Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, January 1, 2009


By religion, then, I understand a propitiation or conciliation
of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and
control the course of nature and of human life.

- Sir James George Frazer, anthropologist & author
(“The Golden Bough”), born on this day, 1854


Nope. If Frazer believed this, he got it dead wrong. He was, however, probably correct if he was reporting what many/most people of his time believed “religion” was. And he might very well be correct in 2009, given what I see when I look around the World in general!

I have been a Christian for over 45 years. And a priest of the Episcopal Church for over 35. I remember being a little Gay boy of 10, running through the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church, Verdun, Quebec, pausing in awe before the altar, sensing “God” was there. But remember, this was a French Roman Catholic culture – and my father had been raised a Roman Catholic. I lived in a “religious” culture that preached that stuff about “God” being ready to gunch you for your sins – a “God” who needed to be “propitiated” and “conciliated”. But I knew, intuitively, at age 10, that this was NOT God. I knew – I don’t know why, but I believe it to be the work of the Mystery of the Spirit - that God loved me as I was, indeed that I was God’s creation. If anything would convince me that “God” exists, this would.

I say this, decades later: “God” – however “God” came to exist in the human mind and heart – has no need or desire to be “propitiated” or “conciliated”. None at all. God has no desire or need to be “superior” - the story of Jesus proves this. Nor to “direct the course of human nature”.

God only desires to be a Companion, helping us through Life, being an inner Teacher (Rabbi). We despair, God holds and whispers Hope. We screw up, God forgives at the barest indication of our regret, and encourages us to get on with Life. We collapse, God lifts us up. We doubt our worth, God lavishes us with glory and praise. God has no desire to direct or control – this is not Godlike, at least not the God of the Gospel I “know”.

It’s 2009. It’s time for us all to change. I wish us all to know this “God”. The God of Compassion, Justice, Equality, Peace, Tenderness, Companionship, Faithfulness.

May this “God” fill your Life – and our World – in 2009.

Brian+