Is it really Love? Spiritual Way of the Six Loves

When we are ultimately loyal to a process of spiritual transformation, how does this reflect on our loyalty to individuals? In this episode, we look at how our lack of awareness of the false self can leave us open to being manipulated by unscrupulous leaders of any kind. This lack of awareness had lead to many bad conseqeunces in the past. How do we undo it?

To see more of Craig's books and music go to www.craigowen.net

How does our ultimate loyalty to spiritual transformation inform our other loyalties? In this episode, we will look at loyalty to institutions and loyalty to beliefs and groups who share our beliefs. While institutions and groups who share our beliefs are important, when we depend on them too much for identity and a sense of purpose, trouble can easily arise. Our ultimate loyalty to spiritual transformation can give us a larger perspective and greater sense of purpose that can keep us from blind loyalty and corrupt righteous anger regarding institutions, beliefs and groups.

To see more of Craig's music, books and photos go to www.craigowen.net

In this episode, we finally have an answer to our question, to what are we ultimately loyal. Consideration is given to a problem we all struggle with: the willingness to say and do anything to hold onto our pride, power and privilege. To counter this problem, we must commit to a process of spiritual transformation, and this is to what we are ultimately loyal. [In episodes 12,13 and 40-52 I explain in detail how this works]. How this ultimate commitment affects our other loyalties will be the topic of the next episode.

To see more about Craig's books and music, go to www.craigowen.net

I suggest three boundaries that we should look for to avoid crossing into corrupt righteous anger. First, we look at the admonition "love your enemies and pray for those who oppose you." What does that really mean? Second, that no political view, religious or ethical belief can enirely fit every situation we encounter. And finally, the most important of the three, "the worst kind of evil is evil that ALMOST makes sense." After exploring these three boundaries, we are ready to answer the question, to what are we ultimately loyal? We will answer that in the next episode.

To see more of Craig's books and music go to www.craigowen.net

We look at the three steps that lead from righteous anger to corrupt righteous anger. Nahum illustrates all three steps. We also look at the book of Jonah, which might have been written as a counterpoint to Nahum. Jonah shares the same mindset as Nahum: the Assyrians must be destroyed. But with Jonah, God wants him to go to preach to the Assyrians in their capital of Nineveh. How serious are Nahum and Jonah about their faith? Have they added nationalism to their faith, making it equal to or more important than their faith? Do we add things to our faith- loyalty to an institution, political ideology or social group-making it equal to or more important than our faith?

In the next episode we will look at what boundaries we should look at to avoid falling into corrupt righteous anger. To learn more about Craig's books and music, go to

www.craigowen.net

When does righteous anger go bad? In this episode we will look at an example of corrupt righteous anger. Looking at a passage from the Hebrew prophet Nahum, there are major differences between his version of righteous anger and what we saw in Amos and Jeremiah. There is no hope of renewal, no concern about the poor in Nahum, only hatred and a desire for the complete destruction of those whom he views as the enemy. How does one cross the line from righteous anger to corrupt righteous anger? We will look at the details in the next episode.

To see craig's books and music go to www.craigowen.net

What is righteous anger? What is unique about it? These are the questions we will look at in this episode. In examining an example of righteous anger from the Hebrew prophets, we see to what that anger is related. Most of all, what is the source of the moral urgency in the righteous anger of the Hebrew prophets? This brings us to one of the most important questions in these episodes: How does righteous anger go bad? How we answer that question will help us sort out to what are we ultimately loyal, the topic of the next episode. To see more of Craig's books and music, go to

www.craigowen.net

In this episode we are taking a new direction. We start with the challenge that the Book of Revelation makes, Who is your God?, or To what are we ultimately loyal? The theme that will tie together the next few episodes is: Loyalty without integrity leads to fanaticism and idolatry. Exploring what this statement means, we look at the Hebrew prophets' ideal of integrity and the values that support that ideal. If you have read any of the Hebrew prophets, you will notice many angry words from the prophets about not living up to their ideal of integrity. This leads us to two questions: what is righteous anger? Is it good or bad? We will consider these questions in the next episode.

To see more about Craig's books and music, go to www.craigowen.net

In this episode we will wrap up our study of the Book of Revelation. What is the basic message of Revelation, especially to us today in the 21st century? It presents us with two challenges: 1) Don't mistake the ephemeral for the eternal and 2) Who is your God? or put another way, to what are we ultimately loyal? This episode will explore challenge 1). What is the one of the biggest challenges facing us today that the Book of Revelation points out? Challenge #2): too many people are giving their blind loyalty to the wrong things. The result? Factionalism that paralyzes us, keeping us from solving major problems. In following episodes we will explore to what are we ultimately loyal? And how can we tell if our loyalty is misplaced?

To see more of Craig's books and music, go to www.craigowen.net

In the last episode I suggested what was the real message and spirituality of the book of Revelation. It is NOT telling us to be passive, waiting for God to intervene in history as all kinds of horrible things happen to the earth. The author of Revelation copied heavily from the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Both Daniel and Revelation were written to religious groups who were being persecuted and oppressed. Both books allegedly predict all kinds of terrible things that will occcur. What actually happened in history after both books were written? We will find that history supports the real meaning of Revelation that I suggested last time.

Next time we will look at what might be the biggest threat facing us in the 21st century.

For more information on my book Why Are We Here? on which this series is based, go to my website at

http://www.craigowen.net