Pastor Harris

On this Easter 2009 it is well to look at the legacy of Jesus the Christ who has risen on this day. Since that date over 2000 years ago a parade of ideas, books, and art has issued forth from the words of Christ. His teaching and those of the Jewish fathers before Him have formed the worldview or in contemporary terms the software that operates the Western world and indeed defines the West as a cultural entity.

As we have discussed on Perennis that this proposition, this great idea that runs our culture is under a purposeful attack. The soul of the Western world was ripped apart in the twentieth century, perhaps the darkest age to ever visit itself on Mankind. Mirroring the rise of materialism so has the decline of the West come upon us. This process was outlined on Perennis last time:
http://dsreif.blogspot.com/2009/03/teslas-legacy.html

In tandem with the rise of materialism is the decline in influence of the Christian worldview. There is no shortage of opinions about this matter, it is in fact “pundit-chow” for the cynics in the chattering class. Nevertheless, I have found a source for a more immediate and heartfelt observation regarding this phenomena.

The following two poems are by Pastor Kenneth Harris. He is discussing the role of the institutions of Christendom the primary one being the churches spawned by the teachings of Jesus. These are melancholy sermons. On the one hand he is showing his love for religion because he cares enough to fight for it yet and on the other he is trying to awaken the institutions which are the vehicle of the Teaching.

Pastor Harris is a black man who was born in Louisiana, raised by a minister and his wife in small churches up and down the Mississippi valley, experienced the world at its rawest level, pastored in the very worst sections of the inner city, is afflicted with diabetes, and presently lives in a V.A. critical care facility in California.

For a time he was a prominent Black Muslim but escaped to return to his Christian roots. One day several years ago I asked him about leaving the Nation of Islam. He told me that he could take the racism, “back then I hated white people”, but he could not stand the constant barrage of anti-Christian rhetoric. When he left he said, “…they ran me out of town”. On the run from the Black Muslims, out of work, in a strange town, he was given a chef job by a white Christian family. “I will never forget that” he told me. Such is the power of Christ as He continues to work real miracles in the world we live in.

Harris can be considered a true Christian mystic. Seeking union with God he does not abandon the material world nor does he want to be dissolved into a vast nothingness as a Theravada Buddhist aspires to in classic Eastern mystic tradition. His mysticism is rooted in Scripture and experience and suffering. His poems are an admonishment to not a condemnation of the Church he has pledged his life to.



Religion: The Image of Christianity

Christianity is to Religion as the sun is to the moon
or a glistening pond that attracts the beautiful
migrating loon.

Christianity is to Religion like an invisible breeze,
that moves the wind chime in a myriad of melodies.

Christianity is to Religion as music is to dance,
capturing the singularization of the universe
in a graceful prance.





Christianity vs. Churchianity: Cloning Christianity
(the evil of Chruchianity)
Part I
Christianity is not a religion,
those who believe that are far off course,
like the analogy of the cart,
placed in front of the preverbal horse.

This is the reason the world’s religions
are ruled by the Dark Force,
through the transference of Divine power
into a carnal source.
But the height of this insanity,
is to think you can replace Christ,
with “Churchianity”,
for all the aggression against humanity
was carried out by the church not Christianity.

Part II
Lets examine the temptation of Christ,
Satan’s attempt to reduce Christianity to a vice,
had he succeeded there would be no eternal life.

Follow me as the spirit gives insight in Revelations 11:4
there’s two trees of light
like the sun and moon they are both bright
But the moon is an illusion,
it simply reflect solar fusion;
like the moon Religion has no light.

So no matter your personal decision
to chose Catholic or Protestant religion,
you will find what the Faiths are seeking;
In the mystery of Christ’s teaching.


Illustration: Meister Eckhart; woodcut, c. 1400 A.D.