Let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves what was wrong with the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool before the taxpayers foot the $14.2 million bill to renovate and repaint the bottom of the pool, a shade called American flag blue?

Was this something we would agree was the best and most effective use of taxpayers’ dollars? I am pretty sure that any one of us with common sense the size of a mustard seed would agree that it was not only a waste but another unnecessary desecration of a long-standing legacy that preceded this current administration of narcissistic psychopaths.

We witnessed the destruction of the rose garden, the construction of a ballroom for a person who will not be staying in that house much longer, and, let us not forget, the gladiator match on the lawn. Expense after expense after wasteful and unnecessary expense

All while we witness the various cutbacks to healthcare, education, and more.

For years, we have applied hydrogen peroxide to the edges of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. We have not done the actual work to address the algae (consciousness) that creates these things. It was easier to convince ourselves that we had arrived at the land of milk and honey, where there is more diversity and greater access for everyone. Where there is far less hate of the LGBTQ community. We convinced ourselves that the Jim Crow consciousness was behind us. And guess what: the algae not only showed up but has made it impossible for the critical thinkers to look away and deny its presence.

A - Amoral

L - Leaders

G - Gaslighting

A - Americans

E – Every Day

You may be asking yourself what my point is and what this has to do with metaphysics and spirituality. I will answer by citing one of the statements from the Centers for Spiritual Living Global Vision:

Everything about this current administration is the antithesis of this vision and of any actions that would bring about its manifestation. That being the case, is it not time for all of New Thought to come together and work together to synergize, strategize, organize, and materialize a new way of being, as stated above?

Why are so many of us afraid to draw a line in the sand and make our position clear? If a Ku Klux Klan member wanted to attend my center, would I not be expected to speak up? If they are truly there to evolve and relinquish the consciousness and practices of the KKK, that is one thing, but if they feel welcome to remain a card-carrying member of the Klan who is tithing to the place they call their spiritual home, is there not some kind of misalignment being demonstrated?

As a minister, is it not my duty and responsibility to address New Thought principles and values and what that means to those who hold ideologies that express racism, ableism, sexism, homomisia, transmisia, Islamomisia, xenomisia, and more? Why would I not only choose the path of least resistance and codependency because they are a high-tithing individual, but also sacrifice my own moral standing in the movement by being complicit in my silence?

I will not draw a line in the sand. My line is etched in stone, molded in concrete, and forged in steel. I will not align myself with anyone who still supports this current administration of death, decay, destruction, and desecration of our democracy.

Either we are actively manifesting a world that works for all, or we are merely pretending to do so. How many people need to die before it is enough? How much corruption do we need to witness and endure before we have had enough?

I chose to be a minister of a liberation theology, not a theology of metaphysical masturbation, and not a minister who massages the fragile egos of the politically, ethically, and morally confused or corrupt.

Now is the time to draft the blueprints for the world we say we envision creating!

Are you ready and willing to draw a line?

Are you ready to have those hard conversations?

Even if it means receiving less tithe money?

Hmmmm……

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of his newest book, Your E.K.G. [Embodied Knowingness of God]: A New Approach to Understanding and Applying the Mental Equivalent

and the previous two:

Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

Subscribe to his YouTube Channel

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I recently watched a video by Dr. Raquel Martin in which what she said about fear and resilience landed hard in the center of my chest. During my second session with my psychiatrist, he mentioned how resilient I am. This is something my therapist also said. As someone who not only knows trauma quite personally but also knows all the relatives, I am accustomed to fear, pain, anxiety, abandonment, and grief. Or so I thought...

On June 3rd, I was struck by a kind of grief that has shattered me inside and out in a way I did not know was possible.

Many who know me know that I once had five sons. That was until one of them, for unknown reasons, chose to sever that connection. This left four. Then the younger two grew into their own lives, with wives, kids, and work. All of that was to be expected. What was not expected was the extent of the disconnection that followed. This left me with the first two, who have been my sons for close to forty years. Then the second also decided to stop speaking after I told him something I had always thought he knew about how certain people in his life conspired in the 90s to bully me out of his life. And then on June 3rd, my oldest son died.

As I sat in the hospital room, holding his cold hand and breaking down, my mind and heart could not reconcile themselves with what had happened. I could feel myself resisting, wanting it to be a dream, or, more accurately, a nightmare.

Even during the initial private preview viewing for my daughter-in-law, my son’s mom, and one of his sisters, when we were expected to tell the funeral director whether he looked as we wanted him to, I could distinctly feel a part of me actively resisting what my eyes were telling me. The next day, during the private family viewing, followed by the public viewing and the repast afterward, everything felt like a series of surreal events in which I knew what was going on but did not want it to be. And once all of that was done, I was able to sleep soundly that first night, but not since. I have been keeping my mind occupied by working on future Sunday message PowerPoints, creating and working on art, writing the next book, and anything that gives my mind something to do besides remembering that my son is dead and the others are gone.

There is a segment of the New Thought population that bypasses the deep, dark, gritty, and visceral emotions. There are also those who offer comfort by resorting to anthropomorphic concepts of God. I am sharing this to encourage all of us to feel the fullness of whatever we feel.

Sidenote: Ensure that you have the support of a professional if necessary, because the often-stated aphorism that “God does not give us more than we can handle” is incorrect in multiple ways.

God is not giving us anything to handle because God is not an anthropomorphic deity. Zeus gave, Odin gave, and Ra gave humans tests, trials, tasks, and more.

Many people break under the weight, stress, and strain of daily living. We all have a breaking point, which is why it is critical for us to be aware of our emotional intelligence and to have access to effective tools to manage and regulate our minds, bodies, emotions, and spirits. Metaphysical malpractice and metaphysical malfeasance are not the paths to healing.

As I write this, looking at the button and the container that will hold his cremains once he has been cremated, ….

I feel a kaleidoscope of emotions that shifts with every pause, memory, and reflection. The bright, vibrant colors are painfully beautiful in ways that defy description. As I continue my spiritual practices, I feel it all while giving myself the space and grace to simply be where I am and feel what I feel.

Is there something going on in your life that invites you to do the same? Is there someone you love that you have not spoken to in a while? A visit you have been putting off?

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of his newest book, Your E.K.G. [Embodied Knowingness of God]: A New Approach to Understanding and Applying the Mental Equivalent

and the previous two:

Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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Every day that I go on one or more of my social media platforms, I see someone engaging with me or another New Thought leader by saying that political topics, discussions, and posts have no place on spiritual pages or in spiritual groups.

I see people in New Thought who are Republicans referencing things to say that New Thought is welcoming and friendly as long as you are a Democrat.

Let’s be clear. This is not an issue of spirituality or politics, nor is it an issue of party affiliations in a theology that says God is all there is.

If God is all there is, then It must also be in the realm of politics, and It must be incarnating in all of the people across all of the various political, apolitical, and nonpolitical affiliations.

The fifth line of the Centers for Spiritual Living Global Vision reads, “We envision a world where personal responsibility joins with social conscience in every area of the political, corporate, academic, and social sectors, providing sustainable structures to further the emerging global consciousness.”

How can we manifest a world that works for all if we abstain from involvement in, discussion of, and action in the spaces stated in the above quote?

This brings us to the real issue with this binary thinking. It is not about spiritual or political, and it is not about Republican or Democrat. The question is what our values are.

Are we voting for and supporting candidates who align with the values of New Thought? Do we even know what those values are well enough to communicate them, when many of us cannot explain what New Thought is?

While New Thought may not be classified as a “Christian” religion, we most certainly align with the values espoused by Yeshua (Jesus), do we not? While we may not quote the Bible like our Christian siblings, do we not agree with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), which offers an example of kindness to a stranger?

Do we not agree with the Golden Rule, which says, “Treat others as you want to be treated” (Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31), and with Jesus’s message of Love Thy Neighbor? And note that this is a call to action for us to move away from transactional goodness toward being proactive in our goodness and treatment of others. Is that not aligned with our New Thought values?

And let us not forget the parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46), where Jesus calls followers to care for, protect, help, and serve those who are vulnerable, what we today would call marginalized. Do we not agree that it is right to show compassion, empathy, and concern for those who are mistreated, oppressed, and harmed?

There is corruption, greed, manipulation, and criminality occurring in all of the political parties, just as there is in spiritual, theological, and religious affiliations and paths. Deepak Chopra, Sadhguru, Mel Robbins, Jay Shetty, James Arthur Ray, and others are among those accused of inappropriate and, in many instances, criminal activity.

So I reiterate that this is not a question about what is spiritual and what is not, or what is political and what is not…

If there is a binary question we are being asked, it is what aligns with our values and what does not.

Do we align with the values of war, book banning, eliminating healthcare, structural and systemic racism, homomisia, transmisia, Islamomisia, Xenomisia, and what is espoused by Christian Nationalists (which are also aligned with White Supremacist organizations)?

If we do, then be bold enough to say so and stop hiding behind quotes from Dr. Ernest Holmes, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, or any other New Thought founding voice!

But if we do not, then be bold enough to stand for the values of New Thought, not the party; the ethics of New Thought, not the person we have placed on a pedestal; and the morals of New Thought, not the cultist ideologies.

A world that works for all will never be realized if we are unwilling to enter the operating room of consciousness to excise malignant beliefs and habituated behavior.

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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If I had a dollar for every time I have heard someone say, “I don’t do politics,” or “New Thought should not mention,” or “ministers should not mention,” or that a certain Facebook page or group is not the place for politics… I could retire a wealthy man.

If I had to guess, I would say that what these people actually mean is that we should not take sides.

What sides are they not wanting people to take or address? Are we not focusing more on values and ethics than on a particular political party affiliation? Wrong is wrong, no matter who the perpetrator is or what their political affiliation is.

While it is a generalization to say that all Republicans are racists, sexists, and homophobes, what reinforces that generalization is the lack of Republican voices and presence speaking out against policies and other measures that target certain demographics.

But that is only one small part of the issue. The deeper issue is that New Thought people, specifically, seem to think that we should not be talking about politics AT ALL, which tells me that they do not understand what politics are.

How are we to avoid talking about politics when nearly everything in our lives is governed by it?

Potholes, building permits, food regulations, taxes, and the school curriculum are just a few examples of things directly or indirectly influenced by politics. How can anyone say that spirituality should not mention politics?

How is speaking out against genocide deemed political rather than our moral and ethical duty?

What do we in New Thought actually value?

We claim to value life, love, and peace. Then why are we not speaking about those values in the context where they are being denied because of war, corruption, greed, and hatred?

I challenge those of us in New Thought to ask ourselves, if we were to see a neighbor’s house on fire, would we:

A) pray and not call 911

B) call 911, then pray

C) call 911 while being in a state of prayerfulness during the call

D) close the curtains and go back to bed because it was their consciousness that manifested the fire, and it was part of their soul contract

Many in New Thought would have the movement be spiritually impotent, much like the Christianity of the plantation owners, which beat submission into the people they trafficked and shackled into what we refer to as chattel slavery. Christianity told the people who were enslaved to be happy and content with their condition. It was the will of God, after all.

Is that what New Thought is? If so, it needs to remain a secret because it is a path that causes more harm than good.

If that is what New Thought is, we need to stop preaching and teaching peace on Earth and love for all, because what we demonstrate is the opposite of that, as we value silence over liberation.

We cannot create a world that works for all by avoiding political issues and discussions in which we are invited to elevate and evolve the current political modes of operation.

So I invite all of us to begin having those difficult, honest conversations while remaining rooted in principle.

Anyone with even an ounce of willingness will see this threat unfolding in real time, day after day! What did the Supreme Court just do regarding voting rights? What has DeSantis done regarding PRIDE celebrations? What is happening across the country regarding healthcare, gender-affirming care, bathrooms, sports, and more?

How much is enough for you?

Is that a knock at the door of your house, ICE agents coming for you because you are a woman, LGBTQ+, Neurodivergent, not a Christian Nationalist, … first they came for them, us, and finally they came for you as well.

How much is enough?

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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In light of several recent events, ranging from the Deepak revelations and the censorship of Stephen Colbert to the BAFTA and BBC F&%$ up and the daily political stressors from this current administration, it is important for those in New Thought to be honest about how the theology impacts and influences people in our communities in unintentionally adverse ways.

In reading the above quote, would you interpret that to mean you, I, or anyone should not be against racism? What about sexism? Homophobia and Transphobia? Are we not to be against the trafficking of women and children?

While respecting Mother Teresa for her position, are we not capable of discerning what it means to hold space for both/and?

Can we not be for peace and against war at the same time? Can we do what firefighters do, doing what needs to be done to quell the flames while also working to save people and prevent the spread of the fire?

Are we so myopic in our approach and practice of New Thought that we naively believe that by ignoring the news, we are actually solving the problems of the world?

Are we so privileged that we can dismiss another person’s lived experiences by telling them that life is an illusion and that this is what they agreed to in their Soul Contract?

New Thought churches and centers are no different from the various churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques in that the people who attend are human beings and, as such, experience all the things people experience, including mental health crises, narcissism, toxic masculinity, erroneous theological understandings, and more.

There are racists, sexists, transphobes, and more attending New Thought churches and centers every week. Some of them are the ministers, leadership, Practitioners, Licensed teachers, chaplains, etc.

Being ordained, trained, or licensed does not, unfortunately, prevent us from having unresolved shadow. This is how Deepak Chopra ended up where he is now.

So why am I sharing this?

This is not an indictment of anyone or anything specific.

Wait, actually, it is. It is an indictment of the refusal to look beneath the surface and to keep New Thought “New”, i.e., ever-evolving.

I am sharing this in the hope that we begin having deeper conversations about what is oppressing, depressing, and repressing us, since these forces are preventing us from expressing a world that works for all.

Why are more of us in New Thought not concerned about the level of censorship that has surfaced under this administration? Especially considering that Christian Nationalism would mean the end of New Thought as we know it.

Why has the BAFTA and BBC incident become today’s shot heard round the world? Where is the deeper conversation about ableism, racism, disability, complicity, and the dismissal of trauma that this incident is screaming for us to have?

If we are going to continue to laud New Thought as the healing balm we claim it to be, we would be well served to apply that balm to the wounds that have been and continue to go untreated among many individuals, groups, and communities.

We cannot continue to use phrases we have been comfortable with, such as turning a blind eye, blind leading the blind, and the many others that make blindness synonymous with ignorance. That is covert ableism.

We cannot continue to ignore the people our centers, churches, and events are not open to.

We cannot continue to teach and promote the Law of Attraction and manifestation as if it’s all about cars, cribs, and cash. Not when people live and die in food deserts. No one should be treated as if they do not matter or as if their lived experiences do not matter. As awkward as it was for me to receive criticism recently, I listened to the young man as he accused me of throwing lightning bolts at people’s foreheads. I listened as he shared a childhood experience in which he was overwhelmed by kundalini after reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which, according to him, is a manual for awakening kundalini. I did not dismiss or invalidate him, his words, or his experiences. He appreciated being heard and seen.

It is easy to identify the shadows when the sun comes out and to point at them as the enemy or something to be rid of, when in reality we all have and cast a shadow under the right conditions. Our invitation is to begin seeing them even on cloudy and overcast days and to identify when and how they are harmful to ourselves and others. This means stepping into a bolder version of honesty, ethics, and transparency.

Yes, this is uncomfortable, but so is getting a root canal or a colonoscopy, both of which may be necessary for greater health and well-being!

How healthy are you willing to be?

That depends on how honest you are willing to be.

So I ask, how honest are you willing to be?

Are you sure?

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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What is oneness?

It depends on who you ask and how it is conceptualized and used. For example, in New Thought, we teach and speak of Oneness as the All There Is, i.e., God. We teach and speak of Oneness as that which is truth, whereas duality is not. Duality is a perception of the ego that divides into us and them, me and you, Black and White, Republican and Democrat, Good and Bad, etc., while Oneness transcends all such categories and the ways we divide and separate ourselves.

Still with me?

OK, the issue is that we become so myopic that we cannot perceive the nuance of the Both/And.

When I say the word “ice cream,” that is a single thing, an absolute, if you will. And yet I can also speak of the nuances that show up as flavors, textures, and ingredients, even though I am still talking about ice cream.

Humanity is a single thing, an absolute, yet there are nuances of size, color, shape, accent, religion, culture, languages, etc., and none of that changes the absolute reality of humanity.

Let’s pull back the covers even more.

If there is ONLY Oneness and there is NO duality, then why do we speak of up and down, left and right, inside and outside, wet and dry, hot and cold, cooked and raw?

If there is only Oneness to the point that everything and everyone is the same, why do we distinguish between cats and dogs, a hand and a foot, a heart and a liver, poisonous and nonpoisonous mushrooms?

If we can remain in Spiritual Principle and still speak in terms of Both/And while recognizing Oneness, then why can’t we apply that same logic to calling out racism, homomisia, and political corruption?

If we can identify a person as a murderer and still see and treat them as a human being with constitutional rights, why can’t we also see the Klansman as someone in need of healing and a shift in consciousness?

A physician can see the illness, injury, or disease without denying it by saying there is ONLY health and wellness. The patient believes they are bleeding. There is no shark bite and no injury. They need to focus on Oneness. In medicine, that is malpractice.

In New Thought, it is Metaphysical Malpractice, which often leads to Metaphysical Malfeasance.

Hitler rose to power because far too many were silent, and their silence was complicity, which emboldened his narcissistic psychopathy, and history has shown the evidence of his reign of terror.

For the sake of conversation, if I, as a New Thought minister, were alive during that era and in that location, would we, as a movement, suggest that my role and responsibility would be to ignore and simply pray? To not speak out because there is only God and God is Good? To encourage my congregation that Hitler and his antics are all an illusion and that we should focus on Oneness, peace, and love?

If the answer to that is yes, that is my role, then I have completely misunderstood what New Thought is as a Liberation Theology. If the answer to that is yes, then New Thought is no different from a large share of the White Christian Nationalists’ agenda.

I ask each of us to engage in serious soul-searching about what New Thought is and what it is not. If I, as a minister, kowtow to the Republican congregant simply to avoid angering them and having them stop attending and, therefore, stop tithing, then I am complicit in the harm occurring at the hands of that particular party. Just as I would be if it were Democrats causing harm. I am prostituting my ministry rather than being a prophetic voice that helps usher in a world that works for all.

And speaking of that vision, it does not mean that I or we are creating a world that works for the pedophile arsonist or warmonger. It means we heal the consciousness that creates such behavior and arrive at a new level of how we show up in life and in relationships.

If Oneness means I or you excuse ICE’s murders of anyone, then we are not truly practicing a spiritual path of love. We are not building the beloved community. We are not concerned with actual Oneness; we are concerned with selective Oneness.

If Oneness means I or you excuse harmful rhetoric about immigrants, then we are not truly practicing a spiritual path of love. We are not building the beloved community. We are not concerned with actual Oneness; we are concerned with selective Oneness.

If Oneness means excusing harmful rhetoric and policies toward the LGBTQIA community, whether by me or you, then we are not truly practicing a spiritual path of love. We are not building the beloved community. We are not concerned with actual Oneness; we are concerned with selective Oneness.

If Oneness means I or you support an administration that is causing harm in so many ways, then we are not truly practicing a spiritual path of love. We are not building the beloved community. We are not concerned with actual Oneness; we are concerned with selective Oneness.

So I ask, what does Oneness mean to you?

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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While I will discuss the mythology of “IT” as created by Stephen King, I will not include any major spoilers. However, I will explain what Pennywise the Dancing Clown, also known as IT, actually is.

If you are of a certain age, you will remember when teachers used overhead projectors and overlays, whereas now it’s PowerPoint and smartboard applications. No matter which era you come from, I ask you to imagine the current administration with all its people, policies, and poisonous actions. We will then overlay the visage, villainy, and venom of Pennywise. What do we uncover?

Both use manipulation to control, deceive, mislead, and wear people down, making them more vulnerable to the harm that lies ahead.

Both use “masks” to hide their “true” selves, motives, and darker desires. They become whatever they need to in order to conceal their identity or to manipulate, deceive, and scam anyone they must to reach their goals.

Behind Pennywise’s face are the deadlights, a cosmic force that is entirely malevolent and acts as a weapon to harvest victims’ fear, trap their souls, and feed on their terror for energy.

Behind the face of this current administration lies a consciousness of fear, lack, false superiority, greed, and trauma. We can easily see Project 2025 as a manifesto for everything I have listed. It is a document created by people who are terrified of losing the privilege they have gained through attempted genocide, oppression, segregation, lies, and bloodshed. We could review every speech from their first run for president up to recent statements on social media, press conferences, and more, and we would find the words of a troubled narcissistic psychopathic fearmonger who would eagerly commit a murder-suicide of democracy if given the chance.

Behind this administration, although we in New Thought do not believe in evil as a standalone force but see it as the result of misaligned free will, what we observe is a real-life version of the deadlights.

Like the protagonists in the novel and TV and film adaptations of IT, they succeed by facing the creature and confronting it by eliminating the one thing the creature used to weaken them: fear. They were able to remove their fear by understanding the creature’s nature and intention.

Do we understand the nature of this current political chaos within the collective consciousness and how it is playing out? How the chaos is being used to weaken our resolve as well as our ability to handle multiple issues at once? Or how systems like the current plantation of capitalism keep the status quo, the caste system, and other non-life-affirming structures operating exactly as they were designed?

Do we really want to know? Even when this knowledge might tempt us to bury our heads in the sand. Like the children of Derry, running and thinking we can hide from IT, we will not escape. Like the adults, IT manipulates us into a dull trance of ignorance where we can’t see what’s happening right in front of us.

Let’s be honest, many of us in New Thought are comfortable and content to stay in our kiddie pool of consciousness. A pool with little depth or breadth and only big enough for one person, because rugged individualism still dominates much of what we teach, believe, and practice.

When a sitting president says that another politician or any American citizen, for that matter, should be lynched because they stand in the way of obeying their orders (which are unconstitutional, by the way), we are deep in the heart of the beast, and IT, the deadlights, are shining right in front of us. There is no ignoring or fleeing, so the only way to live freely is to face IT.

It’s time to understand the nature of the collective emotional drive, mindset, and consciousness behind this distortion of politics and the citizenry that openly supports the cult to such an extent that many wear shirts saying they don’t care if he is a pedophile.

We cannot keep praying and treating only for individual health and well-being while ignoring the needs of others.

We can’t keep meditating on world peace from the comfort of our meditation cushions and yoga mats while many people can’t afford to eat today or pay rent next month.

We can’t keep pretending that New Thought is an amazing revolutionary philosophy, spiritual path, teaching, and practice when we’re hoarding it, hiding it away, and choosing to put the light of New Thought under a basket.

This begins with coming together to have conversations. We cannot change what we do not speak about. And I’ll do one better for those who still prefer the head-in-the-sand yoga posture: have in-depth conversations and discuss: “What is a world that works for all?” “What needs to be in place?” “What of the current world needs to change, evolve, be eliminated, replaced…?” “What is our role in this process?” [and please do not say to ONLY do our individual work…! 99% of what we have and how we live is not done solely by us, so let’s stop using that as an excuse.]

Let the conversations commence…

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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An educator, visual artist, performer, interpreter, author, lover of comics and film. Ordained minister, public speaker, workshop and seminar facilitator.

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Are you familiar with the Netflix show “Mindhunter?” https://www.netflix.com/br-en/title/80114855

The show follows FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench as they start what would become the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) in the early 1970s. They develop criminal profiling by studying, interviewing, documenting, and analyzing the minds of several serial killers. This research was their way of understanding why these individuals committed such heinous acts, hoping to use the information to catch and prevent future serial killers.

Partly because of the real-world BSU studies, we now know about serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Kenneth Bianchi, Dennis Rader, Joseph DeAngelo Jr., and Coral Eugene Watts.

My question for you is, would you invite any of them to dinner, move into your house, or live in your neighborhood? But what if they were working with the police in the city to help catch and prevent others like them? Would you feel safe knowing they were out and about, free to live their lives?

How safe do you feel knowing that the United States government did precisely that with many Nazis?

How well do you know the historical events when the Nazi regime fell?

Do you know what happened to the Nazis who survived the war?

Do you know how many of them came to the United States of America and were assimilated into the country?

Do you know what “Operation Paperclip” was?

What was done to ensure that they were “cured” of the dis-ease of Nazism?

How Thousands Of Nazis Were ‘Rewarded’ With Life In The U.S.

https://www.npr.org/2014/11/05/361427276/how-thousands-of-nazis-were-rewarded-with-life-in-the-u-s

Now, why am I mentioning this?

We are witnessing the implosion of the great experiment that is the United States as enemies from within devour, destroy, desecrate, and dismantle the progress, hopes, possibilities, vision, and lives of the people in the country. We are seeing a rise in White Christian Nationalism, Ku Klux Klan, and other white supremacy groups, as well as neo-Nazis, all conspiring to do what Hitler did and worse.

When New Thought ministers, practitioners, chaplains, licensed teachers, and other leaders fail or refuse to call out, call in, and call on others, we become part of the problem. Just as “Silence equals death” became a prominent rallying cry during the AIDS epidemic, the phrase responded to a widespread lack of public discussion, absence of government action, and near-zero community awareness, which directly led to more deaths.

This is not a time to give up in resignation and helplessness. Instead, we are called to follow the example of the Abolitionists, Suffragists, those who organized, registered voters, and took action during the Civil Rights era, as well as those who participated in the Gay Liberation movement before, during, and after Stonewall.

It’s time to apply what we teach and practice in New Thought by identifying the consciousness creating these non-life-affirming results and then taking action to heal the collective consciousness related to these effects we are experiencing. And yes, this involves working on ourselves, but we can work on our own freedom while also helping others. For too long, we have focused solely on the individual.

I have to work on my consciousness. I have to heal my life.

You have to work on your consciousness. You have to heal your life.

They have to work on their consciousness. They have to heal their lives.

Who is saying that WE have to work collectively on OUR consciousness and as the Beloved Community come together to heal OUR lives?

Personal Identity is part of what got us into this mess in the first place and it will take WE-dentity to move us into the experience of a world that works for all.

If none are free until all are free, what are we in New Thought doing to ensure that all are free? If the roots of the New Thought movement can be traced to the 1830s, and the roots of the ancient wisdom that became New Thought go much farther back in time, why have we not yet achieved planetary liberation, peace, and equity?

New Thought was developed within a recipe that included:

One cup of Rugged individualism

One cup of the Caste system

Quarter cup of Colonization

Quarter cup of White supremacy

One gallon of Capitalism

One box of Heteronormativity, Patriarchy, and Christianism

Baked at 1776 degrees for 249 years

And you have over 340.1 million servings of a system designed to harm, oppress, control, and extort.

Are we ready to reenter the kitchen and prepare the feast of freedom, peace, love, truth, equity, belonging, and more?

Put your apron on and join me.

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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Have you ever had that shirt, sweater, or other garment where pulling a stray thread only made it worse? Doesn’t it sometimes seem like we’re pulling on the thread of political corruption, dark money, the caste system, and its various mutants (racism, sexism, homomisia, Transmisia, Islamomisia, etc.), along with the offspring of the wealth gap—an abyss that makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the sidewalk?

How in the world are we supposed to come together and create world peace when we can’t even unite to help the people in our own cities and towns with their lawns, feed their families, and ensure our children are all educated effectively? If we look at the math beyond the superficial divisions, we will find the core consciousness behind the current divisiveness has always been there and was, for many people, simply lying dormant like a sleeper cell of spies waiting for that phone call or code word to awaken them to their mission.

If the fabric of democracy is indeed coming apart, is that a bad thing or a necessary one? Does the current chaos reveal a clearer picture of how and where our governing bodies have been ripe with the stench of a decomposing system that can’t sustain itself by feeding on its own carcass?

Much like a person receiving a diagnosis of cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or any terminal illness, there is a shift in priorities. Many people have expressed a renewed sense of life, where trivial things are released so they can make the most of each moment. Is this a moment of renewed clarity for us? And when I say us, understand that I am not simply or only speaking of the United States of America. I am speaking of us as a planet, where we are witnessing all manner of atrocities.

Maybe the world that works for all is a tapestry made from the threads that unravel from the old garment of governance, considering that garment is stained and still wet with the blood of Indigenous Americans who were massacred, mutilated, and moved to reservations so that manifest destiny could flourish. The garment is stained and still wet with the blood of enslaved Africans who were kidnapped, trafficked, and subjected to such grotesque treatment that Hitler modeled his evil after what he learned from the Christians of America. The garment is stained and still wet with the blood of Chinese workers who built the railroads, while they were treated as less than animals. It is a garment still wet with the blood of all those who were killed fighting for the right to vote, seeking equality, and desiring to be recognized as human beings.

Each conversation we have where we deconstruct, decolonize, demystify, and dismantle the narratives of supremacy that have been handed down as if they were divinely ordained. Our conversations are spaces where we knit new narratives, stitch new possibilities, and weave a new way of leading, governing, serving, and caring for others.

In our conversations, let’s go beyond small talk. While it’s acceptable in some situations, for the evolutionary shift I want to be part of, small talk is like applying a band-aid to a severed carotid artery. The deeper, more meaningful conversations are where real healing occurs. However, these conversations can also be uncomfortable for many of us because they sometimes involve conflict, and there are questions that may not have immediate answers. Still, we must ask and converse, and create a new garment that truly wraps around the planet while excluding no one, including our non-human siblings and the environments they inhabit.

I invite you to look at and read about “The Fabric of Freedom,” then ask yourself, “How do I make this a reality for everyone?”

https://worldpridedc.org/about-us/fabric-of-freedom/

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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It has been a while since I have posted here… and the reasons are many.

Overwhelm, depression, anger, frustration, loneliness, and more. Now, having said that, what am I here to say now? If you are an empath, a reasonable, logical, and sensitive human, then you have, or are currently feeling, some mixture of those same emotions. How can one escape or ignore what is happening around the world, as if burying our heads in the sand will somehow prevent wars, genocide, greed, corruption, and mass assimilation of inhumanity from spreading like an airborne bioweapon?

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Acknowledge what you feel. Look directly into the abyss without flinching. And come together in community to share joy, laughter, and support one another to reignite, reinvigorate, and restore our faith in humanity and what is possible.

No rational person wants to see democracy unravel, while families struggle to feed, care for their children, and keep a roof over their heads. No sane person will justify ludicrous claims from the incompetent as if they are experts. Next, we might hear, “Autism is caused by saying Happy Holidays and not Merry Christmas.”

No humane person wants to witness the massive loss of life or the destruction of villages, homes, or other structures just to remove a people or to cover everything in gold.

As a minister, I have a duty to flip the switches and bring light back to the room. When I was in middle school, I understood the lesson from the German theologian Martin Niemöller, who wrote the poem “First They Came.”

Did you know that he was sent to a concentration camp?

Do you know what his “crime” was?

He was imprisoned due to his association with the Confessing Church, his opposition to government involvement in the church, and his resistance to the Nazi regime.

State involvement in church, you say—sounds like Christian Nationalism, doesn’t it? And here we are, many New Thought folks arguing against us speaking out. The arrogance of believing we can change the world just by sitting on our meta-asses is nauseating. We can pray, vision, meditate, journal, smudge, carry crystals, and sing Kumbaya every day, and none of that will bathe us, feed us, house us, or warm us. Action must follow all spiritual practices; otherwise, our metaphysical malpractice, metaphysical masturbation, will surely lead to metaphysical malfeasance.

A world that works for all is not going to manifest itself by eating frosted Lucky Charms, waiting for Mercury retrograde to end, or tithing to our local centers. If we want to experience that, we need to understand what it truly means, what it looks like, and what it takes to create it. If we are the ones with the vision, maybe we should also talk to people in leadership to inspire them so they also catch the vision. Maybe it’s time to speak to the United Nations and get global leaders, educators, thinkers, strategists, and builders aligned with our vision. That is, if we even know what vision we’re following.

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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Some additional thoughts in the form of questions (smile):

What made Remmick the “villain?” Where does that villainy show up in our world today in not so obvious vampiric forms?

Some additional resources:

The ‘Sinners’ Movie Syllabus By Jemar Tisby & Keisha N. Blain May 1, 2025

Footnotes by Jemar Tisby

The #SinnersMovieSyllabus Teach-In

With so much misinformation out there, we need to amplify the truth. That’s why I create opportunities like the one below. If you’d like to turn up the volume on truth-telling, become a paid subscriber today…

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a year ago · 46 likes · 6 comments · Jemar Tisby, PhD

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

Everything You Missed in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners—COMPLETE Historical Reference Guide

Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" has emerged as one of 2025's most significant cinematic events, blending horror, history, and blues music into a powerful examination of America's past. With its impressive $48 million opening weekend and continued strong performance at the box office, the film has captivated audiences while tackling complex themes set against t…

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a year ago · 646 likes · 31 comments · Kahlil Greene

Desireé B Stephens's Post “Drinking the Blood of Whiteness: A CC Thread on Remmick, Supremacy, and the Grief of Becoming” on Facebook

There are so many things to be discussed and broken down that this is easily a semester’s worth of study and discussion. I pray more of us accept the challenge and the conversations, and the reflections offered.

Standing ovation to Ryan Coogler and the entire cast, crew, and team for an amazing work of art!

“Religion, too, is a weapon.

What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?”

~Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

Love the sinner but hate the sin. For years, I grew up hearing those words again and again and again. While they scared me with the threat of hell, that fear became terror when I knew that threat was actually a promise!

There are various types of knowing.

There is the knowing where you have a full-bodied yes or no that is irrefutable. There is the knowing that comes from an external form of validation and firsthand experience.

I knew I was different from my male friends, but I could not articulate what that meant. It wouldn’t be until I was much older that I understood the actual context behind the words: sissy, queer, and fag, with homo to be added to the lexicon of hate when I was older.

I had already internalized so much self-hatred by the time I knew that I was Gay. Meaning by the time the inner feeling had words and context, I understood. The newfound context and understanding did not offer liberation. It cursed me with more guilt, shame, and fear, and became one of the main reasons I experienced daily suicidal ideations and engaged in reckless forms of self-harm.

I share this painful aspect of my life to help illustrate the religious trauma that pseudo-Christians and their dogma, doctrine, and doxology inflict on anyone they classify as being worthy of God’s wrath. The way they wantonly misinterpret, misuse, and misappropriate passages used to make me wonder if it was accidental. Considering the vast translations and disagreements of meanings and cultural contexts, were they simply ill-informed? By the time I was in middle school, I realized that may be the case for some, but others were more intentional in their cherry-picking and representations. A friend of mine, Kurt, invited me over to his house for dinner one day. While we were getting ready, the family’s Rabbi stopped by. Kurt’s dad told him to introduce me, which he did while adding with a smirk, “Rabbi, my friend Ray would like you to explain who Lilith is.”

The Rabbi began to tell me a story about Lilith being the first woman, equal to Adam, and how she was kicked out of Eden because of her independence. God then made Eve using part of Adam, which made her somehow less than, subservient, and more controllable for him. Seeing the look on my face, he said, “I’m guessing you never heard that story in church?” I shook my head as he responded, “Ahhh, we should chat more about this if you are interested, that is?” I nodded just as Kurt’s mom called us to the table for dinner. This was the beginning of my deconstruction of Christianity as a 13-year-old.

Many will go to church on Sunday and sing and praise the name of Jesus with only a superficial connection the the Gospels they claim to live by. And depending on their particular brand of Christian Nationalism, the messages of hate may or may not also be part of the sermon that day. The subtle and not-so-subtle indoctrination of White Supremacy that Black ministers preach and teach to their congregations is rampant. How does someone preach in one breath, “For God so loved the world…” “Love your neighbor as yourself…” and yet in another that DEI, empathy, and commonsense gun legislation is anti-Christian, i.e., against the will of God?

The resurrection is about liberation and if you truly are teaching and preaching that then you must also teach and preach about all that would have people subjected to hate crimes, mass shootings, sexual assault, domestic violence, Racism, Sexism, Homomisia, Transmisia, Xenomisia, Islamomisia, Ableism, Audism, Systemic Poverty that serves the wealthy 1%, the inequities of access to effective healthcare, and more.

How often would we expect to find a firefighter who arrives at a burning residence and, upon entering, tells the residents not to worry, it’s just a little hot, but Jesus will save them, and the promise of the resurrection is all they need? How many Christian ministers, preachers, influencers are doing exactly that while simultaneously blaming the residents as the cause of the fire because of their Gay kids, Transgender siblings, Muslim in-laws, etc.?

Don’t proclaim Jesus and the resurrection while digging your knee into someone’s neck.

Don’t proclaim Jesus and the resurrection while sending thoughts and prayers, but not effective gun legislation.

Don’t proclaim Jesus and the resurrection while supporting the 26th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who has gone on record as saying "autism is a preventable disease. . . Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this," he said. “These are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job. They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted."

Don’t proclaim Jesus and the resurrection while actively dismantling Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice in an attempt to rewrite history to your whitewashed liking.

Don’t proclaim Jesus and the resurrection while modeling your governance of the country after Adolf in an attempt to create the 4^th Reich.

Don’t proclaim Jesus and the resurrection, the newness of rebirth, the power of rising from the tomb, while being an agent of oppression, hatred, and death!

The Ku Klux Klan is welcomed to a Baptist church services in Portland, Ore., in 1922. (Photo: Oregon Historical Society)

Are we going to keep doing the same old thing the same old way, or are we going to truly embody the energy and the transformative power that the resurrection represents?

100% Liberation and nothing less!

Happy Easter!

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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“The greatest single reason for [the] Christian church’s failure . . . is its failure to combat racism.”

~Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Why was Yeshua executed on what we refer to as Good Friday? Many say he died as a necessary sacrifice for our sins that we might have salvation and everlasting life. What do we find if we are willing to peel back the curtain of this overly repeated rhetoric or religiosity?

The Jewish leadership charged him with blasphemy and treason, and the Romans charged him with sedition. Both of these groups charged him with these specific crimes because what he taught and what he represented was a threat to their control and power.

“The cross and the lynching tree interpret each other. Both were public spectacles, shameful events, instruments of punishment reserved for the most despised people in society. Any genuine theology and any genuine preaching of the Christian gospel must be measured against the test of the scandal of the cross and the lynching tree. 'Jesus did not die a gentle death like Socrates, with his cup of hemlock....Rather, he died like a [lynched black victim] or a common [black] criminal in torment, on the tree of shame.' The crowd's shout 'Crucify him!' (Mk 15:14) anticipated the white mob's shout 'Lynch him!' Jesus' agonizing final cry of abandonment from the cross, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mk 15:34), was similar to the lynched victim Sam Hose's awful scream as he drew his last breath, 'Oh, my God! Oh, Jesus.' In each case it was a cruel, agonizing, and contemptible death.”

~James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree

Racism, Sexism, and the others persist precisely because the structures of power cannot afford the population to receive the actual liberation that Yeshua was leading people towards. We can easily find this same vile energy in many of the assassinations in the United States of America. What happened to the people who rode a bus to the Southern states to get Black people registered to vote? What happened to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers? Why did Billie Holiday perform the song Strange Fruit even when warned not to sing it?

The parallels are readily evident to those who are willing to recognize it. We see similar parallels in how the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and the El Salvadorian prisons where masses of people have been deported and imprisoned without the constitutional protection of due process.

So, what makes Good Friday good, when lynchings and crucifixions are with us still…?

Good not because of a superhero savior that many evangelicals and Christian Nationalists (both the black and the white ones, the male and female ones) have turned Yeshua, Jesus, into their mascot of manipulation. They misuse the scripture so they can abuse the congregation. They lynch the congregation emotionally, psychologically, financially, socially, and in many ways physically.

So, what makes Good Friday good, when lynchings and crucifixions are with us still…?

I cannot answer that for you. No one can. What I can offer you is an invitation.

I invite you to a space that says Good is the natural, sacred state of grace. And when we are enveloped in the power and peace of grace, we can do what is ours to do to stand up to the Sanhedrin and the Romans of our era.

I often reflect on the life and actions of Mamie Till-Mobley because she is an avatar of what this grace can do when it is embodied.

The same grace that the Greensboro Four (Ezell Blair Jr. (later Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond) embodied in 1960.

What makes it good? You do!

When you choose to be part of the solution and help ensure all people are treated with dignity, respect, and humanity. When you choose to see Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice as Sacred Spiritual Principles. When you choose to be an “angelic troublemaker,” as Bayard Rustin once said.

Rather than focusing on and being ensnared by the passive idea of salvation, which gives many people a way of abstaining from the real work of liberation, which is what salvation is synonymous with, we can choose to be the activity of salvation per se. We are the activity by which liberation occurs.

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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“What is born will die, What has been gathered will be dispersed, What has been accumulated will be exhausted, What has been built up will collapse, And what has been high will be brought low.”

~Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Another brush with death?! Come on... enough already!

On Sunday, March 16^th, my sister Tracy and I were leaving Unity of Coastal Delaware, where I had been the guest minister that day. My message for the day was, get this, “Bloom Where You Are Planted.”

On the drive home, as we approached a major intersection, seeing several firetrucks, state troopers, and more, it was clear we were going to have to change our route. The accident was major enough that our route needed to be adjusted. Approaching the stop sign, we began to slow down. Out of nowhere, a car making a right turn turned into our lane rather than into their lane. At which point we were struck head-on. Several State Troopers and Firefighters who were already at the scene for the previous accident I mentioned witnessed the crash and rushed over. They expressed how lucky all of us were (Tracy and I as well as the four young guys in the other car) that we did not sustain more significant injuries considering the speed of the car that the young men were in. They were shocked.

This was not my first brush with “death,” or should I say the possibility of, “this could be the moment.” Some people assumed that my first real consideration of death occurred when I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2022. This assumption, while valid, was inaccurate. Let’s go back in time for a moment for some context.

By the time I was six years old, I had already seen fifty or so dead bodies. Most of this was due to my grandmother, who was “babysitting,” taking me with her to various churches and funeral homes to view the bodies of people she knew or who were relatives of people she knew. Even with all of this exposure to death, I didn’t seriously begin contemplating death until I was eight, when my father was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The cold breath of the Grim Reaper came closer to home with my father’s diagnosis.

And it drew even closer a few years later when I attended the funerals of my paternal grandfather, then my paternal grandmother, and then my maternal grandmother. My maternal grandfather died long before I was even born. By the time I was in high school, the constant tapping of death, from the funerals, the wakes, and all the confusion that arose as I navigated grief, as well as the fear of impending doom for myself and my immediate family, spawned a morbid obsession with death. I read and studied copious amounts of material about all things death and dying as if I could somehow gain the knowledge to keep death at bay.

The weight and the pressure of the obsessive thoughts, unresolved and unaddressed traumas, and all of the dysregulation I was experiencing resulted in several emergency room visits and doctor appointments throughout my teens. When a headache went from days to weeks to months of intense pain, the medical professionals thought I might have a brain tumor. After months of tests, scans, and much poking and prodding, it turned out to be severe migraines brought on by stress and higher than normal levels of testosterone in my system. This diagnosis eventually led to my initial foray into therapy as the ever-continuing onslaught of fears and stressors (the entire AIDS epidemic brought on an entirely different degree of fear and stress) pummeled my existence.

Throughout these years and several to follow, there would be the deaths of close friends, associates, and acquaintances, and more family. The causes ranged from natural, to suicide, to homicide, to illness/disease, and accidental. One particularly traumatic death occurred when I was in the process of becoming a public-school teacher, a student from the middle school where I student taught had been murdered and decapitated.

Some of my brushes with death itself, other than the brain tumor scare, included the several times I was shot at intentionally and the times I was nearly hit simply because I was in an area where gunfire occurred. Classic wrong place, wrong time. Three times, someone held a gun to my head. One of those times was a family member who was jacked up on drugs and demanding I count a pillowcase full of money he dumped on the floor in front of me while I was playing with my superhero action figures. I was around ten years old. And this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Why am I sharing this rather grim account of some of my life experiences?

As a reminder for us to live! A reminder for YOU to LIVE every day of your life!

As a reminder to cherish those you love and care about! Give flowers to the living!

As a reminder to heal our relationships, our lives, and to stop playing small because of guilt, shame, insecurity, and fear. We will all eventually embark on our next great adventure into life after life. But in the meantime, while we are here now, let’s rejoice, laugh, love, serve, and celebrate.

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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“Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

I have either been a part of or witnessed many conversations where someone said politics is divisive, and New Thought communities and centers have no business discussing anything politically related. And those who do cross that line should expect certain portions of their population to vacate the center.

For this exploration, how correct or incorrect their assessment may be is of little importance. For now, I want to explore the beliefs that their statement has exposed.

Some bemoan that this or that thing is political, which means it has no place in a spiritual center. They speak as if a certain set of topics is polarizing and partisan when in reality, it is not. For example, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is political and divisive. DEI has become one of the most recent boogeymen to be laid before the guillotine.

It doesn’t take a degree in astrophysics to figure out why a certain group of people desire to eradicate DEI. The more difficult thing to understand is how someone in New Thought would align with a segregationist ideology.

Believe it or not, there are New Thought individuals who voted for someone that Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, members of the Klan, and Christian Nationalists voted for. Where is the alignment with what New Thought teaches and that of the aforementioned series of people?

Some voted regarding a single or a few select issues. They did not consider the larger impact their vote would have. Some people bypassed, excused, and brushed off the many things that Trump said and the things he did during his first term. They said things like, “He isn’t really going to do __fill in the blank__.” “He’s just making a point and doesn’t mean it literally.”

Many of those same people have since entered the FAAFO phase of the election and are suffering from “Buyer’s Remorse.” In a few short weeks, this new administration has made the United States shift from being an ally to being a laughingstock and a country to avoid and not do business with.

I recently saw a post on Instagram where the person was sharing from her experience, the detrimental effect that “Prosperity Gospel” has on the Black community. In her video, she shares a clip of Marvin Sapp, teaching in the pulpit to the congregation. One of the things he says in the clip she shared was that Trump being in office benefits him because of his tax bracket.

Again, many voted for him specifically for that reason; it benefits them, or they perceive it will benefit them. But what of those who will be hurt as a result? Is it not our responsibility to vote in ways that benefit the collective and not just a select few?

“15 I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! 16 So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!” -Revelation 3:15-16

If the Centers for Spiritual Living states:

Our MISSION is to provide spiritual tools for personal and global transformation.

Our PURPOSE is to awaken humanity to its spiritual magnificence.

Our VISION is a world that works for everyone.

And from Unity:

Who We Are

Unity World Headquarters (UWH) is a spiritual community dedicated to advancing spiritual awakening and transformation in the world. Our materials, programs, services, and outreach are designed to provide tools and resources to those in need.

Our mission is to help and serve through prayer, publishing, and community.

Our Values

Inclusiveness—We are an inclusive, equitable culture of oneness.

Inspiration—We inspire and awaken people to the Divine within.

Innovation—We seek continuous improvement in all that we do.

Community—We are a community of collaboration, growth, and accountability.

Service—We serve each other, our constituents, and our local community.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Acceptance Are Important to Us.

Unity welcomes all people regardless of race, color, gender, age, creed, religion, national origin, ethnicity, physical disability, or sexual orientation. We invite you to read our formal (yet ever-evolving https://www.unity.org/en/static/unity-dei-initiatives) statement of diversity and inclusion and our DEI programs and initiatives.

How does a member of the community, a minister, or a practitioner choose to align with values and principles that are the antithesis of what New Thought espouses? How does one vote for a candidate that represents the very opposite of the values and principles that are at the foundation of our beliefs and practices?

This non-Life-affirming alignment with the antithesis of the teaching is, in my opinion, one of the reasons New Thought is in decline.

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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The turning point that ended my time as a Pittsburgh Public School teacher was when an administrator at the Board of Education informed me that I did not have a choice in how I would respond as my punishment for reporting an assault perpetrated by a vice-principal. When she told me that I had no choice, I looked over at my union rep who began shaking his head no, in an attempt to avert what he knew was coming.

Before I proceed to share, I need to let you know that who I was at the time of this story was far angrier, ashamed, guilt-ridden, and battered than the me who is sharing this story (though he is still with me). Where was I?

Right…,

“You will not be transferred to a new school. You will remain at that school until you have sufficiently proven yourself. You do not have a choice; do you understand me? You do not have a choice!”

No sooner than when the words left her mouth and the union rep began shaking his head, the fire in my gut exploded into a full-on blaze as the internal volcano erupted. I could feel the heat and sparks of the explosion bouncing around in my skull as the words from the old TV series The Incredible Hulk echoed in my mind, “Don’t make me angry. You would not like me when I’m angry.” And just that simple, I raised my right hand and as I began to talk, I showed two fingers to indicate the two options I was about to express.

“You are incorrect. The way I see it I have at least two options to choose from. I can do as you say (I pointed at the index finger of my right hand with my left) or… I can quit (I retraced the right index finger leaving only the right middle finger hovering in the air)!”

I shook the rep’s hand, thanked him, stood up, and walked out of the office.

I share this to illustrate that we always have choices even when it seems like we have none. One reason we tend to see things in a far more limited manner is that the options and choices we want are not always the ones we have before us.

Growing up, my father told me on quite a few occasions that I could choose something other than what I was currently deeming as inevitable and unavoidable. For example, one day I was moping around the house looking quite pitiful according to my dad.

What’s going on with you, why are you looking so pitiful like you lost your best friend?”

“Nothing. I’m just bored.”

“Bored?! Go do something.”

“There’s nothing to do.”

“Nothing to do, is that right?”

“Yes sir.”

“So, correct me if I am wrong, but you could ride your bike, you could read a book, you could draw, you could go for a walk, you could go over Brodie’s house, you could walk to the park.”

Looking a bit dumbfounded at the simplicity of his words, I agreed that he was correct, “but, I don’t want to do any of those things.”

“Then say that. Don’t say there is nothing to do when there is plenty you could do.”

“Yes sir.”

After what seemed like an extended pause, I said, “ I want to go to the movies.”

“Then go do that.”

“No one else wants to go.”

“Then go alone.”

Wait… what did he just say? It was like a lightbulb with the brilliance of the sun burst forth into my awareness. I assumed that going to the movies alone was not an option and my dad like a wise Zen Yoda just unlocked the sound of one hand clapping … viola!

Enlightenment!

Not really, just the realization that I could choose to go to the movies alone, which is exactly what I did!

We choose all kinds of things from what to wear, what to eat, and where to shop. Even those who experience addictions find themselves at choice points at various times and for many, those choices result in them getting clean and sober.

I am offering this reminder at this time in our global history to illustrate that there is no man, woman, person, policy, legislation, principalities, or powers that can deny our divinity. Which means our sovereign power is ever present and ready to be embodied and expressed.

The Montgomery bus boycotts and the Civil Rights movement did not happen by chance but by choice.

The Suffragist movement was the expression of a choice.

The Gay Liberation Movement was the out-picturing of a choice.

The ACT UP movement wasn’t simply a response to Regan and the many others dragging their feet regarding HIV/AIDS research and funding, it was a choice!

Gandhi chose to resist the British Empire.

Nelson Mandela chose to forgive and emerge from prison as the man who would be president.

We have the avatars and bodhisattvas who have demonstrated the power of choice and the power of an idea whose time has come and of a people who are ready to make that idea manifest.

The question is, will we choose to do the same?

Will we choose liberation and democracy or apathy, complacency, and metaphysical malpractice or fear, or Life-Affirming Faith and Action?

Dr. Edith Eger, a survivor of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Hitler regime, reminds us, “Change is about noticing what’s no longer working and stepping out of the familiar, imprisoning patterns.”

Are we noticing?

Are we setting ourselves and others free?

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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How honest are we about the current terrain of Modern-day New Thought, Spirituality, Metaphysics, culture, society, politics, and more? If we are educated enough about the caste system and all the related dis-eases that spew from it and if we are willing, we will undoubtedly see how deep these tentacles go into the foundation of who we are as a people and as people who study and live according to New Thought principles.

The ways that many of us teach New Thought as well as our inadequate way of addressing many real-world issues, are clear and present outcroppings from the predominant white supremacist ideologies. The way that we teach prosperity consciousness, and the law of attraction is very indicative of the caste system tied to toxic capitalism and cognitive imperialism. Our continued promotion of rugged individualism, self-development, and self-reliance which occur in both overt and covert ways continue to instill in us a sense of separation and safe distance from real-world concerns. The minister-centric structures of our churches and centers continue to place laity at the bottom of the hierarchy where their tithes and service are wanted far more than their input regarding more significant matters. This consciousness is a take and not give and don’t share consciousness. It is a me-me-me consciousness. It is an every “man” for himself consciousness. It is a consciousness that does not address the needs of the masses but focuses on the needs and wants of the few which tend to be select people.

For New Thought to evolve, we must enter the chaos of the unknown, the anarchy of deconstruction and decolonization of the teaching and the practices. We must decenter whiteness and the pseudo-power that has been aligned with or maligned with whiteness. Keep in mind that this idea of whiteness also encircles heteronormativity, maleness, wealth, and Christianism as it relates to the aforementioned groupings. Christian Nationalism is an expression of this very thing.

“All paradises, all utopias are defined by who is not there, by the people who are not allowed in.” ~Toni Morrison

We must center those who have not been allowed in...

Center, not just select representations of the LGBTQIA2+ community but center, those that have not been centered. Transgender women of color.

Center the Straight and Queer Women of Color.

Center those who are differently abled and disabled.

Center the Indigenous Peoples.

Within a minister-centric structure, we also need to center the community, the laity.

Keep going… Who else can you think of that needs to be centered?

It is very scary for some to even talk about deconstruction. For them, it sounds too much like destruction. And they have a point. Deconstruction and destruction certainly share very similar goals and energy however, we must keep in mind that this is only part of the equation. The other part is what we are building and constructing.

There are many ways of deconstructing the systems but one thing they all require is that we do the work of deconstructing and decolonizing our own beliefs, consciousness, and ways of being in the world.

We are invited to deconstruct and decolonize what we think about those taboo topics I shared in a previous post last week. (Sex, Disease, Politics, Grief, etc.)

Deconstruct and decolonize the power structures so we center those who have been marginalized. Deconstruct and decolonize the theological teaching so that the intent as a Liberation Theology is evident.

We have a grand opportunity to make profound evolutional shifts in consciousness and in practices that extend into every part of this global ethos. We have an opportunity to become the Beloved Community in ways we couldn’t imagine. However, talking about chaos, we must release the form of the caterpillar if we are to embody the imaginal cells and become a butterfly.

“If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.” ~Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

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Sex, cancer, politics, and the process of deconstructing our theology are just a few of the topics I have been told on numerous occasions are things we in New Thought don’t talk about. My question has been and continues to be, why not? The current iteration of New Thought has roots that can be traced back to the mind-cure movement. Why would we segregate some things as being off-limits?

“It's a universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.”

~Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

My observation of this phenomenon traces back to before I was involved in New Thought, and I share that with you because my observations apply to both. While these are not the only reasons, my observations have boiled down to two main reasons though these are not the only reasons.

1. Such topics tend to stir conflict and New Thought folks tend to be conflict-averse.

2. Such topics tend to stir various levels of discomfort. Many in New Thought continue to experience unresolved codependence. In fact, in many cases because of this very topic, codependency is often unaddressed because as I shared in a previous discussion, we promote the immature concept that says, “What we talk about we bring about.”

Talking about sex still carries puritanical guilt and shame for many of us. We are also ill-prepared and uncomfortable talking about illness and disease and the range of emotions that come up when we or a loved one experiences cancer or any number of things that could result in death. One of the things that also surfaces is our need to fix things. This is also deeply rooted in our codependence. I have witnessed on multiple occasions and have been told of times when someone shares something uncomfortable about death and how they are grieving. Before the person can finish sharing, someone jumps in with any number of our pithy and quite unhealthy aphorisms, “They are at peace.” “They are one with God now and we should be happy.” “There is no need to cry, death is an illusion.”

Do we, as a movement, not know how to be with someone without shushing them and saying everything will be alright because God is in control? We say we are comforting them when we are in fact seeking to comfort ourselves.

New Thought is not a “trauma-informed” spiritual path or practice. There are many members of the various communities, ministers, practitioners, chaplains, etc. who have experience and training in grief counseling, therapy, and facilitation of all things trauma including addiction. This type of training or awareness is not a mainstream part of who we are as New Thought.

Imagine if it were!

Imagine the good we could do in the world if we actually had the knowledge, awareness, and skills to meet people wherever they are in their lives. This would reduce the amount of spiritual bypassing, metaphysical malpractice, and metaphysical malfeasance because we would have no reason to avoid any topics, emotions, or situations.

We would engage in politics in ways that benefit the community and the world because we would understand our role as truth speakers who speak out against any and all oppressive policies and legislation. We would speak out against police brutality and corruption. We would speak out in favor of healthcare for all, affordable housing, clean water, diversity, equity, and inclusion because we understand that these things are in alignment with our mission, vision, values, and purpose. We would embrace our community members without needing the polyamorous people to explain or defend themselves. We would be a safe space where those who are sex and kink-positive would have no reason to feel shame in our spaces or our presence.

The last time I mentioned this on a Zoom call, someone interjected rather voraciously. She needed to say that we should not endorse, accept, or allow degenerate and abhorrent practices to be deemed valid lifestyles. What would make her jump to the conclusion that a sex-positive life and engagement in kink, was abhorrent or degenerate? It is safe to say that somewhere in her life she had been indoctrinated by some kind of purity culture mumbo jumbo.

This illogical nonsense was the same ludicrous rhetoric people said about Gay marriage. “If we allow that then what comes next, people wanting to marry their dogs, cats, and kids?”

What the actual F***!?

How does someone connect those dots?

Intolerance is bred from indoctrinated ideologies that deem sex as one thing and not this other thing. It deems certain topics of conversation inappropriate simply because the topic is taboo. And for the record, not everything should be discussed everywhere in general company.

No one would have a conversation about the systemic ills of the Jim Crow South with a five-year-old. They are not of an age to discuss. We would be very careful to show film footage or photos of the German Holocaust when the youth are mature enough for such material.

So, this is not an advertisement for careless conversations. Instead, it is an invitation for us to “grow up.”

Grow up and develop healthy relationships. For them to be healthy relationships, we cannot shun, silence, or select what parts of the people we will “accept.” Note I said healthy relationships. I want to reemphasize that point because I am not advocating for people to be in relationships where they are not safe which is synonymous with healthy.

I have family members that I do not visit and rarely speak to for this very reason. Because of their brand of Christianity, it is not healthy (safe). To socialize with them, I must perform as someone other than myself. I must relate in ways that make them comfortable even when it causes me discomfort and is unacceptable to me.

Talk about politics, fears, worries, anxieties, addictions, sex, and kink, … Talk about Life and how we are living it in all the various flavors, textures, and nuances.

Spiritually mature people do not need to censor topics of discussion. No topic is too taboo or off-limits. Spiritually mature people are also emotionally, socially, and intellectually mature.

Let the discussions commence!

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

Subscribe to his YouTube Channel

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil,” Bonhoeffer once said of bystanders. “God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” ~Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Anyone with an ounce of compassion, clarity, and conviction would agree that people worldwide are suffering. We can easily identify how the sins of war consistently infect the world. Heinous tragedies spawned from greed and egomaniacal narcissist hunger for what these madmen see as power.

We see similar sins (erroneous consciousness demonstrated as erroneous actions) committed not with bombs and bullets but with bureaucracy. The passing of laws and policies that restrict and or completely remove or revoke the rights of the people. We witness political bullies and their cronies systematically dismantling democracy. We know the puppeteers are doing their best to install Christian Nationalism via their Seven Mountain Mandate. We know Palestinians and Ukrainians are being ruthlessly targeted right now as you read these words. We know children are being forced to mine precious minerals so the tech industry can flourish and our privilege of owning computers, smartphones, etc. continues.

If we know this and we see this on the news and social media daily, why are so many of us silent? And even worse, why are so many in direct opposition to what is occurring as though it is not occurring?

“The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.” ~Maya Angelou

During the AIDS epidemic of the 80s, many people were silent, and many others hailed the suffering and the deaths as an act of God. Are we so emotionally and cognitively bankrupt that we prefer the comfort granted by our ignorance, apathy, misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation?

“This too shall pass.”

Yes, but how many will die in the meantime?

“Ignorance is bliss.”

But only to those privileged who can ignore what’s going on. That is until the very things they ignore are inevitably knocking at their front door. Then their ignorance will not protect them.

If we do not say something now and if we do not do something now, history will look back and wonder why we allowed these events to unfold as they did just as it has with Germany.

“First they came for the People of Color

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Person of Color

Then they came for the Transgender Women

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Transgender Woman

Then they came for the LGBTQIA Community

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a part of the LGBTQIA Community

Then they came for the Immigrants

And I did not speak out

Because I was not an Immigrant

Then they came for DEI

And I did not speak out

Because I did not understand DEI

Then they came for me and those like me

And there was no one left

To speak out for us because we thought our privilege, skin color, political position, or money would exempt us... It did not!”

~Rev. Ray REMIX inspired by the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller

Will you speak up for others or will you remain silent?

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Rev. Raymont Anderson, PhD., the spiritual director of The Center for Spiritually Integrated Arts, author of Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation and Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language

Subscribe to his YouTube Channel

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” ~Representative John Lewis

My relationship with rage began when I was five or six years old. It started as fear when I stepped in between my parents as they both held knives in hand ready to attack each other. The fear was unbearable and so I unconsciously turned it to rage. That rage consumed me for years and if I am being honest, it almost ended my life several times.

I share this with you because it is easy to say rage is bad and leave it at that. But if I asked you, “Is fire bad?” You might say, “Well, it depends on what is on fire.” It is the same with rage.

Are you angry about any of the things happening in the United States of America or other places in the world where there are wars, genocides, and all kinds of atrocities committed by, mostly men, who are addicted to what they believe “power” to be? For many in New Thought, this idea of feeling anger or “god forbid” rage is something that is to be avoided at all costs. We teach that “what you think about you bring about.” This means if you are focused on the wrong in the world, you are, by your consciousness, attracting and creating more wrong in the world. We teach that “what you resist persists.” This means if you fight against racism, sexism, homomisia, and transmisia, you are reinforcing those things by giving them your attention. This is a very rudimentary and immature use of spiritual principles and in many cases, it is irrational and immoral to teach and promote it without the nuances that need to be considered to be effective.

A world where any child responds to being bullied by taking their own life, is a world that should piss us off! A world where parents buy bullet-proof backpacks for their children to wear in school is a world that should make us nauseous and enraged. A world where sexual assault and domestic violence are not given the degree of prevention and effective response after the fact is a world in which we should feel anger. Veteran suicide rates are on the rise. Corporations are treated better than people. Politics are deeply infested with corruption on both sides of the aisle. The planet is heating up, storms are worsening, flood waters rising, wildfires raging, and chemical contaminants are in our drinking water and our foods.

If you are not mad about this stuff then I suggest taking your head out of the sand.

Author and civil rights activist James Baldwin when asked about being Black in America, the Black experience, during a radio interview in 1961, his response was one that has been cited, quoted, chanted, and declared as a very real truth even today in 2025!

“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time — and in one's work. And part of the rage is this: It isn't only what is happening to you. But it's what's happening all around you and all of the time in the face of the most extraordinary and criminal indifference, indifference of most white people in this country, and their ignorance. Now, since this is so, it's a great temptation to simplify the issues under the illusion that if you simplify them enough, people will recognize them. I think this illusion is very dangerous because, in fact, it isn't the way it works. A complex thing can't be made simple. You simply have to try to deal with it in all its complexity and hope to get that complexity across.”

~James Baldwin

What does this rage he speaks of mean to those who are not Black? How do you understand what he is expressing and more importantly what are you doing to reduce the harm that causes this rage?

“The aim of divine rage is not vengeance; the aim of divine rage is to reorder the world. Think of it as a dance: process raw rage in safe containers, harness that energy for divine rage in the world. When we learn how to dance with our rage, we create space for listening and reimagining.” ~Valarie Kaur

Is New Thought willing to reframe our understanding of and relationship with rage in ways that we can still be rooted in spiritual principles without devolving to people whose main recourse is to insult? Are we willing to examine deeper what is causing us to be triggered? If we feel fear, can we name what we are afraid of? If we are angry, can we identify the root of this anger? It is easy to say, “I am frustrated.” The work is in saying, “I am frustrated because I feel helpless in my ability to impact the current situation in the country regarding political corruption.” This second statement has within it several invitations to shift and act in different ways whereas the first is a close-ended statement with no possible resolution.

We cannot go to the doctor’s office and simply say I am in pain and think the doctor is going to effectively treat us. The doctor needs to ask several very important questions such as, “Where is the pain, what does it feel like, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being it is unbearable where would you rate it, and how long have you felt it?” Why do we not also do the same thing in New Thought?

Why do we not adopt a kind of Trauma Informed Spirituality where we use Metaphysics to effectively navigate all of life’s experiences both the pleasant and desired and those that are unpleasant and undesired?

“We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.” ~Bayard Rustin

This is the invitation. Gather in your community (in person or virtually) and begin to have deeper discussions regarding ways to apply our Liberation Theology to the current “ills” in the world. Refrain from simply saying this is all in divine order and God is in control. This kind of anthropomorphic sidestepping does not empower us to transform and heal the world. And that is what we are called to do right now.

“Ask not what your country, your government, your church, or your God can do for you, ask what you can do for your country, your government, your church, as the divine expression of God that you are!” ~A Rev. Ray REMIX of the quote from John F. Kennedy's inaugural address in 1961

Now what?