving—this conversation offers a deeply hopeful way forward.

___________________________

Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links

In this Sunday Gathering sermon, "Choosing Love in Violent Times," Emily Perry draws on Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Birth of a New Age" sermon and A Course in Miracles to explore how love, forgiveness, and nonviolence can become powerful tools for personal and social transformation. This message reflects on King's call to reject bitterness, choose redemption over retaliation, and help bring forth a new world grounded in courage, spiritual maturity, and love.

We hope you'll plan to join us for our next Sunday Gathering. Access is included with a Course Companions membership.

___________________________

Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible.

Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world.

You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/

Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/

To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate.

*Amazon affiliate links