Malheur Wildlife Refuge – Earthly Religion

From Silly through Sad to Sensible?

February 14, 2016
Byron Carrier

Following on my earlier blog on Oregon Silliness, events dragged on, petered out and popped with the sad death of Robert Finicum. He may or may not have been shot reaching for his 45 in a tense stand-off. This was sad, but he's no martyr, and the tragedy should warn and redirect us all on the relevant issues. The impetus for outsiders to occupy the Malheur Wildlife Refuge was largely organized by Ammon Bundy, son of Cliven Bundy who had earlier (2014) mounted a tense…

January 11, 2016
Byron Carrier

Here in Oregon a group of armed men seized a remote federal wildlife refuge, some claiming they are patriots ready to kill and be killed protecting their freedom and land. How silly. They are angry because a father and son got longer prison sentences for arson, probably lit to cover up their poaching. What are the guns for? Do they intend to shoot the sheriff, or maybe the receptionist at the BLM, or anyone daring to object to their rude and childish tactics? In the…

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The dream of an Earthly Religion…

Earthly: our precious natural earth which allows us our bodies, lives, cultures and future.

Religion: from the old root words religare and religio, meaning “to bind back to the root and be whole again.” This does not assume we need to believe in God or the Bible. Rather, we should be well-related with our own bodies, each other, natural life, and natural existence as it actually is. If there is connection with divinity or God, it is in and through our bodies and beings that we relate primarily, not via scriptures, traditions, rituals, or supposed religious authorities. In short, by religion we mean “relating well with reality.”

The emphasis here is on the earthly. It is not an afterlife or an instead-of-life that interests us. Living well here on earth together does.

While we take our religious perspective and work seriously, we don’t want it to be stuffy. Too often, religions can be alien to the human condition rather than affirming of it. They can be demeaning and demoralizing, dull and bossy, ponderously pretentious. We lean more towards the fun and sexy, natural and lively, human and humane, thoughtful and pertinent.

Reality: the obvious and inescapable stuff of physical existence. We intend to enjoy and tend our lives in these bodies, for our time, in our cultures, for our singular and interrelated ecosystem. There may be more, but there is AT LEAST THIS of which we are born, in which we live, and into which we will die.

God or no-God is not the point; Earth is. Both believers and non-believers are welcome here, for we all share a common source, opportunity, and responsibility: life as it is and could be. This ranges from simply improving one’s own life to your helping save and restore Eden’s, not just to “sustain” it, but veering it to thrive as never before. If you value your life, each other’s, and Earth’s – welcome!

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