Christianity is reverence for an ideal, and the willingness to die for it. If it blindly fails to focus that reverence on the one Principle, then makes a mystery of a dead man and calls him Lord, that is the nature of religion: those who struggle most (the gentle souls) require this logos, and they need it simplified (therefore pure) and in routine at their biggest times of need, because even if the understanding is clear, the practice of the implied principles will not follow if the letter of the Word is not sanctified. At the level of the esoteric, all concepts and contradictions subsume into Unity, but unfortunate souls may reach a point where they are lost in the details which demonstrate these contradictions.

Christian Humility?

Humility is following your instinct for knowing your limits, giving credit where credit is due, and respecting those who should be respected. Humiliation is finding out too late that you should have bent the knee to a lesser evil than what you face at the moment of realization. Humiliation is the regret of hubris, and contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s a bigger regret than that of laziness or inaction. Courage can’t undo catastrophic action. Kiddie humiliation is when your reputation in hip social circles is spoiled, the kind of drama we should leave at high school but most people drag out well into their senior years, leaving us only to dwell on the silent and peaceful elders who go quietly when no one is watching.

Christian Pride?

Pride is a sin at the esoteric level, though fundamentalists are able to reject esoteric language and withdraw to small communities where the basics are acknowledged daily and openly between elders, hence pride is a sin fullstop. Otherwise, pride in work and family and success is normal. The religious and non-religious alike pride themselves in this kind, and I believe Christianity does not eschew this, though it should be in the name of God.

I’ve been friends with many Christians, and almost fell in love with one. They are beautiful people, with a beautiful tradition, and should be respected. A part of my heart is with them. America and Europe may yet, once again, co-opt its more brilliant and socially successful adherents who are otherwise internally dissatisfied, and who will then find themselves at a precipice of power, with the possibility of doing oppressive things they would normally not do, affecting groups of people unknown to them and out of their sight but not beyond their inner soul-awareness. One can only hope that they stop at this point, and choose good over evil.